The music of James Brown was almost a genre in its own right, and he was one of the biggest and most influential cultural figures of the 20th century. But the singer was also an immensely troubled, misunderstood and complicated man. James McBride has undertaken a journey of discovery in search of the ‘real’ James Brown, delving into the heartbreaking saga of Brown’s childhood and destroyed estate, and uncovering the hidden history of Brown’s early years. But this book is more than the story of the larger-than-life soul genius. It is an acutely insightful account of the racism and Southern culture which both produced and destroyed James Brown, a portrait of the musicians who created the ‘James Brown sound’ yet were lost to history, a nuanced appreciation of what made Brown’s music so special, and a series of conversations with those whose lives were changed by the ‘Godfather of Soul’.