Packy Malley Meets James Brown

Happy Birthday James Brown!

I just started scanning a few pictures from “yesteryear!” at home yesterday.  This was the first picture I scanned and obviously, one of my favorites (see below).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES BROWN!!

This was backstage at the Front Row Theater twenty years ago (1990).  His manager arranged for me to meet him backstage because I was a “pen pal” when he was in jail.  Michael Heaton wrote a story about him and his impact on music and culture and included his prison mailing address.  The first time I saw him was March of 1986 in the front row at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus (still the best show I ever saw!).  I already was a fan but after that I “had to get on the good foot!”

As a guy who threw a lot of parties and was a DJ there was no other artist like James Brown to me.  Everyone danced and I could play his entire albums and enjoy myself for a good 20 minutes without worrying about the next song…and the music was the best.  No one ever complained and everybody loved the music….Deadheads, reggae fans, people looking for new grooves, white, black…you name it.  James Brown made the parties great!  I wanted to thank him so I started writing him and then I figured he didn’t really need to hear about that stuff so then I just started sending him crazy jokes…really crazy stuff.  I sent him several letters of very “blue” material…jokes that made me laugh I sent.  Never a personal message just outrageous jokes.

When he announced his tour after getting out of prison he called me to thank me for the letters.  The phone call itself was wild.  Earlier I sent him 10 tickets to sit with me and Mark VanRooy in the Dawg Pound when the Browns played the Houston Oilers the next day after his concert.  I figured he could have a few friends and a few body guards.  His phone call was completely wild because he yells all of the time and it is hard to understand him.  His two best lines from that phone call were when he was thanking me he said, “Everybody forgot about James Brown when he was locked up except the Reverend Al Sharpton, Ed McMahon and Packy Malley.”  I suggest we all go golfing someday.  The other line that was funny was in regard to the Cleveland Browns game and tickets…”James Brown ain’t sittin’ in no Dawg Pound!  James Brown is an Atlanta Falcons fan!”

I also sent him some Malley’s Chocolates after he got out along with some reggae CDs and then some personal letters letting him know how much I enjoyed his life story and his music.  A funny story regarding this is when my mother found a type written letter to JB that started out with “Dear Godfather.”  She read the first paragraph and asked me “what is this letter to your Uncle Dick?  It doesn’t make sense?

To this day James Brown is by far in my top three with the Beatles and Bob Marley.  What blows my mind is that EVERY SONG from the Beatles, Bob Marley and James Brown is a good cut.  That is amazing.  Funk/R&B, Rock and Roll and Reggae!  This pretty much covers it all!

After he got some Malley’s Chocolates from me he ended up placing a big order with my Dad for a Christmas party he was having months later.  When he came to Cleveland he arranged for me to meet him backstage at the Front Row Theater and this is where the picture is from.  

It was also the beginning of a very cool relationship I had with “Mr. Brown.” He was a very fascinating guy… very nice and thoughtful to me. He had a bunch of comical one liners like “Pack-Man…if your hair and teeth look good you can do just about anything!” Besides the wild side about him he was a down to earth man.  He was Soul Brother #1 after all!  I had the pleasure of hooking up with up with him four other times in person.  I wrote to him often. He was one of the most interesting people I have ever met.  I also feel like he taught me the most valuable lesson when talking to anybody, and that is, ask someone about themselves.

I was floored when I met him the first time because he was interested in me.  He asked me loads of questions about my family, my education, my interests, etc.  After our meeting I felt I had really connected with him.  I was floored what a great guy he was.  At this first meeting I was sitting in his dressing room waiting to meet him during his encore.  When the show ended he came into the dressing room looking like a melted candle.  He was extremely sweaty and his make up was messy.  He walked right past me, got cleaned up and changed then came out to see me in the dressing room.  We were the only two people in there.  There was a long line of reporters in the hallway that wanted to meet him.  We chatted for about 15 minutes and I got nervous and didn’t want to overstay my welcome so I thanked him for his time, wished him all the best and split.

When he approached me I stood up ad extended my hand for a handshake.  As he got closer I was surprised to see how short he was.  He was about 5’5″ tops.  As he got closer he yelled, “Pack-man…I get a hug!”  As I hugged him I was all excited and said, “Mr. Brown, you’re so short and you are just packed with soul!”  Then we shook hands soul brother style and he asked me sit.  This is where I got super impressed with him.  He asked me loads of questions…family, who was alive in my family, my education, what I did for a living, etc…  At one point he asked if I was a comedian where we both laughed. He rattled off a few jokes I sent him and laughed as only he can.  It was a great meeting and stands out as one of the most memorable meetings in my life.  He lived up the billing!    

At the Cleveland Stadium Rock Hall Concert (9/2/95) he sent a car for me to hook up with him at 2:00 a.m. the night before for his band’s sound check.  I was on stage with JB and his whole band for their whole sound check in an empty Cleveland Stadium and a free full bar and lots of other rock stars to party with.  I was out of my mind with excitement.  I didn’t talk to anyone else except for JB and his band.  I became invaluable that night because the band was drinking a lot of beer and there was no bottle opener and I was the only one who knew how to pop off the top with a lighter.  JB was a great friend of Howard Stern and dedicated his last CD to him.  He was an outrageous personality.  I haven’t met too many “famous” people but JB was certainly tops.  Kym and I saw his NYE show in NYC at BB King’s in 2005 but we didn’t get to say hello.  That was a huge bummer because he died on Christmas Day in 2006 of congestive heart failure due to pneumonia.  From R&B to Soul to Hard Funk JB “wears the crown!”

I just thought I would share this photo with some friends. When I think of JB “I Feel Good!”  He is holding a box of Malley’s Chocolates.  Later, when I sent him some chocolates he said, “(mumbling in his own dialect) Packman, what are trying to do…kill me?  You know I got the sugar.”  I didn’t know but he was diabetic as a kid.  I sent him fruit and Malley’s roasted nuts after that.

James Brown has become somewhat of a comic figure (“Eddie Murphy eat your heart out!”) but if you play some of his extended tracks and jams his band is so tight and so jamming it is unbelievable!  20 minute jams of Escape-ism off of Hot Pants (Thank you Marlene!).

Get on the good foot!  Happy Birthday JB!

Packy-

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