George Porter Jr once considered becoming a Catholic priest. Thankfully for funk fans, he changed his mind and became bassist and singer of The Meters.

It is a source of enduring shame that I failed to appreciate anything about the Meters on the one occasion I saw them; but that’s because I was so excited to see The Rolling Stones, who had hired them as their support act at Earls Court in 1975.

It would be many years before I really heard them, and that was largely due to my discovery of former members The Neville Brothers. But they are irrefutably one of the progenitors of funk. And Cissy Strut is one of the greatest funk songs to be recorded.

Porter formed the group with Neville in the mid-Sixties, after abandoning his call to join the priesthood, and they disbanded in 1977 but reunited in 1989.

As well as The Meters and his own group The Runnin’ Pardners, and various other projects – The Trio, New Orleans Social club, Deep Fried, Porter Batiste Stoltz – he has performed and recorded with… pretty much everyone.

Here’s a random selection: Dr John, Paul McCartneuy, Robbie Robertson, Willy DeVille, Robert Palmer, Patti LaBelle, David Byrne, Harry Connick Jr, Tori Amos.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Porter’s parents were both avid lovers of music. His father frequently listened to Duke Ellington and his mother sang in the local church choir.

He grew up next to future Meters bandmate Joe ‘Zigaboo’ Modeliste and the two became friends when he was ten, jamming together as teenagers.

Porter was inspired to play bass guitar by another New Orleans native, Benjamin “Poppi” Francis who also gave Porter some lessons on the instrument.

When he was still in his teens, he sat in with Earl King and after one of the shows, Art Neville came up to him saying he was trying to start a band and asked if he would like to join.

Porter agreed, spawning the beginnings of The Meters, who became a septet including Cyril and Aaron Neville as vocalists and Gary Brown on saxophone.

After a short time, however, the band was trimmed down to four core members – Art Neville, Zigaboo Modeliste, Leo Nocongelli and Porter Jr.

The four were playing six nights a week at a Bourbon Street bar called Ivanhoe when they were approached by Allen Toussaint and asked if they wanted to sign a record deal.

By the early seventies, Porter was touring coast to coast with the Meters. At the same time, the members were performing as session musicians on numerous hit records, including “Right Place, Wrong Time,” “Lady Marmalade,” “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley,” and “Southern Nights.”

In 1975, they were touring as the opening act to the Stones; Porter has said that the best moment in his musical career is when he and the other Meters were opening for the Stones in Paris in 1976.

The crowd started to boo them… Until Keith Richards and Mick Jagger came out and told the crowd to shut up and listen to the music. He said that moment kept the Meters alive for the time being.

By 1977, however, the band broke up due to personal differences. After the breakup, Porter Jr. formed a band called Joyride.

The Meters reunited briefly in the late Eighties and in the Nineties, Porter became a highly coveted bass player in the studio playing with artists like David Byrne and Tori Amos.