George Clinton, the funk pioneer and lead singer of legendary Motown Records in the 1960s, was honored at 82 by the Musicians Union, getting his own Star on the Walk of Fame last Friday.

Hundreds of fans gathered at the site to watch the unveiling of the 2,769th star, dedicated to George Clinton. Attending the ceremony – at which they spoke – were Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis, legendary Motown songwriter Janey Bradford and civil rights attorney Ben Crump.

“I feel good as ***,” Clinton said. “I’m incredibly proud,” he added, referring to the successes and difficult moments of his seven-decade career in music.

“I learned early on in this journey that you’re only as great as your last hit,” said singer, songwriter, record producer and leader of Parliament and Funkadelic, Clinton.

Clinton recalled being inspired to form a doo-wop group after hearing Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, but said he was rejected by Motown “because we didn’t seem as good as the Temptations,” he said.

He added that this led him to adopt a new hippie-inspired look referencing his pioneering bands Funkadelic and Parliament. “About as anti-Motown as you could get!” he added.

Before Clinton’s speech, Kiedis took the stage to share his memories of first seeing Clinton in concert and of moving in with his fellow Red Hot Chili Peppers into the label’s home producer in Michigan when the legendary musician produced their second album, 1985’s Freaky Styley.

“We started recording and George started teaching us,” said Kiedis. “To me personally, George was instantly a friend, a teacher, a mentor, a father figure, a conspirator, an instigator and, quite frankly, a coordinator of alien ventures, to tell the truth.”

He then sang an excerpt from Parliament’s “spiritual anthem,” as he called the 1975 song “P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)’.

“I’m going to tell you the story of George Clinton, the musical genius and clothing designer,” he said. “But before all that he was a guy who wore a three-piece suit, with hair that was always in a bun, but had a briefcase full of dreams,” Janey Bradford said.