“My world will never be the same without him…. Be happy for him, he certainly is now and always has been the happiest young fellow I ever met on this planet.” – Bootsy Collins
Legendary funk guitarist and brother of Bootsy Collins, Phelps “Catfish” Collins passed away last week after a battle with cancer. Having played in 3 of the greatest funk bands ever (Parliament/Funkadelic, the J.B.’s and Booty’s Rubber Band) his music will still be with us. It should be noted that his death came just one month after fellow funkateer, Garry Shider.
We’d like to share some information from Bootsy as well as the touching obituary that he has written. Bootsy has also organized “The Catfish Nation, to celebrate the CATFISH LIFE, ONE SMILE AT A TIME!” The event will take place September 4th at the Madison Theater in Covington, Kentucky.
Catfish’s motto was: If it’s free it’s for me, so yeah, it’s FREE to everyone. We have opened a “Catfish musicians fund” that will be set up to help unfortunate musicians that fall on bad times and can not afford their own burial. So we are asking the ones that can to donate to this cause. You can email us at: bootsycf7@gmail.com for more details.
Hit the jump for the obituary written by Bootsy Collins.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayer’s,
Catfish was a different kind of human being, he only wanted love and peace in every situation. He never wanted people to feel sorry for him, he believed in people working and paying there own way in life. Catfish was a party man all the way to his passing.
Catfish was nothing but love in the flesh, he never believed in religion, but he would give you the shirt off his back if it would help save your life.
As for his life on this earth, he lived it the way he wanted to and I can say I truly respect him for that, he was a true brother and he loved in a very peculiar way. He fought hard for me to make it and that is a true full blooded brother. He did not consider himself a Christian, Muslim, Buddhaist, or whatever name you placed on God, Catfish was just simply all of himself.
The Catfish was no joke, he severed himself and people with all that he had never taking what did not belong to him. He could never fake the funk, he always told you what and how he felt about anything, his life was in his hands and nobody else’s.
Catfish, was the only one on this planet that knew me inside out, he was my brother, my father and most of all my best friend. My world will never be the same without him, he was as close to me as my mother and you would think no one could ever be that close.
The Catfish was so amazing with his out look on life, to me he will always be bigger than life, and because life to him was only a means to connect physically with people and he was the best at this as if he Created himself, that is how different he was to me than anybody I have ever known.
He made everybody feel good, but then he would strike you down if you got out of line or tried to slick or trick somebody in his presence, he did not like that.
We saw so much of that growing up, that he hated people playing games and those kinds of tricks on people that affected their life and lively hood.
He hated the trickery, the lies and the over all set up of how the system was set up to keep the real workers struggling and never able to make ends meet.
He knew that we as the biggest and the best Nation on earth that we could very easily make things much better in healthcare and the educational systems for the good of it’s people. Why and how does greed become more important than life itself.
He would say why would I want to be a Christian or any other religion when all we do is stab each other in the back while the rich keep getting richer and the poor continue to get poorer by turning on themselves to get peanuts.It was a few different characters that would show up with the Catfish and depending on the situation you may get:
Catfish the Joker, Catfish the Clown, or Catfish the Player/Lover.
The ladies really liked all three until they started to get too serious with the Catfish and then that is when he turned into:{The Wrath of the Catfish.}
Catfish would always say, when I go I don’t want anybody preaching or saying a prayer over me and crying, just celebrate my life the way I celebrated my life, having fun and bringing the joy.
I want to have a live band, Comedians, Dancers, Singers, Poets, and people that don’t get a chance to be heard or seen on stage, I want to be roasted, toasted and people drinking and having a good time in my name no other name but ” The Catfish”.
That is what we are going to do on Sept 4th. 8pm. at the Madison theater 730 Madison Ave Covington Ky 859-491-2444, this was the last place that Catfish played live here in the Cincinnati area for the James Brown tribute and this is where we will party like rock star’s for {The Catfish}.
Right now this is all the information I can give you, but go to www.bootsycollins.com in a week from 8-7-10 and we will have up more details.
You can also email: Kim Seay at: kseayable@gmail.com or call her at: 513-293-3805 for more details.
The Catfish says be happy for him, he did with life what most of us could only dream about, he said the American Dream ain’t got nothing on “The Un-domesticated Catfish Dream”, he truly had fun with it.
We will also be introducing (The Catfish Musicians fund) which is a part of Bootsy Collins Foundation which receives donations for musician’s that fall on hard times and can not afford a decent burial, Catfish had a love for his fellow musicians so we want to start this for him as well.
More details on this in the days to come, contact Lori Sanfilippo at lori.sanfilippo@gmail.com
Again be happy for him, he certainly is now and always has been the happiest young fella I ever met on this planet. Thank you all for your love and support, but for now I have got to get my party on for the Catfish and the people!
Bootsy baby!!!
R.I.P. Phelps “Catfish” Collins and Gary “Diaperman” Shider
Garry Shider Medical Fund
Sources: Bootsy Collins, Soul Patrol
