Catfish Collins

Phelps Collins was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the elder brother of William "Bootsy" Collins, whom he encouraged musically from a young age. It was Bootsy who nicknamed Phelps "Catfish" because Bootsy thought he looked like a catfish.

In 1968, the Collins brothers, along with Kash Waddy and Philippé Wynne, formed a group called The Pacemakers. Later the Pacemakers were hired by James Brown to accompany his vocals, at this they became known as The J.B.'s. Some of Brown's previous band members had walked out because of money disputes. During their tenure in the J.B.'s, they recorded such classics as "Super Bad", "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine", "Soul Power" and "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose". By 1971, Collins and the rest of the J.B.'s had quit James Brown. The Collins brothers and Kash Waddy formed House Guests and shortly after joined Funkadelic and contributed to the Funkadelic album America Eats Its Young. On Catfish's early work with James Brown and Funkadelic, Catfish played a Vox Ultrasonic guitar with built-in effects. Some of his most famous playing can be heard on the Parliament hit single "Flash Light". Four years later, Collins joined Bootsy's Rubber Band, which included Waddy, Joel "Razor Sharp" Johnson (keyboards), Gary "Muddbone" Cooper (vocals) and Robert "P-Nut" Johnson (vocals), along with The Horny Horns. Collins played on albums by Freekbass and H-Bomb. In 1990, he performed on Deee-Lite's biggest hit "Groove Is in the Heart". In 2007, he contributed guitar work to the Superbad movie soundtrack.

He died on August 6, 2010, in Cincinnati after a long battle with cancer. He was survived by two children. Catfish Nation Celebration, a memorial concert, was held outside Cincinnati in Covington, Kentucky, at the Madison Theater and was attended by a number of musicians as well as hundreds of concertgoers.