Episode 32: Linda Shider [P-FUNK/GARRY SHIDER‪]‬ Aced Out Podcast

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When singer/musician/songwriter LINDA SHIDER met the folks in Parliament-Funkadelic, she was working as a stewardess for Pan Am. A friend of hers had just moved to San Francisco, so she invited Linda to come visit. That friend in turn introduced her to a woman who was dating Bernie Worrell, wizard of the boards, and from there she became acquainted with the rest of the funk family, including GARRY SHIDER, whom she wound up hanging out with at a party in L.A. Linda “Legz” had a boyfriend at the time, but she had already been an admirer of the band. “To me, they were like the black Rolling Stones,” she says. “Their aura… their vibe… They were just so intense, and you know they were real sexy onstage.” 

Garry kept making comments about Linda and trying to make moves, but she would always rebuff him. Then one day, when the band was at a hotel, some guy came rushing in with a gun, looking for George Clinton, who may or may not have been with his girl. Garry swooped in to protect Linda from the ensuing gunfire by pushing her into a phone booth. He was her hero, and they decided to be a couple soon after.

She went on the road with him–following the tour bus in her car, or flying in for certain gigs. Then she joined them onstage for the first time–at Madison Square Garden. She even wound up on the cover of Rock & Soul magazine. But she wasn’t just some random hanger-on in the entourage. She was a leader with a deep background in civil rights advocacy who had fronted her own band, Legz, belting out heavy rock tunes like “Back in Black” by AC/DC. They also released the epic single “It Don’t Come Easy,” a impressively intricate and gooey deep cut which exhibits her complex compositional chops.

Indeed, this particular skill led to her becoming one of the very few credited woman songwriters in P-Funk history. It all started with a baby grand which lived in a hallway at United Sound in Detroit, where most of the P-Funk stuff was recorded. A gifted pianist, she just sat down and started playing. Somebody’s ears perked up. “George came by and he said ‘Hm, I like that,’” she recalls. “And he said, ‘Garry… figure out the chords and stuff and let’s go record that bad boy… I think Ima use that for Parlet.’”

Garry and the fellas did just that, and a unique track of music began to take form, a mid-tempo, haunting yet poppy combo of funk and prog rock. “Once I heard the whole musical thing gelling,” she continues, “that’s when I came up with the lyrics.” The tune sounded like it was coming from outer space, but she didn’t have to look far for inspiration. “It was a love song,” she says. “A lot of stuff that Garry and I did [was] that kind of material because we were so in love with each other. You know, we were hot and heavy and we just kinda like shared it with people.” The song was called “Are You Dreaming?” and arrived to the world as part of Parlet’s classic debut, the Pleasure Principle.

Mrs. Shider was also part of another momentous event in P history: the birth of Garry’s iconic stage outfit, or perhaps we can call it a uniform: the diaper, man. But was it an actual diaper? “It was always a towel,” reveals Linda. “They’d stay at the Holiday Inn a lot, so it has the Holiday Inn logo down the middle.” The story goes that Garry decided to give it a try after seeing George put one on that one time. Garry chose to combine the diaper look with a pacifier and some thigh-high boots. Everyone responded so positively that the simple ensemble stuck thereafter. But did Garry wear underwear under there? “No he did not,’ laughs Linda. “Sometimes the willy would kinda pop out if the diaper was too small… It was kinda scary sometimes as well, you know what was gonna happen… ‘Oh, god. Here we go.’ All the groupies would be like ‘Yes!’”

 Like his lovely spouse, Garry Shider was a partic