Clarence “Fuzzy” Haskins, the vocalist and electric on-stage presence playing alongside George Clinton from the beginning of the Parliaments until the peak years of Funkadelicdied, Clinton and the band Office has partnered Saturday. He is 81 years old.
Born in 1941, Haskins was an original member of the Parliaments when the doowop quintet formed in 1960, performing vocals with Clinton and his bandmates Ray Davis, Calvin Simon, and Grady Thomas, who would remain in the crowd during the band’s radical change. After years of chasing a hit on various labels – and finally finding one with 1967’s “I Wanna Testify” – the group became Funkadelic in 1970, rebranded as a galactic R&B-funk ensemble—a change primarily driven by Clinton and Haskins, according to Clinton’s website.
As well as contributing vocals, Haskins is an explosive stage presence, as well as a writer (of songs including Funkadelic’s “I Got A Thing” and “I Wanna Know If It’s Good To You” ) and multi-instrumentalist drumming on tracks like. “Can You Be That?” He sang on classic LPs like Funkadelic’s 1970’s self-titled debut and next year Brain Brainbefore descending on the mothership in 1976 to record a solo album A Whole Nother Thang. He returned to Funkadelic for 1977’s Live: P-Funk Earth Tour.
Haskins joined Simon and Thomas in a reimagined version of Funkadelic in 1980, releasing an LP—titled. 42.9% in Germany and Connections and Disconnections in the US—which led to a court battle against Clinton over the Funkadelic name. In the ’90s they joined Davis in Original P, performing Parliament-Funkadelic classics in addition to original songs. Haskins was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along with other members of Parliament-Funkadelic in 1997.