Calvin Simon
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Calvin Eugene Simon (born May 22, 1942) is a former member of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.
Simon was born in Beckley, West Virginia, United States, and started out in the late 1950s as one of The Parliaments, a doo wop barbershop quintet led by George Clinton. In 1977, Simon (along with other original Parliaments Fuzzy Haskins and Grady Thomas), left Parliament-Funkadelic after financial and management disputes with Clinton. In 1981, the trio caused confusion when they formed a new band, and released an album called Connections and Disconnections under the name Funkadelic. After a return stint with George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars in the 1990s, Thomas, along with original Parliaments bass vocalist Ray Davis (musician), Haskins, and Simon founded Original P.
After a hiatus from the music industry, Simon turned to gospel music and now records for his own label, . In June 2004 he released an album called , which reached #32 on the "Billboard" Top Gospel Albums chart.
Military service[]
Simon was drafted into the United States Army in 1966, and served with C Battery, 3rd Battalion, 13th Field Artillery Regiment, 9th Infantry Division during the Vietnam War in 1967–68.[1]
References[]
- ^ Williams, Kari, "From P-Funk to the Mekong Delta", VFW Magazine, vol. 105, no. 5, February 2018, pp. 18-20.
External links[]
- 1942 births
- Living people
- People from Beckley, West Virginia
- P-Funk members
- Singers from West Virginia
- American gospel singers
- United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War
- United States Army soldiers
- American singer stubs