One : The Life and Music of James Brown (9781101561102) (61 page)

“We’ll do more bonding now, and I’m gonna just eat his face.” “James Brown Talks about What’s Ahead Now That He Has Been Paroled,”
Jet
, March 18, 1991.

The pay-per-view return: Chris Smith, “A Conversation With the Godfather,”
New York
, June 3, 1991; Jon Pareles, “James Brown Returns, on Pay-per-View Cable,”
The New York Times
, June 12, 1991; Jeff Niesel, “Soul Brother No. 2,”
Cleveland Scene
, September 15, 2010; Sharpton interview.

Problems with Adrienne: “James Brown Faces new Assault Charges; Says, ‘I Never Touched’ Wife,”
Jet
, Dec. 26, 1994; “James Brown’s Wife Says He Didn’t Hit Her,”
Jet
, Dec. 4, 1995.

Adrienne Brown’s death: Rhodes,
Say It Loud!
; “Adrienne Brown Mourned After Mysterious Death Following Liposuction,”
Jet
, Jan. 29, 1996; “James Brown’s Wife Died After Taking PCP and Prescription Drugs, Autopsy Report Says,”
Jet
, Feb. 26, 1996.

The 1998 gun incident: Hoskyns,
Ragged Glories
.

Committed to a mental facility: “Family Members Hospitalize James Brown,”
Augusta Chronicle
, Jan. 16, 1998; “Soul Singer James Brown Hospitalized,”
Chronicle
, Jan. 17, 1998; “James Brown Released From Hospital,”
Chronicle
, Jan. 22, 1998.

Further troubles: “Police Arrest James Brown,”
Augusta Chronicle
, Jan. 28, 1998; “James Brown Sentenced to Drug Treatment or Jail,”
Chronicle
, March 14, 1998; “Singer Attacked Woman, Suit Says,”
Chronicle
, March 20, 1998; “James Brown Ordered to Undergo Drug Rehab After Firing Rifle at His Home,”
Jet
, April 6, 1998; “Ex-backup Singer Sues Brown,”
Chronicle
, Aug. 8, 2000.

“Well, you reach out for help if you need it. If I needed it, I’d probably reach out for it.” Hoskyns,
Ragged Glories
.

“It’s going to be an uproar all the time.” Letter to President Clinton, March 26, 1998, “Preserving the Legacy,” South Carolina State University.

Pullman Bonds: Craig Rosen, “Bonds…James Brown Bonds,”
Yahoo Music
, May 4, 1999; “Singer Intends to Issue Bonds,”
Augusta Chronicle
, May 5, 1999; Ann Brown, “Royalties ‘R’ Us,”
Black Enterprise
, June 1999; “Brown Bags $30 Million Bond,”
Chronicle
, June 17, 1999; Stephen Gandel, “False Notes:
Banker to Music Legends More Myth Than Reality,”
Crain’s New York Business
, June 11, 2001; Jeff Allen interview.

Deanna and Yamma sue their father: “Singer’s Daughters Sue Over Royalties,”
Augusta Chronicle
, September 18, 2002; Emma Austin interview.

Brown’s 2003 pardon: “Godfather of Soul is Granted Pardon,”
Augusta Chronicle
, May 20, 2003.

“I’m getting very tired, and I’d love to quit yesterday.” “James Brown Keeps Up the Pace,”
Augusta Chronicle
, May 22, 2003.

Chapter Twenty-four:
THE DANCER

James Brown and dance: James Brown thought about dancing all the time; interviewers just didn’t ask him about it much. In October, 1991, the PBS series
Great Performances
aired “Everybody Dance Now,” a program on street dance styles, and featured an interview in which Brown says many deep things about his art. Perhaps the whole interview will some day be shared. Brenda Dixon, in “James Brown: Godfather of Dance,”
Dance Magazine,
August 2000, asks a number of dancers for their thoughts on Brown. This is barely a start.

“I realized dancing was gonna be a way of life for me.” “Everybody Dance Now.”

Future Shock: Russell Simins, “Future Shock Cannot Be Stopped,”
Grand Royal
no. 3. A sacramental 30-minute suture of some of what has survived:
blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/02/post-2.html
.

“Dynamic suggestion.” Zora Neale Hurston, “Characteristics of Negro Expression,” in
Signifyin(g), Sanctifyin’, and Slam Dunking: A Reader in African American Expressive Culture
, Gena Dagel Caponi, ed. (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999).

“Rhythm is everything in boxing.” Sugar Ray Robinson and Dave Anderson,
Sugar Ray
(Da Capo Press 1994).

Chapter Twenty-five:
HIT IT AND QUIT IT

Tomi Rae and their marriage: “James Brown Weds Sweetheart,”
Jet
, Jan. 21, 2002; Rhodes,
Say it Loud!
; “Brown’s Wife Gets Clean Slate,”
The State
, April 18, 2004; Tomi Rae Brown interview.

Life at Beech Island: Tomi Rae Brown, Roosevelt Johnson, Gloria Daniel interviews.

“Everything in this world disappears and vacates.” Curt Sampson,
Chasing Tiger
(Atria Books, 2002).

The duet with Pavarotti: Amy Christian, Keith Jenkins, Farris interviews; Lou Reed quote from
Daily Telegraph
, London, May 26, 2007.

A museum installation: Michael Marriott, “Project Virtual Funk: The Digitizing of James Brown,”
The New York Times
, April 13, 2000; “Artist’s Journey catapults riders into psychedelic world,”
Seattle Times
, June 20, 2000.

“I’m gonna stop when George Burns comes back and be born again.” Hoskyns,
Ragged Glories
.

Michael Jackson and James Brown: J. Randy Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009
(Hachette, 2009); “Michael Jackson praises James Brown as inspiration,”
Reuters
, Dec. 30, 2006; Wesley interview,
New Funk Times
, 1991.

Full page ad in
Variety
: July 21, 2003. The divorce announcement is illustrated with a photo of Brown, Tomi Rae, and James Brown Jr., posing at Disneyland with Goofy.

Events leading up to the mugshot: “James Brown Busted in Spousal Spat,”
US
, Jan. 29, 2004; “James Brown Released From Jail on Domestic Violence Charge,”
Jet
, Feb. 16, 2004; “Singer James Brown Files for Annulment,”
Jet
, Feb. 23, 2004; “Holding It Down,”
Vibe
, May 2004.

The growth on his prostate and the Edinburgh press conference: Rhodes,
Say it Loud!

Brown and Augusta: “Editorial: Black and Proud,”
Augusta News-Review
, Oct. 21, 1971; “Editorial: James Brown Loves Augusta,”
News-Review
, November 15, 1973; Frank Christian, Bob Young interviews.

The statue: Jonathan Lethem, “Being James Brown,”
Rolling Stone
, June 29, 2006; Young, Sharpton interviews.

Brown designates trustees to run his career: Irrevocable Trust Agreement of James Brown, August 1, 2000; Bill Torpy, “James Brown’s Road to Wealth Was Rocky,”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
, Jan. 7, 2007; “Further Disputes Are on the Way,”
Augusta Chronicle
, May 7, 2007.

The grueling final tour: itinerary posted on James Brown fan website,
www.greatest-jamesbrown-videotradinglist.com/JB_09/
; Jenkins, Amy Christian, Farris, Buddy Dallas, Leon Austin, Johnson interviews.

Final days: Sean Flynn, “Papa,”
GQ
, April 2009; Austin, Emily Carder, Brown-Thomas interviews.

The drive: Sharpton, Charles Reid, Brown Thomas, Rhodes interviews.

The final Apollo bill: “A Loud, Proud Sendoff for an Icon of Soul,”
The New York Times
, Dec. 29, 2006; “James Brown Laid Out in 24-Karat Gold Coffin,”
People
, Dec. 29, 2006; Sharpton, Reid interviews.

The small service in Augusta: “Private Service Held for James Brown,”
USA Today
, Dec. 30, 2006; Daviss interview.

Augusta’s public sendoff: “Hardest Work is Done,”
Augusta Chronicle
, Dec. 31, 2006; Farris, Leeds, Gordon interviews.

Afterword

Brown and Elvis: Woody Marshall, “Perry Man Remembers Visit to Graceland After Death of Elvis Presley,” from
The James Brown Reader
; Don Rhodes, “The Godfather and the King,”
Augusta Chronicle
, Dec. 23, 2007; Patton interview.

“I went to the funeral, you know, and I touched his body.”
Columbia Record
, Sept. 10, 1977.

“Now I’m catching
his
flack and mine.” Brown interview, Tucker files.

“I know what madness is. It’s not knowing how another man feels.” Maria Irene Fornes,
Promenade
, 1965.

“Mr. Brown was an exceptionally slick, conniving, brilliant man.”“Papa,”
GQ
, April 2009.

H. De Wain Herring: “Last will of James Brown,” Aug. 1, 2000; “Herring Guilty, Murderer Gets 30 Years in Prison,”
The State
, May 22, 2007.

Brown’s probate attorney, Strom Thurmond Jr.: “Will is On File,”
Augusta Chronicle
, Jan. 19, 2007.

“We’re still managing him. There’s lots to do.” Torpy,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
, Jan. 7, 2007.

The trust examined in court: I attended about ten court dates in South Carolina in 2008 and 2009, and my reporting there has shaped this section. Also: “A Legacy in Limbo,”
Augusta Chronicle
, Dec. 23, 2007; “Trustee accused of misconduct,”
Chronicle
, Aug. 2, 2007; “Brown Trustee Pays Up, Quits,”
Chronicle
, Aug. 11, 2007; “Brown Team Quits, Judge Hints at Jail for Former Adviser,”
Chronicle
, Nov. 21, 2007.

The messy bookkeeping Brown left behind: “Brown Estate Shows Disorder,”
Augusta Chronicle
, June 14, 2007; “Brown’s Wealth Targeted by Claims,”
Chronicle
, Sept. 1, 2007; “Brown Trustee is Mum on Pay,”
Chronicle
, Nov. 16, 2007; “Brown Auction Will Pay Legal Bills, Estate Taxes,”
Chronicle
, Feb. 28, 2008; “Tortured Soul,”
Portfolio
, Aug. 2008.

“Christ asked for justice and he got death. I want mercy, and I want to live like Moses, happily ever after.” Tucker files.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It’s only just to break a sweat while on the trail of the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. During three years of researching and writing this book, I crawled around a South Carolina cemetery as it sank into the swamps, reading tombstones in the dark with my hands. I got run off the road by an 18-wheeler near Macon, caught pneumonia twice, and lost my job. In Newport, Kentucky, I heard a couple of soulful King Records veterans sing karoake. In Augusta, Danny Ray showed me the world’s most beautiful black velvet painting, depicting James Brown and his loyal friend. And a local fixed me a serving of wienie stew. In Kinston, North Carolina, I received a faith healing in the parking lot of an Outback Steakhouse. Needed it, too. Beautiful people like Martha High, J. C. Davis, Ralph Stanley, and dozens more took me into their homes and buses and shared with me the history that they had lived. Don Rhodes and I were the last journalists to interview Leon Austin, Brown’s boyhood friend, before he died. Bob Patton, a hipster Santa who believed in this project, died while I was making plans to come to Atlanta and talk to him again. I thank everybody who showed me kindness along the way.

I am grateful to Rhodes for his tour of Augusta, the map of James Brown’s 1989 car chase, and for his own very fine book. Fred J.
Hay from the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, was kind enough to not just discuss his terrific essay on James Brown’s Toccoa, but share with me the interviews he did for that study, including a number of conversations with long-deceased members of the original Flames. The first autobiography Brown wrote, 1986’s
James Brown: The Godfather of Soul
, is crucial to understanding the man; Brown’s co-writer on that project was Bruce Tucker, who came to know Brown better than most. I learned much from my conversations with Tucker, and my understanding was immeasurably aided by access to his files, notes, and interviews, which Tucker gave me.

Alan Leeds is a human archive on Brown, King Records, and more; I am lucky he shared with me a fraction of what he knows, and lucky to have his rigorous liner notes to Hip-O Select’s towering series of James Brown’s singles. At the I. P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Ellen Zisholtz curated a sweeping exhibition dedicated to Brown’s life. Conversations with drummers were crucial to
The One
, and I am fortunate to have had Charles Connor, Clyde Stubblefield, Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson, Stanton Moore, and Tony Wilson to talk to. Anything I have gotten wrong in the book is despite their best efforts to make me see the light.

So many folks shared their ideas, research, and music, and helped make this book what it is. All the flaws are mine, all praise be to them: Jim Payne, Ned Sublette, Carrie Allen, James C. Cobb, Darren Blase, Oliver Wang, Steve Oney, Dr. Ike Padnos. A great big bucket of lowdown popcorn to Bob Pfeifer, Douglas Wolk, Phil Jones, Howard Burchette, Peter Afterman and Inaudible Productions, Eric Mercado, The Hound, Kembrew Mcleod, Lee Hay, and, damnit, David Mills. Alan Leeds, Fred Daviss, and Harry Weinger all took the time off from their own projects to help me with mine. Look for their books and labors ahead, because they will be huge.

A chunk of
The One
was researched at the Richard J. Riordan Central Library in downtown Los Angeles, and most of the rest of it
would have been impossible without the public libraries in almost every town I visited. At a time when a political assault is being waged against the public institutions we all share, we need to give the librarians some. Thanks to: Ellen Zisholtz and the entire staff of the I. P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium, South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina; Christine Miller-Betts and Corey Rogers, Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History, Augusta, Georgia; Brian F. X. Powers and everyone at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Cincinnati Ohio; Portia K. Maultsby and Brenda Nelson-Strauss at the Archives of African American Music and Culture, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana; John Rumble at the Frist Library and Archive, Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville, Tennessee; Christopher Harter at the Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.