Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey Elizabeth, what are you doing?
Speaker 3: I'm just hanging out.
Speaker 2: So I got another question for you. Yeah, Hey, are
Speaker 2: those new shoes?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: No, I got another question for you. You know it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have an answer for that one. Okay, what now,
Speaker 3: quick question before I get into it. Are you like
Speaker 3: me where you don't show up empty handed when you
Speaker 3: go to someone's house?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, guess.
Speaker 3: And you have to bring like a hostess gift or
Speaker 3: you know, or a host gift, depending on who you
Speaker 3: know who you're visiting. But the thing is is that
Speaker 3: sometimes it's hard to figure out what to bring. You know,
Speaker 3: flowers is always good.
Speaker 2: You can't go with the old standard of wine anymore
Speaker 2: because not a lot of people drink as much people drink.
Speaker 3: And sometimes people feel the obligation if they've already come
Speaker 3: up with this meal, that they have a wine pairing,
Speaker 3: and they feel the obligation to open. But I have
Speaker 3: I have a solution for you, and it does involve wine.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm listening to.
Speaker 3: You bring this very special wine and it's you stop it.
Speaker 2: Why I walk right into every time? Go ahead?
Speaker 3: It is called mayonnaise blanc and it comes from Helman's.
Speaker 3: And if you're thinking like mayonnaise.
Speaker 2: Wine, no, I'm not thinking anything right now.
Speaker 3: What in the heck I mean that sounds like toilet
Speaker 3: wine or pruno.
Speaker 2: Like pretty much it sounds like something which yeah.
Speaker 3: No, no zaren the good folks at Unilever North America.
Speaker 4: Oh they came up with this.
Speaker 3: It's actually it's actually really clever. It makes so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: and mayonnaise. But what I love the most is just
Speaker 3: how clever this is. So you show up and you
Speaker 3: have this bottle of wine, yes, and it says zero
Speaker 3: percent ABV so no alcohol by volume, one hundred percent
Speaker 3: Mayo Mayonnaise Blanc nineteen fifteen.
Speaker 2: You know, but you I supposed to believe this maynas
Speaker 2: from nineteen fifteen or just like the house.
Speaker 3: Ever since hel then my glasses on, I'm trying to
Speaker 3: look at this picture, any of you. Yeah, so what
Speaker 3: it is is what it is. What had happened was
Speaker 3: you hand them this bottle and they're like, oh my wait,
Speaker 3: mayonnaise wine. What's wrong with you? Before they can hit you.
Speaker 2: Over the hease, they ask me to leave their house.
Speaker 3: You demonstrate that the bottom of the bottle, unscrews worse
Speaker 3: and come it comes out of it is a little
Speaker 3: jar of mayonnaise. So that's how you gift mayonnaise. But
Speaker 3: it comes in like the trojan horse of a wine bottle.
Speaker 3: I think it's super cute. I think mayonnaise is great.
Speaker 2: I would empty the mayonnaise jar out, fill that with like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, something good, chocolate, wead honey, something, and
Speaker 2: then put that in the mannaise.
Speaker 3: Oh that's clever.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: Then it's like, hey, look, you thought it was gonna
Speaker 2: be crappy, no, wait to unscrew it. And they're like, oh,
Speaker 2: even crappier.
Speaker 4: Look I was.
Speaker 3: Gonna make you some deviled eggs and they open it.
Speaker 3: Oh it's just weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just.
Speaker 3: So a bunch of people sent this to us. It's
Speaker 3: pretty incredible. I would love a bunch.
Speaker 2: Of people did. Yeah, thank you, a bunch of people.
Speaker 2: And I see what you think of it.
Speaker 3: I'd love to get a jar, Elizabeth, let's get him.
Speaker 3: I would love to get a jar of classic mayo
Speaker 3: disguised as a fine line.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll keep that my holiday gift.
Speaker 3: For youful twist on gifting. Yeah, it is so that is.
Speaker 2: Twist on gifting.
Speaker 3: Don't you want like a turkey with that other?
Speaker 2: No? I don't even like manna.
Speaker 5: Is you know that?
Speaker 3: I'm sorry for your loss.
Speaker 2: I learned that it makes a good grilled cheese sandwich.
Speaker 2: You taught me that.
Speaker 3: Yeah on the outside.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's what I'm about that life now hell yeah?
Speaker 4: Oh good?
Speaker 3: Good to rub on like a roast chicken, to roast it.
Speaker 2: I think it's good for but like does people slather
Speaker 2: it on?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 2: Anyway? I'm not going to get into manage Elizabeth, And
Speaker 2: I have a question for you, Yes, sir, Well it's
Speaker 2: not about being ridiculous. Well it is, but you you
Speaker 2: know the Okay, I think you watched this show? You do?
Speaker 2: You must have?
Speaker 3: Which one?
Speaker 2: Elizabeth? I have four words for you. I'm Rick James bitch.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah right.
Speaker 2: Davis Chappelle made that quote famous, but it was Rick
Speaker 2: James who.
Speaker 4: Made it real.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: And for some folks, those same magic for words are
Speaker 2: also their ticket to jail.
Speaker 5: Oh.
Speaker 2: This is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
Speaker 2: heist and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free
Speaker 2: and one hundred percent ridiculous. Oh yeah, it is Elizabeth
Speaker 2: Rick James one of your people.
Speaker 3: Is he agent of chaos?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 3: See you were like, how was he problematic? But yeah,
Speaker 3: a little.
Speaker 2: There's obviously a very ugly chapter of his life. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: we're not going to get into that now, are we
Speaker 2: going to pretend it didn't happen? Okay, which is why
Speaker 2: I want to focus on the younger, more innocent, pre
Speaker 2: mega fame Rick James. Yeah, yeah, he is criminally ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Obviously, you know, most folks younger than say, my parents
Speaker 2: only really know Rick James from the Dave Chappelle's show, right,
Speaker 2: And obviously the more you know the skits with Charlie
Speaker 2: Murphy aka Murphy's brother. Now you know Charlie Murphy told
Speaker 2: these Atlandis stories. I would be hanging out with Rick James,
Speaker 2: and this is at the peak of Rick james fame
Speaker 2: back in the early to mid eighties. And also, as
Speaker 2: you know, Charlie Murphy incredible storyteller.
Speaker 3: Like one of the best.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, he has a natural inclination, but then
Speaker 2: he also knows it, so he tries to reach for
Speaker 2: fruits that he can barely touch himself. So it's like,
Speaker 2: oh R. In his stories, he always makes Rick James
Speaker 2: come alive, and his tales of you know, getting in
Speaker 2: fights with him and like when you when your battle
Speaker 2: and a man nicknamed super Freak, you know what's gonna
Speaker 2: be interesting now. Also, even from the very first moment
Speaker 2: of their friendship, when he first meets Rick James, Charlie Murphy,
Speaker 2: he recounts seeing how Rick James had this bright, vibrating aura,
Speaker 2: and Charlie Murphy said, and I quote, and here he
Speaker 2: comes out of the room and I look at him
Speaker 2: and I'm not I seen like an orange his aura
Speaker 2: or whatever I've seen it, it was orange. I love
Speaker 2: that this is not somebody who talks about him to
Speaker 2: even say that, that means it's real all of a sudden, exactly,
Speaker 2: It's like this confession he's got to tell you, man,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't normally say this, so obviously this guy. He
Speaker 2: also has one of my favorite lines in word Conjugations. Ever,
Speaker 2: like he talks about okay, well, back to Charlie quote,
Speaker 2: things escalated to the point that my man got too
Speaker 2: familiar and I ended up having to whip his ass
Speaker 2: because he would step across the line habitually he was
Speaker 2: habitual line stepper. I love that habitual line stepper. I
Speaker 2: mean that whole time as an habitual line stepper. I
Speaker 2: finally saw myself. I was like, that's what it is.
Speaker 3: You know that I've told you about how in my
Speaker 3: family it's really not a gathering until I cross the
Speaker 3: line in what I say and someone or many people go, oh,
Speaker 3: line stepper. I know that.
Speaker 2: I think that's what we have in common now. Of course,
Speaker 2: obviously there's Dave Chappelle's whole impression of Rick James, which
Speaker 2: I haven't even mentioned yet. Yeah, and that's what gave
Speaker 2: us the most memorable line from the skit. I'm Rick James, bitch.
Speaker 2: Enjoy yourself. I added that, but it's actually in the skit,
Speaker 2: but he says a lot of other things anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 2: the key is I'm Rick James bitch. Those four words.
Speaker 2: And this this Rick James were talking about. As I
Speaker 2: keep saying this was like, you know, this is a
Speaker 2: post disco super freak, think Studio fifty four into the
Speaker 2: seventies early eighties, Like, Elizabeth, what hold do you know
Speaker 2: about Rick James and his pre fame days? Do you
Speaker 2: know any of these stories you ever heard any of
Speaker 2: these things about him? No, okay, here's a fun fact.
Speaker 2: Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gay they gave him his name.
Speaker 3: Oh really, not his mama.
Speaker 2: No, no, Rick James is not his mama's given or
Speaker 2: government name.
Speaker 4: WHOA Yeah.
Speaker 2: When he was coming up, Rick James was in Detroit,
Speaker 2: home of Motown, and one night he meets Stevie Wonder
Speaker 2: and Marvin Gay and they were already stars on the
Speaker 2: Motown label and after seeing Rick James perform, they're impressed. Right,
Speaker 2: So they're like, hey, man, what's your name?
Speaker 5: Brother?
Speaker 2: And he tells them my name is Rick, Ricky James, Matthews.
Speaker 2: And Stevie Wonder's like, wait, wait, hold up, are you
Speaker 2: planning on killing the president? Why do you have three names?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 2: And Rick James like, no, no, I'm not planning on
Speaker 2: becoming a presidential assassin. You got a problem with my name?
Speaker 2: And Robbia guys like, yeah, brother, we do. That name
Speaker 2: has no show business to it, right, So they think
Speaker 2: for a moment and they're like, okay, Now, I don't
Speaker 2: know which one of them actually came up with it,
Speaker 2: but it's always been said that it was Stevie Wonder,
Speaker 2: and Stevie Wonder, who's like, you know, I got it, brother,
Speaker 2: you need to call yourself Ricky James. That's a show
Speaker 2: biz name, right. Hearing that from Stevie Wonder, the former
Speaker 2: Ricky James Matthew changed his name and didn't look back.
Speaker 3: Hey, Stevie Wonder gives you that kind of advice, you
Speaker 3: take it, you do it immediately.
Speaker 2: Anything Stevie Wonder gives me, I'm keeping exactly pretty much.
Speaker 2: That's smart rule, right Herpes, guys, I got I should
Speaker 2: have some condossels. I knew you would test my theories.
Speaker 2: Habitual linestepper. Now this is the kind of strange look
Speaker 2: Rick James will continue to have in his life.
Speaker 8: Right.
Speaker 2: So, also, by the way, Ricky James Matthews still not
Speaker 2: his government name.
Speaker 4: Oh really that stage name correct.
Speaker 2: Yes, because the reason he had that name was he
Speaker 2: was on the lamb from the law. No. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll get all into all of this, Elizabeth. So this
Speaker 2: cat who would eventually become Rick James, he was born
Speaker 2: James Ambrose Johnson Junior. I love that name. He first
Speaker 2: dropped onto this scene in the world in Buffalo, New York,
Speaker 2: nineteen forty eight. Just classic baby Boomer Man or you
Speaker 2: know baby boomer Cat in his case.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, his father worked in the auto industry as a
Speaker 2: factory worker. His mother show business hopeful. You know, back
Speaker 2: in her day she was a dancer, and when Rick
Speaker 2: James was a little boy, she was a cleaning lady. So,
Speaker 2: as I said, show business hopeful.
Speaker 3: She was one of those Buffalo gals.
Speaker 2: Don't she come up so to get a little extra
Speaker 2: coin in her purse. She was also a numbers runner
Speaker 2: for the leading crime family in Buffalo. Love that that
Speaker 2: was her night job. So this like lawlessness and show
Speaker 2: business drive, they kind of get funneled into young Rick.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now by the time he's a teenager, Rick James, he's
Speaker 2: got himself a little band, right, they're playing around the
Speaker 2: Buffalo area and across the border in Canada. And he
Speaker 2: gets old enough, you know, about sixteen, you know, the
Speaker 2: government starts eyeballing him to draft him into Vietnam War.
Speaker 2: And you know he's like, oh, Joseph Forestall all that.
Speaker 2: So Rick James is like, oh, I'll join the naval reserve,
Speaker 2: you know, that way he can control he doesn't get
Speaker 2: drafted into the army and shit Vietnam. He'll be on
Speaker 2: the boat.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, I can cook. What's going on right now?
Speaker 2: His plan doesn't exactly work out, Elizabeth, because James Ambrose
Speaker 2: Johnson Junior has to change his name to Ricky James
Speaker 2: Matthews just to get out and be on the run.
Speaker 2: He's like, you know what, this whole naval reserve thing.
Speaker 2: He tries signing up, but it's not for him, right,
Speaker 2: So he goes on the run from Select Services, but
Speaker 2: his plans are full on draft division, right, So he
Speaker 2: flees across the border to Canada because Detroit ain't enough.
Speaker 2: And this is at this point, we're in nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 2: As I said, the man is sixteen years old, maybe
Speaker 2: seventeen if if the month is right now, he moves
Speaker 2: by himself to Toronto.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, yep.
Speaker 2: Within days of crossing the border, he starts his new
Speaker 2: life as a draft dodging musician, Ricky James Matthews, and
Speaker 2: he meets another future famous musician. So the story goes,
Speaker 2: he's outside his nightclub and I assume he had performed
Speaker 2: that night, but I don't know for certain. Anyway, Ricky
Speaker 2: James Matthews outside this club, he gets into it with
Speaker 2: these three drunk dudes or are like just talking loud
Speaker 2: because he dressed funny and he's up there in Canada
Speaker 2: and they're like, yo, man, this a good show, but
Speaker 2: why you're wearing that ladies at whatever? And this is
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty four, So Rick James is an agent of
Speaker 2: chaos and he's not afraid of people, so they didn't
Speaker 2: matter if he was wearing a lady's wig or not.
Speaker 2: He goes popping off. They get into it right now.
Speaker 2: So there's a fight and these fights, you know, turned
Speaker 2: to shouts. Shouts turned to shove. Shoves turned into actual punches.
Speaker 2: They got a full on drunk fight, three against one.
Speaker 2: He doesn't really stand that good of a chance. He
Speaker 2: is still sixteen years old or seventeen. He gets his
Speaker 2: ass kicked right, so he's knocked down. Things are looking
Speaker 2: bad for old Ricky James Matthews. Three musicians come out
Speaker 2: of the club. They see this kid down on the
Speaker 2: ground about it get stomped out. They recognized he was
Speaker 2: just inside playing. He's all right, so they run over
Speaker 2: to help him. One of the men who reaches down
Speaker 2: to help pick him up is Levon Helm.
Speaker 3: No, yes, I did not know that I feel like,
Speaker 3: did you do this as are what's ridiculous ones?
Speaker 2: No, but you're getting close to one.
Speaker 3: I did, Okay, yeah, yeah, there's something.
Speaker 2: Percolating the memory.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I like to imagine Rick James. He's looking up
Speaker 2: and there's Levon Helm offering him a hand.
Speaker 3: And that's like help God. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So after helps Rick James up and he's like, Hey,
Speaker 2: we're playing a gig tonight. You wonder you should come through, Right,
Speaker 2: So Rick James he does indeed go with them to
Speaker 2: their gig, and he even gets up on stage and
Speaker 2: he performs with Ronnie Hawkins and Levon Helm. Yeah that's awesome. Right,
Speaker 2: So that's his introduction to like the Toronto scene, right,
Speaker 2: Ricky James, Matthews at this point he starts his own band, right,
Speaker 2: so he's been own band is called the Minor Birds.
Speaker 2: Their sound is rock. It's heavily influenced by the combined
Speaker 2: new sounds of soul music but also folk music. They're
Speaker 2: mixing and matching.
Speaker 3: And making their own thing, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this at this.
Speaker 2: Point is like nineteen sixty five.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: By the next year, Ricky James and Matthews, he's got
Speaker 2: this band sounded so good they are able to sign
Speaker 2: a deal with Motown Records. Whoa, that's in sixty six.
Speaker 2: If they signed the deal right now, this is what
Speaker 2: brings him into the orbit of Stevie Wonder Marvin Gay.
Speaker 2: And then they convince him to go from Ricky James
Speaker 2: Matthews to Ricky James and then eventually the why he
Speaker 2: gets dropped in Rick James. Right now, just before the
Speaker 2: Minor Birds record their album on Motown Records, a band
Speaker 2: member drops out. His replacement is, of course, another future
Speaker 2: famous musicians. You want to guess who Elizabeth Hicky. Yes,
Speaker 2: that's right, Neil Young.
Speaker 3: Oh I love him so much.
Speaker 2: So, accorded Neil Young's biographer, this cat Jimmy McDonough. The band,
Speaker 2: the Minor Birds had a very distinctive, very mid sixties look.
Speaker 2: And to picture Rick James Neil Young on stage. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: quote the Minor Birds in black leather jackets, yellow turtlenecks
Speaker 2: and boots had quite a surreal scene going on.
Speaker 5: I love so.
Speaker 2: Not only were they bandmates, they were also flatmates. They
Speaker 2: lived together in sixty six Young Neil Young, And that's funny,
Speaker 2: Young Neil Young and Rick James. They share a small apartment. Like,
Speaker 2: what was that like? Well, we do know from Neil
Speaker 2: Young's perspective what it was like, because Neil Young once
Speaker 2: told Howard Stern we did some wild things. It was
Speaker 2: all very hazy to me. Now, I'm glad I made
Speaker 2: it through that stage. It got a little dicey. There
Speaker 2: were some drugs going on. I remember singing one song
Speaker 2: for about a day and a half. That's more than
Speaker 2: some drugs going on. Neil, that's all the drugs going on.
Speaker 4: See you that half?
Speaker 2: How many drugs were going on? Elizabeth. See I've told
Speaker 2: you I can hang with psychedelics, and I had my
Speaker 2: time in nearly every street drug you can name. But
Speaker 2: you could not pay me to hang in this small
Speaker 2: apartment with these two on some drugs.
Speaker 3: Oh no, what were some drugs?
Speaker 2: Oh, it's just basically what you would think of psychedelics,
Speaker 2: random street drugs. And I'm you're talking to somebody who's
Speaker 2: hung out with Terrence Howard in a small room and
Speaker 2: he were smoking joints and that was enough. Like I
Speaker 2: was redlining there anyway. Nineteen sixty six, Rick James Neil Young,
Speaker 2: as I said, they have this band together, they're living together,
Speaker 2: making a racket up in Toronto. Things are going well
Speaker 2: for them. They put a single out on Columbia Records
Speaker 2: that gets them deal with Motown. Now they just need
Speaker 2: to record their debut album, and that, of course, is
Speaker 2: when the bottom suddenly drops out, Otherwise it wouldn't be
Speaker 2: an interesting story. The manager for the Miner Birds tells
Speaker 2: the band, hey man about that advance we got from Motown.
Speaker 2: They're like, what'd you do with They say, hey man's
Speaker 2: about that money's gone, right. They have no money now
Speaker 2: to record their album and they owe the money to
Speaker 2: Motown because it's an advance against record sales and they
Speaker 2: have no record to sell. They got two problems, right,
Speaker 2: So rick James goes after the manager. Things get heated.
Speaker 2: Manager gets fired, right, but the manager knows a dirty
Speaker 2: little secret. He goes to Otown Records. He shares what
Speaker 2: he knows with Motown Records, and Barry Gordy is like,
Speaker 2: h mmmmmm because he this manager. He tells that Ricky James,
Speaker 2: their new young star, is actually James Ambrose Johnson Jr.
Speaker 2: And he's not from Canada and he's hiding out from
Speaker 2: the Armed Forces because he went a wall from the
Speaker 2: US Navy in wartime. So Motown is like, oh no, no, Son,
Speaker 2: We're not about to play with the US government. We
Speaker 2: got all sorts of tax issues we're trying to dodge,
Speaker 2: so we don't need a draft dodger messing up a game.
Speaker 2: So you haven't even recorded the album.
Speaker 3: Yet, So yeah, I think that's the biggest.
Speaker 2: So they tell Ricky James he needs to go do
Speaker 2: what he needs to do with Uncle Sam and gets square,
Speaker 2: and so Rick James contacts the FBI turns himself in
Speaker 2: as a fugitive from the law.
Speaker 5: No way.
Speaker 2: At this point, Motown shelves the minor bird record that
Speaker 2: they are, you know, like whatever, it's future tracks they
Speaker 2: have recorded. They all get shelved. This leaves Rick James
Speaker 2: and his bandmates totally in the lurks. They got nothing
Speaker 2: to show for their time. So what did Neil Young do?
Speaker 3: It drove him into the arms of Stephen Still's.
Speaker 2: Practically Elizabeth Is. He and his fellow band mate Bruce Paul.
Speaker 2: They decide to get the hell out of Toronto. They
Speaker 2: head down to la they make the scene, they join
Speaker 2: up in the Laurel Canyon scene we've talked about, and
Speaker 2: they start a band called Buffalo Springfield. Meanwhile, Rick James
Speaker 2: gets tried for draft evasion, convicted, sentenced to five months
Speaker 2: hard labor for going a well from the US. Now
Speaker 2: he is just eighteen years old, Oh my god, but
Speaker 2: being stubborn, full of himself as only a Rick James
Speaker 2: can be. With a month and a half of being
Speaker 2: locked up in the Naval brig Rick James is like,
Speaker 2: this ain't working for me, so he stages a prison breakout.
Speaker 2: Good for him, He successfully escapes military imprisonment. He manages
Speaker 2: to stay on the lamb for six months.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 2: Then he runs out of energy to stay on the
Speaker 2: lamb and he turns himself back. So at this point,
Speaker 2: Rick James is facing a court martial in five years
Speaker 2: in military prison. He fights the case and he gets
Speaker 2: his original sentence reinstated. He has to do the remaining
Speaker 2: five months hard labor on a sentence. Finally, August sixty seven,
Speaker 2: Rick James is a free man. He steps out of
Speaker 2: Portsmouth Naval Prison, freeze in a big breath of that free, clean,
Speaker 2: fresh air, this thing that tastes like freedom, right, and
Speaker 2: he sides, I'm going back to Canada. I don't blame him, right,
Speaker 2: And that's where he will also Elizabeth meet another future
Speaker 2: famous musician who will change the course of his life
Speaker 2: on his way to be coming Rick James.
Speaker 3: Bitch.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's take a break and listen to some ads
Speaker 2: and then we'll be back into and too.
Speaker 3: Okay, Elizabeth, alright, Saren, we're back, Yes, we are.
Speaker 2: So Neil Young you love him? You love him right?
Speaker 2: You know you know his nickname Stevie Wonder Marvin Gayeah
Speaker 2: right here giving them too. Who is the next future
Speaker 2: famous musician to change the course of young Rick james life.
Speaker 3: That I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'll give you a hint. Okay, he also loves drugs.
Speaker 3: Well, that narrows it down.
Speaker 2: His hair looks like he loves drugs. You won't guess it.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's gonna be a tough one. I
Speaker 2: didn't give you good hints.
Speaker 3: Hair looks like he loves drugs.
Speaker 2: Hendrix the Atomic dog himself, Oh that is you see.
Speaker 2: After Rick James gets out of prison in sixty seven,
Speaker 2: he does indeed go back to Toronto, and that's where
Speaker 2: he becomes George Clinton's drug dealer.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, that's a busy.
Speaker 2: Job, right, You've got hours.
Speaker 3: I saw George Clinton walking down the street in La
Speaker 3: once and from behind it totally looks like a muppet.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, completely.
Speaker 4: He's just had like.
Speaker 3: Big coat and like, yeah, he's just popping along.
Speaker 2: And also his hair, he had all his extensions in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so he has ropy hair and yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 2: He's gone now though he's reduced that look. Anyway, back
Speaker 2: then sixty seven, these two men naturally they hit it off.
Speaker 2: They become friends, fellow drug abusers. Now, admittedly, I would
Speaker 2: want to be in this small room as the two
Speaker 2: of them got high ast maybe draft eyebrows. I think
Speaker 2: I would want to be in that room. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think that'd be fun. I mean a little wild
Speaker 2: for a lot of people. I think I can hang in.
Speaker 2: I think they managed to record some songs together through
Speaker 2: all of this, and but none of those songs ever
Speaker 2: saw the light of day.
Speaker 3: Oh really, yeah, same.
Speaker 2: But the charms of Toronto could not hold Rick James.
Speaker 2: Soon enough, he follows Neil Young down to Los Angeles
Speaker 2: to seek his fame and fortune. In the scene, when
Speaker 2: he gets to LA he hooks up with his old
Speaker 2: friend Neil Young and Neil Young's new friends, and that's
Speaker 2: how Rick James ends up crashing at Steven Steele's place.
Speaker 3: I love Stephen Still the old tree.
Speaker 2: Top flyer exactly now. While Rick James is there in
Speaker 2: his first few days in LA He's staying on Steven
Speaker 2: Still's couch. He's not alone in this apartment though, right
Speaker 2: there's other people coming to it. Took a crash pad
Speaker 2: almost now. Eventually, one morning, I could be an afternoon,
Speaker 2: I don't know. He waked up and there's another future
Speaker 2: famous young musician seated on the floor who looks to
Speaker 2: be meditating. Do you want to take a guess who
Speaker 2: he was?
Speaker 3: Elizabeth, As Rick James colorfully remembered in his own autobiography, quote,
Speaker 3: I woke to see a young dude sitting on the
Speaker 3: floor in.
Speaker 2: The lotus position. Stone doesn't nothing unusual about that, except
Speaker 2: for the blood dripping from his wrists. What Elizabeth the
Speaker 2: young man was Jim Morrison Lisa of the Blood, the
Speaker 2: byronic poet Jim Morrison, right, his area is. As Rick
Speaker 2: James recalls it, he was quote saying things like, isn't
Speaker 2: the blood beautiful? Isn't that the deepest red you've ever seen?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's all looking.
Speaker 2: At me.
Speaker 4: At this point Richard Torture.
Speaker 2: He's freaked out by this crazy white boy who's out
Speaker 2: of his arms. Yeah, exactly Young you know that as well.
Speaker 2: So Rick James goes up and he wakes Steven Stills
Speaker 2: up right and he's like, man, come, you get your
Speaker 2: friend bleeding on your view of couch.
Speaker 3: So Steven Stills is like, for what it's worth.
Speaker 2: Now he does come to. His first words are is
Speaker 2: he doing it again again?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So he gets out of bed and he goes and
Speaker 2: he bandages up Jim Morrison. Now, a little while later,
Speaker 2: Rick James and Jim Morrison are at the Whiskey a
Speaker 2: Go Go on Sunset Boulevard, the doors opening act for
Speaker 2: Neil Young's band Buffalo Springfield. After the doors perform, and
Speaker 2: you know Buffalo Springfield is ostensibly on stage, Jim Morrison
Speaker 2: hooks up backstage with Rick James and he tricks Rick
Speaker 2: James into dropping acid with him. And that's like Rick
Speaker 2: James's introduction to like, hey man, this is like what
Speaker 2: a real acid?
Speaker 3: Rick James and Jim Morris.
Speaker 2: That's like the plot of the best drug movie never made,
Speaker 2: but you would never see. I would watch it. Around
Speaker 2: this same time, Buffalo's Springfield. They break up, and Neil
Speaker 2: Young joins a new group. That's right, Elizabeth, this supergroup Crosby, Stills.
Speaker 3: And sometimes Young.
Speaker 2: Now there's Rick James, really love exactly. Rick James was
Speaker 2: hanging out with all of them. He's friends with all
Speaker 2: of them. He's a qualified musician, and it's, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of fun to imagine if you're me and you
Speaker 2: and you're fans of chaos. But at this point, you know,
Speaker 2: he almost was in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Speaker 3: Rick James and James.
Speaker 2: No not, he wouldn't have been a front name. He
Speaker 2: would have been a backing musician, all the way front.
Speaker 2: Rick James and Crosby still smash, and.
Speaker 3: Crosby still smash. James and sometimes Young Neil can't always hang.
Speaker 2: So it's his sixties were ending. Rick James has one
Speaker 2: more brush with a future famous musician. Only this guy
Speaker 2: wouldn't get famous for his music. Instead, he become famous
Speaker 2: for his cult of thrill killers.
Speaker 3: No WHOA.
Speaker 2: The year was sixty nine and Rick James was still
Speaker 2: in Hollywood, bouncing around the Laurel Canyon music scene, and
Speaker 2: he was also getting along partying with the young stars
Speaker 2: in Hollywood. Who had made their name on the silver screen.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 2: So he was friends with one famous hairstylist, this guy
Speaker 2: named Jay Sebring, and he was hopelessly in love with
Speaker 2: one of his best friends, Sharon Tate. And one night
Speaker 2: in sixty nine, j Seabring invited Rick James to come
Speaker 2: over to his friend's house and party with them. But
Speaker 2: being Rick James, he had party way too hard the
Speaker 2: night before. He was hung over. He's like, man, I
Speaker 2: can't come through there. Who over there?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 2: So he chose to stay home and lay about. And
Speaker 2: so later that same night, Charles Manson's followers showed up
Speaker 2: at Charon Tate's home made bloody History, which would be
Speaker 2: the one percent of the story. So we will skip
Speaker 2: past that now.
Speaker 4: The next Rick James was supposed to be there.
Speaker 2: He was supposed to be there that night, so I
Speaker 2: don't know if he would have fought them off or
Speaker 2: just like.
Speaker 4: Actually been a victims.
Speaker 2: Rick going wild on people get down in my face
Speaker 2: with that. The next day, Rick James he reads about
Speaker 2: his near miss with history in the La Times and
Speaker 2: he's like, oh man, and then moves on to now
Speaker 2: I got one more pre famed Rick James ready for you, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: just because I love this one. Do you know who
Speaker 2: Salvador Dhali is?
Speaker 3: Yes, he too.
Speaker 2: I thought you did now since you know who he
Speaker 2: was and you also know how he was. Yeah, now
Speaker 2: can you imagine him and Rick James hanging out?
Speaker 3: Oh no, he Rick James is like this chaos magnet and.
Speaker 4: In the society draw this.
Speaker 2: So the story goes. The two men read a party
Speaker 2: in Hawaii in the nineteen seventies. Now by this point,
Speaker 2: Rick James is coming up, but he's not quite world
Speaker 2: famous yet. Anyway, Salvador Dali is at this dinner party
Speaker 2: in Hawaii and he's wonderfully charmed by Rick James, his
Speaker 2: whole look, his vibe. Yeah, and the Spanish surrealist painter.
Speaker 2: He's like, you know, he's transfixed. He's key staring at him.
Speaker 2: He cannot take his eyes. Rick James like, yeah, appreciate it.
Speaker 2: I enjoy it, you know, you know. Rick James, though,
Speaker 2: eventually notices Salvador Dolly come even closer and he's like,
Speaker 2: what's this about? And he explains to him that he says,
Speaker 2: anti quote, I am mad about the way you look.
Speaker 2: Please allow me to sketch you, all right? And Rick
Speaker 2: James is like, okay, Rother, go for it. So he
Speaker 2: just sits there and he lets Dolly adore him. He
Speaker 2: whips out his materials, gets to sketching. He stares at
Speaker 2: Rick James right until he gets it all right, and
Speaker 2: he draws a little more. Twenty minutes later he's done.
Speaker 2: Dolly hands Rick James the sketch. It's drawn on like
Speaker 2: a napkin. Right, Rick James is, He's totally impressed. He
Speaker 2: loves it. He's showing people he's got this rare momento. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but it must not have made enough of an impression
Speaker 2: on Rick James because the next morning he got up
Speaker 2: and went swimming, never changed his short when he got
Speaker 2: out of the water. The Salvador Dolly drawn napkin was
Speaker 2: just a mess.
Speaker 3: In his pocket.
Speaker 2: Elizabet, Yes, exactly, and I'm sure Salvador Dolly would appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Now we've reached the early eighties when Rick James really
Speaker 2: is a worldwide famous person, right, and this is when
Speaker 2: he's releasing a string of hits. Give it to Me Baby,
Speaker 2: super Freak.
Speaker 4: Sure.
Speaker 2: Okay, Now that second song that's his big hit, that's
Speaker 2: the one that set the old for how people think
Speaker 2: of Rick James.
Speaker 3: Super freak guy.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: You don't pay to mother.
Speaker 2: Now, following on the hit of that super freaky vibe,
Speaker 2: Rick James becomes Rick James because at this point he's
Speaker 2: been Rick James, but now he has turned loose on
Speaker 2: the world. You know that.
Speaker 3: I once met him really.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I was at the Lenox Mall in Atlanta,
Speaker 2: and I was a kid. I was like with my pop,
Speaker 2: just the two of us exactly. So I go, he's
Speaker 2: got the white coat and he's like, I was like,
Speaker 2: that's Rick James. And he has me go over and
Speaker 2: get an autograph. And we have the same name, so
Speaker 2: really it's an autograph for him, but I swear your
Speaker 2: father name, not Rick James. My father and I have
Speaker 2: the same name, and so I got the autograph for
Speaker 2: my father and had his name on it because that's
Speaker 2: my name. So essentially he just used his son. He
Speaker 2: you know, he just child labored me into getting him
Speaker 2: a momento. Yeah. Anyway, but uh, Rick James, he does
Speaker 2: have an aura. I gotta say, Charlie Murphy is range. No,
Speaker 2: I mean it didn't. It moved, Elizabeth. It was like
Speaker 2: a very depending on the white blue, it was very impressive. Yes,
Speaker 2: but all right, Elizabeth where it was all right. I've
Speaker 2: met a lot of celebrities though, so I don't mean
Speaker 2: like brag about it. I just bumped into a crazy.
Speaker 3: Really, you know, I have a very limited number of
Speaker 3: celebrities I've met, very limited And you know, I saw
Speaker 3: Tyne Daily once in real life from across the street,
Speaker 3: and then that old George Clinton walking down the street.
Speaker 2: And I think, you know, I had Gary Coleman once
Speaker 2: cooked beef for me at a Korean restaurant. Wait, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know the Korean barbecues are a stove on the
Speaker 2: on your table. He's like standing on his seat cooking
Speaker 2: the beef and he's like putting it on my plate.
Speaker 2: I was tripping out. Now, I've seen, like I said,
Speaker 2: a lot of celebrities had weird moments. None of them
Speaker 2: were like Rick James in terms of just the presence.
Speaker 2: It was incredible. Immediately I was a boy.
Speaker 3: But have you seen Tyne Daily from across the street?
Speaker 2: No, you got me there, I like, I've never experienced
Speaker 2: the full time.
Speaker 4: There you go.
Speaker 2: Now the scenes when Charlie Murphy is talking about bent
Speaker 2: in the Aura earlier, right, yeah, and then he also
Speaker 2: has the times, like the talk about getting in fights.
Speaker 2: You know, there's the whole thing about ruining the couch, right,
Speaker 2: and then he has the very classic thing where it's like,
Speaker 2: I'm Rick James bitch. Right, that's the line that he
Speaker 2: says all the time that excuses all this bad behavior. Sure,
Speaker 2: now that's what really seems to stick with people from
Speaker 2: that skit, that attitude I'm Rick James bitch. Now this
Speaker 2: brings us to the crimers. I promised you up top
Speaker 2: of Rick James inspired criminals.
Speaker 3: Well, and it's like that was like pre meme era,
Speaker 3: and so that was like what people would just shout
Speaker 3: for no reason.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was essentially verbal means.
Speaker 3: Frat boys in particular. Oh yeah, I loved that completely.
Speaker 3: And then it kind of led into like theuzzier. So
Speaker 3: it was like there were catchphrases that people would yell
Speaker 3: for absolutely no reason.
Speaker 2: Yes, totally, and also from random shows is one lines.
Speaker 2: And then then you'd also get like your Lebowski's like
Speaker 2: the weather just over and over. But yeah, this was
Speaker 2: like something transcendent even amongst that.
Speaker 3: Tradition apropos of nothing. Yeah, that's what I loved about it.
Speaker 2: So other crimers, Yes, September nineteenth, twenty fifteen, just a
Speaker 2: little after noon, two men walk into a bank in Indianapolis. Well,
Speaker 2: technically it's a credit union, the indian Anna members credit
Speaker 2: Union and quote. According to witnesses, two black males wearing
Speaker 2: all black entered the bank armed with handguns. Both suspects
Speaker 2: approached the Tayler counter and demanded money. The suspects fled
Speaker 2: on foot in an unknown direction with an undisclosed amount
Speaker 2: of money. Where's the Rick James and all this? A well,
Speaker 2: they didn't mention what they looked like. Right now, the
Speaker 2: suspects descriptions, the ones that are given by the cops
Speaker 2: are straightforward. Suspect one black hat, long dark hair, sunglasses,
Speaker 2: all black clothing five eight to five ten armed. Suspect two,
Speaker 2: long hair, dreads, all black clothing five eight to five
Speaker 2: ten armed. What they leave out is that the two
Speaker 2: men redressed as Rick James and young blood priest the
Speaker 2: Harlem Koch there the main character of the seventies black
Speaker 2: sploitation flick Superfly.
Speaker 3: Right yright right right, yeah, So imagine they didn't.
Speaker 2: They left that out. They told why, I don't know
Speaker 2: if they didn't recognize the characters they like. I no
Speaker 2: one fella kind of resembles Rick James.
Speaker 4: Fella, I don't know about the platform.
Speaker 2: Shoot, oh you better believe yeah, like the coats, it's amazing. Now,
Speaker 2: imagine you're Elizabeth are in a bank in Indianapolis in
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen. All of a sudden, two seventies super pimps
Speaker 2: come in and stick up the joint, right, Like, what
Speaker 2: would you even think was happening? Would you think that
Speaker 2: maybe maybe they're shooting a movie around?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Know, honestly that's what you would know.
Speaker 2: Way this is real?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Or just I don't know that. I'm like, have
Speaker 3: I been hanging out with Rick James and now I'm
Speaker 3: just hallucinating?
Speaker 2: How I am?
Speaker 4: I am? I Rick James?
Speaker 2: Well, this robbery wasn't there first or their last? Oh
Speaker 2: the super Freak and Superfly bank robbers. They went on
Speaker 2: a spree. They started in September twenty fifteen. They first
Speaker 2: hit the Advanced America check Cashing service in Indianapolis. Next
Speaker 2: they hit the Indiana Members Credit Union. You can probably
Speaker 2: hear they're hitting small chapters or small branches.
Speaker 3: I imagine they're not grabbing a whole lot.
Speaker 2: I don't know. They didn't get numbers. I said no,
Speaker 2: the mounse were undisclosed.
Speaker 3: It is so large they don't want anyone.
Speaker 2: I think they're getting like rent because it seems like
Speaker 2: they hit like in the middle of a month, and
Speaker 2: then it's like in November nineteenth they hit a month later,
Speaker 2: So yeah, November nineteenth, twenty fifteen, they hit another Indiana
Speaker 2: Members Credit Union, this time in the neighboring town of Avon.
Speaker 2: Nearly a month later, on December twelfth, once again middle
Speaker 2: of the month, it's Rent Money twenty fifteen, Super Freak
Speaker 2: and Superfly they hit again. They go into a branch
Speaker 2: of the Indiana Members Credit Union in the town of Carmel, Indiana,
Speaker 2: but this time Rick James's whole vibe of untouchability it
Speaker 2: fails them and they have to flee. That leads to
Speaker 2: a high speed chase that goes tearing through three counties.
Speaker 2: Boone Hamilton Marion the getaway driver. He's good, but not
Speaker 2: good enough because the death despite going over one hundred
Speaker 2: miles an hour and running red lights, crossing oncoming traffic
Speaker 2: the whole nine. In the end, Super Freak and super
Speaker 2: Fly they get caught and busted. Five day trial, thirty
Speaker 2: eight year old dupries Jet and thirty eight year old
Speaker 2: Damien mckissic and thirty eight year old Earl Lee Walker
Speaker 2: all found guilty.
Speaker 3: I went to school together.
Speaker 2: I'm guessing all exactly the exact same age, or there
Speaker 2: are their cousins, many in the hood next to each other. Now,
Speaker 2: what was what was it like for this gang known
Speaker 2: in the press as the Rick James Robbers? Well, the
Speaker 2: getaway driver you got six years, the super Freak and
Speaker 2: Superfly bank robbers themselves, they each caught sentences of twenty
Speaker 2: four years in prison. Four yes, right, do not play yep? Okay, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: Let's take another little break, and after these delightfully persuasive ads,
Speaker 2: I'll be back for some more of who made I'm
Speaker 2: Rick James bitch into a criminal mantra? We're back, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: We're back. You haven't found so far?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, So I.
Speaker 2: Got a little more Rick James inspired lunacy for this please.
Speaker 2: This next story also takes place in twenty fifteen in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3: I was just a young girl then, I know, weren't
Speaker 3: you just said, just out of kindergarten, barely.
Speaker 2: Able to walk. There's around two fifty in the morning
Speaker 2: when patrol officers on Eastern Avenue spot a Blue Infinity
Speaker 2: rolling around right, that's like suspicious right away. The trouble
Speaker 2: was the car had already been reported stolen, so the
Speaker 2: cops give chase. They catch up to the blue Infinity.
Speaker 2: Driver pulls over. When the cops approach and they speak
Speaker 2: with the driver of the stolen Blue Infinity, he tells
Speaker 2: the Springfield police that his name is wait for it,
Speaker 2: Rick James. The police are like, well, mister James, can
Speaker 2: we see your driver's license? The self appointed Rick James
Speaker 2: tells the cops he doesn't have his lescens on him
Speaker 2: at the moment. Officer Now, The cops are like, well,
Speaker 2: mister James, would you politely and police kindly step out
Speaker 2: of the car. Turns out this was definitely not Rick James,
Speaker 2: because this is twenty fifteen and Rick James at this
Speaker 2: point had been dead for eleven years, right and more
Speaker 2: than that, the driver of this stolen car was actually
Speaker 2: named Scott. Now, after the police finger printed Scott, they
Speaker 2: found out that his full name was Scott Taylor of Springfield.
Speaker 2: The thirty year old was charged.
Speaker 8: With receiving his full name was like, hi, Scott, Taylor Springfield.
Speaker 8: A nice he was receiving a stolen motor vehicle, driving
Speaker 8: with a revoked license, giving a false name to a
Speaker 8: police officer.
Speaker 2: Outstanding warrants, the full slate. Nice little raption you got, now, Scott,
Speaker 2: this brings us to the cherry on this Rick James
Speaker 2: flavored pie. Elizabeth. I'm happy to report that this guy,
Speaker 2: he's a Florida man and he's super freak a the
Speaker 2: story goes, his name is Paul, but Paul Kidgik. He's
Speaker 2: fifty years old, and he was at the Back Bar
Speaker 2: and Lounge in Saint Petersburg, Florida, at around four am
Speaker 2: on a Sunday morning, after a Saturday night out. Obviously,
Speaker 2: he decided he'd had enough to drink and it was
Speaker 2: time to go home, so he walked out and got
Speaker 2: in his car to drive home. No, Luckily, there were
Speaker 2: a few people, multiple people in the parking lot outside
Speaker 2: this Florida bar, and they all saw how drunk this
Speaker 2: dude kill Jack was. Yeah, and he was quote kept
Speaker 2: from driving by multiple witnesses due to his level of intoxication.
Speaker 2: Good for them, that was notable since this Florida man,
Speaker 2: Elizabeth was six foot three and three hundred pounds an
Speaker 2: easy person to persuade.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: Oh they should, I totally agree, But they had to
Speaker 2: stand up and you know, get loud. Maybe who see
Speaker 2: if someone though felt we should probably call the police.
Speaker 2: And so they did. And the police arrived on the
Speaker 2: scene at backbar in Saint Pete and they see this
Speaker 2: drunk man who wants to drive home or whatever. And
Speaker 2: the cops were like, buddy, let's just call you a taxi.
Speaker 2: So they call a taxi for kill Jack. When the
Speaker 2: cab arrives, the drunk Florida man gets in and the
Speaker 2: drivers are like, Ferry may home or whatever. But he
Speaker 2: doesn't make it, Elizabeth, Why why doesn't he make it?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 2: Rather than me tell you about it, Elizabeth, I like
Speaker 2: you to close your eyes, eyesac close. I like you
Speaker 2: to picture it. It's late on a Saturday night, and
Speaker 2: you are standing outside of the back bar and lounge
Speaker 2: in the parking lot of a suburban style mall complex
Speaker 2: in Saint Petersburg, Florida. At the moment, it's about four am.
Speaker 2: So clearly you're not making the best life choices. But
Speaker 2: there's a man here in the parking lot who's making
Speaker 2: far worse life choices than you. He looks to be
Speaker 2: about fifty years old and five sheets to the wind.
Speaker 2: The man is drunk, and he's thrashing about like a
Speaker 2: tranquilized elephant who refuses to go down. This is strange
Speaker 2: since there are cops on the scene talking to him.
Speaker 2: They've been talking with the drunk for quite some time now.
Speaker 2: In fact, they're trying to get him into a taxi.
Speaker 2: You're betting against the cops getting him in the back seat,
Speaker 2: but they're stubborn, Elizabeth, and they managed to get him
Speaker 2: in the back and shut the door. The cops turn
Speaker 2: back to you in the small crowd standing near you.
Speaker 2: The cops panami, ma, look like, get a load of
Speaker 2: this guy. As the taxi pulls away, your attention fall
Speaker 2: the car. Soon enough, the cops turn to look too,
Speaker 2: because all of you can hear shouting and yelling coming
Speaker 2: from inside the taxi. They're not even out of the
Speaker 2: parking lot. But it's not just shouting and yelling. It
Speaker 2: looks like, yep, the drunk in the back seat is
Speaker 2: punching the cab driver in the face from the back seat.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: The taxi cabs breake, lights flash the car comes to
Speaker 2: a screeching stuff. The back door bus open. The drunk
Speaker 2: man hops out. His mood has now violently swung in
Speaker 2: the opposite direction. He's now laughing and dancing in the
Speaker 2: parking lot. The cops look at you and the crowd
Speaker 2: again and they pantomime a new look that seems to say,
Speaker 2: I guess we got to do something.
Speaker 4: Huh.
Speaker 2: The dancing drunk is now gleefully insulting anyone, and everyone
Speaker 2: is watching him. He shouts in the direction of you
Speaker 2: and the small crowd standing near you and the two cops.
Speaker 2: He yells you you wait, and he follows that up
Speaker 2: with I'm Rick James. Betch that cuts it. The cops
Speaker 2: now have to rush the six but three three hundred
Speaker 2: pound drunk man dancing around and doing his best Dave
Speaker 2: Chappelle impression. You are not impressed with its accuracy. Neither
Speaker 2: are the police, Elizabeth. They arrested drunk Kiljick for battery
Speaker 2: and disorderly intoxication. And your cheap evenings entertainment is over.
Speaker 2: So you asked the cab driver if you can get
Speaker 2: a ride home. He looks at you like, are you kidding?
Speaker 2: I'm going home?
Speaker 4: I hope.
Speaker 2: So this is what happens when you spend time in
Speaker 2: the Tampa's eight Peenede area at four am.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: This last Rick James inspired legal kerfuffle that I want
Speaker 2: to tell you about brings this all full circle because
Speaker 2: we've come back to Dave Chappelle and his famous Charlie
Speaker 2: Murphy skits. In two thousand and four, the same year
Speaker 2: that Rick James passed away, Dave Chappelle pulled his first
Speaker 2: big disappearing act. Not all people know this, because what
Speaker 2: works out like this. It was in two thousand and four,
Speaker 2: in December he walked away from the Dave Chappelle Show
Speaker 2: for the first time, but it was all quiet. Nobody
Speaker 2: really heard about it. And then he walked away again
Speaker 2: in two thousand and five, and that's when he very
Speaker 2: famously went a wall. So before all of that, back
Speaker 2: in June of two thousand and four, he was in Sacramento, California. Hey,
Speaker 2: aka the Big Tomato, aka the Big Easy Chair, aka
Speaker 2: the City that Always Sleeps Sacramento, and he was there
Speaker 2: doing a stand up show. Now, he was at the
Speaker 2: four thousand seat Memorial Auditory. I'm not sure if you're
Speaker 2: familiar with them, so he was doing his act and
Speaker 2: he gets irritated because the fans and Sacramento kept shouting
Speaker 2: at him. I'm Rick James bitch os, Oh my god,
Speaker 2: and that's fun. You're trying to do your job and
Speaker 2: you've got Sacramento yokeles yelling punchlines at you from your
Speaker 2: TV show. So David gets pissed at him, and he
Speaker 2: tells these Sacramento yokels, you people are stupid. Good now,
Speaker 2: as you know, Elizabeth, I grew up in Davis and
Speaker 2: Mere twelve miles from Sacramento, so to hear the Dave
Speaker 2: Chappelle called the stupid delights me in a very ugly
Speaker 2: regional rivalry kind of way, so forgive me. But the
Speaker 2: story goes like this, It's a Tuesday night show mid June,
Speaker 2: should be fun for everyone. Dave Chappelle is about to
Speaker 2: drop the third season of his show It's the hottest
Speaker 2: thing in comedy. But his fans they just well, as
Speaker 2: Dave put it, shut up and listen like you're supposed to.
Speaker 2: At one point, Dave Chappelle tells the Sacramento crowd the
Speaker 2: show is ruining my life. Oh god, he confesses to
Speaker 2: the audience. That quote, stand up is the most important
Speaker 2: thing I do is because I'm on TV. You make
Speaker 2: it hard for me to do it. People can't distinguish
Speaker 2: between what's real and fake. This ain't a TV show.
Speaker 2: You're not watching Comedy Central. I'm real up here talking.
Speaker 2: At that point, he gave the Sacramental crowd a lesson
Speaker 2: on how stand up comedy works in case they unfamiliar
Speaker 2: with the real structures and structures. And he said, and
Speaker 2: I quote, I say something you mulled over and decide
Speaker 2: whether you want to laugh or not, and then you
Speaker 2: do or not. Then I say something else and you
Speaker 2: think about it. It's worked well all across the country.
Speaker 2: But you people and knowing them as I do, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: I bet when Dave paused here, someone actually shouted I'm
Speaker 2: Rick Jags match. I'm just guessing that if he did,
Speaker 2: they would have missed the insult that Dave was about
Speaker 2: to drop. Because Dave made sure that they understood it.
Speaker 2: And this one landed because he was talking to people
Speaker 2: from Sacramento, so he sold them. Coming to Sacramento to
Speaker 2: do comedy was probably quote a bad idea, like chocolate
Speaker 2: covered fish not done. Insulting the Sacramento crowd. Dave Chappelle
Speaker 2: next tells the same crowd why his TV show is
Speaker 2: so funny. He said, and I quote, you know why
Speaker 2: my show is good because the network officials say you're
Speaker 2: not smart enough to get what I'm doing. And every
Speaker 2: day I fight for you, I tell them how smart
Speaker 2: you are. Turns out I was wrong. You people are stupid.
Speaker 2: And again, knowing them as I do, Elizabeth, I would
Speaker 2: bet cash money. Someone yelled back in the response.
Speaker 3: Oh, Rick James Batch, this is what drove Dave Chappelle bo.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, Sacramento did it? I recognize this now.
Speaker 2: At this point, Dave Chappelle tells his fans in Sacramento,
Speaker 2: you guys are the worst listeners in the country. It's
Speaker 2: like the silence of the Lambs without the silence. This, too,
Speaker 2: is the power of Rick James. He can make a
Speaker 2: whole cowtown lose his camp mind. Elizabeth, Please do remember
Speaker 2: I'm Rick James bitch. Enjoy yourself. So what's our ridiculous
Speaker 2: takeaway here?
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness. I feel for Chappelle.
Speaker 3: And that's that case of just you know, I think
Speaker 3: any artist who hears those things repeated back to them constantly,
Speaker 3: And I.
Speaker 4: Wonder if Rick James heard super Freak all the time.
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's annoying. I would imagine, Oh god.
Speaker 3: But my takeaway, I think is that Rick James the
Speaker 3: gift kept giving.
Speaker 2: My takeaway, Elizabeth, thank you for asking me. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I'll share it with you. He's like our idea of
Speaker 2: a pirate come to life, you know, like the recklessness,
Speaker 2: the big Yeah. He really is. Like so now I'm
Speaker 2: going to think of Rick James as a pirate.
Speaker 3: His characterization by Chappelle of like holding a like a
Speaker 3: gobb it gives that pirate aesthetic too, just to.
Speaker 2: Something about him. So you in the move for a
Speaker 2: talk back? Of course, I am all right producing. Could
Speaker 2: you favor us with one?
Speaker 7: Oh my god, I saren.
Speaker 9: I had to pause the podcast, the latest one and
Speaker 9: the name I can't pronounce it because you haven't said
Speaker 9: it yet. I had to pose it when you said
Speaker 9: the word serendipity, and you missed a huge opportunity to
Speaker 9: call it serendipity.
Speaker 3: How could you?
Speaker 2: I did drop the ball, But I love that.
Speaker 3: I'm listening to this now I'm going to pause it
Speaker 3: and complain about something that maybe has or hasn't happened
Speaker 3: now luckily it hadn't happen, but still serendipity.
Speaker 2: You know, my mother uses that as a nickname, because
Speaker 2: does she. She's dippy like that. Well, as always, we
Speaker 2: appreciate y'all's talkback, so please keep them coming. Get the
Speaker 2: iHeart app downloaded. You can leave yourself a talkback that
Speaker 2: we will then possibly play here and you can hear
Speaker 2: your own voice right here now. You can also, obviously,
Speaker 2: you can catch us on the social media, so you
Speaker 2: can just look up ridiculous Crime on most of social
Speaker 2: media's except for that one with X. We have a
Speaker 2: website ridiculous Crime dot com. We obviously also have an
Speaker 2: email account because we mentioned it from time to time.
Speaker 2: It's also a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. So
Speaker 2: hit us up and as always, please start the email,
Speaker 2: dear producer d and as always, thank you for listening.
Speaker 2: We will catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted
Speaker 2: by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnette, produced and edited by
Speaker 2: the Rick to Our James Dave Coustin, and starring Annalise
Speaker 2: Rutger as Judath. Research is by our resident miner birds
Speaker 2: Brissa Brown, and Andrea song Sharpened Tear. Our theme song
Speaker 2: is by Ricky James Matthews. Cosplayers Thomas Lee and Travis Dutty.
Speaker 2: The host's wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred, guest Haron
Speaker 2: makup by Sparkleshot and Mister Andrea. Executive producers are Ben
Speaker 2: I Wanted to be Rick James Bitch Boland and Note
Speaker 2: I Am Rick James Bitch.
Speaker 6: Brown Reds Why Say It one More Times?
Speaker 5: Crime?
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four More Podcasts.
Speaker 1: My heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.