He was born in Elkhorn, West Virginia.
The Parliaments found success in 1967 with "I Wanna Testify". Legal problems soon dogged the group, however, and they were forced to abandon the name, and their home of Plainfield, New Jersey. Moving to Detroit, Michigan, the former Parliaments and their backing band, Funkadelic, started releasing albums as "Funkadelic." As the seventies wore on, their style became less doo wop and R&B and more funk and soul. By the time they regained the rights to "The Parliaments" and began recording as both Funkadelic and Parliament (collectively: P Funk), the style had become metallic, spacey funk, influenced as much by psychedelic bands like The Beatles or the Grateful Dead and early heavy metal like Led Zeppelin, as by James Brown or other early funk and soul singers. Haskins left the P Funk over financial disputes, and released a solo album in 1976 (A Whole Nother Thang) and then disappeared until 2001's A Whole Nother Radio Active Thang.