CRP's Blog

Few American entertainers have stories that are richer, wilder, or more excessive than Rick James. He played in a band with Neil Young, spent years in jail, self-produced his first album (which was then picked up by Motown), crossed rock and funk to come up with one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s, displayed an outrageously sex- and drug-filled lifestyle, was tried and found guilty of assaulting and imprisoning a young woman, and ended his life as a punch line for Dave Chappelle (“I’m Rick James, bitch!”). Below, veteran CRP author Peter Benjaminson describes how he tackled this larger-than-life figure in his latest biography, Super Freak: The Life of Rick James.

You’ve written about Motown stars before—your books on Mary Wells and Florence Ballard have been widely reviewed. What drew you to Rick James as your next Motown subject?  

Writing about Rick was very different from and somewhat more challenging than writing about Flo and Mary because, while Flo and Mary were relatively sensible people, Rick was flamboyantly zany. His status as a US Navy deserter, drug smuggler, convicted criminal and sexual athlete made him interesting in one sense, and his very high level of creativity as a musician and as a producer of other musical groups made him interesting in still another sense. Also, Flo and Mary were early Motown stars and Rick James was the company’s last star except for Lionel Richie. So writing about Rick gave me a chance to trace the development of the company in its final years and the implications of its move from black Detroit to white Los Angeles, which greatly affected not only its music but the way it did business.

To further compare all of your writing subjects, Mary Wells’s and Flo Ballard’s stories are filled with tragedy and manipulation from the record industry. Do you think James’s life story draws similar comparisons?

Flo was definitely a sacrificial victim of music industry manipulation, particularly Motown’s. Mary was less so, but she victimized herself by leaving the company at age 21 when she was its only female solo superstar and could have squeezed Gordy and Motown for anything she wanted. On the other hand, Flo and Mary had the advantage of being talented singers who lived in Detroit and were thus ideally located, and of the right age, to pursue Motown careers. Rick, on the other hand, had everything against him. He was a great entertainer, song producer and song writer, but he wasn’t as good a singer.  He also was a Buffalonian rather than a Detroiter, a draft dodger who had to flee the country and then return to the US under an assumed name and a convicted criminal by the time he arrived at Motown.  He had a much rougher road to stardom and to pave his own way he had to perform in relatively out of the way places in the US, Canada, and Europe year after year, steal and cheat in order to pay for his studio time, smuggle dope into the country, consort with organized crime figures and generally fight his way to the top.  So while he was a much less sympathetic character than Flo or Mary, his story was a much different one than theirs and in some ways more interesting.

How did you conduct research for this book? Who did you interview from James’s life?

I learned early on as an author that interviews are much more productive if they’re face to face.  Interviewing someone on the phone is sometimes necessary, but only as a last resort. I had a lot of fun interviewing the sources I used to write Rick’s bio because talking with them in person required me to visit not only Detroit, my usual stomping ground for Motown books, but Buffalo, where Rick was born and grew up; Toronto, where he performed for years after deserting the US Navy; Los Angeles, where he lived for years after becoming a star; Cleveland and Washington, DC, where some of his relatives live; and Las Vegas, where some of the members of his Stone City Band now reside. Among other treats, I loved driving through the desert from Los Angeles to Vegas.

James wrote his own memoir, which was published posthumously. What makes Super Freak an equally compelling and important read for his fans. Is it more objective? More thorough?

Rick’s first autobiography, The Confessions of Rick James, appears to be the transcript of a tape he allegedly recorded while serving time in California’s Folsom Prison. But it’s somewhat confusing. David Ritz, a very good rock ‘n’ roll writer, edited the second version of that manuscript into the book Glow, so that it read better but added very little content. Even if those books had been much better than they were, they represented Rick’s view of his life, not anyone else’s. I spent several years talking to many of Rick’s relatives, the mother of two of his children, his two subsequent wives, his band members, his lawyers, his business associates, his managers, his roadies and numerous other people with whom he interacted to get a clear view of his extremely interesting life and character.

It’s hard to choose a “most shocking” moment when it comes to Rick James, but was there any particular story you came across in your research that surprised you the most?

Yes.  Rick was a smart man, yet he robbed his first clothing store, in Buffalo, during a heavy snowstorm, then walked home. To solve this crime, the police merely followed his footsteps out of the store to his home. He robbed another clothing store years later, in Toronto, without wearing gloves to cover fingerprints. He then took the clothes he had stolen to his apartment, where he hung them in his closet without removing the store tags attached to them. Solving this crime did not require any Canadian Sherlock Holmes. On at least two other occasions, he sold the recording rights to some of his songs to two record companies simultaneously. By doing so he received the cash advances he wanted, but when the companies found out what had he done, they stopped promoting the songs involved, which were on their way to being hits.  He thus ensured himself a few more years in the recording wilderness on each occasion. Some of this was due to drug use, but by no means all. He committed crimes but appeared to want to be punished for committing some of them.

Favorite Rick James song?

Obviously, “Super Freak.”  I found it fascinating that a) It sounded like a British song, rather than an American one, b) he didn’t want to record it at all, but it became his biggest hit, c) it was allegedly about a woman, but as his life continued, it came to represent Rick himself and d) it transferred into America’s pop culture, inspiring, for example, the title of SuperFreakonomics.

Peter Benjaminson is the author of Mary Wells, The Lost Supreme and The Story of Motown. He has written numerous stories for the Detroit Free Press, the Atlanta Journal‑Constitution, and other publications. He lives in  New York City.

Advance praise for Super Freak

“An unapologetic, no-holds-barred biography of a flamboyant and controversial artist.” —Booklist

 “A fascinating, can’t-put-it-down profile of the late, great performer… He was definitely a Super Freak, and this book will tell you why.” —Library Journal

 “A matter-of-fact biography of a musician whose extremes—both the highs and the lows—defy belief.” —Kirkus Reviews

Super Freak goes on sale March 1 and will be available wherever books and e-books are sold.

[Get it now $29]  [Request a review copy]