Episode 17: Steve Boyd [P-FUNK/FIVE SPECIAL]

If you’ve hit up a GEORGE CLINTON & the P-FUNK ALL-STARS show anytime over the last 30 years, you’ve seen a whole lotta STEVE BOYD, the golden-voiced Detroit doo wop master originally of the group FIVE SPECIAL, best known for their hit “Why Leave Us Alone,” (produced by Wayne Henderson of the Jazz Crusaders). But when Boyd first toured with the Funkensteins, it was as an opening act.

It was the early 90s. Boyd had recently signed a solo deal with iconic funk label Westbound Records, (Funkadelic/Ohio Players/et al), and it was time to promote his album Even Steven. So the record company sent him and his band Private School out on the road with the P, an obvious fit for Steve’s stuff. Besides, he’d already known the Parliament-Funkadelic fam going back to the late 70s, when they shared Detroit’s United Sound as home base. That’s why Steve wasn’t exactly shocked when, once the six-month campaign was over, George turned to him and said, “You might as well stay on with me and be in the group.”

Next thing Boyd knew, dope dawg Michael “Clip” Payne was pulling his coat and showing him how to P-form like an All-Star. “I learned all my lyrics and where to stand,” he remembers. “When to come onstage, when to leave.” But onboarding the P-Funk train made sense from the jump. “Going from doo wop to P-Funk was an easy transition for me,” he explains. “The Parliaments, they started out with doo wop, so it was just like a continuation for them—to keep that flavor goin on that keeps right inside of the funk.” And from then to right about now, Boyd has been a major part of each and every P-Funk performance, averaging about 200 dates a year, five hours per show, doin the damn thing and regularly steppin in to swing down for the late, great Glenn Goins on stank standards like “Funkin’ for Fun” and “Bop Gun.”

Indeed, Boyd has come a long way since the days of his youth, gangbanging and stealing cars with his crew in Detroit. In fact, it was the then-thriving independent music scene—best exemplified by United Sound, studio of legendary producer Don Davis—that steered Steve in a different direction. “I was born into the environment of doo wop and record making and songwriting,” he confirms. And when he was brought into Five Special as a replacement, he soon found himself at U.S. as well. “It pretty much was like a record-making machine there at United Sound with all the various projects goin on at that time,” he remembers. “From Anita Baker, Brides of Funkenstein, Parlet, the Dramatics, Aretha Franklin… It was a whole big party goin on.”

Some of this funky elbow bumping resulted in essential ingredients for any funkateers’ collection: the self-titled debut Five Special (1979) and the filthy-mac-nasty-infused follow-up Special Edition (1980), featuring no less than Bernie Worrell and the Horny Horns to name a few, with the kick-off infectious banger “Jam (Let’s Take It To The Streets).” The group’s breakup failed to slow Steve down. He stayed in the studio throughout the 80s on into the 90s and beyond as a highly sought-after commodity, shining like a dogstar as writer and performer on P-Funk albums like Dope Dogs (1994), The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational Mothership (1996) and How Late Do U Have 2BB4UR Absent? (2005). But you’re missing out if you sleep on Boyd’s solo joints, well-written and produced releases like The Lost Tapes Vol. 1 (2008) and 4:20 Drive Time (2001). His latest 5-song EP, Live in Austin Texas (2019), is especially funktastic, featuring Clip Payne, Mike “Kidd Funkadelic” Hampton, and Kendra Foster from D’Angelo’s crew.

These days you might catch Steve at his mom’s house in South Carolina, listening to a podcast while watching the news on ten different streams at once. Or he might be in Atlanta, recording music with his son. But wherever he is, he’s not gonna take the idea of George Clinton being “retired” all that seriously. “He gon’ do it till he drop, man,” Steve asserts. “He ain’t ready to stop yet… I can tell you don’t nobody be fillin out no applications.”

In this super laid back hangout session, Steve explains what a “40-minute Funkadelic” is, recalls his days as a Golden Gloves welterweight boxer, runs down why it’s fun singing with George Clinton, and describes giving Anthony Keidis some help with his vocals throughout the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Freaky Styley sessions. Boyd also talks about getting personal compliments and singing advice from Aretha Franklin, helping out El DeBarge in a street fight before a recording session in San Francisco, the strong possibility of a Five Special reunion going down in the near future, and that time Prince served him purple rice at Paisley Park.

Produced & Hosted by Ace Alan
Cohosted by Jay Stone
w/ Content Produced by Jay Double You! & Steve Boyd
Website & Art by 3chards
Engineered, Edited & Photographed by Nick “Waes” Carden at the Blue Room in Oakland, CA
Official Poster Art by Steven Yu w/ Thanx to Debbie Jue
But we couldn’t have done it without Mawnstr and especially Scott Sheppard

Intro track “I Can Never Be” from Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth by the Funkanauts. Go get it wherever music is sold. RIP Brotha P.