He performed and recorded with members of The J.B.'s including Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker and "Jabo" Starks. Stubblefield worked with a variety of musicians in the Madison area such as keyboardist Steve Skaggs, guitarists Luther Allison and Cris Plata, jazz violinist Randy Sabien, country trio Common Faces and jazz group NEO. Stubblefield retired from the Monday shows in 2011 due to health issues, leaving the band in the hands of his nephew Bret Stubblefield. The band featured his longtime friend and keyboard-organ player Steve "Doc" Skaggs, along with soul vocalists Charlie Brooks and Karri Daley, as well as a horn section and supporting band. For over twenty years he played Monday nights with his band, The Clyde Stubblefield Band, in downtown Madison. Stubblefield lived in Madison, Wisconsin, from 1971 onward. He was featured in the 2009 PBS documentary, Copyright Criminals, which addressed the creative and legal aspects of sampling in the music industry. Though the sole creator of his patterns, Stubblefield was not credited for the use of the samples. It has been used for decades by hip-hop groups and rappers such as Public Enemy, Run-DMC, N.W.A, Raekwon, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys and Prince, and has also been used in other genres. His rhythm pattern on James Brown's " Funky Drummer" is among the world's most sampled musical segments. Stubblefield's recordings with James Brown are considered to be some of the standard-bearers for funk drumming, including the singles " Cold Sweat", " I Got the Feelin'", " Give It Up or Turnit a Loose", " Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud", " Mother Popcorn", " Get Up, Get into It, Get Involved", " There Was a Time", " Ain't It Funky Now", and the album Sex Machine. According to Stubblefield, "We just played what we wanted to play (.) We just put down what we think it should be." The two "created the grooves on many of Brown's biggest hits and laid the foundation for modern funk drumming in the process."
Starks' style was influenced by the church music he grew up with in Mobile, Alabama. Over the next six years the band had two drummers, Stubblefield and John "Jabo" Starks who had joined the band two weeks earlier. In 1965, James Brown saw Stubblefield perform in Macon, Georgia, and asked him to audition. In early 1960s he moved to Macon, Georgia, and worked with guitarist Eddie Kirkland and toured with Otis Redding. He played professionally as a teenager and performed in local bands such as Blue Shufflers, Inclines, and Cascades. Years later he said if he could hum a drum pattern, he could play it. He practiced the rhythm patterns he heard, sometimes playing two patterns simultaneously. As a youngster his sense of rhythm was influenced by the industrial sounds of factories and trains around him. He was inspired to pursue drumming after seeing drummers for the first time in a parade. and Vena Stubblefield on April 18, 1943, he grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 2 Drummer for James Brown, 1965 to 1970īorn to Frank D.