1. James Joseph Brown the II was born May 3, 1933, though that
wasn’t his original name. He was supposed to be named Joseph but it was
accidentally reversed when written on his birth certificate.
2. He grew up dirt poor in a one-room shack in rural South
Carolina. His father was a big drinker and abused young James and his mom. So
at 6 years old, he was sent to live with his aunt Honey Washington.
3. Honey ran a brothel and sold illegal moonshine and Brown
sang and danced to bring clients into his aunt’s place.
4. Brown was a natural athlete and wanted to be a pro baseball
player or a boxer when he was a boy.
5. He first started organized singing in prison, where he was
severing a stint for stealing a suit out of a car. In prison he was nicknamed ‘Music Box’ and
was first into gospel music.
6. James Brown’s first band was called the Famous Flames, and
contained some members of Little Richard’s band, who helped discover Brown.
7. His first big hit was “Try Me” in 1959, which went to #1 on
the R&B charts.
8. One of his most famous shows was playing the Apollo Theater
in New York in 1964, which was turned into a full release live performance
album that is still legendary to this day.
9. Brown was a serial womanizer and philanderer, and was
married 4 times and bore many children.
10. Despite his musical genius, perhaps unsurpassed in American
music history, James Brown didn’t know how to read sheet music.
11. He was a lifelong Republican and helped campaign for Richard
Nixon.
12. For some unknown reason, Brown had his eyebrows tattooed in
1991.
13. James Brown was once pronounced dead, though he felt
perfectly fine that day. In 1992, a Los Angeles new anchor accidentally
reported that he had died.
14. The movie Get On Up was truly a labor of love. Producer
Brian Grazer owned the rights for 12 years but couldn’t get the green light to
make the film. He lost the rights in a legal complexity when Brown passed, and
they ended up wit Mick Jagger, who was a lifelong fan and once played with
Brown when the Rolling Stones were just starting.
15. So Grazer and Jagger collaborated to make not just a
documentary, as was originally planned, but a feature film.
16. Chadwick Boseman, who also played Jackie Robinson in 42, was
pegged to play the lead role of Brown and did a brilliant job, so much in
character that he actually had a hard time dropping Brown’s demeanor, speech,
and mannerisms once the acting was done.
17. Boseman was also born in South Carolina.
18. He was did sing and dance during his acting performance, but
the majority of his vocals were replaced by Brown’s actual songs. However he is
quite a singer, and did a James Brown number live on the David Letterman show.
19. Jill Scott played Aunt Honey in the movie and the wonderful
actress Octavia Spencer played James’ mom.
20. Dan Akroyd played Brown’s business mentor, Ben “Pop” Bart in
the movie. Akroyd was a huge James Brown fan but more than that, knew him well
and had worked with him on the set of Blues Brothers.
21. James Brown died on Christmas Day in 2006 and was buried in
a 24-karat coffin.
22. Brown remains the most sampled singer ever, mostly in the
hop hop genre.
23. Kanye West and Jay Z actually sample three James Brown songs
in their song, Gotta Have It.
24. The movie Get On Up has been a commercial disappointment,
with only $31 million at the box office, but it’s received glowing reviews from
critics and unanimous musical accolades.
25. “The Godfather of Soul”, as Brown is called, had 16 number
one singles on the Billboard R&B charts, is an inductee into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame, and is one of the most celebrated artists of all time.
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