The Message is the Music series at Three Keys features DJ Soul Sister, iconic New Orleans funkstress and music savant, hosting intimate conversations with her favorite artists and behind-the-scenes masterminds. She'll unearth the soulful stories behind music-making and the collaborative process; the personal triumphs, losses and rites of passage that accompany a life's work.

The December 9th edition will be a discussion on the golden age of Parliament-Funkadelic and its leader George Clinton, with a focus on the debut P-Funk Mothership landing, which happened in New Orleans in 1976. Music industry veteran Tom Vickers, who served as P-Funk's publicist and "Minister of Information" from 1976-1980, will be this month's special guest. The Los Angeles-based Vickers, whose previous positions include West Coast Director of Publicity for A&M Records, Director of A&R for Capitol Records, and Senior Director of A&R for Mercury Records, will share first-hand accounts of the wildness and wonder that began at the P-Funk Earth Tour's first stop in New Orleans, when Clinton introduced the "Mothership," an elaborate, innovative, and expensive spaceship stage prop from which his Dr. Funkenstein character would descend. A version of the Mothership spaceship is now included in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Vickers was also recently featured in the "George Clinton" episode of Mike Judge presents Tales from the Tour Bus on Cinemax.