-People like to see...winners.
They like to see
people that are doing something, you know?
Uh...
Only time I want to appear dead is when I'm buried.
Wait a minute! -Wait a minute.
-Everybody feel good? -Yeah!
-You feel real good? -Yeeeeah!
-Over 50 years in the business,
singing and dancing hard.
-Are you ready to party?
-Yeah. -I knew about James
having a lot of health issues.
He was losing weight.
-I really became his advocate when it came to health.
-♪ Yeah!
♪ Say
-When Brown loves you,
he'll hand you his business to handle.
-♪ Yeah! Say!
-There was one moment when
James Brown almost got super vulnerable.
-♪ Yeah!
-James Brown wanted separate payment
for sampling.
-He didn't get paid the money
that he was supposed to get paid.
-Thank you.
-We see people who we deem as genius
experiencing a lot of turmoil.
♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I get up every morning to show that the small man
can become as big as big can be.
[ Cheers and applause continue ]
-James Brown has been in prison for the last two years.
He was arrested and convicted of assaulting his neighbor
and resisting arrest in a car chase
with the local police.
Well, despite pleading not guilty,
James Brown was then sentenced to six years imprisonment.
♪
-People over in England now think that James Brown
is actually free.
-No, I'm not free.
The only thing free in me is my spirit.
But my body is not free.
I'm incarcerated.
-For two and a half years, he was there.
And we really thought this was the end of his career.
He's in his late 50s. He's gonna be 60 years old.
-The period between '87 and 1990,
it's probably the most humiliating
or hardest times of his life.
-Ahmir Thompson and I went to high school together,
and we grew up in the same neighborhood,
so every time James Brown would be on the news,
we would get together in school
or on the phone after school
and like, "Man, what's going on with James, man?
What's happening?"
But in retrospect, when he went to jail,
part of me also felt, like,
maybe if he goes away for a couple of years,
he can dry himself out.
-He's like, "This is my two-year unwanted vacation."
[ Laughs ]
And he was like, "I needed to rest.
I needed some things to..."
You needed to detox.
-Soul singer James Brown
went before the South Carolina Parole Board,
hoping to become a free man after serving
just over two years of a six-year sentence for assault.
-He'll be paroled today, provisionally.
So you're free to go today.
-The announcement brought tears of joy to Brown's wife
Adrienne, and smiles from his daughter.
Brown will be on parole until October of '93,
and must undergo a drug and alcohol treatment program.
-I would definitely say prison was transformative...twice.
Early [chuckles] and later on in life.
-I just trust God and I hope for the best.
I try to let my -- my first two years show that,
um, what kind of man I'm about.
♪ Ooooow!
♪
[ Whistles ]
♪ Yeah, I'm back
♪
♪ I'm back
-I was with him when he walked out
of that prison.
I'll never forget it.
-♪ Get up offa that thing
♪ And dance 'til you feel better ♪
♪ Get up offa that thing
♪ And dance 'till you sing it now ♪
-When he got out,
everybody wanted a piece of James Brown.
-♪ Get up offa that thing
-People will say about "Oh, how James Brown
career is ruined, look what he did to himself."
I said, "Don't kid yourself.
The truth is that if it's handled right,
he will have one of the greatest comebacks
of any entertainer there ever was."
♪
-I contacted Mr. Brown
some almost two years ago just to say
that we out here love him,
and we thought perhaps there may have been some injustice.
-He said, "You know, Butch Lewis the promoter came to see me.
He wants to put up money for the first show to come back.
He said, uh, "It's going to be pay-per-view."
I said, "Like a boxing match?" He said, "Yeah."
I remember sitting in his dressing room that night,
and he looked up at me, he said,
"I told you I'd be back, Reverend."
Dear God, we thank you for surviving these difficult times,
to bring us to this place and this point.
He said, "Are they sold out?"
I said, "They are sold out," he said,
"Big names out there," I said, "Huge names."
Thank you for the greatest entertainer in the world,
The Godfather, James Brown.
Amen. -Amen. [ Cheers and applause ]
-When I said Amen, he dropped our hands
and walked on stage and grabbed the mic.
James Brown was back.
[ "Living in America" plays ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I was very lucky when I walked out,
all I had to do to show that I could still do it.
And that was very important for myself
that the career was there.
-♪ Living in America
♪ Living in America
-James Brown!
-♪ Ah -James Brown!
James Brown!
James Brooown!
♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-All right, all right.
Got MC hammer out here and James Brown.
Boy, I tell you, if my back wasn't bad, I'd...
[ Laughter ]
-♪ Oh-oh oh-oh, here comes the hammer ♪
♪ Watch me! -James Brown,
he's my number one inspiration
because he's the hardest working person I've seen.
-In the '80s, for example, when you put your radio on
and you heard a hip-hop record with a James Brown sample in it,
and you knew there was no law
to allow you to get paid for that, how did you feel?
-It was a law, but they didn't exercise it.
You can't do over four bars or nothing.
So the law was there, but they didn't want to understand it
and didn't want to deal with it.
-He's the world's most sampled artist of all time.
-You can take a piece of his and add it to --
add it to yours, and then that's just created a whole new era
of how to do music and -- and it's assisted people
along the way with making their records cool, you know?
"Oh, that's cool. It's got the James in it."
-For a lot of the inner cities,
we just kept playing the music
that was the magic period between 1968 and 1975.
♪
-I started in 1976 as a B-girl.
[ Rapping ] Well, I'm Sha, party people, and I'm ready to rock,
and if it want to be done, you got to give me what you got.
-♪ Ain't it funky?
-If you put on a James Brown song,
you can let that song play all the way through
or you could wait for that breakbeat.
-♪ A-one, two, three, four
♪
-The DJs in hip-hop had the ability,
with two turntables and a mixer,
to go in and make that one little area
of a song go on and on.
That's what they say, "On and on till the break of dawn.
You keep on."
-When Herc and Bambaataa and Flash
and these guys are piecing these records together
and going back and forth,
we're recreating and reinventing the records
to serve a different artistic purpose.
James was at the center of all of that.
-1989! -The number.
Another summer. -Get down!
Sound of the Funky Drummer.
-♪ I'm gonna knock you out
♪ Mama said knock you out
-♪ Whose house?
-♪ Say what? -♪ Run's house
-♪ I ain't no joke I used to let the mic smoke ♪
♪ Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke ♪
-♪ It takes two to make a thing go right ♪
♪
♪ It takes two to make it outta sight ♪
♪
-I think James Brown really was the architect of hip-hop.
You think about Funky Drummer,
you think about "Think," Lyn Collins.
Hip-hop was built on those grooves.
-You know, it was crazy because it was hip-hop
for its time, that's how I look at it.
And then it became what made hip-hop
hip-hop, you know, for our time.
-I grew up in nightclub periods,
and I've never, ever, ever knew a night
where some element of James Brown wasn't in the air.
-Hip-hop, you know, we stand on James's shoulders.
James Brown, without a doubt,
is one of the cornerstones of hip-hop culture.
-♪ That's the way love goes
♪ Like a moth to a flame, burned by the fire ♪
-"Papa, Don't Take No Mess" was the foundation of
"That's the Way Love Goes,"
which is my favorite Janet song.
I remember, um, loving the groove to that and thinking,
"What if we could create an actual song
with chord changes and melodies
and all kinds of different stuff over that
"Papa Don't Take No Mess" groove.
Obviously one of her biggest records ever.
-If you have 15,000 people, you know,
just taking even snippets of his beat,
it's because they want to be solidified as that artist.
Because with a James Brown beat behind you,
there's no way that you could lose.
-Each year, our most prestigious award
is the American Music Award of Merit.
This year's recipient,
the Godfather of Soul, James Brown...
[ Cheers and applause ]
...is having as much effect on music of today
as he did on the music of 30 years ago.
♪
-♪ Get up -♪ Get on up
-♪ Stay on the scene -♪ Get on up
-♪ Like a sex machine -Dance,
expression, vocalization, and musicianship.
That's James Brown.
There's a meaning to what James Brown,
when he put a umph in it.
It's not just a "you heard it,"
It's like you felt it.
-His hard work and his determination
is what got him there.
But really, what truly got him there
is his heart.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you very much. Come on.
Would you take this back?
'Cause I got something I gotta do right here.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you very much.
First, I thank God.
Then I thank my lovely wife Adrienne
out there who stood with me when times were rough.
-You know I will give it to Adrienne.
She stood by him the whole time.
James was back being the James that I loved,
and then back being the James that I knew.
-When Brown loved somebody, he does.
You know, there's no half way with James Brown.
-Yeah.
-♪ Did you forget?
For close to 30 years,
he has been a musical legend,
living up to the image as the hardest working man
in show business, an innovator who is imitated
and not always paid for it.
-This guy had an intrinsic talent
for just taking things and putting them together.
He was a soup maker, and he was a master at it,
and nobody could cover his songs.
Otis Redding did "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag."
Nobody wants to hear that.
Gene Chandler did "There Was a Time"
It was a joke.
You couldn't cover his songs
because they were so personal
and so much a part of who he was.
-There's only one James Brown. He is instantly recognizable.
Impossible to copy, although many have tried.
He is somebody who changed the course of popular music,
and I think by doing that, he changed culture as well.
-There are seven acknowledged wonders of the world,
and you are about to witness the eighth live
in that little tiny TV set that you still haven't paid for.
Please welcome... [ Laughter ]
...the greatest soul singer in the world,
the hardest working man in show business,
the Godfather of Soul,
Mr. James Brown!
[ Audience cheers ]
♪
-He was certainly popping in the states,
but he was -- he was beyond that in -- in Europe.
He was worshipped.
And he spent a lot of time touring in Europe.
-♪ Try me
-♪ Ooh!
♪ Try me -♪ Try me
-♪ And your love
♪ Will always be true
♪ Oh
♪ I need you
-♪ I need yoooou
-Sandy Clark, Japan broadcasting.
Overall, how do you feel tonight?
-Now you want to -- Now, there's only one leading --
And if you are American or you just human being
and got any blood going through your veins --
Oh! I feel good!
[ Laughter, cheers ] What's next?
-You know, he just had so many accolades and awards and Grammys
and, you know, it was just, like,
he didn't get involved with the --
thinking about it that much, he just accepted it
and went on.
-For James Brown when he belted out a note,
you could hear the soul bleed from it,
like with the first iteration of James Brown,
it was very much reader in Sunday morning service.
That's what I like to call it.
So when you listen to, like,
"Please, Please, Please" or "Try Me,"
that's literally, you know,
the first selection from the choir.
And, you know, when he gets ready to sing those songs,
you can really hear the pain in his voice.
-James Brown put every morsel of everything he ever remembered
throughout his life into his music.
Whatever pain, whatever black pain,
whatever personal pain, it affected all of us.
And sometimes we were feeling that same pain.
[ "I Guess I'll Have To Cry, Cry, Cry" plays ]
♪
-Adrienne died on the plastic surgeon's table.
-When his wife Adrienne passed, that -- that got him.
That got to him.
-♪ Cryyyy
-♪ Cry, cry
♪ People let me cry
-What was the cause of the -- of the death of Adrienne?
-♪ I'd feel a little bit better ♪
Uh, I wanted to make her happy.
I didn't think she needed anything,
'cause I think she was beautiful enough
to not have anything, but just God
and -- and herself and -- and me.
-Well, he just kind of had this dazed look in his eyes,
you know, he wasn't crying, but he, you know,
you could tell he had been.
She was his rock, you know?
He was kind of, like, floundering around.
Kind of lost without her.
-♪ When I
♪
♪ I lost yoooou
♪
♪ I lost the best thing
♪ I eve-e-er haaaaad
-Here's a terrific lady, I met her a few times
with you in our studios in Washington.
She was always so full of life and energy.
She was some lady. I bet you miss her a lot.
-Well, I miss her more than I've ever --
in anything in my life.
My wife, um, she was...
She was sight, and I was sound.
-Has it been tough to perform?
-Well, when I perform, I sweat out the sorrow and the worry.
♪
-My father has performed in this building,
and he did a lot of rehearsals in this building.
His wife is Adrienne Brown.
Funeral was held in many, many years ago,
so it's -- i-it -- it's got spirit.
A lot of Brown spirits in it.
-You can go down the street here
and look at the graves of James's father
and his wife, Adrienne.
And the huge, elaborate gravestone
are identical to Elvis Presley's at Graceland.
James Brown and Elvis Presley, weathered being rivals,
were admirers of each other.
When Elvis Presley died,
James Brown was among the first to stand
by that casket in the living room of Graceland.
-I saw Elvis and I put my hand on him, I say --
as couple of friends, I say,
"You alright," with tears in my eyes,
I say, "You left me."
♪
-I think Elvis saw that James Brown
took a lot of country sounds
and turned it into his music.
Elvis Presley took black gospel sounds
and incorporated into his music.
Plus, they both were poor boys.
They had both come out of rural areas.
They were trying to live fairly average,
normal lives and deal with this worldwide fame.
-People don't really dwell so much on Elvis' drug situation
and his stuff was crazy. -That's right.
-Crazy.
With greatness, comes flaws.
You know, that balance is necessary for you to be great.
That's important for young people to know, too,
that, "Damn, with all that greatness, all that money,
I could lose it? I could mess up?"
Yes, you can.
-All the years are hard, living in tour life
and stress and being in the limelight,
that wears on a 50-something, 60-something-year-old man.
-So your back is okay?
-I play football.
Quarterback.
Pass to the best.
Uh! They can't play.
I can get you the ball right here...
They can't play either. -Be it the drugs,
the craziness, or the parasites
that have been sucking money from them
and all the different relationships, men and women,
it's just, like, all those things
and they just break down.
-It's no secret he had a drug problem
and that was a constant situation,
and it would affect his performances.
And we had some periods, especially overseas,
where it got very close to him being arrested.
We had to wheel and deal, as we say,
to keep him out of trouble.
-I was just trying to make sure my dad stayed healthy
because he was older and people really weren't --
I wouldn't say they weren't looking out for him,
but he's James Brown and they work for you.
-I'm sitting with James Brown and Al Sharpton,
I have him playing at the Paramount Theater
in New York City, it's probably 1997, 1998.
I'm backstage and we're talking.
I said, "If you have your publishing,
I heard about this Bowie Bond
where we could take your publishing, spin it off,
get you, you know, tens of millions,
and then we're gonna take your money from the bond
and you'll learn to invest it.
You'll put it with good money managers.
You'll grow that 40 million to 80 million,
and you could build a tremendous net worth."
-Unfortunately, he had an accountant
that was not so honest.
James Brown got a check for $22 million.
And without going into great details,
'cause it's public record, a lot of the money
that James Brown got from that publishing deal,
this accountant, uh, ended up with.
-I have a real reason to, to, uh, push education
because I've had four fortunes taken away from me
because of the fact that I had to trust a lot of people.
In some areas, I should have been able
to be more familiar. -Right.
-I get a phone call from Nicoletta Pavarotti,
that's Luciano's wife.
She says she has an idea -- he does a concert
in Modena, Italy, and like Brown to participate.
And he says, "I want to do 'It's a Man's World'
with James Brown.
He'll sing in English
and I'll sing in, you know, opera and Latin."
I said, um, "How do you know what words in Latin to sing
'It's a Man's World?' He says, "I make it up."
I said, "You make it up?"
He goes, "Yeah, who speaks Latin? [ Chuckles ]
[ Orchestral intro to "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" plays ]
♪
-♪ This is a man's world
♪
♪ This is a man's world
♪ And
♪
♪ But it wouldn't be nothing
♪ Nothing, nothiiing
♪ Without a woman or a girl
-It was an all Italian audience
and the crowd loved it.
-Yeah, that was phenomenal,
they had a 70 piece orchestra behind him.
I literally cried.
I'd never heard him do it like that.
I mean, it was awesome.
-♪ And man made the boat for the water ♪
♪ Like my Bible said Noah made the ark ♪
♪ Ahhh! O-o-o-oh ♪
♪ This is a man's world -♪ Nulla ha piú senso
♪ Sé
-♪ But it wouldn't be nothing -♪ Si vive
♪ Solo per sé
-♪ Without a woman or a girl
-♪ Solo per sé
-♪ Hey!
-♪ Solo
♪ Per sé-é-é-é-é
-♪ This is a man's world
♪ Hey!
♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Grazie, Grazie. James Brown.
Luciano Pavarotti. Grazie.
♪
-In 2003, they gave him the Kennedy Center Honors,
which is one of the biggest in the world.
And, uh, the President of the United States comes,
everybody comes.
During the intermission, James Brown said,
"President Bush," "Yeah, Mr. Brown," he said,
"You know Reverend Sharpton, I know y'all got
political differences, but shake hands.
I'm the godfather, I put everybody together."
He never -- He was never intimidated
or awed by anybody.
♪
-My family and I, we had dinner with James Brown
before the Kennedy Center Honors,
and I got to sit there and listen to the stories he told me
and experience his energy firsthand.
In the midst, and even at the peak
of the Civil Rights movement, he was, like,
one of the most important artists in America.
If James Brown is peaceful, things can be more peaceful.
If James Brown goes left,
things could potentially go left.
You know, when you see these interviews
where he was joking around or being silly,
you miss how serious this guy is
and how aware and self-aware he was.
In music law, there are three B's.
-There's Bach.
[ Crowd chuckles ]
Love Bach.
[ Laughter ]
-There's Beethoven.
Love Beethoven. [ Laughter ]
And then there's Brown.
James Brown!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Without that man up there,
there's no funk, no soul.
No hip-hop.
You blaze trails
and broke down mental and social barriers.
And made it possible for me,
a black kid from Queens,
to stand in front of presidents
and many other distinguished men and women, and say it loud.
I'm black and I'm proud.
[ Applause ]
I got to...do that for him.
[ "I Feel Good" plays ]
-No, he exercised, right, because he was on the stage.
He was in really good physical shape,
but because he ate high-fatty foods,
I remember him having diabetes and high blood pressure,
right, and he had to -- he didn't have to take insulin
or anything for his diabetes, but he had to take medication
and he didn't want to do it.
He understood it later on,
this is a direct product
of what you've been doing in your body all these years.
I mean, he wasn't a huge drinker.
Um, so that really wasn't -- it was more about the food
and just, you know, the late night lifestyle and all that
what he did, the lack of sleep,
but the prostate cancer, they caught it early
'cause he was having some symptoms.
-I don't want to be babied though.
I want to go to work.
-I love you, -I love you too.
-Okay. He was like, "I can't do chemo
'cause I don't want to lose all my hair."
I mean, this was a real thing.
Thank God it was in the early stages enough
that all he really needed was radiation.
It was tough to see him go through that,
but it was humbling. -Thank you.
God bless you.
-I remember one time I was in California,
my sister and I, Yamma, we went out to, uh,
check out Dad perform.
It was a Greek theater in Los Angeles.
So we got there and surprised, "What y'all doing here?"
"You just want to hang out with you, Dad, for the weekend."
"Well, hang out with me," like, "Yeah, [Chuckles]
we ain't got nothing else to do."
We went out there and it was so much fun.
Just us and Dad, just having a -- just -- just fun.
I mean, he was working, but it was fun.
-♪ Make it funky -James Brown.
-♪ Make it funky -There!
The world's Godfather of Soul. -♪ Make it funky
-Mr. Jaaaaaames Brown! -♪ Make it funky
-That night I says, "Dad, can I dance with you on stage?"
And he said, "Uh, nah.
Not tonight, baby girl, we'll do it another night."
"Okay, no big deal."
-♪ Try me
-On the song "Try Me,"
he would always go, and he would
pull one of the background singers
and do a little, little slow drag dance to the song.
And this night.
-♪ Whoa, I need you
-[ Inhales ] He let me dance with him.
-♪ You
-I'll never forget it.
♪
-And you wonder sometimes,
what was it for him?
It wasn't the money all the time,
and he was still doing it
at 70 years old.
He could have stopped.
-♪ For once I can touch
♪ What my heart used to dream of ♪
♪ Long before I knew, o-o-oh ♪
♪ Someone warm like you
♪ Would make my dream come true ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah
-I had been named creative chair for jazz programing
with the LA Philharmonic.
So my inaugural season was 2006.
I thought, "Wow, what if I get Mr. Brown
to come to the Hollywood Bowl and we redo Soul on Top live
with, uh -- with a big band, just like the record."
-♪ It's a long time
♪
♪ May to December
♪ Heh
♪
♪ But the days grow short
♪ Can't you count 'em now
♪ When you reach September
♪
-It was clear that James Brown
wasn't the best picture of health.
He was still gigging. He was still touring all the time.
But he was -- he was an old man by then, you know?
-Whenever we would go on the road, he would get healthy
'cause he'd start being active and he would,
you know, moving around and whatnot and start to eat right,
and all that stuff, but when he'd go home,
he...he would get in trouble 'cause he wouldn't eat right,
or he wouldn't take care of himself or whatever.
-I feel good.
Papa's got a brand new bag.
-We went to dinner one night at a restaurant
out in West Augusta,
he, uh -- Tomi Rae -- this was before
they were married -- Tomi Rae and James,
and my wife and I, we had -- we had dinner there.
And my wife and I were leaving,
James and Tomi Rae went into the piano bar
and James sat there and started singing.
-My friend Flo Carter and her husband Don
were having their anniversary dinner,
and we were at a real nice restaurant,
uh, near the Augusta National Golf Course.
And, uh, James walked in and he shot right over to us.
I said, "James," I said, "It's, uh,
Don and Flo's anniversary."
Without missing a beat, James looked right at them
and started singing, [ Sings ] time after time.
[ Normal voice ] And I didn't hear James do that again
until he sang it to Tomi Rae after their wedding.
-I don't care what you read and what they tell you,
Brown loved her, bought her new teeth.
She's a girl without much money, right?
And Brown had access to money.
And if Brown loved you, he wanted you to be better.
-Mr. Brown, you're in London at the moment.
Just tell us, first of all,
what you think about this particular city.
I know you've been shopping. You've been enjoying yourself?
-Well, I've been enjoying myself shopping for my wife,
who's also my, uh, one of my stars on the show.
[ "Hold On, I'm Comin'" plays ]
♪
-♪ Hold on, yeah -♪ Hold on
♪ I'm comin'
♪ Hold on
♪ I'm comin'
♪ Hold on
♪ I'm comin' -♪ Hold on
-Killed it. And he was sick. Very sick at that time.
He was so sick that they had him
on IV fluids and a catheter.
And when it came time for the show, he pulled 'em out
and went and did an hour and a half,
went back to the hotel
and put 'em back in.
♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-On Friday before the Christmas Day of 2006,
James Brown did what James Brown loved to do.
And that was one, at Thanksgiving,
he would give away turkeys to poor people,
black and white, who got in line to get a free turkey
from him in Augusta.
The second thing he would love to do is at Christmas.
He loved to give away toys to needy kids.
-December 22, 2006,
he was doing the James Brown Toy Giveaway.
He had on this black and red jumpsuit.
And he had the zipper down.
So I walked up to him and I said,
"Hey, Dad, how you doing?
You act like you're bringing sexy back,"
and I zip that zipper slap up
'cause it was cold outside.
And he wasn't well,
I gave him a kiss.
He got in the limousine.
I said, "I'll talk to you later, Daddy. I love you."
-The nation is mourning the loss of a legend today,
the Godfather of Soul,
James Brown has died.
According to his agent, Brown died early this morning
in Atlanta after being admitted to the hospital
Sunday for pneumonia.
Brown was known for his revolutionary rhythms of funk,
soul, and disco, and was considered
one of the most important musical influences
over the past 50 years.
James Brown was 73 years old.
♪
-I wasn't sure if I was gonna make it.
Because now I didn't know how life was gonna be
without my daddy.
I didn't know life without my daddy.
♪
-I cried.
I called my brother.
And...
...to quote one of his songs,
it was a lonely Christmas. [ Chuckles ]
-[ Sighs ]
I threw the phone over, uh, somewhere.
-Uh...
It was -- It was, uh...
Not a...
[ Zipper unzips ]
-I love James Brown so much.
You know, it's, uh...
Oh, God, it's, uh...
I loved him so much so.
Most people who knew him loved him.
-I was like, "Yo.
That is the most epic exit of all time."
Like... [ Laughs ]
Like, James Brown is such a star.
I want to take the one most iconic, universal day
and take it over.
Like, even Christmas don't got nothing on me.
[ "Christmas in Heaven" plays ]
♪
-♪ It's Christmas
♪
♪ In heaven
♪
♪ It's heaven
♪
♪ Here with you
♪
♪ And darling
♪ Believe me
♪
♪ I don't know
♪ What I'll do
-James Brown, he always drew huge crowds
to the Apollo Theater and today, of course,
is no exception.
50 years after Brown's first appearance
at the legendary Harlem Showplace,
fans are paying their last respects.
[ All chant ] Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud.
-When I got off the plane and we got to the Apollo,
and I seen the crowds in freezing weather like that,
just to show respect for the man, they lined up,
just to get a glimpse of him in the coffin
and just to pay the respect to us as a family was beautiful.
That's a lot of love, you know?
-I've never had a father
at home growing up, but I had James Brown.
I had him personally, and I had him with the world.
-♪ I've seen days
♪ When the sun didn't shine
♪ Raised in Georgia
♪ Born in Carolina
-They arrived before dawn.
-We love you, James Brown.
-Thousands lining the sidewalks
in the heart of the city James Brown called home.
-It's called a homecoming celebration
because we're talking about a legend and an icon.
A man that's American.
-♪ Hold my hand, Lord
-Those who got a seat in James Brown Arena
got quite a show.
-We have Mr. Michael Jackson come here to the city.
-In a surprise appearance, the King of Pop
paid his respects to the Godfather of Soul.
-What did he mean to you?
-Everything. He was my greatest inspiration.
-Michael!
I'll miss him very much.
-Michael Jackson danced and sang to "I Got the Feeling"
when he auditioned for Berry Gordy.
All his life it was James Brown, James Brown.
And actually, there were some people
who encouraged him not to come to the funeral.
They said, "You know, you just had all of this stuff
go on in the courts and everything.
You -- you might want to stay away from that.
Michael said no.
-Leaving this earth on Christmas morning
is the perfect bookend
for a life that actually started as a stillborn.
He came to this earth with -- with -- without a prayer
and through the sheer will of the universe came to us.
So, it's rather apropos that his birth was death
and that his death was life.
-Ladies and gentlemen, friends,
I'd like to say thanks for coming out to see me here --
James Brown Show.
Every man has to know what he's come from
and where he's going,
and know he has a chance to do what he want to do in life.
-We all, as black people,
face challenges every single day.
And certainly in America, every single day
we face challenges, and there are challenges
that our white counterparts may not even acknowledge.
Even though we could walk down the same sidewalk
at the exact same time in the exact same city,
and have vastly different experiences.
So with Black Genius, it's no different.
And it's a strong person that can --
that can understand that,
process it, and continue to persevere.
-I think his level of genius is a gift from God.
You know, you always hear the story about James
running into the woods or something happened special
when he was a little down in Augusta,
and either somebody got picked out to be anointed
and be special, and some spirit came through him
to get him out of that way, to get it --
because the education wasn't gonna get it.
The opportunities wasn't gonna get it.
So, to defy all that, something special had to come in.
He's just been in every facet and every part of this life,
you know, every part of music,
every part of entertainment and just culture, period.
So it's like my little -- my little -- my little shrine.
I walk by this every day and get inspired.
♪
-James tapped into that thing in your spirit.
That's why you see people of all colors, all hues.
James was an international --
is an international icon and superstar
all over the planet.
-He showed me, initially, what was possible,
you know, not that I could do it,
but I could dream of it.
-I was 18 years old when I joined Mr. Brown,
and he had a way of calling my parents to say,
she -- I'm doing fine, don't worry about me,
I'm in good hands.
And, you know, when I was coming home,
not just my parents, but a lot of the band members
and the other singers and dancers.
-When we look at him,
we would understand some of our sons
and fathers and nephews and friends
that we didn't understand their pain.
And I think some black men will look at it and say,
"That's what I've been trying to describe
and couldn't find the words."
A decade or more since his death,
he's still healing people that were wounded like he was.
-What we lost with James Brown is a certain generation
that lived in a way we could never imagine,
a generation that tried to teach us to have a little guts,
some gumption, tough skin.
A generation that was built on manners.
Mister, miss, ma'am, holding the door.
A certain way of living that we'll never be familiar with.
That's one thing we lost with Mr. Brown.
But what did we gain?
A whole lot of great music,
a whole lot of great inspiration,
and a blueprint
on how to make it with very little.
-Daddy was a super spirit.
He was not perfect, he had flaws,
but my father was a spirit.
Came into this world with nothing.
He gave the world everything God gave him.
-Ladies and gentlemen,
here is Augusta, Georgia's young singing star
and his great combination here, James Brown.
Let's bring 'em on.
-♪ Please, please, please
♪ Please, please -♪ Please, please, don't go
-♪ Please, please
-♪ Please, please, don't go -♪ Yeah!
♪ Ahhhhhhh
♪ Heey, heeeeey -♪ Don't go
-♪ I love you so
♪ Go, ahh!
♪ Don't leave me
♪ Ahhhhhhh -♪ Don't go
♪ Oh, don't go
♪
♪ Don't go
♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Uh, it's been a pleasure.
-God bless you. -And don't miss,
don't miss -- Let's hold this up.
-Hoping to live 200 years -- I live 200 years
minus one day, so I'll never know
beautiful people like you will pass away.
-Ohh. -God bless you, ciao, sayonara,
What shall I say? Hasta luego.
Oh. -Thanks for coming
and joining us, folks. -Love you.
[ Upbeat funk music plays ]
♪