Editing Bootsy Collins (section)

===1960s–1970s===
With his elder brother [[Phelps "Catfish" Collins]], Frankie "Kash" Waddy, and [[Philippé Wynne]], Collins formed a funk band, [[The Pacemakers (funk band)|The Pacemakers]], in 1968.<ref name= About /> In March 1970, after most of the members of [[James Brown]]'s band quit over a pay dispute, The Pacemakers were hired as Brown's backing band and they became known as [[The J.B.'s]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=It takes a nation of millions to hold us back|last=Weingarten|first=Christopher R.|date=2010|publisher=Continuum|isbn=9780826429131|location=New York|oclc=317928336}}</ref> (They are often referred to as the "original" J.B.'s to distinguish them from later line-ups that went by the same name.) Although they worked for Brown for only 11 months, the original J.B.'s played on some of Brown's most intense funk recordings, including "[[Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine]]", "[[Bewildered]] (1970)",  "[[Super Bad (song)|Super Bad]]", "[[Soul Power]]", "[[Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing]]", and two instrumental singles, the much-sampled "[[The Grunt]]" and "These Are the J.B.'s". In regards to his tenure working for [[James Brown]], Collins stated:

{{blockquote|He treated me like a son. And being out of a fatherless home, I needed that father figure and he really played up to it. I mean, Good Lord. Every night after we played a show, he called us back to give us a lecture about how horrible we sounded. [Affects James Brown voice] "Nah, not on it, son. I didn't hear the one. You didn't give me the one." He would tell me this at every show. One night, we knew we wasn't sounding really good – we were off – and he calls us back there and said, "Uh huh, now that's what I'm talkin' about. Y'all was on it tonight. Y'all hit the one." [[Catfish Collins|My brother]] and I looked at each other like, "This mother has got to be crazy." We knew in our heart and soul that we wasn't all that on that show. So then I started figuring out his game, man. By telling me that I wasn't on it, he made me practice harder. So I just absorbed what he said and used it in a positive way.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Kory |last=Grow |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/bootsy-collins-on-what-james-brown-taught-him-why-he-quit-drugs-204108/ |title=Bootsy Collins on James Brown, George Clinton and Drugs – Rolling Stone |magazine=Rollingstone.com |date=2017-10-31 |access-date=2019-02-20}}</ref>}}

After parting ways with [[James Brown]], Collins returned to Cincinnati and formed [[House Guests]] with his brother Phelps Collins, Rufus Allen, Clayton "Chicken" Gunnels, Frankie Waddy, Ronnie Greenaway and Robert McCullough. The House Guests released "What So Never the Dance" and another single on the House Guests label, as well as a third as The Sound of Vision on the House Guests label.

Next Collins moved to [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]], after Philippé Wynne suggested joining [[The Spinners (American group)|The Spinners]], for whom Wynne had been singing.  However, following the advice of singer and future [[Parliament (band)|Parliament]] member [[Mallia Franklin]], Collins made another choice. Franklin introduced both Collins brothers to [[George Clinton (funk musician)|George Clinton]], and in 1972, both of the Collins brothers, along with Waddy, joined [[Funkadelic]]. Collins played bass on most of [[Funkadelic]] and Parliament albums through the early 1980s, garnering several songwriting credits as well.

In 1976 Collins, Catfish, Waddy, Joel Johnson (1953–2018), Gary "Mudbone" Cooper, Robert Johnson and [[The Horny Horns]] formed [[Bootsy's Rubber Band]], a separate touring unit of Clinton's P-Funk collective. The group recorded five albums together, the first three of which are often considered to be among the quintessential P-Funk recordings. The group's 1978 album ''[[Bootsy? Player of the Year]]'' reached the top of the R&B album chart and spawned the #1 R&B single "[[Bootzilla]]".

Like Clinton, Collins took on several [[alter ego]]s, from Casper the Funky Ghost to Bootzilla, "the world's only rhinestone rockstar monster of a doll", all as parts of the evolving character of an alien rock star who grew gradually more bizarre as time went on (see [[P-Funk mythology]]). He also adopted his trademark "space bass" around this time.