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Tortured Soul
by Mary Bridges
August 2008 Issue
August 2008 Issue
James Brown's heirs are locked in a drag-out fight over his estate—even though there's not much there.
The litigation has taken up so much time, there’s little left over for new projects.
As fodder for a James Brown song, it would be hard to beat the unfolding legal battle over the singer’s estate.
Sex and greed are players, as are missed opportunities and longing. At a recent court hearing, a judge asked to see the lead counsel in his chambers and 21 lawyers stood up. There are six children named in his will, and five are now challenging it. There’s also a disputed fourth wife—a onetime Janis Joplin impersonator—with another child she claims is Brown’s. Meanwhile, the three men Brown chose to oversee his trust are being sued for allegedly siphoning off nearly $14 million. And the lawyer he hired to put the will together is serving 30 years in a South Carolina prison for murdering a strip-club manager.
The only thing missing right now: something concrete to fight over.
Though Brown earned as much as $80 million a year during his heyday, he left behind few assets—the most valuable of which is potentially his reputation. But instead of marketing the singer’s name, Brown’s many would-be beneficiaries have spent the year and a half since his death locked in a drag-out fight. While Elvis Presley’s estate took in about $49 million last year and John Lennon’s about $44 million, the biggest deal going for Brown’s family is a Christie’s sale set for July 17—and the estimated proceeds from that, about $2 million, will go mostly to pay legal bills. There had been a contract with a toymaker to manufacture James Brown dolls, but the deal expired after a year. There was once talk of turning Brown’s former home, in Beech Island, South Carolina, into a Graceland-like attraction. But when the auction strips the house of Brown’s effects—the domed dryer in the hair salon, the 1974 Mercedes coupe in the garage, and the 42 jumpsuits in his closet—the place will be a shell that’s two and a half hours from the nearest major airport, in Atlanta.
How did the hardest-working man in show business leave behind so little to so many? Mostly because of a ridiculously complicated estate. In August 2000, Brown signed a will that left “personal and household effects” to his six children. He also created the I Feel Good trust to educate poor kids in South Carolina and Georgia. Around the same time, Brown married his fourth wife—in a union that was later contested—and his will was never altered to include her or the son she says she had with Brown. What’s more, he left behind multiple personal complications, from mistresses to a mounting number of grandchildren, each of whom could stake a claim on Brown’s potential fortune.
Sex and greed are players, as are missed opportunities and longing. At a recent court hearing, a judge asked to see the lead counsel in his chambers and 21 lawyers stood up. There are six children named in his will, and five are now challenging it. There’s also a disputed fourth wife—a onetime Janis Joplin impersonator—with another child she claims is Brown’s. Meanwhile, the three men Brown chose to oversee his trust are being sued for allegedly siphoning off nearly $14 million. And the lawyer he hired to put the will together is serving 30 years in a South Carolina prison for murdering a strip-club manager.
The only thing missing right now: something concrete to fight over.
Though Brown earned as much as $80 million a year during his heyday, he left behind few assets—the most valuable of which is potentially his reputation. But instead of marketing the singer’s name, Brown’s many would-be beneficiaries have spent the year and a half since his death locked in a drag-out fight. While Elvis Presley’s estate took in about $49 million last year and John Lennon’s about $44 million, the biggest deal going for Brown’s family is a Christie’s sale set for July 17—and the estimated proceeds from that, about $2 million, will go mostly to pay legal bills. There had been a contract with a toymaker to manufacture James Brown dolls, but the deal expired after a year. There was once talk of turning Brown’s former home, in Beech Island, South Carolina, into a Graceland-like attraction. But when the auction strips the house of Brown’s effects—the domed dryer in the hair salon, the 1974 Mercedes coupe in the garage, and the 42 jumpsuits in his closet—the place will be a shell that’s two and a half hours from the nearest major airport, in Atlanta.
How did the hardest-working man in show business leave behind so little to so many? Mostly because of a ridiculously complicated estate. In August 2000, Brown signed a will that left “personal and household effects” to his six children. He also created the I Feel Good trust to educate poor kids in South Carolina and Georgia. Around the same time, Brown married his fourth wife—in a union that was later contested—and his will was never altered to include her or the son she says she had with Brown. What’s more, he left behind multiple personal complications, from mistresses to a mounting number of grandchildren, each of whom could stake a claim on Brown’s potential fortune.
In another wrinkle, the singer, back in 1999, mortgaged the royalties to most of his songs in a so-called Bowie Bond, named for the singer David Bowie, who was the first to benefit from one. The deal gave Brown $26 million up front, while the purchaser, TIAA-CREF, the financial-services company best known for managing teachers’ pensions, got royalties to hits like “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine.” Today, while Brown’s songbook generates roughly $5 million a year (putting him ahead of James Dean and Bob Marley on Forbes’ list of top-earning dead celebrities), all of the revenue goes to TIAA-CREF. Depending on album sales and the success of other moneymakers like ring tones and single downloads, it could be another five to 10 years before the $15 million balance is paid off, says David Pullman, the financier who structured the bond.
In the meantime, the legal mess has scared off other potential business partners. Imagine Entertainment, the production company behind A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code, paid $1 million over the course of a decade for options to make a James Brown biopic. It was widely reported that director Spike Lee co-wrote and circulated a script. But last summer, Imagine let its options lapse. “We’re going to wait until the family resolves its issues before we decide what we’re going to do,” says company president Michael Rosenberg.
Similarly, a reality-TV show, Who Will Be the Next Godfather of Soul? was in the works but has been dropped. There were also discussions with talent agency William Morris to use Brown’s name, image, and likeness in exchange for “tens of millions of dollars over the next several years,” says Toby Byron, a television producer who worked with the estate. Such deals would require approval of the court-appointed overseers, but the hearings in South Carolina have focused not on business opportunities but on alleged mismanagement of Brown’s affairs. The court-appointed trustees “are so busy with all the litigation, they don’t have time” to pursue other business, says Louis Levenson, the lawyer who is representing five of the six children named in Brown’s will.
Brown’s grandson Forlando Brown, a 22-year-old college senior, hasn’t made much headway with his family either. Having teamed up with Atlanta consultant Terry Cox, Forlando has visions of creating everything from a signature James Brown golf course to a line of children’s books. He has left it to Cox, a former vice president of the restaurant chain Fuddruckers, to offer $80 million to $100 million to buy Brown’s assets and rights to his name and works. Cox says the trustees have not responded to his overtures.
The only possible upside to the continued family battles is keeping Brown’s name in the headlines and potentially propping up his music sales. Already, since Brown’s death on Christmas Day, 2006, sales of his albums have more than doubled, to 376,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. “The more controversy, the better,” says Pullman. “But that doesn’t mean this is maximizing assets.”
In the meantime, the legal mess has scared off other potential business partners. Imagine Entertainment, the production company behind A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code, paid $1 million over the course of a decade for options to make a James Brown biopic. It was widely reported that director Spike Lee co-wrote and circulated a script. But last summer, Imagine let its options lapse. “We’re going to wait until the family resolves its issues before we decide what we’re going to do,” says company president Michael Rosenberg.
Similarly, a reality-TV show, Who Will Be the Next Godfather of Soul? was in the works but has been dropped. There were also discussions with talent agency William Morris to use Brown’s name, image, and likeness in exchange for “tens of millions of dollars over the next several years,” says Toby Byron, a television producer who worked with the estate. Such deals would require approval of the court-appointed overseers, but the hearings in South Carolina have focused not on business opportunities but on alleged mismanagement of Brown’s affairs. The court-appointed trustees “are so busy with all the litigation, they don’t have time” to pursue other business, says Louis Levenson, the lawyer who is representing five of the six children named in Brown’s will.
Brown’s grandson Forlando Brown, a 22-year-old college senior, hasn’t made much headway with his family either. Having teamed up with Atlanta consultant Terry Cox, Forlando has visions of creating everything from a signature James Brown golf course to a line of children’s books. He has left it to Cox, a former vice president of the restaurant chain Fuddruckers, to offer $80 million to $100 million to buy Brown’s assets and rights to his name and works. Cox says the trustees have not responded to his overtures.
The only possible upside to the continued family battles is keeping Brown’s name in the headlines and potentially propping up his music sales. Already, since Brown’s death on Christmas Day, 2006, sales of his albums have more than doubled, to 376,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. “The more controversy, the better,” says Pullman. “But that doesn’t mean this is maximizing assets.”
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