Damon Wood - Working for the Man, Playing in the Band: My Years with James Brown

More than a decade after I left James Browns band, he still appears in my dreams. Sometimes hes brooding and Im not sure whether Ill get to play the show. Other times hes welcoming me back. At first, Im elated. Then Im not sure what the hell is going on. When I awake I realize then hes no longer with us. Yet, he still lives inside me. And I wonder about my former bandmates and whether Mr. Brown lives inside them and occupies their dreams, too.

Racing around the world, playing guitar for James Brown turned out to be the hardest work Id ever done in my life. And playing music was only part of it. For nearly eight years, when my phone rang, I jumped on a plane and spent anywhere from one night to six weeks on the road with the Godfather of Soul and my bandmates. The business of getting funky took us across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, South America, Australia, Southeast Asia, Russia you name it. The Man was in demand everywhere. By the time I worked for him, Mr. Brown had long since become an international ambassador of soul. To millions of people all over the world, James Brown represented the very best American export: a funky good time.

I wanted a piece of that and, with a lot of hard work, I got it. Of course, its well known that working for Mr. Brown could be a tough gig. That was no less true in his later years, when I worked for him. He could be charming, hilarious, kind, thoughtful, scary, intimidating all at the same time. That was the nature of the gig. You had to want that job just to get it. And you had to work doubly hard to keep it. Working for Mr. Brown meant recognizing that he ruled the center of the universe. On stage that was easy, because it was true. Off stage, well, lets not get ahead of ourselves. But I wanted that gig, badly. So did my bandmates. They were all amazing musicians and fun-loving people with the ability to survive and even thrive on the road, despite its rigors. I call on them often in the pages ahead to help tell my story.

Lets be clear from the get-go on my role. Im not a star. My relationship to James Brown was simple: I worked as a guitarist, a sideman, in the Soul Generals. I was an employee of James Brown Enterprises. I was far from green when my path crossed his, but Id never been involved with music performance at that level of professionalism until I worked for Mr. Brown. As my bandmates will testify, playing music in that setting produced a pure, exhilarating high. The good times made us swear allegiance to Mr. Brown and his mission regardless of the inevitable drama. Whether it was flying in and out of European and Asian capitals, backing Mr. Brown and Michael Jackson in L.A., or jamming after hours in Paris, we had more than our fair share of fun. The highs far outweighed the lows, until, one day, they didnt.

Dont get me wrong, I was fortunate to land a role in James Browns band, and I knew it. I understood that I came at the end of a long line of highly distinguished artists whod held that chair before me. I toiled in the shadows of giants. I could not allow myself to be intimidated by the continuum of great players who came before me and still do my job, but I felt its weight just the same. And I had to come to terms with working closely with this individual who was not just another human being. Think of the profound impact James Brown and his hits, his dancing, his attitude, and his message had on America and the entire world. The sheer force of Mr. Browns personality permeated the very air around us. In fact, when we traveled, we had to be constantly on guard. Mr. Brown could be anywhere and everywhere, as I would learn to my everlasting chagrin.

From what I could see, James Brown never gave less than 110 percent, even in his later years. By 1998, when I met him, Mr. Brown was in his late 60s. The man had made his mark. His place in popular music, his impact on global culture, had long been assured. The years had released him from the need for more hits. By that time, the rap and hip-hop crowd constantly sampled his music, bringing it to new, younger audiences. I should point out, on behalf of sidemen everywhere and Mr. Browns alumni in particular, that that sampling frequently showcased the genius of his kickass drummers, bassists, guitarists, singers, and those who composed and arranged for him, rather than the star himself. But they all toiled under the James Brown brand. Despite his musicians often astounding abilities, only a handful of them really stepped out of his shadow. Even though Mr. Brown was a modest five-foot-six, he cast a long shadow. He could have put his feet up or gone out occasionally for marquee gigs. Instead, he headed out on the road in every season, often on punishing schedules, making music, making money and, not incidentally, providing jobs for nearly two dozen musicians, singers, and dancers. Working musicians need to work. Thats the deal. So hitching your wagon to a global brand who lives to work makes a lot of sense. And it goes a long way to explain why we all endured the difficulties. A musician could make a living by working for James Brown. And he worked and worked until he passed from this Earth because, as trumpeter Hollie Farris says in the pages ahead, music was his life. Spending too much time at home really wasnt good for him, as a number of troubling headlines in his day attested. The title, The Hardest Working Man in Show Business, was for real, even in his later years. Few artists have created their very own genre of music and then personally put their band through its paces every night on stage for decades on end, as he did. James Brown was fearless and his energy exceeded that of men half his age. The man was and is worthy of our loyalty. I hung on for as long as I could.

Working for Mr. Brown meant that your emotions had more power than your reason. His star power was contagious. Once I experienced the world from a stage dominated by James Brown, once I felt the respect of other, famous musicians because I worked for James Brown, once I raced in and out of the worlds capitals as a member of his team, I wanted to be part of that bigger world. Once I tasted that life, there was no going back. I wanted to get funky and feel the audiences energy flowing back in return. When the night was right and the band was tight, we forgave the man for anything and everything that had happened that day, and we gave it our all. On certain nights, in our heart of hearts, we knew we were the hottest band on this planet.

I hope the James Brown I knew comes across in these pages. The world may have known him as The Godfather of Soul or Soul Brother No. 1 or Mr. Dynamite, but I knew him as an actual human being, my mentor, and my boss. I tell this story because I loved that man and all that he did for me, and I still do. Working for James Brown was the hardest thing I ever had to do but it was, and still is, the greatest thing that ever happened to me... so far.

Damon Wood
Denver, 2018