NEW YORK – Jerry Poindexter was no more than 10 years old the first time he sneaked around to the back door of a Youngstown, Ohio, concert hall to watch James Brown and his band practice.

“I saw three tour buses pull into town and I followed them on my bicycle to Elms Ballroom,” said Poindexter, as he reminisced about his childhood in the 1960s. “I missed my curfew that night and got my butt whupped. I didn’t care, because I got to see James Brown.”

Years later, Poindexter met up with The Godfather of Soul again. Poindexter, who played keyboard, joined James Brown’s band on March 28, 1978, and spent the next 26 years performing and working with Brown.

“We had some good times on the road, and we also had hard times,” Poindexter said from his Los Angeles home. “Mr. Brown was a perfectionist when it came to the band. We had hours of grinding practices before every performance, and Mr. Brown never did the same show twice.

“His desire to keep the show fresh kept us on our toes,” he continued. “He wanted us to look good, too. Our suits, shirts and shoes were custom-made. He’d fine us $500 if our clothes were wrinkled and if we missed a beat while playing.”

Poindexter said he was once fined $1,800 for not following his lead. “Mr. Brown had broken the band down on a low range and I was playing high and out of tune,” Poindexter recalled. “During the show, he walked over and told me I had been fined.”

Poindexter said Brown often shared stories of his childhood in Augusta, Ga., like how his mother used to make clothes out of the “burlap sacks” that potatoes came in.

“He also talked about picking cotton, stealing hubcaps and selling them, being too poor to afford shoes at times, walking barefoot on dirt roads that turned muddy when it rained,” he said.

Poindexter, who traveled the world with Brown, said Brown had a reputation for firing band members multiple times. In fact, Poindexter said he’d been fired and rehired so many times that he stopped counting after the 12th.

Though Poindexter left the band two years ago, he played with Brown one last time in September to a sold-out crowd at the Hollywood Bowl.

“Playing with Mr. Brown has been a wonderful experience,” said Poindexter. “He was a genius who went against the odds to make good music. Many have imitated Mr. Brown, but none will duplicate. He will be missed, but his music will live forever.”

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(c) 2006, New York Daily News.

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AP-NY-12-28-06 2025EST