So, How Was Your 2020? is a series in which our favorite entertainers answer our questionnaire about the music, culture and memorable moments that shaped their year. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December.
Most 69-year-old funk legends would probably be content to rest at home during quarantine and reminisce about minor things like helping to invent one of the most upbeat genres of all time. But Bootsy Collins used his time to enlist Snoop Dogg, Larry Graham, Branford Marsalis, Christian McBride and Victor Wooten and finish The Power of the One, his relentlessly ebullient party album to uplift surreal times.
“I’ve started to realize ‘the one’ is bigger than musical terms,” he told Rolling Stone in September. “It means all of us collectively together, we’re equal. We are the one. We’re the ones that take care of this planet. We’re the ones that make the music and invent stuff. And regardless of our differences, we all are still on this mothership, which is the Earth. It’s one planet, and we’re all on it. There’s millions of us on the planet, but we’re all one people. If we go at it that way, we can do anything. That’s the power of the one.”
Collins has spent his quarantine catching up on old comedies, learning new ways to record music and spending time with his family.
The album I listened to the most in 2020 was:
The Power of the One by Bootsy Collins! I guess that would be me. Mainly because I had been working on it since October 2019. Once I start a project on myself, I don’t listen to anything else.
My favorite TV show to stream during quarantine was:
Gunsmoke.
The song that will define “2020” for me is:
“Imagine” by John Lennon and “Mercy Mercy Me” by Marvin Gaye.
I’d define my current state of mind as:
Positive and upbeat. I feel a bounce-back coming on, with some new ways of communicating to each other. Also I see a sense of gratitude for one another coming on stronger than ever before.
The viral video I kept coming back to in quarantine was:
The one where the baby elephant was chasing the ducks, but then the whole duck brigade turned and ran after the baby elephant. Of course the baby ran and hid under his Mother. Reminds me of us.
The old-favorite movie I returned to for comfort this year was:
Black Sheep starring Chris Farley, Stir Crazy starring Richard Pryor, and What about Bob? starring Bill Murray. These are just a few of my favorites.
A new hobby I picked up in quarantine was:
Learning to record music in Logic. My son Ouiwey is teaching me.
The best book I read in quarantine was:
I re-read Chariots of the Gods. Had not read it since 1976.
The mistake I learned the most from this year was:
When others hurt, we hurt too. The mistake is to try to tell them how they should feel, instead of hearing how they feel at that moment.
The biggest hero of 2020 was:
My little grandsons, granddaughter, and my wifey.
A word or phrase I never want to hear again is:
The ‘rona.
The thing I’m most looking forward to doing when the pandemic is over is:
Realizing my freedoms, and enjoying them and those who comes with it. To touch, to hug and be together again is something we all have taken for granted.
My biggest hope for 2021 is:
That we realize we are one nation, one people that are on the move and in the groove. We must learn what it is to walk in other’s shoes, and to know that just because you can’t feel the wind, don’t mean it ain’t blowing. The True essence of the funk is “The Power of the One!” Bootsy baby!!!
From Rolling Stone US
