Bootsy Collins is the ultimate funkateer, which is exactly why world-renowned film composer Lyle Workman did whatever he could to recruit him for the soundtrack of Greg Mottola and Judd Apatow’s cult coming-of-age movie, Superbad.
“It [funk] was baked in from the get-go – just the name of the movie is a James Brown song,” Workman tells Vertex Effects. “Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, they wrote Superbad when they were in high school. When I saw an early cut of it [the movie], it was all that kind of music tapped in, so I didn't have to figure out, ‘What is the score here?’
“All the demos, all the cues, were done here in the studio with local musicians, and it was great. In any other circumstance, that would have been the score. But man, when it's James Brown, when it's the music that they put in, that they're cutting to – it's those guys.”
Workman is, of course, referring to the J.B.'s – James Brown's band from 1970 through to the early ’80s. While there were several iterations of the outfit – with some of the originals leaving Brown to join George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic collective – the J.B.'s' reputation and imprint on classic Brown records such as Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine, Super Bad, and Soul Power meant they could also record and release albums and singles of their own, without Brown being front and center.
“So my thought [was], ‘What if we actually hire those architects of that music and have them be the band?’” Workman continues. And, lo and behold, Superbad (the movie) ended up reuniting the original J.B.'s rhythm section with Bootsy and Phelps “Catfish” Collins, Jabo Starks, and Clyde Stubblefield, supplemented by Bernie Worrell.
And speaking of Bootsy, Workman was adamant about getting him, seeing him as an essential piece of the puzzle. But clinching him involved... well, some sleuthing.
“The thing is, well, ‘How do I get in touch with Bootsy Collins?’ I had no idea. I had nobody, no contact, and I just happened to be looking through emails and Maxon – the pedal company – and I saw, ‘Bootsy Collins appearing at the NAMM booth.’”
He continues, "So I called my buddy at Maxon and I said, ‘Hey, I'm doing this movie. I want to get him to play on it. I'm wondering if I can get his number or information... or maybe I'll just go talk to him at the NAMM Show, since it's in L.A.’”
Workman rocked up to the NAMM Show with the movie director Greg Mottola and the music supervisor/music editor, Jonathan Karp, with the intention of talking to Collins. And, thankfully, his plan worked – and even led him to the other J.B.'s.
“I talked to Bootsy during one of his breaks, and he says, ‘Well, I'll get in touch with everybody.’ We kind of gave him a thumbnail sketch of what it was going to be, and he was totally in for it. He contacted the other people.”
Speaking of Bootsy, the legendary bassist recently conducted a rare interview with Buckethead, where the elusive guitarist spoke through his Les Paul.
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