Courtesy of Funk-U Magazine & P-VIEWS (Continued)
Q : Great! Specially with the long versions. You have covered a lot of classic soul songs in the past like 'Grapevine...', 'In the midnight hour'. Which other favourite of yours would you like to do in the future? You once said in an interview, you wanted to do 'Knee deep'.
ROGER TROUTMAN : Yeah, I wanna do that. I've come to understand (I'm not a religious freak) that God is the Master, all glory comes to God; so what I'm thinking about right now is do a funky Roger-type version of 'Oh happy days' (He starts to sing a slow groove, imitating a computerized rythm!) (laughs) with the Mississippi Mass Choir on background vocals & a couple of guttural singers in the front like Dick Smith to do the lead part. And I'm also going to do a very funky Roger-type version of 'Livin for the city' (The great hit from Stevie Wonder) with a very hard street type of rapper. (He starts to rap) Both of those songs will be on this next Greatest Hits. But there maybe some more cover versions as well, cos' I've been contacted by another record company to do a whole album of songs, remakes, that would be called 'History of R'n B'. I would put together singers like Mary J. Blige & Shirley Murdock on one song, & Eddie Levert (O'Jays) with Johnny Gill (ex-New Edition) & do classic R'n B songs that everybody would like. You'd like Coolio & Kurtis Blow on a song like 'Beauty is only skin deep'. But I'm dreaming down the road...
Q : How would you explain to someone who sees you for the first time the use of the talkbox? And is it the same device called voice bag, that was used by some guitar players from the 70's?
ROGER TROUTMAN : Yes it is the same thing. It was made famous by Joe Walsh (From the Eagles), and by Peter Frampton, & by Joe Perry (from Aerosmith), & I would describe this thing as 'African robot'! 'A ghetto robot'! (Laughs)
Q : We don't see anymore of these talk boxes, So is there someone who's taking special care of yours, cos' it must be hard to keep it in playing condition?
ROGER TROUTMAN : Good question! Great question! Lester & I studied how the first company made one. We studied what the parts where, & we built our own. So there's nobody to maintain it but us & it is very very difficult to maintain. It's a constant headache! That's why I have two on stage so that I can switch if one breaks down. And there's two mechanisms within each one. So it's definitely a problem.
Q : What aout the 'Max Axxe' which you claimed getting from the Mothership in your song?
ROGER TROUTMAN : Actually it's a true story. This was back in 1978. Bootsy had bought this guitar synthesizer. The first one ever made. Very bulky, very cumbersome, very hard to work, very new! He had bought one, & he couldn't get much sound of it. So he gave it to me as a jpgt, so I took it, I worked it & I wrote this song about it & I called it the Max Axxe, the maximum guitar. And it came from the Mothership. Bootsy gave it to me.
Q : In connection to that, what's the state of your relationship with George Clinton now?
ROGER TROUTMAN : We're the best of friends. It's difficult to elaborate on such a strange situation. I have nothing but love for George. We came from the beginning, and then we had some legal turbulence, but we hashed it all out & got everything straight. It's just difficult in this business. Money money money...