Vintage 70s bust of Bootsy Collins ashtray and the real Bootsy.
 
Currently this covet-worthy Bootsy Collins ashtray is up for auction on Ebay for a mere $19.99—a bargain at twice the price for such a funky piece of 1970s goodness. If the voice inside your head just screamed “Shut Up and take my money!” then congratulations—everyone else reading this post heard the same thing.

As the listing points out, the top of Bootsy’s head can be removed to reveal the inner sanctum where you can put your spent butts (or trinkets as I’d prefer to use it to store my collection of rhinestones). Here’s the link to the auction. GOOD LUCK! 
 

 
More Bootsy, baby, after the jump…

 
Bootsy Collins is very much responsible for the insane cartoon pilot you see below. Named after his 1977 album, “The Name is Bootsy, Baby” is actually pretty fantastic; our titular hero uses his superhuman funk powers to surf through space (on his magical star bass, of course), fight crime, save hot ladies, and… battle vikings and dragons? He still makes time for the music and his legion of fans, but when some wannabe suit tries to jack his spotlight, Bootsy is forced yet again to battle the forces of anti-funk. Okay, so the premise is a little thin, but I remember 1996, and there were way more abominable attempts to sell merchandise and breakfast cereal than this one.

The cartoon wasn’t some two-bit operation either! Executive Producer Abby Terkuhle was responsible for some of MTV’s best animation—Aeon Flux, Daria, and Beavis and Butt-Head, just to name a few. Mike Judge, who gave us the voices of Beavis, Butt-Head, Hank Hill and more, lent his ridiculous vocal cords to the project. Bootsy voiced himself of course, and composed the music, but he also received a writer, director and producer credit. Obviously, “The Name is Bootsy Baby” never really got off the ground, but it’s rumored the cartoon was played before shows, making animated Bootsy his own opening act. That is some seriously meta-funkiness!
 

 
Via Network Awesome

 
Legendary deejay Donnie Simpson interviews Bootsy Collins on TV show Video Soul in 1988.

“I come equipped with stereophonic funk producin´ disco inducin´ twin magnetic rock receptors.” - Bootsy Collins, Bootzilla .
 

 
Many thanks to Jim Laspesa.

 
Sad news from Cincy is that Bootsy’s older brother Phelps Collins has lost his battle with cancer. This comes shortly after the equally bumming news of fellow Funkadelic guitarist Gary Shider’s passing.

The always-smiling rhythm guitarist started a band called the Pacemakers in 1968 and were soon scouted and picked up by James Brown to back him up. The brothers would record such classics as “Super Bad,” “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine,” “Soul Power,” and “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose” before it became too much to deal with the Godfather. Then it was on to a wonderful decade with Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy’s Rubber Band, lacing masterpieces like “Flashlight” with his brightly sparking chikka-chikka. Phelps spent most of the past 20 years away from music, surfacing occasionally to play with groups like Deeee-lite and on soundtracks like Superbad.

He got some here at the famous L’Olympia with the JB’s in 1971, just before he and Bootsy said bye-bye to the Hardest Working Man…
 

 
After the jump: the bad-ass sounds of Phelps and Bootsy in ‘71 in between their tenures with the JBs and Parliament-Funkadelic!!
 

It looks like funkmaster supreme, Bootsy Collins has jumped onto the celebrity restaurant bandwagon—made a mint for BB King and Kenny Rogers, didn’t it? But I suspect in Bootsy’s case, it looks like he just licensed his name and some of his memorabilia to restaurateur, Jeff Ruby.

If you take the 3-D virtual tour around Bootsy’s, now open in Cincinnati, Ohio, you’ll notice that some of the memorabilia doesn’t appear to have belonged to Bootsy after all. Like I don’t believe that he ever had a poster of the young Beatles in his home, do you? Who made the decision to hang that up? “We need some things that white people like, too. All white people love the Beatles, don’t we?”

I also do not believe that Bootsy has ever personally eaten the vegan sushi.

We want the funk! Gotta have that funk YOWWWWWW….

Thank you Chris Campion!