George Clinton has spent decades taking fans into outer space through his music, but the funk legend says one alien experience may have been much more than part of the Parliament Funkadelic mythology.
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During a September 8 appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” Clinton opened up about his belief in extraterrestrial life and recalled a bizarre encounter involving unexplained lights, a car, and what he believes may have been several hours of missing time. The official show page confirms Clinton joined the program to discuss Parliament Funkadelic, Afrofuturism, Prince, artificial intelligence and the legacy of Dr. Funkenstein.Clinton told the hosts that his fascination with spaceships stretches back to childhood, but he made it clear that his beliefs are also connected to something he says he personally experienced.
“I’m one of the ones that actually believed that type of stuff. I’m totally convinced of that.”
According to Clinton’s account on The Breakfast Club, he was riding in a car with Bootsy Collins when a strange light appeared from the sky. Clinton stressed that drugs were not responsible for what they witnessed.
“We riding down the street, wasn’t even getting high either.”
Clinton said the light initially appeared in broad daylight before another burst came through the trees. He described what happened next in vivid detail.
“So we actually saw the light come down out of clear daylight like a laser out of the clouds, hit the ground.”
During the interview, Clinton said another light eventually struck the vehicle and appeared to move across its surface.
The George Clinton alien experience became even stranger when he began describing what happened with time. Clinton said he and his companion eventually arrived home and noticed street lights were on, even though the encounter had started during daylight hours. Someone at the house was also preparing to go to bed.
According to Clinton, neither man recognized the apparent time discrepancy until roughly a decade later.
“There was some time missing.”
Clinton said the realization made the experience even harder to explain. He also admitted that he avoided discussing it publicly because of how easily people could dismiss the story.
“I never wanted to talk about it because you sound stupid and everybody knew we was getting high.”
When a host suggested hypnosis could potentially uncover memories of an alien abduction, Clinton appeared open to the possibility but had no interest in digging any deeper.
“I’m pretty sure that would happen too, but I ain’t trying to find out that that much.”
The cosmic conversation is fitting for an artist whose career has long blended funk with science fiction imagery. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Clinton was inducted alongside Parliament Funkadelic in 1997, cementing the collective’s place among music’s most influential innovators.
Whether Clinton experienced something extraterrestrial remains impossible to verify from his account alone. What is clear from his Breakfast Club interview is that decades later, he still believes something unexplained happened during those missing hours.
