Clyde Stubblefield

With Jabo Starks, drummer Stubblefield laid down the beat for James Brown's biggest '60s hits. Stubblefield helped drive such seminal Brown funk-fests as "Mother Popcorn," "Cold Sweat," "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)," "I Got The Feelin'," and "Funky Drummer." Stubblefield's famous break on the latter has been reappropriated so many times that it's earned him the unofficial title as "the World's Most Sampled Drummer." Stubblefield grew up in Chattanooga, TN. He began playing drums as a child, beating on tin cans, pasteboard boxes, and whatever else he could get hold of. After leaving Brown around 1970, Stubblefield settled in Detroit briefly, then Madison, WI. Stubblefield still plays with the reconstituted JB's, and is the drummer for humorist Michael Feldman's show Whad' Ya Know, on public radio. He also freelances with groups based in Wisconsin. Stubblefield and Starks have collaborated on a series of instructional videos.