Edward Earl Hazel (April 10, 1950 – December 23, 1992) was an American guitarist and singer in early funk music who played lead guitar with Parliament-Funkadelic.

[1][2] Hazel was a posthumous inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.

At age 12, Hazel met Billy "Bass" Nelson, and the pair quickly became close friends and began performing, soon adding drummer Harvey McGee to the mix.

[1] In 1967, the Parliaments, a Plainfield-based doo wop band headed by George Clinton, had a hit record with "(I Wanna) Testify."

Clinton recruited a backing band for a tour, hiring Nelson as bassist, who in turn recommended Hazel as guitarist.

[6] The switch to Funkadelic was complete with the addition of Tawl Ross and Bernie Worrell (rhythm guitar and keyboards, respectively).

[7] In the next several years, Hazel appeared occasionally on Parliament-Funkadelic albums, although his guitar work was rarely featured.

In 1977, Hazel recorded a "solo" album, Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs, with support from other members of Parliament-Funkadelic, including vocals from the Brides of Funkenstein.

Several albums produced by Bill Laswell, including Funkcronomicon (released under the name Axiom Funk, 1995) have featured Hazel's guitar.

Bootsy Collins has also incorporated recordings of Hazel in some of his recent releases, for example, "Good Night Eddie" on Blasters of the Universe.

[17] John Frusciante recorded a tribute to Hazel's "Maggot Brain" on his 2009 album The Empyrean in the nine-minute-long "Before the Beginning".