What musician passes up the chance to move to England, at the personal invitation of Bobby Whitlock, to play in Derek and the Dominos?

Who turns down an opportunity to play with Rick Derringer in White Trash – three times – when Edgar Winter pleads with him to join his band?

Who has the nerve to play – at former Mississauga resident George Clinton’s personal request – in Parliament/Funkadelic when that band already included Bootsy Collins, one of the best players on your instrument in the world?

Who tells Mike Bloomfield he’d be glad to back him at The Colonial, but it’ll have to wait till after he and drummer Whitey Glan have finished watching the Maple Leafs playoff broadcast?

Who cringes every time he hears the bass line on Van Morrison’s Moondance, because he could have been the guy playing bass and not a guitarist — it could have been so much better.

If this is your blooper reel – you know you’ve had a truly remarkable career.

Prakash John was not only a key component in the development of the seminal Toronto sound, along with his Bush bandmates, Whitey Glan and Dominic Troiano, but he and Glan exported their funkified GTA brand of R&B to studios and turntables around the world. Prakash has been keeping that sound alive for the past four decades by way of leading Canada’s longest-standing, unchallenged #1 R&B band — The Lincolns.

When musicians who’ve been in and out of that band over the years refer to attending “Lincoln University”, they’re paying tribute to Prakash and that fundamental, pulsating, groove-centric sound.

Prakash provided foundational work on the landmark recordings, ‘Chocolate City’ and ‘America Eats Its Young’ by the Parliament Funkadelic; ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ by Alice Cooper (both artists recorded in Toronto) followed closely by the now legendary live recording of ‘Rock n Roll Animal’ in New York City – the latter with the trademark “Toronto Sound” provided by the Glan & Prakash tandem, resulting in the magnificent ‘Intro to Sweet Jane’.

That’s a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame resumé in a single sentence.

It all began one magical day when the tone wheel on an abandoned radio rescued from the curb mercifully slipped off CHUM 1050 and landed on 1080 – Buffalo’s famous WUFO where soul music poured out. Ray Charles was singing ‘Drown in My Own Tears’ and a whole new world of music opened for Prakash. He has never looked back.

The lure to live music performances began while witnessing one of Canada’s most dynamic bands of the late ‘60s… ‘The 5 Rogues’ (later better known as ‘Mandala’) with Dominic Troiano on guitar and Whitey Glan on drums. They were performing at Club 888, wailing on a heart-wrenching number by Wilson Pickett (‘Ninety Nine & A Half Just Won’t Do’…gotta’ have a hundred), an underground r&b classic whose message still remains the driving force for Prakash’s intense performances to this day.

The ferocity of the Mandala’s R&B based music with spectacular delivery hooked Prakash. Formerly steeped in the majestic music of the church as a boy soprano, the high school violinist from Bombay resolved right then to abandon the violin and convert to the bass guitar. (All this of course behind his parents’ back.) Not having a record player at home, Prakash would call up his good friend and radio music authority, DJ John Donabie, at 1430 CKFH right after the hockey broadcasts to request tunes to play alongside whenever they aired on each night’s show.

Two years after hearing the Mandala and continuing to teach himself the bass, Prakash found himself in LA playing in Bush.

How Canadian is it that the “Toronto Sound” was kick-started by three kids — one born in India, one born in Italy, and one born in Finland? That’s a bountiful return on Canada’s immigration policy.

The training in LA with Bush prepared Whitey Glan and Prakash for the decade-long partnership in the rhythm sections of Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, recording ‘Lou Reed Live’, ‘Sally Can’t Dance’, and ‘Rock N Roll Animal’. With Cooper, they recorded ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ in Toronto as part of a 5-and-a-half-year stint that included three platinum albums and two world tours.

In 1979, Prakash decided to come home. Since then he’s balanced touring and recording with The Lincolns, launching the burgeoning career of his son Jordan, (who attended Cawthra Park Secondary School for the Performing Arts) and dabbling in numerous national and international projects mainly in Europe and the USA.

That could mean doing a scene in a Blues Brothers movie with James Brown and Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave), playing with Dr. John & The Night Trippers at the 4,200-acre Blackberry Farm in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, flying to Oakland at Prince’s request to oversee his concert series or just sitting around in a circle at the Trailer Park Boys’ Halifax Sound Studios showcasing Canada’s R&B stars for a Netflix music series…and not least of all, landing the most coveted gig in the history of coveted Canadian gigs – the gala reception at the 1988 wedding of Janet Jones and Wayne Gretzky in Edmonton.

Through it all, Prakash has been the down-to-earth loyal band member who did most of the driving because he hadn’t partied the night before… the price one pays for not indulging in ‘stimulants.’

On one US tour, the Alice Cooper band was set to play at the Hartford Arena, directly across from their hotel. While the others took limousines around the block so they could arrive in style at the venue, Prakash simply put his bass on his shoulder, looped his stage pass around his neck, and walked across the street directly and was at the backstage door 60 seconds later.

Music’s not about awards or ostentation for him. It’s about playing with virtuosos like the great Freddy Keeler, Paul Shaffer, Whitey Glan, Dick Wagner, Steve Hunter, Murray McLachlan, Gene MacLellan, Steve Cropper, Pinetop Perkins, and Junior Wells.

Respect doesn’t come from accolades. It comes when The Lincolns opened for James Brown at Lulu’s and Soul Brother Number 1 emerges from his dressing room to stand side-stage, drawn to the band’s riveting rendition of “‘Ninety Nine & A Half Just Won’t Do’.” Then Mr. Brown gives you a generous personal fist bump on the way off the stage… what higher tribute can there be?

It’s “playing in the damn band” that Prakash says is most important to him. And all the brilliant bands in which Prakash John has played were all the more amazing for his presence.