Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,390

This is the grave of Eddie Hazel.

Born in 1950 in Brooklyn, Hazel grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey. His mother wanted him away from the crime and drugs of Brooklyn. Not so sure that worked for the drugs…or in the end, the crime. But you get why. Hazel grew up in the church, learned to play guitar, sang during services, and had a very typical career path for a future musician. He had a lot of musician friends, played in some good local bands as a teenager, and as the rock and roll era hit full swing in the late 60s, had some options open to him.

In 1967, Parliament, led by the great George Clinton, has just recorded their great hit “I Wanna Testify.” Truly this is one of the great songs in the American canon. But at this time, it was really just The Parliaments and was a doo wop thing, not a band meant for modern touring. It had been around since 1956, but by 1967, was evolving into something very different. So now seeing a route to the big time, Clinton went looking for a band. He met a guy named Billy “Bass” Nelson and hired him to, well, play the bass. Nelson suggested his buddy Eddie Hazel as the guitarist in the band. Clinton hired him too. A great musical partnership was born.

By the early 70s, the band, now mostly known as Funkadelic due to legal issues with the old Parliaments members, released some seriously beautiful funk rock and Hazel provided the great licks for it. I mean, the first three albums this band released were the self-titled album, Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow, and Maggot Brain. Hazel was a critical to these albums as Clinton or Bernie Worrell (Bootsy arrived a bit later). And let’s not forget the critical guitar solo in the song “Maggot Brain,” one of the truly great guitar solos in rock history. That was all Hazel, 10 minutes of total glory.

After 1971, Hazel was more in and out of Funkadelic, largely because Clinton was pretty cheap and constantly fought with band members over money. But he showed up here and there, just not on every album. He and Bass Nelson worked more with the Temptations after this for the next several years than they did with Clinton. But in 1974, relations had improved enough that Hazel co-wrote all of Standing on the Verge of Getting It On, which is at this point probably an underrated album as it is very good, but not the very best of the band.

However, after this things weren’t so great for Hazel. He was indicted for assault and drug possession in 1974 and after that, Michael Hampton was the lead guitarist for the band. Hazel served prison time for that assault charge, as it revolved around biting a flight attendant. Hazel appeared here and there for the rest of his life, including on the occasional Funkadelic song, but his major contributions to American music had passed. He wrote some for Motown and played on tracks for that label too. P-Funk players, including Clinton, appeared on his 1978 solo album Games, Dames, and Guitar Thangs. It’s not a great album.

Hazel’s very hard living eventually killed him. Technically, his death was due to liver failure and internal bleeding. That was in 1992. He was 42 years old. By the end, he was homeless and addicted. Just not a good story. His mom brought him back in at the end, but it was too late to save him.

Eddie Hazel is buried in Hillside Cemetery, Scotch Plains, New Jersey.

Let’s listen to some Eddie Hazel.

If you would like this series to visit other great guitarists, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Jimi Hendrix is in Renton, Washington and Stevie Ray Vaughn is in Dallas. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.

And you find a greater American to profile today!