Richard ‘Kush’ Griffith was born August 8, 1948, in Louisville, Kentucky. At his mother’s request, they recorded on his birth certificate that his name would be Richard Lamont C _______. It wasn’t until 1962 that he accepted the name “Kush,” originally a derivative of the nickname “Cushfoot”. According to Kush’s friends, he showed an early interest in music by virtue of conducting the symphony orchestra as he stood in front of the TV in his early years.

It was until Kush’s 10th year, as he was about to turn 11, he had definitely made the decision that he would become a professional trumpet player for his life’s profession. Kush was then accepted into the orchestra and his sophomore year in high school was his first of three subsequent seasons with the Louisville Civic Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra experience and various other extra-curricular activities helped Kush become a principal first chair trumpet player and soloist with the Louisville Central High School Concert Band and also with the help of his director, Mr. Bobby L. Edwards.

In the spring of Kush’s senior year, he became acquainted with a local popular music “soul band” known as “Johnny and the Soul Six.” Other than Kush, Johnny was the only “soul person,” ethnically speaking, in the band. The rest of the band was made up of four guys from a very, very red-necked suburb of Louisville, a place called Shively. Until this time, Kush had had no interest at all in popular music and was sure he was headed for a classical career. When he met Greg Henderson lead guitarist and band crazy man who just kinda by osmosis made it possible for Kush to learn a little bit about things like chord progression and how songs were actually formulated—at least the music part.

It was a combination of all the aforementioned elements; i.e., public school education, musically and otherwise, the Civic Symphony experience and the experience of his first trip into popular music via the little six-piece “rock ‘n roll” band who had a great repertoire of James Brown and Wilson Pickett. After a brief stint with another local Louisville band known as the “Notorious Outsiders,” led by Kush’s then-time mentor, and then later an employee of Kush in one of his own bands, “Smoke-town Red Downs.” At this point, that same “Wind Beneath His Wings” had arranged for Kush to have an audition with James Brown’s band by virtue of the fact that Fred Wesley, Clyde Stubblefield, and I think one other of the band members had the night before the concert had visited the nightclub where Kush’s father was bartending and they told him they needed a trumpet player, he told them he had one at home eating him out of house and home. He just got an audition. Which the next night Kush got an audition which this was in the spring of 1968 and as they say pretty much the “rest was history.” From this point Kush entered the band as the second trumpet player.

. In less than a year because of the lead trumpet player’s departure from the band, Kush became first trumpet player. Shortly after, his buddy and mentor Fred Wesley, who at that time he was director for James Brown Enterprises, also departed the band for wanting to try his wings in his new home which was Los Angeles and kinda bestowed the job of musical director on Kush. However, James Brown made that final decision. After which, Kush played a part in what he referred to as sorta leading a revolt or helping lead a revolt which created Maceo and all the King’s Men which was the James Brown Orchestra sans James Brown. After a couple of years of really, really getting a rude awakening sort of an education about the music business and realizing how much they had been sheltered from the competitiveness/cut-throat aspect of the music business, they put in two years and folded, recording two albums which was “Maceo and all the King’s Men Doing Their Own Thing,” and “The Funky Music Machine” on two different labels. The first label was “House of the Fox Records, an independent label started by Leland Rogers, older brother of Kenny Rogers.

The second label was on a label called “Excello” which was a subsidiary of Nashboro Records, which was primarily a gospel label. After not being able to get a job in Nashville, as was his practice, being a musician, he took his horn with him wherever he went and so he was able to get a job with this band, which was called Bottom and Company. They were the rhythm section was the original ________ gang in Muscle Shoals, Alabama when Muscle Shoals first became a recording mecca in the industry. And they had also been rhythm section for Little Richard. No, not Kush’s son, the real “Little Richard P______man.” This band were very savvy studio cats and became pretty much a conduit for their producer’s company called “Wishbone Productions,” to be an entrance mechanism for them to get involved with Motown.

They then signed with Motown via the production company and it wasn’t as fruitful as they would have liked. They had a few records. None of them went anywhere, except the songs that one of the band members, Jesse Boyce, had written for the Temptations, and other songs that they had written that other people covered, like ___________ Bryson’s first single with Kush as the horn arranger. With the exception of these little things, they wrote I think one “also ran” record for Chi-lites. During this same time they became a killer opening act for lots of other acts such as Rufus, Ike and Tina Turner, The Charlie Daniels Band and Funkadelic; to which they had earned the reputation of being opening or headliner killers inasmuch as no act ever allowed them to open up for them more than once. Which was a very wise decision for their careers (the headlining act that is).

After the Motown situation failed to produce adequate fruit, Kush then reunited with his old friends, Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, and a new friend, Rick Gardner, and Kush became the fourth Horny Horn as they were the horn section at that time for both Bootsy’s Rubber Band as well as for the entire Parliament-Funkadelic Family. As time and distractions progressed, as a result of the purpose of his lifestyle, Kush did things—oh little minor things—such as ignored his health and the signs of diabetes that he had seen for many years, and preferred to live the jet-set rock ‘n roll life instead of addressing his health. Subsequently, Kush became totally blind, had mega-hypertension and loss of renal functions of his kidneys. This was as Kush puts it a “very down time” for his career.

At this time Kush had really developed into somewhat of a nice blues man—a very professional and entertaining blues man. At the same time Kush was doing what he called taking time out to be himself. Even after blindness and kidney failure, he did five or six European tours for Bobby Bird who was a writer of many of James Brown’s hits and of course lead background vocalists with the Flames. Over the years, Bobby Bird had had his own records with the band consisted of most of the Bird Family with Mrs. Bird, who was the former Vickie Anderson, female vocalist for James Brown back in what we call “The Day,” when old school was in bloom, by doing several tours with Bobby Bird, Kush really developed a European following.

Now this also kind of helped out the situation that Kush had spent time in 1980 this was after the P-Funk situation, the touring situation had kind of folded for Kush as well as all the Horny Horns because the real central figures, Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker had gone on to bigger and better things. The other Horny Horn, Rick Gardner, and Kush spent a lot of time together becoming writing and publishing partners and they began to call themselves RG Horn and they wrote a few eclectic things, such as musicals based on Stravinsky. Kush and Rick spent one infamous European tour in 1980 with Marvin Gaye, which started out as a lot of fun—I mean hey, with rehearsals in Hawaii, how could it be anything but fun, Kush quips. But it ended up kind of weird with actually the Marvin Gaye estate still owing Kush and Rick a few bucks still to this day—but no real biggie.

After that, Kush, after he returned from London with the Marvin Gaye tour, two days later he was whisked away by his manager, who at that time was and still is Robert L. Fitzpatrick, whose other client was Buddy Miles, so Kush was whisked away to Orange County, California to record and do the horn arrangements for a double-sided Buddy Miles album called “Sneak Attack,” and the horn arranger as well as mentors to all these young—to about five young killer Orange County musicians. Ironically on one end of the stage was Kush and on the other end were the only other black member horn section who was Toby Butler who was the baritone saxophone player who had been with Buddy for years but who was originally with the Sam and Dave Band. So they were kind of like the O.G’.s and they took the youngsters under their wings. So the guys who are like Brandon Fields, who was a soloist in his own right as well as playing in the band of Dave Wickel, a big time fusion drummer___________.

• Kush is still doing a lot of writing and since then has recorded a blues album with producers Bootsy Collins and Fred Wesley. This material which is now exclusively available through Funk To The Max Records Kush Blues and Rhythm.

P. S. During the ___funk years between 1976 and 1980 there was a point where George Clinton appointed Kush arranger and music director for The Brides of Funkenstein—that was a P-Funk organization, female group on Atlantic records and Kush thinks that this was a result of George as well as being a conceptualist of genius proportions is also very, very intuitive and I think he kind of surmised that Kush was getting bored around that time and he just gave me the job as the Brides musical director to like well he knew I was capable with it but also to kind like keep me because I was getting kind of restless at the time and I think it was a—for lack of a better word—ploy. To just give me something to keep myself busy and out of trouble.