Talking to James Brown in Jail, 1989

In Prison in South Carolina, He Was Soul Brother No. 155413

It had to be the strangest call from a publicist ever. Would I like to do a phone interview with James Brown, then serving a six year sentence at the State Park Correctional Institute in South Carolina?

On Sept. 24, 1988, James Brown had a very bad day. Native to both Augusta, Ga., and the nearby black community across the river in South Carolina, Mr. Brown, as he preferred to be addressed, was accused of waving some guns around an insurance seminar in Augusta in an office building he owned, or once owned, then led a chase over into South Carolina, where state police officers shot out his tires. Already on probation for carrying a pistol and possession of PCP earlier that year, Brown entered prison on Dec. 15, 1998. (He was released after serving three years.)

But they didn't call him the Hardest Working Man in Show Business for nothing. A cable TV show was in the works, and Mr. Brown was allowed to promote it in a few interviews from jail.

Mr. Brown had to be patched from the prison (where the call was no doubt being monitored), through his manager and the cable publicist. So the connection was faint. When I wrote the story, feature style, for Newsday, I didn't think I had much. It turns out the Q&A format works a lot better. He spoke in quick bursts of thought. Not an ounce of conversational fat. And he's got his own distinctive syntax, his own night train of thought. And my tendency to want to make a full context narrative about James Brown, would have to include so much material, so much history and context, it could not be easily explained to the Sunday newspaper reader. And I would still barely scratch the surface of the multitudes and contradictions contained by Mr. James Brown. (I am reading the author and novelist James McBride's fascinating 2016 book, Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul, which is helping me reframe everything I thought I knew.)

Also, in retrospect, it appears I had not had time to see a screener of the show, which I believe was for Cinemax. Using Uncle Google, I had been unable to find a correct answer for my search for "James Brown" and HBO; and Rome (Italy), which Mr. Brown kept talking about. He mentioned numerous other artists, but it wasn't until I tried "James Brown" and "Bo Diddley" and "Rome" that I came up with the "Legends of Rock & Roll" concert in Rome in released in 1989, which features two songs each by Mr. Brown, Bo Diddley, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, and B.B. King. Jerry Lee gets three, but his are fast and short; Little Richard gets one, "Great Gosh A' Mighty," because Little Richard was in his gospel phase. The DVD of the concert appeared in the early 2000s. Brown opens the show, with "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)."

WR: HELLO MR. BROWN. HOW ARE YOU FEELING?

JB:  I feel good myself. Good things. I'm always positive.

WR: Do you get to play any music there?

JB: I sing with the gospel choir here, we're doing fantastic here, performing every Sunday, singing God's praises. I'm a church-going man, most of the people on that show came out of the  church. We're just god's children. When people live with a clear heart, there's no harm in that whatever.

WR: Are you being treated well?

JB: I'm fine. There's nothing wrong here. I believe now that people realize there were some mistakes down there [in Georgia and South Carolina] by the powers that be, I'm sure it's going to be straightened out soon.

WR: (Question about the circumstances of his arrest. He had said at his trial that he was calm with the black South Carolina police officers who had stopped him, but a white officer was less patient; Mr. Brown became fearful, drove off, and the white officer shot out his car's tires.)

JB: I want to be a positive role model for the children. [In McBride's book, that is a recurring theme; he was obsessed with being kind and generous to children, after his own brutal and chaotic childhood]. The country knows I'm not a violent man. Whatever happened was in a quick moment of passion, nothing premeditated about it, nothing planned. I have no argument against the system. I'm a color-blind man, that's the way I feel.

WR: YOU WERE ARRESTED FOR POSSESSING CRACK, AND ANGEL DUST...

JB: I'm gonna try and keep this positive. I'm not going to worry about what people say; let people say what they want to say.

WR: HOW ARE YOU AND ADREIENNE [his wife] GETTING ALONG.

JB: I thought this was going to be about the TV special. I love my wife, and she loves me.

WR: WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE RECORD YOU MADE WITH FULL FORCE IN 1988 "I'M REAL"?

JB: They said things [good things?] about James Brown that I wouldn't have said, all the things I created with god's guidance. I have a new record coming out, a duet with Aretha Franklin called "Gimme Your Love" that both Arista and CBS will release. That was a great brother and sister team there.

WR: I UNDERSTAND LITTLE RICHARD WILL BE ON THE SHOW SINGING GOSPEL.

JB: I don't think it's right for me to ask him not to sing gospel, if that's what he wants. We were singing "Please Please Please" seven years before I recorded it, "Try Me," two and a half years before, with the Famous Flames. [Both had the same manager, Clint Brantley].

WR: YOU TWO WERE THE BIGGEST STARS OF RHYTHM AND BLUES.

JB: [correcting my terminology]. I'm a soul singer, which is gospel and jazz put together. B.B. King, he's an R&B man. Bo Diddley is hard rock, and naturally, Little Richard is a rock 'n' roll man.

WR:HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING ONE OF THE ORIGINAL INDUCTEES OF THE ROCK 'N' ROLL HALL OF FAME?

JB: I thought it was quite an honor. I started soul music, so I didn't think I fit in rock 'n' roll.

WR: WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY YOU IN A FILM? [AFTER MR. BROWN'S DEATH IN 2009, CHADWICK BOSEMAN PLAYED JAMES BROWN IN THE 2014 MOVIE BIO 'GET ON UP.']

JB: I'd like Eddie Murphy to play James Brown. [Murphy played Brown three times in 1982-1983 on Saturday Night Live, including the memorable "Hot Tub" sketch.] I saw him and I thought he was fantastic.

JB: They said things through jokes that I couldn't say. I say thank god in America we can talk about these things, work things out. A lot of places you can't do that. We're a family. I'm a world ambassador, I wanna go and make people happy. That's what makes me happy.

I could go to Europe, South America, and Asia. I'm glad to see them [other artists on the Cinemax special] get that shot.

WR: A FEW OF THEM, LIKE B.B. KING, HAVE ALSO TRAVELED THE WORLD.

JB: B.B King did a lot of traveling, because the blues gets through. But it's good to see Bo Diddley get that shot again. I'm a person that wants to see other people get a chance. When you're alone, like Elvis and myself, it's hard to let people get back in. I got some more friends, like Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, that I'd like to see get a chance to get back in.

WR: HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE "FREE JAMES BROWN" MOVEMENT?

JB: It brings a consciousness to people, that everyone loves James Brown. It makes a lot of sense. It makes me feel good. Dr. King said, '“It's not the color of your skin, but the content of your character.”

Years ago I did a song called "Don't Be a Dropout": I'd like to do something like that again, get kids back in school, off of hard drugs. Look, I'm a man that just loves humanity, and I didn't put the dollar before my love. I try to work on pride, and not power.

I know that people exaggerate things to sell newspapers. Thank god we have a country where people can express those things. [With the support of] Eddie Murphy, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, the people out there, I've got thousands of pieces of mail. I get good write-ups in the papers down here. People at first see you as a big star. Then they got down and dug in. I made it in a bad environment, made it out of the ghetto and became a productive citizen. I want to return that favor by being a role model.