Disco funk/R&B bassist/vocalist Bootsy Collins will absolutely not have his name forgotten. From songs like "Bootzilla" and albums like Ahh... The Name is Bootsy, Baby! and Bootsy? Player of the Year, Collins has infused his name into the music industry, a strange strategic tactic for someone whose music will live on regardless.

Bootsy Collins (born William Collins) grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio in the ‘50s, where he dabbled with music before forming his first group the Pacesetters in 1968. Along with his brother Phelps Collins (guitar), Frankie Waddy (drums) and Philippe Wynne, the Pacesetters performed as James Brown's backup band from 1969 to 1971. Dubbed the J.B.'s, the band played until 1972, when Bootsy joined George Clinton's group Parliament/Funkadelic. Bands from this point kept spinning, as Bootsy then left P-Funk to start his own band, Bootsy's Rubber Band, in 1976. Signing a deal with Warner Bros. alongside Phelps, Waddy, Joel Johnson, Gary Cooper and Robert Johnson and "the Horny Horns," Bootsy's Rubber Band released their debut single in 1976 with "Stretchin' Out (In a Rubber Band)." Sometimes a solo act, Bootsy's career was on fire in the late ‘70s. His albums Ahh... The Name is Bootsy! (1977) and Bootsy? Player of the Year (1978) both hit number one on the charts, and the smash single "Bootzilla" also reached the coveted number one slot in 1978, as well.

After a six-year hiatus, Bootsy made a comeback in 1988 that pushed him through the new millennium. The disco king appeared as part of the Bootzilla Orchestra on Malcom McLaren's album Waltz Dancing in 1989, and he made a cameo with the group Deee-Lite in 1990 as a guitarist and bassist. Renewing old habits, Bootsy kicked up Bootsy's New Rubber Band in 1994, producing numerous albums, performing for live audiences and shows and even garnering a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form for 2001's "Weapon of Choice."