Job never done for hardest working man in show biz

By Don Lemon
CNN

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Editor's note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents and anchors share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. Here, CNN anchor Don Lemon describes what he learned in making a documentary on the life of James Brown.

(CNN) -- James Brown was the most multifaceted, multitalented and complex person I've ever known, researched or interviewed. Just take a look at his journey, from poverty to riches, freedom to jail, illiteracy to fighting for better education.

It was a remarkable life that almost never happened.

He was stillborn 74 years ago Thursday, but Brown's aunt wouldn't give up on the apparently lifeless infant and blew into his mouth until he started breathing, said Vicki Anderson, the wife of one of his band members.

"I wasn't supposed to be alive," Brown wrote in his autobiography.

Anderson said the brush with death gave Brown his zest for life, his determination, his drive, his fearlessness. You'll get a chance to see that Saturday in a CNN documentary where we examine his life through the eyes of the people who knew him best.

Most of us only saw parts of James Brown, dipping in and out of his life either through his music, his politics or even his troubles with police. There certainly was enough there to pique people's interest.

But those things weren't compartmentalized to James Brown. His brushes with the law influenced his music and his music drew from his politics.

This is the man who turned the phrase "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud" into a mantra for all races. (Watch why Brown and his message are enduring )

That was not happenstance. Not according to his close friends.

As a child, Brown often wore tattered and dirty clothes, and he couldn't read through most of his school years, said Bobby Byrd, a childhood friend turned band member. Some of his often unruly behavior was understandable, according to Byrd, because Brown's dad "abandoned him and he grew up in a brothel" owned by an aunt named Honey.

We also talked with Charles Bobbit, Brown's longtime business manager, who was commissioned to gather children to sing the now famous "Say It Loud" refrain. He confided during the interview that Brown "had a hairspring trigger of a temper."

But he also witnessed the singer tame crowds bent on rioting over race issues in the 1960s. His healing power and his ability to seduce an audience were constant themes with the people we interviewed.

Brown's friends and influences were widespread. Take a look at the type of people he befriended during a very trying period for blacks.

The late Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina (who had opposed the Civil Rights Act) once helped get Brown out of jail. President Nixon invited him to the White House.

Music legend and far-out dresser Bootsy Collins credits Brown for giving him his start.

"His music will never die. It's in the DNA now," he said.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said Brown became his unofficial, adopted father. He said he admired Brown so much that he even tried to look like him by relaxing his hair -- a style he continues to this day as a tribute.

R&B singer Usher paid Brown the ultimate professional tribute, modeling his act after him. Usher could hardly contain himself during our interview while recounting how he had performed with Brown at the 2005 Grammys. Conjuring up his best James Brown voice, Usher recalled the moment the "Godfather of Soul" nicknamed him the "Godson of Soul." ( Watch Usher pay homage to the "Godfather of Soul" )

We start our documentary by saying that Brown's death and the memorials that followed caused as much commotion and controversy as his life. And by the time our special ends, we learn how his life also helped to guide a young generation through turbulent racial times.

His art, if not his presence, was the lightning rod that illuminated the way.

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