“James would always try to break you down. Any time you played a great gig, he'd call you into his dressing room and say, ‘You just ain't on it. You ain't on the one!’” If you play funk, you owe Bootsy Collins – the bass legend who played with James Brown

Bassist Bootsy Collins performs at PNC Music Pavilion on July 22, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

We feature some bona fide bass guitar legends here, but very few come with a pedigree quite like William Collins, or Bootsy as he's known to the entire bass-playing world (and significant chunks of it beyond).

If you're familiar with the man and his playing, you'll know what a force of nature he is, epitomising the stagecraft of the era in which he grew up, and laying down the parameters of the slap and the pop for a generation of bassists.