George Clinton didn't lead a band. He built a universe. Parliament. Funkadelic. Bootsy's Rubber Band. The Brides of Funkenstein. The P-Funk mythology has its own language, its own characters, its own theology -- and at the center of it all was George, the cosmic ringmaster in the diaper and rainbow wig who somehow held it all together.

He started as a doo-wop singer in New Jersey with the Parliaments, had a hit with (I Wanna) Testify in 1967, and then somewhere around 1970 -- give or take an acid trip -- decided to reinvent what a band could be. What emerged was P-Funk: a sprawling, rotating collective of dozens of musicians playing funk so deep and so weird that radio didn't always know what to do with it. Parliament for the spaceships. Funkadelic for the guitars. Bootsy for the bass.

When the 70s ended and the P-Funk empire splintered under legal and financial chaos, George went solo -- and Atomic Dog hit #1 on the r&b charts in 1982. Hip-hop discovered the P-Funk catalog in the late 80s and never stopped mining it. George Clinton is the most sampled artist in history. He's still touring, still defying retirement, still wearing the rainbow wig. The mothership is still out there.

George Clinton built the P-Funk empire, landed a mothership, and became the most sampled artist in history. Still touring. The mothership is still out there.