Did you hear that one about Susan? |
Hello there!
First, let me apologize for the long absence. A few things happened in life (law school graduation, marriage, bar exam, etc.), but now that that is all over I am free to pursue the finer things in life like crafting witty blogposts about inane subject material that four people will read. Pretty fantastic.
This post came to mind as I was reading a book recently - the first book I've read that was not law-related in over a year, mind you. That book was The One, by RJ Smith. It is the newest biography about "Mr. Please, Please, Please" James Brown. For a review/interview with the author, go here. I'm not here to review the book, granted it was decent (for me, it was too broad in scope (his entire life) so it left out some things I would have like to have known more about), instead I'm interested in a little footnote of a story that Smith mentions. And that story involves another favorite of mine: Bill Withers.
Before we get to that, though, allow me to set the tone of what we're really talking about here: Celebrity Gossip.
Not pictured: journalism |
This post could easily turn into a recitation of crazy celebrity stories, but that's not my bag. You can go here, here, or here (definitely!) to do that. But just the same, here's a quick top three of celebrity stories that came to mind when I was thinking about this post:
Gary Busey
Mötley Crüe
Left to Right: Liza Minnelli; Bret Michaels; Captain EO; Sgt. Pepper of XFL team The Hollywood Glambots |
The story that comes to mind here is not the death-life-death-life of Nikki "Lazarus" Sixx, but instead what he and drumming god Tommy Lee cooked up for one of their groupies. In one of their saddest and least arousing escapades, they persuaded their groupie-du-jour to place a phone call to her mother from a most-unorthodox phone booth. Details here.
Prince
You know, I'm not even going to try with this one. Just go here (on why he can't have a camel for his living nativity scene), here (spark-shooting roller skates) or here (declaring the internet to be "over") . . . seriously, Prince is too crazy for me to sum up.
So that brings us back to the top, the one if you will, and to one of my personal faves, "Butane James" - James Brown.
No crazy here, move along. |
Back in 1974, Brown agreed to appear at a music festival held in conjunction with the "Rumble in the Jungle" Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire. Also on that bill were Bill Withers, B.B. King, Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, and the Fania All-Stars. The whole thing is documented in Soul Power, a film about the concert released in 2008. Needless to say, this concert was a pretty big deal (dubbed "the Black Woodstock" by some uncreative journalists): you've got some hard-hitting (no pun intended) music acts headed to a country that was eager to have them, combined with some hard-hitting (pun intended) heavyweight boxing, and Soul Brother Number One at the top of the bill.
As I was reading about this in The One, though, I read the following sentence regarding James Brown's unwillingness to sit in coach on the plane flight over to Zaire (and thereby balance the weight of the plane, which was weighed down by all of the equipment Brown insisted on bringing with him):
According to [Hugh] Masekela, during a stopover in Madrid, Bill Withers bought a dagger and held it to Brown's throat, suggesting he sit in economy with the rest of the folks.
What? "bought a dagger and held it to Brown's throat...." Bill Withers did this? "Grandma's Hands" Bill Withers? "Still Bill" Bill Withers? I have never heard this story before. Mister "Lean-on-me-when-you've-got-a-heavy-load" threatened to kill The Hardest Working Man in Show Business? This seems like something that would have made the rounds, right? Bill Withers is not exactly a gangster with all that "Just the Two of Us" and "Ain't No Sunshine" business. It's not like he's Sid Vicious. And RJ Smith says no more about it! No commentary on whether it was true or not, no mention of how this played out, nothing.
Stone cold. |
Stone to the Bone. |
Guys in rugby shirts are known to be a little unhinged. |
The Vanya All Stars [Latin band, subject of Our Latin Thing] played their instruments on that flight [to Zaire] all throughout the 15 or 17 hours. James Brown, BB King and his band were also on that plane. Some people wanted to sleep, and became offended. At a stopover in Madrid, Bill Withers got off, went and bought something threatening looking, like a fake plastic knife or something, came over the intercom and said, “My Latin brothers and sisters, I know you love your music, but if you don’t stop for a minute I’m gonna slit somebody’s throat” while waving that knife around.
Oh. So that's maybe a little more plausible, right? This keeps Bill Withers as the smiley-songwriter-guy-who-just-wants-some-sleep and James Brown as the top-billed-showman-supreme who, like his papa, would clearly "Take No Mess."
Everything in its right place. |
The point is, I love stories like this. Whichever version you accept, this gives a lot of insight into the dynamics at play between music industry stars, some more famous than they can handle at times (i.e., James Brown), others just wanting to play music for people and the love of music (i.e., Bill Withers or the Vanya All Stars, for that matter). We like this because it presents context for history and shows people acting like people - though let's be honest, I don't think I could get away with threatening James Brown's life simply for not sitting in coach. But then, I didn't write "Use Me," either.
Regardless, it's not like Bill Withers had this tough persona right? He wasn't hanging around with murderers or anything like that.
Left to Right: The Greatest of All Time, Still Bill, a convicted murderer. |