posted                         

quote:

---

RICK JAMES LAST EUR INTERVIEW: Late funk legend talked about ASCAP
award, Prince, hip hop, Chappelle, and his legacy.


Rick James (Feb. 1, 1948 - Aug. 6, 2004)
(Aug. 9, 2004) *An autopsy Saturday failed to reveal the exact cause of death for Rick James.
However, his three children daughter Ty, and sons Rick Jr. and Tazman said Friday through a spokesman that they believe his heart just simply gave out.

James, 56, died in his sleep Friday morning at his home near Universal City, California.

He gave the world such funk staples as Super Freak, Give It To Me Baby and Mary Jane, and was just as innovative behind the scenes penning
songs for Teena Marie, the Mary Jane Girls, the Temptations, and Smokey Robinson.

It was his writing talent that caught the attention of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), and
ironically, allowed him the chance to experience a lifetime achievement award before it was too late.

Last June, James accepted the honor at the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards in Beverly Hills, where he capped his acceptance speech with
the infamous phrase from the Dave Chappelle Show, Rick James bitch! to thunderous applause from the crowd. At the ceremony, EUR Lee Bailey spoke to him for what would become the last time.

"This is probably the greatest accolade I've ever won," James said. "This is icing on the cake. Its not only from my peers, but these are the people who really know and appreciate the song, whether its for the Mary Jane Girls, Temptations, myself, or Smokey Robinson, they know."

At the time of his death, James (born James Ambrose Johnson Jr.) was preparing to release a double-album of almost 30 songs to coincide
with his 25th anniversary as a successful artist. The project, which he said would come through his own Ma Records label, was also part of the singers newfound peace after years of battling drug and alcohol addiction. He credits his 1998 stroke as Gods way of slowing him down.

"When that stroke happened to me in Denver, I wasn't doing drugs,"he said. "I wasn't doing anything. I might've had half a glass of champagne, but I wasn't doing anything because I was on parole; I was being [drug] tested, too. So when it happened, it was so bizarre. I broke two blood vessels on the back of my neck.

I was laid up in the hospital for six and a half months, I went to a three- or four- month rehab, then I was in the bed for a year and a half. I just was depressed. I didn't think I'd ever be able to perform again. But God sent this angel, and she came and did some bodywork on me. I couldn't walk backwards, I couldn't walk ideways,
I couldn't write my name, and next thing I know, I was running across my room. I believe He just sat me down for a minute to pay attention."

The upcoming double-album was also supposed to promote the return of real music, which James felt was lost on today's young artists. James
said:

"Me and Quincy [Jones] had this discussion, and its a really sad thing, in actuality - music is dead. There will be no other Earth
Wind and Fires, there'll be no more Billie Holidays, Sly and the Family Stones or Parliament Funkadelics. People get together now and they don't know anything about music. And I look at the artform of rap, the way they spit it, and some of them are brilliant, and
they're poets, but some of it is just verbal diarrhea."

James cited recent shows with the Ohio Players and Parliament Funkadelic, and even the new Musicology material from his longtime rival Prince as examples of funks staying-power despite todays unhealthy R&B; diet. Never in my dearest life did I think I would ever like Prince, James said, before cracking up. I'm just so grateful for all the brothers out there in funk because its a resurgence, a revolution, a reincarnation ,its a total blooming of something that people thought had died.

And speaking of Prince, James was still a little cheeky about the artist formerly known as The Artist, who reportedly sparked the rivalry when he kept upstaging the braided singer while opening for him on tour.

"I don't have any grudges," James said of the Purple One. "He's a great musician. I'm just not into songs like, �If I Was Your Girlfriend�"
or me and my sister used to do this all night. But no, he's changed. He doesn't have a sign anymore. I guess there's a little bit of
jealousy still there, but I know I'm better looking - and I'm taller."

Plans are still underway for James life to be told on the big screen. Comedian Dave Chappelle, whose skits of the singer on his Comedy
Central series The Chappelle Show have contributed to James' recent popularity surge, will reportedly play the funkateer in a motion
picture drama about basically sex, drugs, funk and roll, Rick said.

As for Chappelles Rick James parodies, he insisted that the skits, which feature interview clips of him providing commentary, were a
collaborative effort. He said: "People always say, �What do you think about David clowning you?� I say, clowning me? We created that! I thought they were funny as hell because it made people laugh. I laughed."

A Rick James book was also said to be in the works at the time of his death " a full account of his childhood in Buffalo, New York; his
Catholic school upbringing; the talent show at age 15 that turned him onto performing; his descent into cocaine; the infamous crack pipe
assault, the penitentiary; his stroke; and his struggle to put his life back on track.

"I feel God has got me here for a reason," he said. "I give myself another year, and then I'm gonna retire from the music business and
do something else I have in mind thats more spiritual. God has saved me from so much, - overdoses and [the wrong] people - now Hes lining
me up with just the right people. I gotta do what I gotta do, then I gotta do His will.

I look around and we're all getting older, and it just brings a tear to my eye, because you know what? We're still here, you know? Ain't
nobody saying how long this is gonna last. But right now, today, I'm enjoying it. This is all I ask, you know. Tomorrow is not promised."

---

posted                      

quote:

---

...rock and roll was stolen from the blues in the heydays of great guitar works and Jimi Hendrix coupled with jazz beats of Coleman Hawkins, J.J. Johnson, Louis Armstrong, Art Blakey...-Thompson

---