Funk deity Bernie Worrell is fighting cancer; your help is key.
Funk deity Bernie Worrell is fighting cancer; your help is key. lev radin/Shutterstock.com

Bernie Worrell—innovative, influential keyboardist for Parliament-Funkadelic, Talking Heads, Bill Laswell's Praxis, Ginger Baker, and many others—is currently battling lung cancer. The 71-year-old genius of funk is also in a race to finish his latest album, Retrospectives, for which he's launched an Indiegogo campaign. The goal's to raise $10,000; it's currently 91 percent funded with 14 days to go. (You can donate here.)

Worrell's flamboyant instrumental prowess gave P-Funk their magnetic swagger, as exemplified by their 1978 hit, "Flash Light." On it, Worrell constructed one of the most memorable, tensile bass lines ever, with three Minimoogs no less. Even Bootsy Collins had to step aside for that virtuoso display.

Although Worrell is best known for his contributions to funkentelechy (Worrell's impact on Prince and his acolytes as well as on hiphop producers is profound), he also excels in other styles, including the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti's 1985 LP Army Arrangement, the acid-rock shock tactics of Funkadelic's "Wars of Armageddon," and the baroque soul of "Oh Lord, Why Lord/Prayer"—based on Pachelbel's Canon—from Parliament's Osmium album. And while he's not renowned as a vocalist, Worrell also sings the hell out of Funkadelic's "Hit It and Quit It." More recently, he contributed dazzling organ and clavinet parts to Seattle cosmic-rock group Midday Veil's "Babel."

According to his wife Judie, Worrell is seeking naturopathic treatments for his cancers of the lung, prostate, and liver; in addition, he's dealing with painful bouts of arthritis. Help a legend out, won't you?