James Brown: sometimes, it takes an addict.
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Blues, R & B and gospel singer James Brown, dead of congestive heart failure at age 73. Brown’s influence in music was breathtaking. He was variously described as the “Godfather of Disco,”the “Godfather of Rap,”the “Godfather of Funk”and a “firebrand in the black rights movement,”credited by some (including himself) with pushing African-Americans to move from the self-descriptor “Negro”to “Black”as a result of his 1968 anthem, “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud).”Some music critics state that without Brown, there could have been no Prince, no Michael Jackson and no Miles Davis. Along with Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and Chuck Berry, he was among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in 1986. Perhaps a bit hyperbolic but descriptive, Chuck Philips, music reporter for the L.A. Times, wrote, “The man could dissect the atomic structure of a beat better than Einstein. He could inject more soul into one tiny syllable than existed in the entire catalog of every white band in the British invasion…”On the other hand, his drug and criminal exploits were described as “bizarre,”his personality “mercurial”and his finances in “disarray.”He was married four times and arrested repeatedly for domestic violence and other transgressions, including charging into an insurance seminar with a shotgun, evading arrest, assaulting a police officer, weapons violations and possession of PCP (which was most likely his drug of choice when his behaviors were most extreme). One writer described him as having a “Kim Jong Il leadership style (once his whole band quit).”James Brown was an alcohol and other-drug addict who took chances that worked. Sometimes, it takes an addict, even if we’d prefer to avoid becoming personally or professionally entangled.
Note to family, friends and fans of the above: the benefit of the doubt is given by assuming alcoholism (they are either idiots and fundamentally rotten, or they are alcoholic/other drug addicts”which would explain the misbehaviors). If alcoholic, there is zero chance that behaviors, in the long run, will improve without sobriety. An essential prerequisite to sobriety is the cessation of enabling, allowing pain and crises to build. Thus far, many have done everything they can to protect the addict from the requisite pain, making these news events possible. The cure for alcoholism, consequential bad behaviors and, ultimately, tragedy, is simple: stop protecting the addict from the logical consequences of misbehaviors and proactively intervene.