James Brown dies on Chritmas at 73 :: Twin Peaks Gazette Message Board

US singer James Brown, the "godfather of soul" who died Monday, grew up in a brothel and rose to earn high acclaim and riches, but also spent several years in jail during his influential career.

After forming a Gospel group while in prison for an armed robbery as a teenager, Brown went professional in 1953, electrifying concert halls with his soulful presence, giving birth to the funk movement and picking up musical accolades as well as nicknames, from Mr Dynamite to Mr Sex Machine.

Brown had served time for his involvement in the robbery at age 16, after a difficult childhood and a series of jobs shining shoes, picking cotton and washing cars.

Out of jail, he joined a group called the Starlighters, which soon became James Brown and the Famous Flames. Two albums followed, "Please Please Please" (1956) and Try Me (1958), as the group's Gospel roots gave way to an edgier rhythm 'n' blues vibe.

But it was a concert in New York City, at the Apollo theatre in Harlem, that helped Brown make his first big mark, with a legendary live recording of his 1961 performance there.

A string of hit songs followed through the 1960s, including the classics "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)", before Brown hit a soulful peak in the 1970s with the album "Sex Machine".

This decade was a musically testing time for the singer, who was forced to reckon with a new craze as disco music jostled soul off the dance floor.

But he bounced back, touring at the helm of his new group the Pacesetters, to lay down the law again with the 1978 album "It's too Funky in Here".

His cameo role as a priest in the 1980 film comedy "The Blues Brothers" and his Grammy award-winning song "Living in America" for Sylvester Stallone's 1986 movie Rocky IV shot Brown into the Hollywood stratosphere.

Brown shunned personal questions in interviews and was cagey about his exact birth date which is generally cited as 1933, in Barnwell, South Carolina. The only son of a gas station attendant, Brown grew up in the brothel run by his aunt in Augusta, Georgia, after his parents separated when he was four.

He had a turbulent later personal life, particularly in the mid-1970s when one of his marriages broke up, his son Teddy died in a car accident and he got involved in a radio station bribery scandal.

In 1987, Brown was arrested for drug abuse for the fifth time in 10 months. His third wife, Adrienne Rodriegues, accused him of assault and battery and he was later convicted of attempted murder and was locked up for six years.

But after spending 15 months in jail in Columbia, South Carolina, he was moved to a reintegration center, where he produced radio and television advertisements warning against alcohol and drug abuse.

In February 1991, he was released on the condition that he would never drive or possess firearms, and made an effort to rebuild his life and career. He received a lifetime achievement Grammy Award in 1992.

Two more albums followed in the 1990s, and Brown continued performing into the new millenium, appearing at a 2005 concert in Britain and singing duets with the British singers Will Young and Joss Stone.

Brown had one child by his last wife, backup singer Tommie Raye Hynie, and at least five other children from his three previous wives.

He died aged 73 early on Monday in Atlanta, Georgia, after reportedly arriving at Emory Crawford Long Hospital with pneumonia late on Sunday.

Hospital officials contacted early Monday declined to confirm or deny the accounts, but an Atlanta television station, WSB-TV, said Brown died at about 1:45 am Monday (0645 GMT). The causes have not been officially determined.

Brown had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2004, for which he underwent surgery.

In the late 1960s, Look magazine called Brown "the most important black man in America."