We all have done things at some point or another in our lives that we regret — some are big regrets and some are not so big — but the fact of the matter is that most of us have them. Rick James was no different…and although he lived his colorful life unapologetically, there was one mistake he wished he could take back. It involved his beloved mother.

Rick James’ Big Regret

In his memoir, “Glow,” the “Superfreak” hitmaker confessed the following:

“I had OD’d in Buffalo and was rushed to the hospital where the doctors quickly brought me back to life. I was kept there for observation. Without warning, I decided to get up and leave. My Mom had come to the hospital to stop me from leaving. When she saw me getting dressed to leave, we got into a yelling match. I pushed my Mom to the floor just to get her out of my way. As I looked down and saw my beautiful little mother on the floor, I knew my life was terribly, terribly wrong. I never forgave myself for that moment.”                                    

James’ mother died shortly thereafter. The death of his mom so depressed him that he revealed he’d become a recluse in his own bedroom, and lost himself in drugs.

Other Celebs Who’ve Confessed Regretful Moments

Rick James as we all know, is by far not the only superstar to have  as a result of drugs. Many celebs have unfortunately had their moments, such as Martin Lawrence, or George Clinton, for example.

Remember Martin Lawrence’s situation after he’d admittedly smoked some bad weed? He was subsequently caught by police walking the street stripped down, in a delusional state as a result. A witness, who said he was an acquaintance of Lawrence, said the actor was cursing, waving his hands and yelling, “Fight the establishment!” Martin reportedly ran out onto a busy street when police arrived and tried to fight them off when they attempted to restrain him.

Heavy drug use was common for a touring funk band during the 1970s…but for George “P-Funk” Clinton, it was crack that took the biggest toll on him. He once spent a night in jail with Sly Stone after being busted for possession in a Denny’s parking lot.

In his book, George Clinton also recalled an incident when a then-teenage Chelsea Clinton (Bill and Hillary Clinton’s daughter) went backstage after his concert to take a photo with him (shown above). For George, that didn’t go so smoothly. Startled by the Secret Service, the P-Funk legend said that he was forced to conceal a red-hot crack pipe in one hand while shaking the then-first daughter’s hand with the other. He’s been clean for several decades years now and regrets his heavy drug use of yesteryear.

George Clinton also has a whole new outlook on life: “One of the best things about getting off crack is not waking up in the morning and thinking about where you’re gonna get it,” he concludes.

Moral of the story is: life comes at us fast…but the beauty is in the wisdom we gain from the mistakes we’ve made — that’s priceless.

The post The One Regret Rick James Confessed Doing To His Mom, But Never Forgave Himself For appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Luther was one the greatest to have ever done it, hands down. But before we came to know him as LUTHER, those in the music industry knew him as the highly sought-after background vocalist, music producer, vocal arranger, and songwriter. Everyone from Chaka Khan, to Barbra Streisand, David Bowie, Donna Summer, and more requested Luther to contribute to their music. He was in-demand.

The only thing many couldn’t figure out was why Luther wasn’t eagerly jumping all over the deals that several record labels were throwing his way back in the day. The reason is because from the very beginning of his career, Luther had great business sense and was so much more than just a crooner. Labels learned real quick that they couldn’t wool over his eyes. How so? Because the “Superman” singer continuously held out on signing hefty record contract offers for a long time, until his two non-negotiable demands were met:
(1) That he can contractually maintain 100% creative control over his art.

(2) That he own ALL rights to his music publishing.

In the ’80s, and even today, an artist maintaining full creative control, and owning 100% publishing rights are oftentimes a big ‘no-no’ in the music industry. So, record labels were not trying to hear what Luther was demanding. His contractual demands were not standard practice, especially for an African American R&B artist back then (unfortunately). In return, Luther wasn’t trying to hear what those record label execs had to say either.

Eventually, Luther got what he felt was rightfully his and we’re glad he did. As a result, he was able to express himself, creatively, exactly the way he wanted to, while gracing us with timeless music in the process. And an additional benefit is that Luther’s business decision allowed him and his loved ones to be financially set. It’s been said that at one point, Luther made so much money from his publishing and songwriting, that he was able to buy his home for $6 million in cash, which was a lot for many artists back then. Most Black R&B artists of Luther’s era  just didn’t have a cool six mil’ resting in their bank accounts like that…not to the capacity that they wouldn’t flinch over it after spending it in one lump sum.

Luther’s family allegedly still owns all of his publishing rights. After Luther passed, his Mother inherited the rights to his song catalogue, and after she passed, a male relative reportedly inherited it.

A List Of Other Music Legends Who Fought Tooth And Nail For Their Song Publishing Rights

We all know it’s been a long fought, public battle for Prince, who in 1993 had the word ‘slave’ carved onto his face to protest the ‘slave-like’ control that Warner Bros. had over his music, his creativity, and his name. So he left the mainstream scene for 18 years and did his own thing independently somehow. He eventually regained control of his name and in August of 2014, he resigned with Warner Bros. after they agreed to give him full ownership of his publishing for all of his 80’s music. Hand clap for Prince for standing up to the corporate music machine.

Y’all know MJ didn’t play when it came to his publishing rights. Many didn’t know that Michael was one of the best businessmen in the entire music industry- from the soul genre, to pop, to hip hop- MJ owned a piece of it all and a lot of music execs didn’t like it.They apparently felt like MJ was ‘overstepping his boundaries.’ I never understood that by the way, was it because “his place” should have been just in an artist’s box? Did they think that an artist should not be allowed to have the same rights as their often cut throat head honchos of these corporations do? MJ never backed down from the intimidation tactics that were often used against him in the industry and to this day his estate also owns the Beatles catalogue (which included many other high selling artists). He purchased it for $47.5 million and it’s now worth an estimated $2 billion. Ten years after buying that catalogue, he agreed to let Sony buy half of it for $90 million, so to this day the Jackson estate owns the other half.

George Clinton was one of the few artists who actually owned the rights to his publishing, but due to a few financial set backs and hard times personally, his rights were sold of during him filing bankruptcy many years ago. The problem is that allegedly after a certain amount of years had passed, he was supposed to be given back his publishing, but he says that hasn’t happened yet, so he’s spent 3 million dollars in recent years battling it out in court with his former labels and publishing house. George says he will continue to fight until his last breathe, because he knows his family and the families of all of his former band mates deserve it.

The post Good For Him: Luther’s Bold Business Moves Prove That He Was About His Money appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

So, we know this sounds crazy, but it came directly from George Clinton’s mouth that he hid a lit crack pipe from the President’s daughter and the secret service! While it’s no secret that our man, George, was a wild dude back in the day, this particular Clinton incident is one we would have NEVER called in a million years.

Basically it went like this: ‘Clinton meet Clinton.’ That’s the former first daughter (of former President Bill Clinton), Chelsea Clinton, meeting George “P-Funk” Clinton. Bill and Hillary Clinton’s daughter was a huge fan of George Clinton (now that’s a whole ‘nother story) and it all went down during the Centennial Olympics.

Here’s the story according to Rolling Stone:

It’s July 24, 1996 and George Clinton is performing at Atlanta’s House of Blues with the P-Funk All Stars, an evolving clique comprised of members of Parliament-Funkadelic and anyone Clinton feels like adding to the mix.

Clinton is in the band’s dressing room before the show getting ripped as he had done hundreds of times over the previous 15 years.

When Chelsea Clinton came backstage that night with a coterie of Secret Service agents, she joked with the funkmaster about having a food fight. He dissuaded her, not wanting to get shot down by an overeager fed. While posing for a photo with Chelsea, George realized at the last moment that he should probably conceal the crack pipe he was holding, so he just made a fist around it: “It was hot as a motherfucker, burning my hand up, but it worked – the picture, without a crack pipe in sight, was in People magazine.”

Here’s the infamous photo of George clutching a hidden, lit crack pipe behind his back standing next to Chelsea Clinton:

George was NO joke!

One thing about him, he never sang songs about being in love with crack cocaine, nor acid (which he said he was also addicted to back then). But of course we’re talking about George Clinton, so we all know he and the rest of P-Funk stood up loud and proud for their love of weed and even a little alcohol. However, he stayed away from singing about the rock…unlike today’s hip hop artists, who blatantly brag about being poppin’ pills and being “in love with the coco (cocaine)” on mainstream radio. Nowadays, when an artist proudly boasts his love for cocaine and poppin’ mollies (a mixture of crystal-meth, cocaine, and opiates), valiums, Xanax, etc. in his/her single, it garners a chart-topping hit, and that’s dangerous…but I digress.

Today, George is declared clean now. In his book he talked about his ‘getting high’ days. At 79 years young, he’s happy, healthy and active because he kicked a three-decade addiction to crack cocaine – a major step towards his win. Not only does he talk about getting clean, but shedding all of his bad-boy image and about battling it out in court with his former to earn the rights to his music:

“Fighting all of these court cases had completely drained me physically,” he says. “I had fun catching them (the lawyers) off guard because they were thinking I was still a crack-head! (laughing) It worked. I feel good. I look good. I’ve lost about 85 pounds.” […] The crux of the lawsuit – reclaiming the rights to his back catalog – is still unresolved, but he said he’ll continue to fight, even if it’s for the rest of his life.

Like we always say, there’s a lot that can be learned from the lives of our favorite Old School artists and George Clinton’s evolution into the man he is today, is a beautiful thing to witness.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view

The post George Clinton Recalled Hiding His Crack Pipe From Bill Clinton’s Daughter During Odd Meeting appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Legendary funk soul artist, George Clinton, may not have 99 problems, but he does have one…that is, if the widow of his former band member has her way. The 77 year old singer is being accused of being a manipulative, drug peddling, lying thief who did his band members dirty for years, by forcing them to do things that destroyed their lives, according to a newly filed lawsuit.

George “Bernie” Worrell Jr. (pictured below) was a member of George Clinton’s bands, Parliament and Funkadelic, and worked with him from the 1970’s to the 1980’s. Bernie co-wrote and sang on most of Clinton’s and/or Parliament and Funkadelic songs at that time. The Blast reported that after he passed away in June 2016, his widow says Clinton has failed to uphold a deal he and Bernie agreed to since 1976, for song royalties. Now she’s hittin’ him with a lawsuit and hr message is clear- she wants her paper NOW. The details in her lawsuit are pretty interesting though, check ’em out below…

Embed from Getty Images

Widow Slams George Clinton As A “Fraud”
Bernie’s widow claims within her lawsuit that “Clinton has a history of fraud, deceit, and delinquency when it comes to the performance of contracts that he has entered into on behalf of himself or his companies.”

To further back her claims, Bernie’s widow referenced recent documentary, featuring some of Clinton’s ex-bandmates, in which they made claims that Clinton would give them drugs back in the day and later deduct it from their paychecks.

He Used “Long Fingernail” To Offer Them Drugs?
George Clinton is also accused of enticing bandmates of becoming drug addicts, by walking around the room with cocaine on his “long fingernail” and telling his bandmates to have some:

Via The Blast- “Apparently, Clinton did this despite many band members not wanting drugs and needing money to provide for their families. Drug use was encouraged and pushed by Clinton. Another band member Grady Thomas recounts how, ‘[Clinton] had a long fingernail. And he would go around and…, hey man, here. Have some.’”

There’s More>>>

The post Major Claims Made Against George Clinton In New Lawsuit By His Band Member’s Widow appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

This guy’s name is Tra’zae and he is the 23 year old grandson of a TRUE legend in soul music. He has several things in common with his grandpop- he is an artist and he partakes in a certain type of extracurricular activity that hi Pop Pop is certainly known for. The last clue we’re gonna give is that his soulful grandaddy was really sought after in the 70’s and the early part of the 80s. Think you know who he is? Find out…

The post He’s The Grandson Of A 70s Soul Icon, But Can He Follow In His Footsteps? appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

So, we know this sounds crazy, but it came directly from George Clinton’s mouth that he hid a lit crack pipe from the President’s daughter and the secret service! While it’s no secret that our man, George, was a wild dude back in the day, this particular Clinton incident is one we would have NEVER called in a million years.

Basically it went like this: ‘Clinton meet Clinton.’ That’s the former first daughter (of former President Bill Clinton), Chelsea Clinton, meeting George “P-Funk” Clinton. Bill and Hillary Clinton’s daughter was a huge fan of George Clinton (now that’s a whole ‘nother story) and it all went down during the Centennial Olympics.

Here’s the story according to Rolling Stone:

It’s July 24, 1996 and George Clinton is performing at Atlanta’s House of Blues with the P-Funk All Stars, an evolving clique comprised of members of Parliament-Funkadelic and anyone Clinton feels like adding to the mix.

Clinton is in the band’s dressing room before the show getting ripped as he had done hundreds of times over the previous 15 years.

When Chelsea Clinton came backstage that night with a coterie of Secret Service agents, she joked with the funkmaster about having a food fight. He dissuaded her, not wanting to get shot down by an overeager fed. While posing for a photo with Chelsea, George realized at the last moment that he should probably conceal the crack pipe he was holding, so he just made a fist around it: “It was hot as a motherfucker, burning my hand up, but it worked – the picture, without a crack pipe in sight, was in People magazine.”

Here’s the infamous photo of George clutching a hidden, lit crack pipe behind his back standing next to Chelsea Clinton:

George was NO joke!

One thing about him, he never sang songs about being in love with crack cocaine, nor acid (which he said he was also addicted to back then). But of course we’re talking about George Clinton, so we all know he and the rest of P-Funk stood up loud and proud for their love of weed and even a little alcohol. However, he stayed away from singing about the rock…unlike today’s hip hop artists, who blatantly brag about being “in love with the coco” (cocaine) on mainstream radio. Nowadays, when an artist proudly boasts his love for cocaine and poppin’ mollies (a mixture of crystal-meth, cocaine, and opiates), valiums, Xanax, etc. in his RADIO single, it gets him a chart-topping hit and that’s dangerous…but I digress.

Today, George is declared clean now. In his book he talked about his ‘getting high’ days. At 77 years young, he’s happy, healthy and active because he kicked a three-decade addiction to crack cocaine – a major step towards his win. Not only does he talk about getting clean, but shedding all of his bad-boy image and about battling it out in court with his former to earn the rights to his music:

“Fighting all of these court cases had completely drained me physically,” he says. “I had fun catching them (the lawyers) off guard because they were thinking I was still a crack-head! (laughing) It worked. I feel good. I look good. I’ve lost about 85 pounds.” […] The crux of the lawsuit – reclaiming the rights to his back catalog – is still unresolved, but he said he’ll continue to fight, even if it’s for the rest of his life.

Like we always say, there’s a lot that can be learned from the lives of our favorite Old School artists and George Clinton’s evolution into the man he is today, is a beautiful thing to witness.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view

The post George Clinton Revealed He Hid His Crack Pipe From President’s Daughter In Odd Meeting appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

[kkgallery kid=”2422″ title=”She’s The Wife Of One of Your Favorite 70’s Soul Singers…Guess Who!”]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Join us on Facebook for the most engaging discussions from the Old School! Old School News With A New Point Of View!

The post She’s The Wife Of One of Your Favorite 70’s Soul Singers…Guess Who! appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

]]> https://www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com/shes-the-wife-of-one-of-your-favorite-70s-soul-singers-guess-who/feed/ 1 7705 https://www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com/one-thing-rick-james-never-forgave-2/ https://www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com/one-thing-rick-james-never-forgave-2/#respond Tue, 30 Dec 2014 16:34:52 +0000 http://angularjsdevelopment.com/LoveOldMusic/?p=5652 Rick James didn’t seem to regret doing many of the things he did throughout his lifetime, but he said he was never able to forgive himself after he became sober. We all have done things at some point or another...

The post Regrets: The One Thing Rick James Never Forgave Himself For appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

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Rick James didn’t seem to regret doing many of the things he did throughout his lifetime, but he said he was never able to forgive himself after he became sober.

We all have done things at some point or another in our lives that we regret- some are big regrets and some are not so big – but the fact of the matter is that most of us have them. Rick is no different and he said that he’s done many things in his life but this one mistake is something he never forgave himself for.

The post Regrets: The One Thing Rick James Never Forgave Himself For appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

]]> https://www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com/one-thing-rick-james-never-forgave-2/feed/ 0 5652 https://www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com/george-clinton-puts-record-labels-blast-music-rights/ https://www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com/george-clinton-puts-record-labels-blast-music-rights/#respond Fri, 12 Dec 2014 03:00:46 +0000 http://angularjsdevelopment.com/LoveOldMusic/?p=5125 After 59 years in the music industry and many great funk jams, it’s amazing that the legendary George Clinton has to battle it out for what’s rightfully his- his music! That’s why George “P-Funk” Clinton is now naming names and...

The post George Clinton Spent 3Million & Refuses To End Fight w/Record Label appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

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After 59 years in the music industry and many great funk jams, it’s amazing that the legendary George Clinton has to battle it out for what’s rightfully his- his music! That’s why George “P-Funk” Clinton is now naming names and not taking any prisoners!

He said that he’s tired of record labels collectively plotting their conspiracy against him regarding the money that he is supposed to be getting paid from BMI, Universal, Bridgeport Music and Capitol Records. He also said that at 73 years young, he’ll NEVER stop fighting for the rights to his music.

This is why Clinton has spent these last few years and 3 million dollars trying to reclaim what he says was wrongfully stolen from him, his heirs and his band.

This is basically what’s going on: When a song by Parliament-Funkadelic is used in a commercial or a movie or is sampled in a contemporary song, licensing fees are involved, but Clinton and his band members aren’t getting paid from it.

Clinton explains the breakdown of how he says they are being cheated out of their money.[quote_box_center]

“They’re (the artists) paying for the music. The artists paid when they sampled our songs. The money was taken from the rappers and supposed to be given to us. The system has formed a conspiracy with BMI (music rights organization) Universal, Capitol and Bridgeport Music. (Bridgeport Music is a Michigan-based music publishing company which controls the copyrights to Clinton’s songs.)

Bridgeport and BMI share the same law firm. They’ve been secretive about it and sealed the case trying to prevent anyone from finding out. The New York Times filed a motion to unseal it and so did (news/talk station) WXYZ in Detroit. Recently, both have backed down because there’s a lot of money involved. Now what we have is a cover-up.”
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Turn the page to see what else George said about being cheated out of the rights to his music…

The post George Clinton Spent 3Million & Refuses To End Fight w/Record Label appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

]]> https://www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com/george-clinton-puts-record-labels-blast-music-rights/feed/ 0 5125 https://www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com/lenny-williams-forever-grateful-steve-harvey-saving-life/ https://www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com/lenny-williams-forever-grateful-steve-harvey-saving-life/#comments Fri, 24 Oct 2014 23:07:51 +0000 http://angularjsdevelopment.com/LoveOldMusic/?p=3573 Radio host/comedian, Steve Harvey, talked about what Lenny Williams (the “Cause I Love You” singer) told him when he met him a few years ago and it’s a really cool story to witness… What Steve Harvey Revealed About Meeting Lenny...

The post Steve Harvey Revealed Why “Cause I Love U” Soul Singer Lenny Williams Says He Saved His Life appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

]]> Radio host/comedian, Steve Harvey, talked about what Lenny Williams (the “Cause I Love You” singer) told him when he met him a few years ago and it’s a really cool story to witness…

What Steve Harvey Revealed About Meeting Lenny Williams

A few years ago, Steve Harvey revealed on his radio show, that Lenny Williams and his wife walked up to him at a public event and Lenny said: “Man thank you SO much for saving my life…you really saved my life.”  Then Lenny’s wife said, “We thank you so much.”

Steve admitted he had no idea what Mr. ad Mrs. Lenny Williams were talking about, but then they told him that after playing Lenny’s “Cause I Love You” in his “Kings of Comedy” routine repeatedly, the sales for that song shot through the roof. Because Lenny owns the rights to his song, those sales are what pulled he and his wife out of a bad financial position. Lenny said he also started getting booked for shows a lot more.

Steve Harvey later stated that wasn’t him, but that was instead “the grace of God,” because he had no clue Lenny was going through financial troubles at that time. Harvey also admitted Lenny’s story really touched him and that Lenny probably has no idea how much that, in turn, affected his life too.

Wow, Lenny did what many artists haven’t done- retained the ownership of his own music, because he knew his worth and in the end, it paid off for him.  For artists, like Lenny, its not only about their worth, it’s also about them possessing the ability to create music (their intellectual properties) that will still have earning potential decades after it was created.

Other Old School soul artists have been successful -and not so successful- at reaping the benefits of their intellectual properties throughout the years…

George Clinton, “The Funk Pioneer” has worked with artists from all genres and insists that allowing his music to be sampled has been instrumental in keeping his career alive. “We forged ourselves an alliance with the [Dr.] Dre’s and Snoop [Dogg] and [Ice Cube] and all of them,” said Clinton but unfortunately, he is STILL in court fighting for the rights to all of his music that he lost the rights to in his bankruptcy a few years back.

https://youtu.be/pYh-LwbUwoQ

Sam & Dave (The “Soul Man” and “If Something Is Wrong With My Baby” singers) practically had their entire life’s story jacked and recreated in the movie, “Soul Men” (starring Bernie Mack and Samuel Jackson), but have yet to be compensated for it and that’s why Sam Moore has been battling it out with the Weinstein Co. (the film studio responsible for creating the movie, Soul Men) for the past 6 years and things like this definitely make Weinstein co. look suspicious because according to variety.com this is what went down:

Harvey Weinstein did make some attempt to involve Sam Moore in the project. On Jan. 15, 2008, he emailed his brother Bob, the head of Dimension Pictures, which produced the film, writing: “You have to have Sam participate in this movie.”

According to Moore’s wife, Weinstein Co. representatives did call with a last-minute offer for a cameo role for Moore, but it came with strings attached. “A day or two before they shot a car-crash scene in Memphis, they offered Sam a cameo role for $1,000, but they said that we had to get down there immediately” – the couple lives in Arizona –“and they also wanted Sam to sign a complete and full release of any and all claims and rights that he had to the movie,” Joyce explains, adding: “Needless to say, we never even went to look for a suitcase.”

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