The Godfather of So...
James Brown, 1933-2006
In 2003, I was writing about Bonnaroo for Spin, and Ken Weinstein, the festival's publicist, got me, Mark Kemp from Rolling Stone, and I'm sorry but I forget his name from USA Today together and asked us if we'd be certain to ask James Brown questions during the press conference. It was the second year of the festival, and while there were a lot of smaller press outlets there, Ken wanted to make sure the Godfather felt some national-media love. We agreed, then realized we had to think of questions. I couldn't think of anything.
I called my friend Robert, who'd seen James Brown in New York a couple weeks earlier. "It was his birthday," he told me. "They wheeled out a cake for him and the whole crowd sang 'Happy Birthday.'" Not much of a question there. Finally, in a display that I'm sure would make all of our editors proud, the three of us conferred and hit on three questions we'd ask him strategically. Here's me asking him mine (1.4 MB). If you can get past my usual stammering, hamfisted interviewing "style," Brown's answer is worth waiting for, touching on his past as a janitor, the importance of a good education, SARS, Iraq, music at ballgames, and the meaning of life.
“There is no record business,” he said. “So whatever they are telling you is jive. That makes entertainment a little unstable.”
No one would ever contest that James Brown knew from unstable, or that he knew entertainment: During the show a few hours later, his valet stopped the proceedings and announced it was James Brown's birthday. They wheeled out a cake for him and the whole crowd sung him "Happy BIrthday."
In 2003, I was writing about Bonnaroo for Spin, and Ken Weinstein, the festival's publicist, got me, Mark Kemp from Rolling Stone, and I'm sorry but I forget his name from USA Today together and asked us if we'd be certain to ask James Brown questions during the press conference. It was the second year of the festival, and while there were a lot of smaller press outlets there, Ken wanted to make sure the Godfather felt some national-media love. We agreed, then realized we had to think of questions. I couldn't think of anything.
I called my friend Robert, who'd seen James Brown in New York a couple weeks earlier. "It was his birthday," he told me. "They wheeled out a cake for him and the whole crowd sang 'Happy Birthday.'" Not much of a question there. Finally, in a display that I'm sure would make all of our editors proud, the three of us conferred and hit on three questions we'd ask him strategically. Here's me asking him mine (1.4 MB). If you can get past my usual stammering, hamfisted interviewing "style," Brown's answer is worth waiting for, touching on his past as a janitor, the importance of a good education, SARS, Iraq, music at ballgames, and the meaning of life.
“There is no record business,” he said. “So whatever they are telling you is jive. That makes entertainment a little unstable.”
No one would ever contest that James Brown knew from unstable, or that he knew entertainment: During the show a few hours later, his valet stopped the proceedings and announced it was James Brown's birthday. They wheeled out a cake for him and the whole crowd sung him "Happy BIrthday."
posted by Andrew Beaujon at 11:05
2 Comments:
I'd like to listen to your question, but the link appears to be faulty. Why don't people comment on your blog anymore? You think the whole hot/cool thing put them off?
Jesse, there's no accounting for taste.
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