Rick James, Super Freak

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:00:39

Hey, Scarlett is we are back to talk about

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:00:44

our next true crime episode.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:00:47

And I am so excited about this episode because this is about one

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:00:51

of my favorite, um, musicians.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:00:55

And.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:00:56

Uh, of all time.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:00:58

And I say that because I absolutely think that his music is fantastic.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:03

I, um, he's, you know, he has been a part of some very important,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:08

um, you know, music in the past.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:11

And he was really, in my opinion, what I, my note about this.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:15

Um, is that he was the funk, a tear innovator.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:19

And I know that there are other people who could probably get that as,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:22

um, sort of recognition as well say Bootsy Collins, or are maybe prints.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:27

But I think that Rick James was the forerunner in the.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:33

innovation department.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:35

Um, you know, he had some incredibly popular music in the past, so, but, uh,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:39

Brittney, as we will talk about, he also had some, uh, some issues we will say.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:44

And, um, he has some, um, you know, true crime in his past.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:48

He was convicted, uh, a couple of times of some serious crimes, in my opinion.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:01:55

I don't want us to, uh, gloss over nor, um, sort of dismiss.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:00

So we're going to chat a little bit about what the, about those crimes,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:03

but first we're going to talk a little bit about Rick James and his history,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:06

because I think the beginning of his life was really interesting and he

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:08

knew a lot of interesting people.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:10

So, you know, without further ado, Rick James I E James Ambrose Johnson Jr.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:17

Was born February 1st, 1948, better known by his stage name.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:25

Rick James pretty.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:28

How do you know, how do you James?

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:31

Cause I, well, I lived through the time when he was, his

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:33

music was really important.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:35

So you probably heard it after.

Brittney Sherman: 00:02:37

Well, yes.

Brittney Sherman: 00:02:37

So, uh, I know Rick James based off of.

Brittney Sherman: 00:02:42

Really one song.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:48

Oh my gosh.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:52

Well, there's another song that you will probably remember that he did.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:55

And that was given to me, baby, which is another one to my favorite songs.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:02:59

I know, I

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:00

do know that one too, but I know him for.

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:04

Uh, the four, the first one.

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:06

Yeah, I know for a super freak.

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:08

Uh, and then I also know, and we'll talk about this later.

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:12

We also know, or I also know him from Chappelle show and it's

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:18

funny because I didn't even watch Chappelle show, but it was so iconic

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:21

when he was featured on there.

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:23

And Dave Chappelle's apparently spot on characterization of him

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:28

and his famous catch for AEs.

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:31

I'm

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:03:32

Rick James bitch, which, uh, I think it's consistent

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:03:36

with him throughout his life.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:03:37

He, um, you know, is no longer living, but he, as I said, he was

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:03:42

born in 1948 in Buffalo, New York.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:03:45

And he began his musical career pretty early.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:03:47

Um, in his teenage years, he really felt like that he was,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:03:51

um, you know, he had a gift.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:03:53

He, and he did have a gift.

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:54

That's true.

Brittney Sherman: 00:03:55

But before he started and before he got into music, He's ventures into criminal

Brittney Sherman: 00:04:00

life started as early as age nine.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:04

Yes.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:04

And a lot of that was because his mother was a numbers runner

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:08

actually for the mob in New York.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:11

So he witnessed a lot of different things.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:14

Um, and you know, this was, I mean, Hey, I, I get to give it to her.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:18

You know, she's raising kids, she's going to do whatever she needs to do.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:21

But for him, this, this model, his, his life a bit, and

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:24

certainly set him on a path.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:26

Now, I think he spent a lot of his time.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:28

You know, a lot of his life, you know, not committing criminal acts.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:31

Certainly he did some important things, but, you know, I think

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:34

that he may have made some choices throughout his life that, um, were

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:38

affected by that early modeling.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:40

Not to, not to be all proper about it, but, you know, he saw

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:43

some things happening and he was like, ah, you know, his, his moral

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:46

character may have been in question.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:04:48

Let's just say, well,

Brittney Sherman: 00:04:49

sure.

Brittney Sherman: 00:04:50

But I have to say, I was surprised how much he was.

Brittney Sherman: 00:04:56

Uh, how, how many criminal acts he really was involved in?

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:00

I didn't know much about them.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:02

I knew a lot about the drugs, but I know about the criminal acts, uh, because yeah,

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:05

so not only was his mother involved in running the numbers, uh, which if you're

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:10

not familiar with that, look it up.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:12

It's kind of like a type of illegal lottery.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:15

It's really kind of fascinating to read about.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:17

Uh, but he was part of that.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:19

They're out.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:20

And he was only nine years old at the time.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:22

So that's very early, uh, age.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:25

Of course, can't say that he really had any control over that.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:29

His mom was doing that as opposed to working a and working another job, doing

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:34

what she could to make ends meet because his father was no longer in the picture.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:38

Uh, his father left.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:05:40

Uh, but

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:42

with, with his mother, he, she, she.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:45

Well, she was trying to do the best that she could.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:47

She also sent him to a private Catholic school and he attended elementary school

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:54

at a private school and was expecting.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:56

Several times.

Brittney Sherman: 00:05:58

I don't know how you get expelled several times from one school, because I've always

Brittney Sherman: 00:06:01

thought once you get expelled, it means you're you're out out, but he was expelled

Brittney Sherman: 00:06:06

at least three times from the same Catholic school for causing trouble, uh,

Brittney Sherman: 00:06:11

not criminal per se, but he showed early signs of not being the most stand up.

Brittney Sherman: 00:06:20

And, uh, the best kid that may preview what.

Brittney Sherman: 00:06:26

Later do, uh, an

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:06:27

adulthood.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:06:28

So as we said, you know, he was in various bands, you know, he hung out early on,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:06:33

I think with Neil young and they were in a band together for quite a while.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:06:37

He actually went to Canada in 1964, um, because he did not want to be drafted.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:06:43

And unfortunately, um, he formed, well, not unfortunately, but he, he

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:06:48

formed a band in Canada apparently.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:06:51

Um, the minor burrs, which I think is a really interesting name, but that was so.

Brittney Sherman: 00:06:56

He keep in mind though.

Brittney Sherman: 00:06:56

He went to Canada because he actually enlisted when he was 16 years old

Brittney Sherman: 00:07:03

in the United States military.

Brittney Sherman: 00:07:05

And he enlisted as a reservist and he.

Brittney Sherman: 00:07:10

Fled to Canada when the United States, uh, went to Vietnam and the

Brittney Sherman: 00:07:15

Vietnam war broke out and he D he didn't want to be sent into war.

Brittney Sherman: 00:07:19

So he officially went AWOL by fleeting to Canada, which is of

Brittney Sherman: 00:07:24

course a felony in military court.

Brittney Sherman: 00:07:27

And so he was a fugitive on the run when he started his musical.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:07:32

Ah, okay.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:07:34

Got it.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:07:35

So, yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:07:35

Was he avoiding?

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:07:36

Oh, so he was avoiding being sent, but he was already, he wouldn't be dressed.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:07:40

Oh, he was a reservist.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:07:41

So he could be drafted into the full-time military.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:07:44

Exactly.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:07:45

Okay.

Brittney Sherman: 00:07:46

Yeah.

Brittney Sherman: 00:07:46

So he essentially signed up to be a reservist, so that way he wouldn't be

Brittney Sherman: 00:07:51

drafted ultimately, but once the Vietnam war picked up, he could be moved up from

Brittney Sherman: 00:07:58

being a reservist to full-time like.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:01

Got it.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:03

So again, as we said, he formed the band, the Mynah birds, and they got a recording

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:09

deal with Motown records in 1966.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:11

Um, that means that he was 22 years old.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:14

And as you said, Brittany, his career had to be halted a bit because he had

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:18

to go deal with his one-year prison term that he received for the draft charges.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:24

So.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:25

After he was released, he left New York and then he moved to California where

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:29

he, he really ultimately started, uh, a rock and a funk group, uh, or multiple

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:35

groups in the sixties and seventies.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:37

So he, this was where he really formed, you know, what we know to

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:40

be Rick James before he really was.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:44

And he started the band stone city band.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:47

Before he did that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:48

He was really a rock and roll guy.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:50

He actually wasn't like a funk guy.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:52

He wasn't an R and B guy.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:53

He was really, you know, truly rock and roll.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:08:56

So when he started the stone city band, they, you know, I think they really

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:00

found their stride and, and they, the release the album come and get.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:05

That had, um, that was in 1978 and had hits on it like you and I and Mary

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:11

Jane and Mary Jane of course, was about marijuana and anybody who says that

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:17

they didn't realize that that song wasn't about marijuana is bananas.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:21

I think some of the records labels, well, the record labels are like,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:23

oh, well we didn't even know.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:24

We thought he was talking about a lady.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:25

I'm like, no, come on.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:28

Yes.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:29

Because Rick James was really, really, um, Outward about his marijuana use.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:36

He has giant, like we know joints on the stage next to him.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:41

There were times where he was threatened to be, um, you know,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:44

essentially arrested because he had pot on stage and wouldn't stop smoking.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:49

And, you know, he was encouraged as council

Brittney Sherman: 00:09:51

goers to

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:51

join him.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:52

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:53

And I was just watching Brittany, the, uh, I got my information from a variety of.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:09:58

And some of which I think that we're meant to be comedic, but I still, there

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:02

were real interviews with Rick James and whether he was kidding or not, I think

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:05

it gave some insight into his personal.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:09

This one I was just watching was about, uh, was the Charlie

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:13

Murphy, Dave Chappelle thing.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:14

Um, it was, you know, I mean, really funny, but so, you know, some of these

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:19

things that seem too weird to be true, I think were actually true because

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:23

when you're working at that level, I mean, he was friends with Eddie Murphy.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:26

He was friends with Stevie wonder.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:27

I think Stevie wonder was the one who told him to call himself Rick James.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:30

And, um, you know, he was cause I think he was going by Ricky before that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:34

Something and, and yeah, and I think Stevie wonder was right.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:38

You know, he, Rick James spent a lot of time with a lot of important people.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:42

He, um, you know, he, he, I mean, he was a very, very famous man.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:50

And if you watch any of the interviews with him, he knew it.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:52

I mean, you know, he really expected everybody to know who he was.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:55

He had a little.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:56

Stage presence, we'll call it.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:10:58

And, um, you know, he hung with some very famous people.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:01

He dated Linda Blair for a couple of years, which I think

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:04

is a really interesting, weird, I thought that tote, I thought

Brittney Sherman: 00:11:07

that too, and yeah.

Brittney Sherman: 00:11:10

She actually got pregnant by his child.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:12

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:13

Which he was really sad about because she did not have that child.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:16

And so he was really sad that he didn't know at the time.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:19

Um, but they were together for a year or two.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:21

So that's a stage of time.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:23

It wasn't in passing.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:24

No, but you know, this was him.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:27

I mean, if you w another source that I took a lot of information from, and

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:31

I thought was really insightful and.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:34

Thoughtful actually was tales from the tour bus.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:37

The Mike judge show where he takes audio, um, and some live action interviews and

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:44

he animated, he puts it to animation and it is so good because it is it's good.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:49

It's so good.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:50

I mean, There are a lot of episodes about country singers and things like that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:54

But there's the second season is where he gets into more R and B

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:58

and funk and broadens it a bit.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:11:59

And he does a two-parter episode about Rick James and a large part of the second.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:05

You know, the second part is about Rick James and his.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:08

Contentious relationship with prince.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:11

So I want to talk about that a bit because I, I know you have prints.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:15

So I know, I know there was a time remember where, you know, Rick James was

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:19

on the top of the world and he, before,

Brittney Sherman: 00:12:23

before we get into prince, I think, I think we're jumping

Brittney Sherman: 00:12:26

over a few things that, um, are maybe indicative of his, his criminal past.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:36

Oh, sure.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:37

Well, I mean, through this entire situation, through this, his entire

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:42

life, we know that he did a lot of drugs.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:44

So if that's what you're referring to,

Brittney Sherman: 00:12:46

but that's not what I'm referring to.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:49

I'm referring to.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:49

I think that consistently we can all agree.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:52

And Rick James will be the first to tell us that he did

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:55

a lot of drugs throughout his.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:12:57

Um, cocaine is a powerful drug and marijuana is awesome.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:13:01

And I wouldn't be surprised if he smoked pot a lot just to

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:13:02

kind of regulate himself, but he did a lot of, lot of drugs.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:13:06

He was on drugs.

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:07

Drugs is like, in my opinion, so minor in comparison,

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:12

uh, because yeah, he, uh, I mean, just to just touch on it at one point,

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:17

he said he was, he spent like $7,000 a week for five years on cocaine.

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:22

And, uh, his tour bus was like a cloud of marijuana smoke all the time.

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:28

Uh, but regardless of that, part of it, he, uh, You mentioned, which is

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:33

so totally true, how he is such a, you know, he, he knew his fame, he

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:40

thought a lot of himself, he kind of, he felt like he was on top of the world.

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:43

And to a certain extent, he really was like, he was the, he was the

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:47

king of funk at, you know, in the late seventies, early eighties.

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:50

Yes.

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:50

He was the pioneer for all of this.

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:53

And he had some really powerful and influential friends.

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:55

But to your point previously about Stevie, wonder how he.

Brittney Sherman: 00:13:59

Yeah.

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:00

He's the one that essentially told him to call himself Rick James.

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:02

He went through a few different names before he settled on Rick James, because

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:09

he first was convicted of being a draft Dodger for going AWOL in the military.

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:17

And he spent a year in military prison.

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:19

Then he was arrested again for a second military charge, but was

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:26

able to get, uh, essentially.

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:29

Get off on that charge because he knew someone in it.

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:32

And at the time before he even moved to Los Angeles, he was trying to

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:36

go to Motown and Motown was very interested in him, but because of his

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:41

past with the military and the stuff that he got into as a kid, Montan

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:46

didn't want anything to do with him.

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:47

So he actually changed his name two or three times before

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:51

he settled on Rick James.

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:52

So even though he was very confident and powerful and he knew he was so famous.

Brittney Sherman: 00:14:58

There was, I still think this other side to him that he was, he was

Brittney Sherman: 00:15:02

constantly running from his past because.

Brittney Sherman: 00:15:05

Of all the things that he left

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:07

in his wake.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:08

Well sort of, I mean, I think that there's a point where it

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:10

didn't matter what happened in his past because he was Rick James.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:13

I mean, once you got to that point, definitely.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:16

I mean, and that it got to that point rather quickly.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:18

I mean, Rick James was pretty much.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:21

Pretty quick in his life.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:22

You know, he, he was, um, he achieved fame at a young age, you know, he,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:26

again, he was a musician, he was in bands when he was a teenager.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:31

So he knew this area very well.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:33

He signed with Motown and at the age of 22.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:37

So yeah, that's super young.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:39

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:39

He was already there.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:40

Like he went from zero to 60 and I, and that is a tough one for someone

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:44

who's doing drugs because it's awfully hard for you to regulate when.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:48

Events like significant events happening in your life, but even if

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:52

you're the vents in your life or, you know, good, positive or negative

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:15:57

traumatic events are really, um, hard for people who have drug addictions,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:02

um, they're triggers, you know, so even the best situations can trigger a

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:06

drug addict into, you know, a spiral.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:09

But, um, yeah, he.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:11

He definitely realized.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:13

And he definitely understood that he had to make some changes and to get around

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:16

things, to get where he wanted to go.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:18

But he always was, you know, I think that he was dead set, that he was

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:21

going to be famous and successful in his life, no matter what he had to

Brittney Sherman: 00:16:24

do.

Brittney Sherman: 00:16:25

I think that's probably true.

Brittney Sherman: 00:16:27

And, uh, one of the things that, uh, I don't know if you plan on

Brittney Sherman: 00:16:31

coming back to it or not, but that you mentioned to me and I, I looked

Brittney Sherman: 00:16:34

up a little bit, was his loose connection with the Manson family also.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:40

Well, it wasn't the Manson family.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:42

He had a connection with, it was the, uh, Sharon Tate family because

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:46

he reached, James was friends with Jay Sebring and Rick James

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:50

was supposed to be at the house.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:52

He was supposed to be at the Sharon Tate home with JC bring

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:55

the night of the Manson murders.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:16:57

But, uh, apparently he got scared.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:00

Um, shockingly, he did some drugs and whatever happened and he

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:03

didn't, he was too messed up to go.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:05

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:05

Which it sounds like that that happened on, um, pretty frequently, you know,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:09

but again, you've got these really powerful people, as we know, in

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:12

Hollywood and in music and whatever, and they just there's no, um, They're

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:17

not held to the same standard that the rest of us are because of this one.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:20

I've been a regular person.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:21

They would have kicked him to the curb.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:23

Um, you know, and his friends, I think kept him safe too.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:25

He was very good friends with Eddie Murphy.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:28

He, again, smokey Robinson.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:30

He, uh, he was the one.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:33

So I want to go back because I want to talk a little bit about the Rick

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:37

James and sort of his progression.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:41

And I think that's where we go back and talk about prince, because there was a

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:44

time where Rick James was on tour, very popular and prince was just coming out.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:50

And so this would have been around the, this would have been in the seventies and.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:54

You know, Rick James really saw himself as, as an iconic figure and

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:17:59

an actual, he really saw himself as an important African-American figure.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:04

And he really thought it was important that he get, you know,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:07

sort of the credit for that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:09

He, he had somehow or another had seen, um, prince and he asked prince

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:15

and he asked another, I think, another band to come on tour with him.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:21

And I think maybe it was, uh, the other band that was on tour with, I forget

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:25

who it was, but it was somebody else that he had to come on tour with him.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:28

Um, shoot.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:31

Not Sheely.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:32

We'll figure that one out later, Rick James asked prince

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:34

to go on tour with them.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:35

Um, you know, all that's fantastic for prince because he gets all this exposure

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:40

and, um, he, you know, of course kills it because he's prince now, Rick James

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:44

starts getting, uh, jealous of prince and starts and re you gotta remember,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:48

let's step back for a second here.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:50

Um, the Rick James band, the stone city band, this was a band.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:57

Five or six, I don't recall.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:18:59

Six foot tall or over black men with giant braids.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:05

And he asked his band to wear those braids.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:07

And they finally agreed because he said that he wanted them

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:10

all to look like warriors.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:13

You know, I think that it's important to understand that he realized pretty

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:16

early on that his performance and the way he looked and the way he conveyed

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:22

himself was important for him as, as an African-American African-American men.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:26

And it was a powerful statement that he was trying to make.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:29

He wanted some recognition, you know, he wanted to be respected and I

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:33

think he was respected for his music.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:35

Certainly he did some, some really great things.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:38

So again, prince goes on tour with him.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:40

Then prince and Rick James start getting into this competition.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:44

You know, they, again, Rick James feels threatened by this.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:49

So prince prince in my opinion is fantastic.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:52

And I, and I'm sorry, Rick James, but I feel like prince is far more, you

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:19:57

know, uh, you know, talented, let's just say his body of work as much better.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:03

And it's probably because he was not as focused on these other

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:06

distractions of Rick James.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:08

Right.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:08

So prince started a side band with his friend Morris day called the time.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:13

And then so did Rick James, Rick started a side band to compete with them, but

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:18

his side band was called like the do rags or something, which is that's

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:22

exactly what it was name horrible.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:25

And then prince started a girl's band, which was vanity six.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:28

So in turn, Rick James starts a girl's band called the Mary

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:31

Jane girls and the Mary Jane.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:34

They were successful.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:35

Um, that was Joanne.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:37

I don't recall her last name, but I thought I really

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:39

liked the Mary Jane girls.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:40

I liked a couple of their songs.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:41

I thought they were kind of awesome.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:42

That was very popular, like the Miami club scene and like the early

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:46

nineties, um, you know, the Mary Jane girls and the Tina Marie was

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:50

also a big supporter of Rick James.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:53

And he wrote songs where he wrote multiple songs for her.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:20:56

He wrote a couple of songs for the temptations and then also smokey room.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:01

So, you know, he, he could do good things when he put his mind to it.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:05

The part that I thought was really interesting was, and you know, for a

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:10

lot of reasons was his relationship with Eddie Murphy, because as you can, if I

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:14

would highly suggest watching the Charlie Murphy tales from the, you know, whatever.

Brittney Sherman: 00:21:20

Each or Hollywood story on Chappelle's show.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:23

It's fantastic.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:25

Good.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:26

Because I feel like that that's the re a realistic view of what Eddie Murphy's

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:30

relationship with, with Rick James was, you know, and Rick James went so far

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:35

as to write and produce that God awful song that Eddie Murphy, um, actually

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:39

performed party all the time, which we, if you remember this song, if you

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:44

don't remember the song, look it up.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:45

It's amazing.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:46

Rick James is in the video.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:47

It is.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:48

I watched

Brittney Sherman: 00:21:48

the video last night.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:49

God.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:50

Awful.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:50

Like I so bad.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:52

And my God, the song has got awful.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:54

I don't care about the video, but no, I know the songs terrible.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:57

Eddie Murphy.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:58

I love Eddie Murphy.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:21:59

I think he's incredibly funny, but man, he needs to not, not foray

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:03

into a musical, whatever it's

Brittney Sherman: 00:22:07

party all the time was Rick James is attempt

Brittney Sherman: 00:22:11

to have a party song in recent.

Brittney Sherman: 00:22:14

So prince is party like it's 1999.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:17

Yes, absolutely.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:18

Everything that, that, you know, Rick James was doing after he

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:21

met prince was in response to.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:23

And it's success.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:24

The other thing that you have to remember about prince and also Michael

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:28

Jackson and Rick James was the Vic.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:29

James was really offended this right around the time where at T V came out

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:34

and, um, you know, they re MTV, wouldn't play Rick James, his videos and Ray MTV

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:40

will say, well, they were too vulgar.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:41

They were offensive.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:42

And some might say that they were, but they would play prince and

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:45

they would play Michael Jackson.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:46

Now it's hard not to play prince and Michael Jackson because

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:49

they're so freaking popular.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:50

But the other thing is that prince had a movie prince had purple rain.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:54

People wanted to see prince, and I love that movie and I didn't

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:57

find that movie offensive at all.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:22:59

I mean, I, I, I'm not saying prince is a good day.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:03

You know, and under the, under the cherry moon was another booth, but I don't care

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:07

because I really like watching prince.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:09

So there was something about his personality and I always felt that

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:11

there was an innocence to prince and I always thought there was,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:14

um, I don't ever feel like that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:16

He was a person who, in my opinion, sort of promoted violence and.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:21

Honestly, I'd love that he was just kind of like this kind of funk, funky,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:25

like, you know, romantic hippie guy, you know, I mean, he was, um, I don't know.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:30

Anyway, I just, I I'm endeared to him for sure.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:32

Um, but it very interesting, you know, the Rick James was very pissed.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:37

He was pissed.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:38

Prince and Michael Jackson, he's like, look, you know, there's,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:41

you guys shouldn't be on MTV.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:43

You know, you should be supporting your fellow black man and boy Connie,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:46

because they won't play my videos.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:48

And, um, apparently prince and Michael Jackson did not agree with that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:52

You know, there's probably some truth across the board to all the

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:56

different, different challenges.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:23:58

Let's just say, because principals in a knee or a prince, uh, Rick

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:01

James was an easy, easy guy to get along with and he was very,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:04

you know, open and he didn't say.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:08

You know, he wasn't slick, you know, when he talked, I

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:10

mean, he would call on anybody.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:12

He just, I think it was a little different than what than to be really wanted to

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:15

be promoting, you know, from that side.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:17

So it was, it was a bummer, but, uh, there's some good interviews, even in that

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:21

tales, from the tour bus, from the Mike judge thing, there's some cool interviews

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:23

where Rick James talks about that with the issues with MTV, it's worth a watch.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:29

You know, but the prince thing and the Rick James, obviously

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:31

prince went on to do great things.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:33

And Rick James sort of spiraled and sort of went downhill.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:24:37

Um, you know, from there.

Brittney Sherman: 00:24:40

Would I, what I took from it in tales from the tour bus they

Brittney Sherman: 00:24:44

show, which I believe is probably totally accurate when prince was opening for

Brittney Sherman: 00:24:48

Rick James, Rick James would stand on the side of the stage and watch prince.

Brittney Sherman: 00:24:53

And then when Rick James was performing, prince was standing on

Brittney Sherman: 00:24:56

the opposite side of the stage and watch Rick James and they pushed each

Brittney Sherman: 00:25:00

other and they motivated each other.

Brittney Sherman: 00:25:02

And what I took from that is prince took that as.

Brittney Sherman: 00:25:06

He's pushing me to another level to succeed and I'm going

Brittney Sherman: 00:25:09

to step up to that level.

Brittney Sherman: 00:25:11

But I took that Rick James looked at prince as this guy is encroaching

Brittney Sherman: 00:25:15

in on my fame and he's a threat.

Brittney Sherman: 00:25:18

And instead of using it to motivate himself, he actually started

Brittney Sherman: 00:25:21

down more of a downward slope.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:23

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:23

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:24

I mean, he was the incumbent, so that's principle, you know,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:26

principles the up and coming there.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:27

So that's, that's the natural progression.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:30

I think, um, it was hard for Rick James.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:32

You know, he fell out of favor.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:34

He upset a lot of people.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:36

Again, MTV did not, you know, sort of promote his videos.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:39

And, um, he continued to do a lot of drugs.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:43

Um, his it's his mainstream success ultimately peaked in around 1985.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:49

He released an album called glow and then apparently he was on a

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:53

team, which I was not aware of.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:55

Uh, and I was on the show 18.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:25:57

I do know the showy team when I'm not interested in watching any

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:00

of, I don't think I ever watched.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:02

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:02

I didn't know he was on that show.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:03

That's interesting.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:04

Yeah, it sounds like he made an appearance and I don't know why that would be like

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:07

a stellar moment in his career, but maybe it was the beginning of the end.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:09

I don't know.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:11

Um, and then remember here's what's important.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:13

Remember about Rick James, a lot of people.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:16

First off Rick James, number one, any Grammys for any, any songs that he

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:20

produced, um, and release on his own, he did however, win a Grammy with MC hammer

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:27

when MC hammer sampled super freak.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:30

So probably, yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:31

That could have ever happened to Rick.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:32

James was an MC hammer, did that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:34

It was really important.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:36

And I also thought it was really important that MC hammer give

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:38

Rick James credit for that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:40

Because so many times these days people are sampling and stealing and

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:43

they just, um, nothing ever happens.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:45

And he'd go to court forever.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:46

I mean, look what happened with vanilla ice?

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:48

You know, these, these, these fricking trials play out forever and they

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:52

go on and on and everybody loses.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:54

So I thought that was really great.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:26:56

Um, you know, The MC hammer was able to allow that to happen.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:01

And then in the 1990s, um, it sounds like this is when Rick James his

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:06

career really went off the rails.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:09

He, the beginning of the end, in my opinion, he had legal issues.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:14

Uh, apparently he was convicted of two separate instances.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:19

So he was convicted of for two separate instances of kidnapping

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:23

and torturing two separate.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:25

While under the influence of crack cocaine and he actually

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:29

served three years, um, for that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:31

Now let's talk a little bit about that because yes, I, I am going to, I, I tried

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:37

to find information about this case and what I found with Brittany, I told you

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:41

was that it seems like that th these, these crimes that he committed were sort

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:48

of the side note to, you know, Even this article that I read, which I'm going

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:52

to refer to, it was written in, um, it was published in the Los Angeles times.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:27:57

So it was written by Aaron Curtis and Jack Cheevers.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:00

And it was from August 3rd, 1991.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:03

And the headline reads singer Rick James' girlfriend arrested on charges

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:07

of torturing woman crime, the couple re allegedly burn the victim with a crack

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:12

cocaine pipe and sexually abused her.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:14

So, okay.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:16

That's an interesting headline.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:18

Um, the.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:21

What's really, I don't think that it's fair to just sort of glaze over that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:25

I think it's really, um, in my opinion, a bit offensive, and it

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:28

sounds like that this was may have been typical behavior for Rick James.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:32

Um, but it was sort of looked over and I'm not going to equate Rick James

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:36

to, um, R Kelly per se, because I think that was a lot more criminal.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:42

What R Kelly used to do.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:44

But I think that there were things that probably happened in Rick James life that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:47

Others would think back on and think that they probably should have done something

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:50

or what he was doing was illegal.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:52

I think that he had another woman come forward that said that he

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:28:56

raped her when she was in a boarding school or in a school in Buffalo yet.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:00

And we'll get to that in a little bit.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:01

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:02

And that happened early on in the seventies.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:05

So the crime that Rick James was convicted of with his girlfriend,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:10

apparently she was 23 or 24.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:13

She was 21 at the time when he won and they were at his house in the

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:17

Hollywood Hills and essentially he was arrested for imprisoning and

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:24

torturing this 24 year old woman with a hot cocaine pipe over three days.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:28

Uh, the actual crimes that he was convicted of were, uh, Let's see

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:35

suspicion of assault, the deadly weapon, false imprisonment, correct?

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:40

Worst oral copulation making terrorist threats and furnishing

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:45

narcotics to this 24 year old woman.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:48

Apparently this was not the S this was not the first incident.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:51

Um, there was also, um, some, some, uh, key something brought against him

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:29:57

for doing something similar to a music executive, a young music exhibit.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:02

So he, uh, I think so he was, he held her captive for

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:08

three days and ultimately I think the suspicion turned out to be accurate.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:14

You know, he drugged her, he forced her to do sex acts on his girlfriend.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:20

Uh, Tonya.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:30:22

Tanya has her jazzy

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:24

Hejazi.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:25

Thank you.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:25

Yeah.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:26

Uh, and, uh, of course false imprisonment.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:29

Oh, oh, strange.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:31

I, I found this to be a really strange crime because what.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:37

Oh, I guess, what do you get out of any crime, but holding someone for three days,

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:40

forcing drugs on them and forcing them to perform sex acts on your girlfriend.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:46

I mean, what is the, what was the point of that?

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:48

What drove him to that?

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:50

That's what I don't understand.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:50

Like it was just such a bad high.

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:53

Was it such a drug induced motivation?

Brittney Sherman: 00:30:57

That's what I don't

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:30:57

understand.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:30:58

Well, here's what I think that let's just call it what it is.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:03

This was in the time or Rick James career.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:07

If this would have happened in the height of his career, this

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:09

wouldn't have been a crime.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:11

And I can guarantee you that this probably happened frequently.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:15

You know where I mean, that's what it looks like to me.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:17

They, he would be with multiple women.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:21

Um, he would do whatever he wanted, you know, you know, get over.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:24

You're a bitch, I'm Rick James or whatever.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:26

So he had a history of this.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:28

I think that it was just, this moment was, you know, Uh, this, somebody came forward

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:34

and finally said, you know enough with it.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:36

I froze.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:37

So let's go.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:31:38

What do

Brittney Sherman: 00:31:38

you think this is before we go deeper?

Brittney Sherman: 00:31:41

So you think that essentially this was, this was a pattern he had done

Brittney Sherman: 00:31:45

this many times before, but he got caught because his level of fame.

Brittney Sherman: 00:31:51

Dwindling and maybe this person felt more comfortable coming forward, or

Brittney Sherman: 00:31:56

maybe this person was now believed because he wasn't as famous and

Brittney Sherman: 00:32:00

untouchable as he was previously,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:02

this would have been covered up.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:03

Okay.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:03

So here's the, the way this went down was that James, Rick James and

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:07

his girlfriend, Tanya Hijazi were.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:11

They met up with this girl, this 24 year old woman.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:14

Um, apparently she was unemployed.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:16

They met her at a party and they're like, Hey, you know, come and stay

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:19

with us at the big Hollywood Hills house, you know, with the Rick James.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:23

Awesome.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:23

So, you know, again, you know, luring her.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:29

He threatened her with a gun.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:31

He told her that he would kill her if she tried to leave.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:33

Uh, he and the Tonya Hejazi tied her up and severely burner, um, w 20

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:40

times or so with a hot crack pipe.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:43

And then he, like you said, he forced the victim to essentially, you

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:48

know, give oral whatever to Hijazi.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:51

Um, while he watched again, this would be typical behavior for Rick James.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:32:56

This is something that would happen probably on tour, like five times a week.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:00

Um, and then they smoke crack and then they forced the victim to as well.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:05

And then the girl just wanders out of the house somehow makes

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:09

her way to, um, Hospital.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:12

And then the hospital called the police.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:14

So she didn't call the police, the hospital.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:17

Right.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:17

Makes sense.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:18

Yep.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:18

Okay.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:19

So if the hospital wouldn't have called the police, there's, there's, it's

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:23

unlikely that Rick James would have ever had any issues with this, but I think

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:27

for something now, what, what I think happened again, you know, I think this

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:31

was typical behavior for Rick James.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:33

This is typical for someone who has this kind of power, is that

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:36

they're going to tell people to do whatever they want them to do.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:39

And in that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:41

Those people feel overpowered.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:42

And because they're trying to please this famous person or whatever,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:45

they'll do whatever they want.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:47

We've seen this time and time again with a variety of different people in power.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:52

Um, you know, I would say Michael Jackson would probably fall into this

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:33:55

category where they were untouchable and they had enough money to quiet

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:00

people and buy people off and, you know, keep people from coming forward

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:03

because they would, those people would be not punished, but they would

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:06

lose their career or they would lose.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:08

They would fall out of favor.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:10

People.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:10

So I do think it was a similar situation.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:13

I think Rick James had, I mean, when you're doing crack, I guess, you

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:17

know, I mean, I don't know, you're not, probably not in your right mind

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:20

anyway, but to be a person who was doing that kind of drug or those kinds

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:24

of drugs, many drugs, and to have this all powerful feeling, you know, you're

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:29

untouchable, you can do whatever you want.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:30

I mean, you are the king of the world.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:33

And I think that cocaine just makes that feeling much more,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:36

um, You know, probably prominent.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:39

So again, you know, you're untouchable.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:40

I.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:42

I, I, I think this was probably common for James.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:44

I think that he just had an unwilling participant or he had

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:47

a willing participant who went to the hospital and the hospital, you

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:50

know, made a big deal out of it.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:52

But, and Rick James was a powerful anymore.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:54

Powerful enough to, to sort of get, get away from this kind of thing.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:34:57

I bet in back in the day, when he was powerful, I guarantee his record label

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:35:02

or any of his powerful friends would have probably cut, had this resolved quickly.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:35:06

He would have just got dismissed and nobody would've said anything about it.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:35:09

It would have been a misunder.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:35:11

And

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:11

that's very possible.

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:12

And at this point he probably, well, he was still famous in 1991.

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:19

He was certainly not at the peak of his fame and maybe he didn't have the

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:24

proper resources to buy this person off.

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:27

Uh, and he, uh, he was no longer.

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:33

Rick James, the superstar who had all these resources available to him.

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:40

Uh, and I think that actually, if you go back in again, as crazy as

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:44

it sounds, watch that Chappelle show episode, it'll speak to the people

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:48

that he upset over his life that made.

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:51

At one time would have stood up for him and helped him hide

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:54

it and cover these things up no longer wanted to do that for him.

Brittney Sherman: 00:35:58

And he didn't have that.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:00

Well, he couldn't, you know, they couldn't,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:01

they couldn't put themselves at risk with his behavior anymore.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:05

And I think that's ultimately what it was.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:07

I think that, um, you know, Again, I would say, take a look

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:13

at tales from the tour bus.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:14

And I say that in a, I mean, I watched that, that I knew it was a comedy.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:19

I love Mike judge, but I felt really, I thought that the guys in the,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:23

from the band who were interviewed, I mean, there were funny as hell.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:27

These guys, these were old, like salty, you know, like

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:30

R and B guys like funk guys.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:32

I mean, they got it.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:34

You know, but they, they just really struggled with

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:36

it because he was their guy.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:37

Right.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:38

He was the lead singer of their band.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:41

He was there, their, you know, powerful leader and.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:45

Ultimately, you know, he fell apart and he didn't try to take them with him, but

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:51

they could never get back together and the band can never be successful without him.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:55

So it just led to failure.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:36:57

It was really a bummer, but they talked about him thoughtfully and they talked

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:00

about him as, um, in a way that, you know, suggested that he had some demons that

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:06

he was dealing with for his entire life.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:08

And he didn't know any other way to sort of, you know, sort of.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:11

Execute, um, on, you know, his behavior, but I'm not as dismissive

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:18

because I don't, I don't look, I don't care how famous you are.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:22

I don't think you should be allowed to rate people.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:23

And I don't think there's, there's no, you know, Uh, way that you can

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:28

tell me that there's any difference.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:30

It's like, you know, I mean, just because you're a famous no, no, it's a

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:34

suggestion or, oh, it was consensual.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:36

Not really.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:36

No.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:37

I

Brittney Sherman: 00:37:37

mean, it's not even worth entertaining that idea

Brittney Sherman: 00:37:38

because it's so despicable to think that someone might think that it's

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:41

okay.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:41

Well, it happens all the time.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:44

I know.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:45

Watch like any big rock and roll band.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:49

These people, that's how they, they operate.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:51

You know, I mean, I'm not going to say that every musician out there in the world

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:37:55

is a rapist, but we know, I mean, if you know anybody who's ever been a part of

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:00

those groups, um, and I knew know some of those people, you know, they, they

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:05

take advantage of situations and people because they have the power to do so.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:09

And then they get used to that kind of thing and, um,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:12

it's becomes normal for them.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:14

And it also.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:16

I have to say it desensitizes them to what's normal and it

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:19

makes them want more of it.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:21

Like they can't be satisfied with normal anymore.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:24

They have to have this over the top behavior because they're so bored,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:29

honestly, with normal behavior.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:31

I don't think Rick James could have had a normal relationship

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:33

to be quite honest with you.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:34

I think you needed this kind of, of, um, sort of that excitement.

Brittney Sherman: 00:38:39

He found it exciting despicable, disgusting, awful.

Brittney Sherman: 00:38:43

And.

Brittney Sherman: 00:38:44

I, I agree.

Brittney Sherman: 00:38:45

And, you know,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:38:47

he says

Brittney Sherman: 00:38:49

in that Chappelle show episode, you says cocaine is a

Brittney Sherman: 00:38:53

powerful drug, but I think to your point, fame is a powerful drug.

Brittney Sherman: 00:38:57

Well, it's what drove him.

Brittney Sherman: 00:38:58

And that's what drives so many people like you're referring

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:01

to it.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:02

Definitely.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:03

And I think.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:04

It's Chris rock said at one time.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:05

And I thought it was really interesting.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:07

Um, you know, but he talks about, um, infidelity in one of his like standup

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:11

shows and he says, you know, when you're famous, you know, you are, you

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:17

are only as faithful as your options.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:19

And if you've got all the options in the world, You're going to take advantage

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:22

of those, you know, there's nobody, you know, he makes fun of it, but he's

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:26

like, there's no like, you know, nerdy white dude in the corner without the

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:29

option saying, you know, he's gonna take advantage of women because he

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:32

just doesn't have the option to do so.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:34

But when you have the world on you're on a platter and there are

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:38

no repercussions for your actions.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:41

Awfully hard to manage yourself if you don't have that moral construct from

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:44

a young child, honestly, I mean, and that's for a lot of reasons, economic

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:49

rubric James, um, his mom sort of gave him that modeling and in it's a

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:54

bad situation to be in, but I don't think that he was ever in a situation

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:57

to ever understand that it could be.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:39:59

Going back to Rick James let's remember that this was a person who was addicted

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:03

to drugs for absolutely many, many, many years early on in his life.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:07

So pretty much his entire life.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:10

So I think we're expecting a lot of a person who has that kind of addiction

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:14

to be able to correct themselves.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:15

Just it's really not possible.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:17

I mean, they have a hard enough time just managing their daily.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:21

You know, feelings and their daily life, and those triggers with positive

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:25

triggers or negative triggers, triggers are triggers, and they will

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:28

send these people into a spiral.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:30

So it's, um, I'm not surprising that Rick James got there considering the path

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:34

that he took, but it's disappointing.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:36

And it bums me out because I did appreciate his music and I did really

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:40

feel like that he was an innovator.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:42

Um, but I, I wished that he could have been able to get a handle on himself and

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:46

use that for something more positive.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:50

Um, instead of, you know, sort of going down this road and ultimately

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:54

he passed away of a heart attack.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:40:55

I mean, he'd very sad.

Brittney Sherman: 00:40:57

Yeah.

Brittney Sherman: 00:40:58

So, um, so if we can.

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:00

Step backwards.

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:01

Get into, uh, we, we talked about the crime, the three-day imprisonment.

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:06

He was arrested along with his girlfriend, Tanya Hijazi.

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:11

Uh, they were released on a half, a million dollars bond pending trial,

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:16

and while they were free on bond.

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:20

They did this again to a music executive in 1993, while they were awaiting trial,

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:27

uh, and held her for 20 hours this time.

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:32

But pretty much it was the same set of circumstances to kind of

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:36

what you were talking about before this wasn't a one-time thing.

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:40

This was a pattern.

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:41

This was regular.

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:44

How he operated and

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:41:47

it will be normal.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:41:48

This is what this, this was a totally normal thing for him to do.

Brittney Sherman: 00:41:54

And he was rearrested on this charge thankfully and ultimately

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:00

found guilty on both charges and he faced life in prison for false and prison.

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:08

But somehow I don't understand this.

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:11

He was found not guilty of that charge, but was guilty of other charges.

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:17

Uh, so he served two years in prison and while he was in prison, the second woman

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:23

who, uh, the music executive, Mary saga, She received a $2 million civil suit

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:31

payout from Rick James estate and then an additional $750,000 from a private

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:38

security firm and the hotel where she was

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:42:41

held back.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:42:43

They must have not had enough to prove that he held her.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:42:47

Hm.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:42:48

Interestingly

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:48

against her whale or something.

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:49

Right,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:42:50

exactly.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:42:50

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:42:51

It gets tough because you've got again,

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:53

hang on a second.

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:53

Hang on a second.

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:54

Let me rephrase.

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:54

I, I guess I got that backwards.

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:57

He was, he was found guilty of false imprisonment.

Brittney Sherman: 00:42:59

He was found not guilty of torture and torture was the charge

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:03

that could have put him away.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:43:04

Interesting.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:43:05

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:43:06

I, um, wow.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:43:08

Well, he got out and he did, he did a couple more things when

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:43:10

he got out and the ultimate.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:43:12

Passed away, right?

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:43:14

Yeah.

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:14

He, uh, in all, honestly, what is what I

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:19

found really kind of interesting.

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:21

Um, you know, he had these charges, he did some time in prison.

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:28

I don't think it was enough, but he tried to make a comeback.

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:33

He was featured on Chappelle show.

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:37

For an entire generation.

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:39

That's how people know of Rick James.

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:42

And he was planning a comeback tour.

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:47

Very similar to Michael Jackson was planning his comeback to, or when he died.

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:52

And in, uh, as you said, he, Rick James ultimately died of a heart attack in 2004.

Brittney Sherman: 00:43:59

Therefore his really last stint of fame was.

Brittney Sherman: 00:44:04

Chappelle's show and he was never able to regain the level of prominence

Brittney Sherman: 00:44:10

or reputation of, uh, in music that he, I think always strive

Brittney Sherman: 00:44:18

to achieve, but he never got the level of respect that he felt he

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:44:24

deserved.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:44:26

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:44:26

I, uh, Hmm.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:44:28

That's sad.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:44:29

Alrighty.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:44:30

Well, there you go.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:44:31

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:44:33

I

Brittney Sherman: 00:44:34

dunno, I guess I don't, because I just feel that he's, you

Brittney Sherman: 00:44:38

know, he, uh, I don't feel sad for him.

Brittney Sherman: 00:44:40

I don't think he was.

Brittney Sherman: 00:44:41

I think he was a very talented guy.

Brittney Sherman: 00:44:43

I think that he was a great artist he worked with, but you know, a lot of the

Brittney Sherman: 00:44:48

people you talked about, what are the ones I found most fascinating was Neil

Brittney Sherman: 00:44:51

young, uh, and try to collaborate with Crosby stills, young and Nash, but that

Brittney Sherman: 00:44:58

ended up not happening, but he never, he.

Brittney Sherman: 00:45:02

Want it, that level of Michael Jackson and prince fame, but he never got.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:08

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:08

Well, I mean, again, I think his actions sort of didn't,

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:13

you know, sort of go there.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:15

I, I, I don't know.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:16

I don't know if I would agree with him that he deserved that kind of fame.

Brittney Sherman: 00:45:21

I don't think it, I don't agree that he did.

Brittney Sherman: 00:45:23

I didn't think he was nearly as

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:24

talented as they were.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:25

Yeah.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:25

Which is sad.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:26

And again, you know, back to a drug addiction, maybe he wasn't because he

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:30

just couldn't overcome that addiction.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:32

So we will never know, but, uh, An interesting case to say

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:36

the least, uh, Scarlett autos.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:38

I know that, um, a lot of people sort of forget sometimes

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:42

about the Rick James crimes.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:44

And I'm glad we could talk about them, Brittany, but the other parts

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:47

of it, where we talk about prince and, and the history, you know, I

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:52

would highly suggest going back and look at the, that the, the Chappelle

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:55

show and the tales from the tour bus.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:45:58

Again, you know, Wikipedia actually has some really good

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:46:00

information about Rick James that I thought was interesting as well.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:46:03

And then there's a ton of stuff on YouTube where you can watch interviews

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:46:06

with Rick James, talk about MTV.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:46:07

So, um, I would strongly suggest it, but, you know, again, I, I'm

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:46:11

sad to see the downfall of people who have drug problems and, um, you

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:46:15

know, it's a good example of how it's just almost impossible to overcome.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:46:18

It's terrible.

Brittney Sherman: 00:46:19

I was really surprised when I started researching this because

Brittney Sherman: 00:46:22

you suggested this topic, uh, interviewed.

Brittney Sherman: 00:46:24

I think I mentioned at the start of our episode here, that I didn't realize

Brittney Sherman: 00:46:28

all of the things that he was into.

Brittney Sherman: 00:46:30

And unfortunately, I think we probably only scratched the

Brittney Sherman: 00:46:34

surface of all the things that he did that just weren't reported.

Brittney Sherman: 00:46:38

Uh, in two other quick things to wrap this up in 1998, he was accused of.

Brittney Sherman: 00:46:43

Third rape, but those charges were later dropped after he was out of prison.

Brittney Sherman: 00:46:48

And earlier this year in February of 2020, he's a state was sued by a

Brittney Sherman: 00:46:53

woman who suggested that he raped her.

Brittney Sherman: 00:46:57

As you mentioned earlier in Buffalo, when I think she was 15 years old in 1978.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:03

So.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:04

Unfortunately, these, uh, these charges, they keep popping up even

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:10

over 15 years after his death.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:12

And we're learning more about the guy and, uh, hu.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:18

My opinion really only had two hit songs, but try to leave a legacy and

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:21

his legacy is turning out to be more criminal and sorted rather than musical.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:27

Okay.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:28

We're gonna wrap this episode up.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:30

Um, Everyone out there, stay healthy.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:35

Keep social distancing.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:37

I know it's a tough time right now.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:39

I know it's hard to stay home when the weather's starting to get nice.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:43

Uh, but we're trying to protect each other.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:46

Stay healthy.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:47

Thank you to all of our first responders.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:51

Thanks to all of the, uh, healthcare workers.

Brittney Sherman: 00:47:55

Sonia, anything else?

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:47:57

Nope.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:47:58

Looking forward to, uh, the release in this episode.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:48:01

So stay tuned.

Sonia Meza-Leon: 00:48:03

All right.

Brittney Sherman: 00:48:04

Um, well, shout out to everyone in the pod

Brittney Sherman: 00:48:08

all the time podcast network.

Brittney Sherman: 00:48:10

We're glad to be part of you guys.