- Coordinated his dance moves to lead his band. Each movement was actually an instruction to the band.
- In live shows, Brown would sometimes add the "I got ya" lyric in a song when he caught a musician making a mistake.
- Holds the record for holder for charting the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever reaching #1.
- Was friends with Elvis Presley. He was one of only three celebrities present at his funeral. The others were Ann-Margret and George Hamilton. He was also good friends with Reverend Al Sharpton since the 1970s and Reverend Jesse Jackson since the 1950s.
- He served 26 months in prison for leading police on a high speed chase in Georgia in 1988.
- Was lifelong friends with Little Richard, since they were both teenagers.
- His third wife, Adrienne Rodriguez, charged him four times with felony assault. She passed away from heart failure following plastic surgery.
- Insisted on using the title Mr. or Ms. for everyone in his band. He felt it was a sign of respect if people called each other by their proper title.
- US Secretary of State General Colin Powell appointed Brown to be the first US "secretary of soul and foreign minister of funk", but said the job description for the post had not yet been drawn up. (December 2003)
- Paroled after serving three years of his six years. His crime was in 1988 when he threatened pedestrians with firearms, abused PCP, and led a high-speed car chase down Interstate 20 in Augusta, Georgia. (1991)
- J. Anthony Lukas's book on Boston race relations, "Common Ground", notes that a 1968 Brown performance the day after Reverend Martin Luther King's was assassinated helped keep the city from exploding.
- His funeral was officiated by his good friend, Reverend Al Sharpton.
- Inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame for his outstanding contribution to British music and integral part of British music culture. (November 14, 2006)
- Performed at President Richard Nixon's first inauguration on 30 January 1969.
- Son, with girlfriend Tomirae Brown, James Brown II, was born on July 1, 2001.
- Dismayed by the school shootings of the late 1990s, he spoke out against violence in schools, even writing a song, "Killing's Out and School's In".
- On account of the timing of Brown's death, there were no flights out of Atlanta to fly Brown's body up to New York for a public viewing at the Apollo Theater. The funeral director and Al Sharpton opted to drive Brown's body from Atlanta to New York, instead.
- Released from hospital following treatment for addiction to painkillers. (January 1998)
- Underwent surgery for prostate cancer. (December 2004)
- He is the world's most sampled recording artist, and his song "Funky Drummer" the most sampled individual piece of music in history. The list of artists that sampled Brown ranged from Jay-Z to Eric B. and Rakim to Public Enemy to DJ Shadow.
- Some radicals criticized him for his patriotism. He received death threats after playing to US troops in Vietnam in 1972.
- Receiving three Grammy Awards: Best R&B Recording ("Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", 1965), Best Male R&B Performance ("Living in America", 1986) and "Best Album Notes" ("Star Times", 1991). On February 25 1992, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards.
- Got his start in music singing with Bobby Byrd's group the Famous Flames.
- Voted the tenth greatest singer of the rock era in a Rolling Stone magazine poll (2008).
- Brown's hit singles like "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)" and "Funky President" galvanized black youth during the turbulent 1970s.
- Charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986).
- Inducted into the American Songwriters Hall of Fame (2000).
- Was planning on singing at B.B. King's blues club in New York on New Year's Eve a week before he passed away.
- 28 January 2004 - Arrested for allegedly pushing his wife at their South Carolina home. Brown later filed for an annulment of their marriage.
- One of five recipients of the 2003 Kennedy Center Honors. The other recipients were Carol Burnett, Loretta Lynn, Mike Nichols and Itzhak Perlman.
- Some of his most popular songs include "Please, Please, Please" (1958), "I Got You (I Feel Good)" (1965), "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (1966), "Cold Sweat" (1967), "I Got the Feelin'" (1968), "Get Up (I Like Being a) Sex Machine" (1970) and "Living in America" (1985).
- Augusta's 9th street was renamed "James Brown Boulevard" by Mayor Charles DeVaney. (November 11, 1993)
- He was diagnosed with heart disease (2003).
- Daughters with second wife Deidre or "Deedee" are Deanna Brown and Yamma Brown.
- Singer-songwriter, band leader and record producer.
- [May 7, 2005] Reverend Al Sharpton unveiled a life-size bronze statue of Brown in Augusta, Georgia. The statue was supposed to be unveiled in May 2004, for Brown's 71st birthday, but the city postponed the ceremony because Brown was facing domestic violence charges for pushing and threatening his fourth wife, Tomirae Brown .
- In 2003, South Carolina granted him pardons for seven criminal convictions, some involving guns and drugs, over a 10-year period.
- He was voted the 7th Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
- Reverend Jesse Jackson regularly visited Brown while he served time for leading the police on a car chase and other various offenses in South Carolina in 1988.
- Sons with first wife Velma were Teddy (1954-1973), Terry (1955-), and Larry (1958-).
- One of the personalities mentioned in the song "Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club. The others were Bob Marley, Smokey Robinson, Hamilton Bohannon, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Lowell 'Sly' Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare (as Sly and Robbie), and Kurtis Blow.
- He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1501 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on January 10, 1997.
- Portions of James Brown's funeral services in Augusta, GA were shown live on CNN.
- Was friends with M.C. Hammer.
- In 1991, the Techno group L.A. Style released a highly irreverent and controversial single entitled "James Brown Is Dead". There were two songs quickly made in response: "James Brown Is Still Alive" by Holy Noise, and "Who the F*** Is James Brown?" by Traumatic Stress.
- Resided in Beach Island, South Carolina at the time of his death.
- Mentioned in the song "When the World is Running Down" by The Police.
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