Michael Hampton

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Michael Hampton was the guitarist for the band Funkadelic after original guitarist Eddie Hazel departed to join The Temptations in 1975. Like Hazel, Hampton was recruited as a seventeen year old guitar prodigy, first appearing on Let's Take It To The Stage.

Hazel had left the band due to payment problems with Clinton and a drug-related arrest on an airplane in which a stewardess was bitten. The band found itself in need of a lead guitarist that could match Hazel's amazing soloing, but could also restrain himself for long funk workouts.

The answer came in Hampton, who made his debut with the classic album Let's Take It To The Stage in 1975. His excellent guitar playing was evident throughout the album. The album was full of fuzzy, Hendrix inspired licks, wailing harmonics and rhythms that were also meant for the dance floor.

Around this time, Hampton began playing Eddie Hazel's famous solo "Maggot Brain" in concert and it quickly became his signature concert performance, and he continues to play it today.

In 1981 George Clinton disbanded the Parliament/Funkadelic empire due to financial and legal difficulties. Hampton guested on a number of Clinton's so-called "solo" albums (they featured many P-Funk mainstays) and eventually became a member of Clinton's P-Funk Allstars. He continues to tour and play to this day with George and the rest of the P-funk army and his effect on the world of funk and the funk-rock genre he helped to create will never be forgotten by his fans.

Another Michael Hampton is also a guitarist in the Washington DC hardcore punk scene.

His first notable effort was playing guitar in The Extorts in early 1980. There are a few live recordings and a demo tape as evidence of their existence. After The Extorts broke up, Hampton and Henry Garfield (later to become Henry Rollins) formed a new group called S.O.A. (State of Alert) and they released a 7" on Dischord records. When S.O.A. split up, Henry Garfield changed his surname to Rollins and moved to LA as singer of legendary band Black Flag.

Hampton then joined fellow DC punks Alec MacKaye (brother of Ian MacKaye), Eddie Janney, Chris Bald and Ivor Hansen and formed The Faith who released a number of recordings on the Dischord label. This group broke up in 1983. Hampton soon joined Ian Mackaye, Ivor Hansen and Chris Blad in another D.C. group called Embrace. Along with Rites of Spring, Embrace is credited as a seminal emo group. A posthumously released album appeared on Dischord, long after they had split up.

Hampton then joined a short lived project called One Last Wish, composed of three ex members of Rites of Spring. This band lasted only a matter of months, but they had recorded one demo which was released some years later on Dischord.

Concurrent with One Last Wish, Hampton was involved in another project with Simon Jacobson called The Snakes. This group was primarily a recording project, and rarely played live. The Snakes released two albums on Dischord.

Hampton lately performs in a band called Paco along with fellow members Dominique Durand, Andy Chase & Gary Maurer. This group released an album in May 2004 called This Is Where We Live on Unfiltered Records.