Rick James: Skipping Sharon Tate's Party, a Navy Brig Escape and MTV

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James Ambrose Johnson Jr. was born in Buffalo, New York in 1948. His father left when he was 10, and his mother supported eight children by cleaning houses by day and running numbers at night. Facing the draft in 1964, he fled to Toronto, where Levon Helm pulled him out of a street fight and he went on to front the Mynah Birds with a young Neil Young. The band reached Motown, where Stevie Wonder persuaded him to shorten the alias Ricky James Matthews, but a manager in a money dispute told Motown he was wanted by the US Navy. He surrendered, escaped from the Brooklyn naval brig, surrendered again and served his sentence in New Hampshire.

In Los Angeles he crashed on Stephen Stills' couch, and by his account he missed a party at Sharon Tate's house in August 1969 only because he was hung over. He formed the Stone City Band, broke through with Come Get It in 1978, and defined punk-funk on 1981's Street Songs with Super Freak. When MTV refused the Super Freak video he accused the network of racism. A cocaine addiction then led to 1991 and 1992 kidnapping and assault cases with Tanya Hijazi; he was convicted of assault, cleared of a torture charge, and served over two years in Folsom State Prison. He died in August 2004 at 56.

• He says he woke at Stills' house to find Jim Morrison sitting on the floor with bleeding wrists, and that Morrison later slipped him acid.
• His friend Greg Reeves, whom he brought to Los Angeles, was hired as bassist for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
• He produced for Teena Marie, the Mary Jane Girls, the Temptations and Eddie Murphy's Party All the Time.
• His only Grammy came as co-writer of MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This, which sampled Super Freak, after he sued for credit.
• After a 2004 Chappelle's Show sketch revived his fame, Eddie Murphy paid for his funeral; he entered the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in 2025.