Bootsy Collins Shares His Wildest Stories in Upcoming Memoir, “Funked Around, Found Out”

Funk icon Bootsy Collins has got some crazy stories from his career, and now he’s telling them in a new book called Funked Around, Found Out, due March 23rd, 2027. Written with Caseen Gaines, the book is “the straight up, real deal, if I’m lyin’, I’m dyin’, and I ain’t ready to go yet,” Collins says.

Collins played with James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic, not to mention his solo work and collaborations with Anderson .Paak, Snoop Dogg, Bruno Mars, and more. The book’s description shares just a few of the wild story from his life:

According to the publisher, the memoir explores Collins’s three-decade relationship with Brown, whom it describes as both a mentor and “sometimes tormentor,” including a story about dropping acid with the Godfather of Soul.

Other stories include a one-night stand that nearly got Collins killed by a member of Florida’s Black Mafia and an encounter with the LAPD, who mistook the Parliament-Funkadelic crew for escaped convicts. The book also examines his creative and sometimes tumultuous relationship with George Clinton, getting clean, and becoming a mentor to a new generation of artists.

Funked Around, Found Out features a foreward by Snoop Dogg and will include psychedelic photos, costumes, guitars, and other surprises, the publisher shares. It will be available March 23rd with pre-orders open on hardcover, Kindle, Audiobook, and audio CD.

Until then, let’s remember Bootsy’s most famous lesson: everything is on the one.