Billy Bass Nelson, Original Bassist for Funkadelic, Dies at 75

George Clinton, while working as a barber, recruited him. Mr. Nelson went on to name the group and, with his bandmates, to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Billy Bass Nelson, who turned a part-time job sweeping floors for a New Jersey barber named George Clinton into a gig as the first bassist for Funkadelic, Mr. Clinton’s groundbreaking band that melded R&B, funk and acid rock into a groovalicious exploration of the furthest reaches of the musical universe, died on Saturday. He was 75.

His death was announced by the Facebook page for George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, which did not provide a location or cause. Mr. Nelson had been in hospice care. Some news outlets and other sources erroneously reported last week that he had died.

Funkadelic, which eventually merged with its sibling band the Parliaments, represented an enormous leap forward in the fusion of musical styles taking place in the late 1960s and ’70s. What began with Mr. Nelson and two other musicians grew into a sprawling, rotating lineup of artists whose joyfully riotous music was matched by extravagant, drug-fueled live shows.

Mr. Nelson was among the 16 members of the Parliament-Funkadelic collective — or P-Funk — who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

Mr. Nelson began as the bassist in the backup band for the Parliaments, Mr. Clinton’s doo-wop quintet that entertained audiences across New Jersey in the late 1950s and ’60s. To play guitar, he recruited his friend Eddie Hazel, who also went on to star in various P-Funk lineups.

At the time, Mr. Clinton, who was later known for his outlandish onstage clothing choices — including no clothing at all — wore dinner jackets and had his hair straightened. Mr. Nelson, a decade younger, was more in tune with rapidly changing musical tastes, gravitating toward the energetic guitar work of Jimi Hendrix and the funk-and-soul sound of Sly and the Family Stone.

Tired of being in a nameless backup band, in 1967 Mr. Nelson came up with Funkadelic, drawing on the two genres that he was trying to meld: funk and psychedelic rock.

The balance of power between the crooners and the funksters in the group shifted in 1968, after a dispute with Motown, the Parliaments’ record label, prevented them from using the name the Parliaments, or simply Parliament, for several years.

The pragmatic Mr. Clinton, seeing the way the cultural tide was shifting, hung up his dinner jacket and embraced the new direction Mr. Nelson was charting.

Mr. Nelson’s influence is all over Funkadelic’s first three albums, “Funkadelic” (1970), “Free Your Mind … and Your Ass Will Follow” (1970) and “Maggot Brain” (1971). He co-wrote and sang on several tracks, including “Super Stupid,” one of the band’s first signature tracks, from the album “Maggot Brain.”

He also embraced Mr. Clinton’s no-limits approach to live performances. Tired of being considered the baby of the group — he was the youngest — Mr. Nelson devised an oversize diaper to wear onstage, a look that several bandmates later adopted.

“I had these long braids, bare chested, the diaper and my combat boots,” he told LA Weekly in 1996. “And sometimes I had a tuxedo jacket and tails to go with it.”

Following a financial dispute with Mr. Clinton, Mr. Nelson left the band soon after “Maggot Brain” was released. He then played backup for a number of other groups, most extensively the Temptations; his playing featured prominently in their last major hit, “Shakey Ground” (1975). He also occasionally rejoined Mr. Clinton, though the two never fully resolved their differences.

“I’ll get the platinum and gold records if I get a chance,” Mr. Nelson told The Courier-News of Bridgewater, N.J., in 1997, following his induction into the Hall of Fame. “And I don’t need George. I could do it without George.”

William Nelson Jr. was born on Jan. 26, 1951, in Plainfield, N.J., to William and Cora Nelson.

Like many neighborhood teens, he hung out at the local barbershop, where Mr. Clinton cut hair while trying to get the Parliaments off the ground. During practice sessions, Mr. Clinton recruited Mr. Nelson and other teenagers to play backup after several older musicians were drafted into the U.S. Army.

Mr. Clinton eventually signed a contract with Motown, but when the company declined to record the Parliaments, he signed with another label, Revilot, and produced what became the group’s first hit, “(I Wanna) Testify” (1967).

The Parliaments went on tour, taking along their young backup band, which now included Mr. Hazel, the guitarist Tawl Ross and the drummer Tiki Fulwood.

For a time, Funkadelic became something of an alter ego for the Parliaments; the same roster would perform under one name or the other, depending on the style of music being played.

“We took the rhythm and blues and the funk that was already there, and we took it to another level,” Mr. Nelson said in the 2016 documentary “Tear the Roof Off: The Untold Story of Parliament Funkadelic.”

Mr. Clinton recovered the right to the Parliament name in 1974. He began to use the two names interchangeably, or in tandem, as Parliament-Funkadelic, or P-Funk for short. He also spun off a variety of subsidiary acts, like the female duo the Brides of Funkenstein.

Mr. Nelson returned in 1975 to play on Funkadelic’s song “Better by the Pound,” and in the 1990s to play live shows with the P-Funk All-Stars, which had evolved from the original band, though only Mr. Clinton remained from the original lineup.

Mr. Nelson also played bass for a number of R&B acts, including the Commodores, Lionel Richie and the ska-punk band Fishbone.

After a brief hiatus to work as a computer operator, he released a solo album, “Out of the Dark,” under the name O.G. Funk, in 1994.

Mr. Nelson’s survivors include his daughter, Ebony Nelson, and his sister, Alise Nelson.

Long after he left Funkadelic, Mr. Nelson continued to have strong ideas about the proper way to play funk.

“Funk is meant to be played at a very specific tempo,” he told Guitar Player magazine in 1996. “A lot of groups play ‘funk’ licks and do ‘funk’ things, like thumbing the bass and all, but they play it all too fast. If you want to play that raw, serious funk, you have to slow it down.”

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