Free Your Mind

The Death of P-Funk's Gary Shider
Friday, June 18, 2010
By Vetalle Fusilier

If George Clinton was Mike Jordan, then Gary Shider was Scotty Pippen.  Gary  “Starchile” Shider was the   guitar director of the Mothership, you know his vocals and heard him all your life.  Yep, he was the one in the diaper, decades in the diaper.  The P-Funk guitar section just got stronger in heaven, Glenn Goins, Eddie Hazel, now Gary Shider.  At his end, we can fondly recall his beginning , United Soul.

I Miss My Baby

Reputed to have spent time playing with gospel groups , the Plainfield New Jersey  native didn’t catch on the first round, Parliament, but his soulful vocals were  the P-funk, the uncut-funk, the bomb.  We knew it, P-Funk nation knew it, from the moment we heard him in the seventies.    And the rest of the world knew it too.  Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Guitar magazine featured artist, Gary took us to church easily and often.  Despite the beefs, and bodacious binges of the band, he remained the classic icon, diaper clad.  Keeping us all One Nation under a Groove.

One Nation

In a constellation full of stars, Gary was “on the one”.  He creatively conceived  with Bernie and George, forming the foundation of the P-Funk.  He melded with his guitar brothers Mike Hampton,  Blackbyrd McKnight, Eddie, Ron, all of them comprising probably the strongest guitar section of a band in rock and roll history.  His voice, distinctive and strong never dismissed his roots developed in worshipful praise. 

Gary was all around the world with the funk, from “Paint the White House Black “to “Hardcore Jollies”.  He was “Glory Hallistupid”, one of the barkin “Atomic Dogs”.  He also dedicated himself to raising money for musicians who needed health care, and was always down with a smile and conversation if you ran into him in the airports or around his Maryland homestead.   Gary “Diaper Man” , Gary “Starchile”, Gary “DooWop”,  will fly on in all the guitar playas who have been disciples of his funk, and  in our hearts and minds, in our ears that have heard his musicalness for decades.  Gary Shider, Rockin In Paradise .