Episode 19: Andre Foxxe [P-FUNK, et al]

By the time guitar hero ANDRE FOXXE (P-Funk/Jimmy G and the Tackheads/Incorporated Thang Band/Psychedelic Ghetto Pimpz) was in his early 20s, he had a production deal with the legendary Don Davis at United Sound, the funk pride of Detroit. Amazingly, that gave him free reign in a place where Johnnie Taylor and Aretha Franklin were also actively laying tracks. And of course, George Clinton was there as well. Andre still had much to learn, but he was so glad he wasn’t working some job or back out on the street ducking bullets, he just acted like he knew while soaking everything up. “All I did was watch George Clinton… and took notes in my mind,” he explains, “I just imitated what I saw them do… And I never told nobody I didn’t know what the fuck I was doin.”

Indeed, Foxxe had the drive and talent to be in the room. But how did he get there in the first place? As it so happens, he literally walked through the door. It all started one fateful day in 1979, when a friend of Andre’s who kept bragging he was buddies with someone in PARLET asked him for a ride to the Funk Festival at the Pontiac Silverdome. When Andre showed up at the dude’s house, he was surprised to see Parliament-Funkadelic singers Ray Davis, Jessica Cleaves, Shirley Hayden, and Sheila Horne (aka Amuka) there as well. All hopped in 18-year-old Andre’s little yellow Duster and they went to the gig.

Once there, they parted company and left Andre to wander around by himself. “I’m walking down this little hallway,” he remembers. “I hear good music playing behind this door. It wasn’t marked or anything. So, I’m inquisitive… I open the door and walk in. It was George Clinton and Bootsy Collins listening to a song called ‘Knee Deep’ that they were working on at the time. “

Well damn. Andre’s presence didn’t seem to bother the two funk superheroes, so he stayed put. That’s when he noticed this kid, a bit younger than him, standing there, too. “I said, ‘What you doin in here?’” Andre recalls. “He goes, ‘That’s my dad right there.’ And I was like ‘That ain’t your dad!’ He goes, ‘What are YOU doin in here?’ I go ‘I just heard that music.’” As it turned out, the kid was Tracey aka Trey Lewd, who then invited Andre to join him onstage to sing part of “Flashlight” that very night.

Two weeks later, Clinton and songwriter/producer Ron Dunbar offered Andre a job as a driver. They even got him some new wheels for the gig. “Everybody that was within Parliament-Funkadelic from ‘79 to like ‘81 I drove around in this green van,” he says. Meanwhile, Andre’s skills as a multi-instrumentalist—though he was still keeping quiet about them for the most part—were starting to come into play. He joined Trey’s project Plastic Brain Slam for a time, along with Steve Pannell and Trey’s brother Daryl Clinton.

That fizzled out, but Clinton and Davis were starting to take notice of Andre’s musical acumen. He was pulled into George’s little brother’s project, Jimmy G and the Tackheads, who put out the fantastic and underrated Federation of Tackheads (1985). Then Jimmy G fell off and Andre found himself in the driver’s seat of the Incorporated Thang Band’s Lifestyles of the Roach and Famous (1988). Throughout, Andre was also writing and recording with serious cats like the almighty Junie Morrison and Blackbyrd McKnight, contributing cuts to Clinton joints like You Shouldn’t-Nuf Bit Fish (1983) and R&B Skeletons in the Closet (1986). But receiving credit and money for this valuable work wasn’t always in the cards. So it’s good that Foxxe further solidified his contributions to the P with his classic solo joint, I’m Funk and I’m Proud (P-Vine, 1994)—featuring a who’s who of funkateers—as well as releases from his Psychedelic Ghetto Pimpz.

However, despite Andre’s determination and success, his transition from driver to player within the P-Funk team wasn’t necessarily a smooth one. “When I started doing it, of course nobody took me serious,” he explains. “Hell, I just picked you up from the airport!” Unfortunately, when his guitar game got strong enough that he was offered a job in the band, things didn’t get better. In fact, they kinda got worse. “That’s when I really started catchin it,” he laments. “And when I decided to develop an image in that thang… that set a few people back as well.” Specifically, the O.G.’s didn’t seem to appreciate Andre grabbing eyeballs with his stage outfit: a bridal gown, which he first put on as a dare inspired by his recent marriage as well as his dedication to the Funk. But even George seemed to be hating on it. “From there on… I just got a little resistance from those guys,” he says. “It was weird… I thought it was part of the gig. I didn’t know it was creating animosity… I was bringing my A game.”

But Andre persisted, and over the course of the mid 80s to 2014 he performed with the P-Funk AllStars, sharing the stage with Blackbyrd, Garry Shider, Mike Hampton, and Billy Bass. “We all were expected to do the job,” says Andre about holding his own while doing the gig. “You’re not on the stage if you’re unqualified… Because, if you can’t do it, there’s 15 other cats that can come up here and outdo you. So if you got the blessing to do this job you better do these parts… And that’s how I was able to stay focused.”

But life as a funk soldier wasn’t always what it was cracked up to be, and Andre was constantly in and out of the lineup. “I think I’ve been fired more than anybody in the whole P-Funk organization,” he quips. But nowadays the wisdom of hindsight has overruled any ill will he’s had toward George Clinton in the past. “I’ve said some bad things about that cat, and I’m sure he said some bad things about me too,” he admits, “But I realized I really love the dude… He was like Dad…. In families and relationships, you go back and forth with the parental figures… I can see his worth to the world and the music industry. I get it now. Because he’s a very valuable dude. He should be an American treasure, if you ask me.”

In this unique, insightful hangout session, Foxxe talks about first wanting to play bass because of his love for Jermaine Jackson, becoming a guitar player while high on mescaline at Garry and Linda Shider’s house, and what P-Funk songs he helped create but never got credit for. He also talks about touring in Africa with afrobeat drummer/innovator Tony Allen, working as an A&R guy for Japan’s P-Vine records, his lifelong friendship with Amp Fiddler, and what it was like having EDDIE “Maggot Brain” HAZEL as a mentor and roommate for four years.

Produced & Hosted by Ace Alan
Cohosted by Jay Stone
w/ Content Produced by Jay Double You! & Andre Foxxe
Website & Art by 3chards
Engineered by Nick “Waes” Carden at the Blue Room in Oakland, CA

But we couldn’t have done it without Mawnstr and especially Scott Sheppard

“Checking out my horse” — Foxxe

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.