James Brown

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In this Feb. 8, 2017 photo, author Ed Maliskas stands in the performers' dressing room of a dance hall in Dargan, Md., that hosted dozens of black performers including James Brown, Ray Charles, Etta James and Otis Redding during the racially segregated 1950s and early '60s. The hall stands on the same property as the house where abolitionist John Brown launched his 1859 seizure of a federal armory. The Black Elks, the African-American fraternal organization that built the dance hall, sold the Maryland property in 1966, seven months after James Brown starred in the final show. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

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James Brown - Brown's personal life was marred by several brushes with the law. At the age of 16, he was convicted of theft and served three years in juvenile prison. On July 16, 1978, after performing at the Apollo, Brown was arrested for reportedly failing to turn in records from one of his radio stations after the station was forced to file for bankruptcy. Brown was arrested in May 1988 on drug and weapons charges, and again on September 24, 1988, following a high-speed car chase on Interstate 20 near the Georgia–South Carolina state border. He was convicted of carrying an unlicensed pistol and assaulting a police officer, along with various drug-related and driving offenses. Although he was sentenced to six years in prison, he was eventually released on parole on February 27, 1991 after serving two years of his sentence. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Sgt. James Brown, an Army combat soldier who checked into the El Paso County Jail for a two-day DWI sentence, repeatedly screamed "I can't breathe" as he was being pinned by officers before his abrupt death in July of 2012, according to newly released video. (CNN)

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Sports announcer James Brown appears on the NFL.com Live set at Radio Row in Indianapolis, IN on Feb. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Alix Drawec)

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FILE - In this June 8, 2012, file photo is James Brown in Sterling Heights, Mich. Brown was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of four women whose bodies were stashed in cars in Detroit in 2011. (AP Photo/Detroit News, Todd McInturf, File ) DETROIT FREE PRESS OUT; HUFFINGTON POST OUT

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FILE -- In a June 8, 2012, file photo James Brown listens as his preliminary hearing is delayed on June 8, 2012, in Sterling Heights, Mich. Closing arguments are next in the trial of the Detroit-area man charged with killing four women who met him online. Brown is accused of killing the women in pairs on different days at his Sterling Heights home. Their bodies soon were discovered in cars in a Detroit neighborhood in December 2011. Final arguments in the three-week trial are set for Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014. (AP Photo/Detroit News,Todd McInturf ) DETROIT FREE PRESS OUT; HUFFINGTON POST OUT

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FILE -- In a June 8, 2012, file photo James Brown listens as his preliminary hearing is delayed in Sterling Heights, Mich. Jury selection started Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014, in the trial of Brown who is charged with killing four women after meeting them through online escort ads. (AP Photo/Detroit News,Todd McInturf, file ) DETROIT FREE PRESS OUT; HUFFINGTON POST OUT

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James Brown, who authorities say killed four women in the Detroit area in December, has been charged with murder, prosecutors announced on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Detroit Police Department via The Detroit News)

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A woman and man work at the bar underneath a picture of James Brown at the newly renovated Howard Theatre on T Street Northwest in Washington, D.C. on Monday, April 9, 2012. The space is filled with photographs of the many famous acts that used to play here. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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James Patterson, who has run a home improvement business next door to the Howard Theatre for 44 years and worked for the theatre from 1961 until it closed its doors, points to a photograph of musical legend James Brown when he visited his office while playing at the Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C., Thursday, April 5, 2012. The redesigned historic Howard Theatre is set to reopens with a ribbon cutting Monday and an opening night gala on Thursday. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Posters of James Brown and B.B. King hang above the bar on the main level of the redesigned historic Howard Theatre which is set to reopen with a ribbon cutting Monday and an opening night gala on Thursday, Washington, D.C., Thursday, April 5, 2012. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Party: James Brown Death-Mas Why do we celebrate Christmas on December 25? It's not like ours was the calendar in use at the birth of common era, or that there is any scholarly evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was born in the dead of winter. There is quite a bit of scholarly evidence, however, that James Brown, godfather of soul, has an ironclad claim to Dec. 25: It is his death day. Brown was admitted to a hospital on Christmas Eve in 2006, and died the next day of complications from pneumonia. In honor of the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, the Black Cat is throwing a James Brown Death-Mas Bash. DJ Soul Call Paul and the James Brown Revue promise to "RESURRECT the man and his music in a Christmas dance party for the ages." Dec. 25 at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. Phone: (202) 667-7960. Web: http://www.blackcatdc.com/