WEBVTT - "I'm Rick James, Bitch!": A Criminal Inspiration 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:02.720 Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:06.800 Hey Elizabeth, what are you doing? 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:08.119 I'm just hanging out. 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:11.280 So I got another question for you. Yeah, Hey, are 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:12.039 those new shoes? 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:12.760 No? 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.920 No, I got another question for you. You know it's ridiculous. 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.800 Yeah, I have an answer for that one. Okay, what now, 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.840 quick question before I get into it. Are you like 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:26.159 me where you don't show up empty handed when you 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:27.160 go to someone's house? 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.240 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, guess. 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:31.920 And you have to bring like a hostess gift or 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.879 you know, or a host gift, depending on who you 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:38.400 know who you're visiting. But the thing is is that 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.199 sometimes it's hard to figure out what to bring. You know, 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:42.560 flowers is always good. 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:44.519 You can't go with the old standard of wine anymore 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:46.800 because not a lot of people drink as much people drink. 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:49.879 And sometimes people feel the obligation if they've already come 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:52.360 up with this meal, that they have a wine pairing, 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.440 and they feel the obligation to open. But I have 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.640 I have a solution for you, and it does involve wine. 0:00:58.880 --> 0:00:59.880 Okay, I'm listening to. 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:04.959 You bring this very special wine and it's you stop it. 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:09.000 Why I walk right into every time? Go ahead? 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:17.919 It is called mayonnaise blanc and it comes from Helman's. 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:21.279 And if you're thinking like mayonnaise. 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:22.600 Wine, no, I'm not thinking anything right now. 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:24.560 What in the heck I mean that sounds like toilet 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:25.679 wine or pruno. 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.800 Like pretty much it sounds like something which yeah. 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:33.640 No, no zaren the good folks at Unilever North America. 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:35.320 Oh they came up with this. 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:39.280 It's actually it's actually really clever. It makes so yeah, yeah, 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:43.000 and mayonnaise. But what I love the most is just 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:45.840 how clever this is. So you show up and you 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.080 have this bottle of wine, yes, and it says zero 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:53.400 percent ABV so no alcohol by volume, one hundred percent 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:57.560 Mayo Mayonnaise Blanc nineteen fifteen. 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:00.360 You know, but you I supposed to believe this maynas 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:02.440 from nineteen fifteen or just like the house. 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:07.480 Ever since hel then my glasses on, I'm trying to 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:09.880 look at this picture, any of you. Yeah, so what 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.480 it is is what it is. What had happened was 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.359 you hand them this bottle and they're like, oh my wait, 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.000 mayonnaise wine. What's wrong with you? Before they can hit you. 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:20.680 Over the hease, they ask me to leave their house. 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:25.320 You demonstrate that the bottom of the bottle, unscrews worse 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.480 and come it comes out of it is a little 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.840 jar of mayonnaise. So that's how you gift mayonnaise. But 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.800 it comes in like the trojan horse of a wine bottle. 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.079 I think it's super cute. I think mayonnaise is great. 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:43.400 I would empty the mayonnaise jar out, fill that with like, 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:47.480 I don't know, something good, chocolate, wead honey, something, and 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:48.680 then put that in the mannaise. 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:49.440 Oh that's clever. 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:49.800 Right. 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:51.440 Then it's like, hey, look, you thought it was gonna 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:53.519 be crappy, no, wait to unscrew it. And they're like, oh, 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:55.320 even crappier. 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:56.680 Look I was. 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:58.840 Gonna make you some deviled eggs and they open it. 0:02:58.840 --> 0:02:59.760 Oh it's just weird. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:00.840 Yeah, just. 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:06.359 So a bunch of people sent this to us. It's 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:09.280 pretty incredible. I would love a bunch. 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:11.480 Of people did. Yeah, thank you, a bunch of people. 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:12.919 And I see what you think of it. 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.040 I'd love to get a jar, Elizabeth, let's get him. 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:18.600 I would love to get a jar of classic mayo 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:19.960 disguised as a fine line. 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.920 Okay, I'll keep that my holiday gift. 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:28.120 For youful twist on gifting. Yeah, it is so that is. 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:29.840 Twist on gifting. 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.920 Don't you want like a turkey with that other? 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:35.480 No? I don't even like manna. 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:35.880 Is you know that? 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:39.080 I'm sorry for your loss. 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:41.640 I learned that it makes a good grilled cheese sandwich. 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:42.200 You taught me that. 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:43.320 Yeah on the outside. 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:46.040 Yeah, that's that's what I'm about that life now hell yeah? 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:46.560 Oh good? 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.640 Good to rub on like a roast chicken, to roast it. 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.600 I think it's good for but like does people slather 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:54.960 it on? 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:55.120 Like? 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:57.280 Anyway? I'm not going to get into manage Elizabeth, And 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.800 I have a question for you, Yes, sir, Well it's 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.120 not about being ridiculous. Well it is, but you you 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.360 know the Okay, I think you watched this show? You do? 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:05.880 You must have? 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:06.600 Which one? 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:11.480 Elizabeth? I have four words for you. I'm Rick James bitch. 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:13.000 Oh yeah right. 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.240 Davis Chappelle made that quote famous, but it was Rick 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:17.599 James who. 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:18.320 Made it real. 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:19.520 Oh yeah yeah. 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.320 And for some folks, those same magic for words are 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:24.240 also their ticket to jail. 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:44.560 Oh. 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:51.200 This is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.320 heist and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:59.760 and one hundred percent ridiculous. Oh yeah, it is Elizabeth 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:02.640 Rick James one of your people. 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:05.480 Is he agent of chaos? 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:05.760 Right? 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.919 See you were like, how was he problematic? But yeah, 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:09.400 a little. 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.160 There's obviously a very ugly chapter of his life. Oh yeah, 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:15.120 we're not going to get into that now, are we 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:17.640 going to pretend it didn't happen? Okay, which is why 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.080 I want to focus on the younger, more innocent, pre 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:25.839 mega fame Rick James. Yeah, yeah, he is criminally ridiculous. 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:26.280 Okay. 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.200 Obviously, you know, most folks younger than say, my parents 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.200 only really know Rick James from the Dave Chappelle's show, right, 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:35.080 And obviously the more you know the skits with Charlie 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:39.040 Murphy aka Murphy's brother. Now you know Charlie Murphy told 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.560 these Atlandis stories. I would be hanging out with Rick James, 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.640 and this is at the peak of Rick james fame 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.480 back in the early to mid eighties. And also, as 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:49.320 you know, Charlie Murphy incredible storyteller. 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:50.640 Like one of the best. 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.039 Oh my god, he has a natural inclination, but then 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.000 he also knows it, so he tries to reach for 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.159 fruits that he can barely touch himself. So it's like, 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:02.080 oh R. In his stories, he always makes Rick James 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.200 come alive, and his tales of you know, getting in 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.480 fights with him and like when you when your battle 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.680 and a man nicknamed super Freak, you know what's gonna 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:12.279 be interesting now. Also, even from the very first moment 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.480 of their friendship, when he first meets Rick James, Charlie Murphy, 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:20.119 he recounts seeing how Rick James had this bright, vibrating aura, 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:22.719 and Charlie Murphy said, and I quote, and here he 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:24.560 comes out of the room and I look at him 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.760 and I'm not I seen like an orange his aura 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:34.000 or whatever I've seen it, it was orange. I love 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:37.520 that this is not somebody who talks about him to 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.880 even say that, that means it's real all of a sudden, exactly, 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:43.840 It's like this confession he's got to tell you, man, 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:46.960 I wouldn't normally say this, so obviously this guy. He 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.280 also has one of my favorite lines in word Conjugations. Ever, 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.080 like he talks about okay, well, back to Charlie quote, 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:56.680 things escalated to the point that my man got too 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.200 familiar and I ended up having to whip his ass 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:03.240 because he would step across the line habitually he was 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:06.920 habitual line stepper. I love that habitual line stepper. I 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:11.280 mean that whole time as an habitual line stepper. I 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.080 finally saw myself. I was like, that's what it is. 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:17.120 You know that I've told you about how in my 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:21.000 family it's really not a gathering until I cross the 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:26.760 line in what I say and someone or many people go, oh, 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:28.640 line stepper. I know that. 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:31.760 I think that's what we have in common now. Of course, 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.840 obviously there's Dave Chappelle's whole impression of Rick James, which 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.320 I haven't even mentioned yet. Yeah, and that's what gave 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:41.120 us the most memorable line from the skit. I'm Rick James, bitch. 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:44.560 Enjoy yourself. I added that, but it's actually in the skit, 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.080 but he says a lot of other things anyway, Yeah, 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.800 the key is I'm Rick James bitch. Those four words. 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:52.440 And this this Rick James were talking about. As I 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:54.200 keep saying this was like, you know, this is a 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:58.080 post disco super freak, think Studio fifty four into the 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.320 seventies early eighties, Like, Elizabeth, what hold do you know 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:02.920 about Rick James and his pre fame days? Do you 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:04.440 know any of these stories you ever heard any of 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.400 these things about him? No, okay, here's a fun fact. 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:10.040 Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gay they gave him his name. 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:12.280 Oh really, not his mama. 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.800 No, no, Rick James is not his mama's given or 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:16.560 government name. 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:17.360 WHOA Yeah. 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:19.360 When he was coming up, Rick James was in Detroit, 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.000 home of Motown, and one night he meets Stevie Wonder 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.320 and Marvin Gay and they were already stars on the 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.280 Motown label and after seeing Rick James perform, they're impressed. Right, 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:28.440 So they're like, hey, man, what's your name? 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:28.680 Brother? 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:31.120 And he tells them my name is Rick, Ricky James, Matthews. 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:33.040 And Stevie Wonder's like, wait, wait, hold up, are you 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:34.880 planning on killing the president? Why do you have three names? 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:35.120 Right? 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:37.080 And Rick James like, no, no, I'm not planning on 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.360 becoming a presidential assassin. You got a problem with my name? 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:41.840 And Robbia guys like, yeah, brother, we do. That name 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:43.800 has no show business to it, right, So they think 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:45.880 for a moment and they're like, okay, Now, I don't 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:47.760 know which one of them actually came up with it, 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:49.520 but it's always been said that it was Stevie Wonder, 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:51.440 and Stevie Wonder, who's like, you know, I got it, brother, 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.760 you need to call yourself Ricky James. That's a show 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.920 biz name, right. Hearing that from Stevie Wonder, the former 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:01.720 Ricky James Matthew changed his name and didn't look back. 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.560 Hey, Stevie Wonder gives you that kind of advice, you 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:05.800 take it, you do it immediately. 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.520 Anything Stevie Wonder gives me, I'm keeping exactly pretty much. 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.800 That's smart rule, right Herpes, guys, I got I should 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.800 have some condossels. I knew you would test my theories. 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.920 Habitual linestepper. Now this is the kind of strange look 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:21.960 Rick James will continue to have in his life. 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:22.199 Right. 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.480 So, also, by the way, Ricky James Matthews still not 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:26.640 his government name. 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.760 Oh really that stage name correct. 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.280 Yes, because the reason he had that name was he 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:36.720 was on the lamb from the law. No. Oh yeah, 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.080 we'll get all into all of this, Elizabeth. So this 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:41.880 cat who would eventually become Rick James, he was born 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:47.400 James Ambrose Johnson Junior. I love that name. He first 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.400 dropped onto this scene in the world in Buffalo, New York, 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.640 nineteen forty eight. Just classic baby Boomer Man or you 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:55.440 know baby boomer Cat in his case. 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:55.800 Yeah. 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.000 Now, his father worked in the auto industry as a 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.000 factory worker. His mother show business hopeful. You know, back 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.600 in her day she was a dancer, and when Rick 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:06.200 James was a little boy, she was a cleaning lady. So, 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:07.800 as I said, show business hopeful. 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.320 She was one of those Buffalo gals. 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.600 Don't she come up so to get a little extra 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:15.960 coin in her purse. She was also a numbers runner 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:19.160 for the leading crime family in Buffalo. Love that that 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:22.200 was her night job. So this like lawlessness and show 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.400 business drive, they kind of get funneled into young Rick. 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:25.840 Yeah. 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:27.880 Now by the time he's a teenager, Rick James, he's 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:29.880 got himself a little band, right, they're playing around the 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:33.000 Buffalo area and across the border in Canada. And he 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:35.280 gets old enough, you know, about sixteen, you know, the 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:38.560 government starts eyeballing him to draft him into Vietnam War. 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:41.640 And you know he's like, oh, Joseph Forestall all that. 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:43.840 So Rick James is like, oh, I'll join the naval reserve, 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:45.640 you know, that way he can control he doesn't get 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.360 drafted into the army and shit Vietnam. He'll be on 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:48.760 the boat. 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:48.960 You know. 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.480 He's like, yeah, I can cook. What's going on right now? 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.240 His plan doesn't exactly work out, Elizabeth, because James Ambrose 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.080 Johnson Junior has to change his name to Ricky James 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:00.400 Matthews just to get out and be on the run. 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:02.559 He's like, you know what, this whole naval reserve thing. 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.040 He tries signing up, but it's not for him, right, 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:07.560 So he goes on the run from Select Services, but 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:09.640 his plans are full on draft division, right, So he 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.640 flees across the border to Canada because Detroit ain't enough. 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.480 And this is at this point, we're in nineteen sixty four. 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.400 As I said, the man is sixteen years old, maybe 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.160 seventeen if if the month is right now, he moves 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:22.640 by himself to Toronto. 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:24.120 Oh wow, yep. 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.640 Within days of crossing the border, he starts his new 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.240 life as a draft dodging musician, Ricky James Matthews, and 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:34.240 he meets another future famous musician. So the story goes, 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:36.560 he's outside his nightclub and I assume he had performed 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:38.600 that night, but I don't know for certain. Anyway, Ricky 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:41.680 James Matthews outside this club, he gets into it with 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.120 these three drunk dudes or are like just talking loud 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:46.480 because he dressed funny and he's up there in Canada 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:47.959 and they're like, yo, man, this a good show, but 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.120 why you're wearing that ladies at whatever? And this is 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.640 nineteen sixty four, So Rick James is an agent of 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:54.720 chaos and he's not afraid of people, so they didn't 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:56.400 matter if he was wearing a lady's wig or not. 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:58.920 He goes popping off. They get into it right now. 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:01.560 So there's a fight and these fights, you know, turned 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.360 to shouts. Shouts turned to shove. Shoves turned into actual punches. 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:06.720 They got a full on drunk fight, three against one. 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.040 He doesn't really stand that good of a chance. He 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.040 is still sixteen years old or seventeen. He gets his 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.040 ass kicked right, so he's knocked down. Things are looking 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:17.520 bad for old Ricky James Matthews. Three musicians come out 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.280 of the club. They see this kid down on the 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.319 ground about it get stomped out. They recognized he was 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:23.439 just inside playing. He's all right, so they run over 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.000 to help him. One of the men who reaches down 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:28.199 to help pick him up is Levon Helm. 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.360 No, yes, I did not know that I feel like, 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:33.880 did you do this as are what's ridiculous ones? 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:35.679 No, but you're getting close to one. 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:37.839 I did, Okay, yeah, yeah, there's something. 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:38.880 Percolating the memory. 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:39.800 Yeah. 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:41.720 So I like to imagine Rick James. He's looking up 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.320 and there's Levon Helm offering him a hand. 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:47.080 And that's like help God. Yeah. 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:49.160 So after helps Rick James up and he's like, Hey, 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.679 we're playing a gig tonight. You wonder you should come through, Right, 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:54.080 So Rick James he does indeed go with them to 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:56.080 their gig, and he even gets up on stage and 0:12:56.120 --> 0:13:00.000 he performs with Ronnie Hawkins and Levon Helm. Yeah that's awesome. Right, 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.959 So that's his introduction to like the Toronto scene, right, 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:05.959 Ricky James, Matthews at this point he starts his own band, right, 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.439 so he's been own band is called the Minor Birds. 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.840 Their sound is rock. It's heavily influenced by the combined 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.839 new sounds of soul music but also folk music. They're 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:15.920 mixing and matching. 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:16.880 And making their own thing, right. 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:17.760 Yeah, this at this. 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:19.280 Point is like nineteen sixty five. 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:19.760 Okay. 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:21.960 By the next year, Ricky James and Matthews, he's got 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.040 this band sounded so good they are able to sign 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.240 a deal with Motown Records. Whoa, that's in sixty six. 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:29.120 If they signed the deal right now, this is what 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:31.640 brings him into the orbit of Stevie Wonder Marvin Gay. 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:33.720 And then they convince him to go from Ricky James 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.360 Matthews to Ricky James and then eventually the why he 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:40.200 gets dropped in Rick James. Right now, just before the 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.679 Minor Birds record their album on Motown Records, a band 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.079 member drops out. His replacement is, of course, another future 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:51.440 famous musicians. You want to guess who Elizabeth Hicky. Yes, 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:52.760 that's right, Neil Young. 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:54.320 Oh I love him so much. 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:57.400 So, accorded Neil Young's biographer, this cat Jimmy McDonough. The band, 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:01.360 the Minor Birds had a very distinctive, very mid sixties look. 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:06.000 And to picture Rick James Neil Young on stage. Oh yeah, 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:09.600 quote the Minor Birds in black leather jackets, yellow turtlenecks 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.199 and boots had quite a surreal scene going on. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:13.520 I love so. 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.520 Not only were they bandmates, they were also flatmates. They 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:20.800 lived together in sixty six Young Neil Young, And that's funny, 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.160 Young Neil Young and Rick James. They share a small apartment. Like, 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.120 what was that like? Well, we do know from Neil 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:29.640 Young's perspective what it was like, because Neil Young once 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:33.200 told Howard Stern we did some wild things. It was 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.560 all very hazy to me. Now, I'm glad I made 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.240 it through that stage. It got a little dicey. There 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.040 were some drugs going on. I remember singing one song 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:45.640 for about a day and a half. That's more than 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.040 some drugs going on. Neil, that's all the drugs going on. 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:50.120 See you that half? 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.480 How many drugs were going on? Elizabeth. See I've told 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:55.160 you I can hang with psychedelics, and I had my 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:57.080 time in nearly every street drug you can name. But 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.640 you could not pay me to hang in this small 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:01.920 apartment with these two on some drugs. 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:03.200 Oh no, what were some drugs? 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.200 Oh, it's just basically what you would think of psychedelics, 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.400 random street drugs. And I'm you're talking to somebody who's 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:10.280 hung out with Terrence Howard in a small room and 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:12.400 he were smoking joints and that was enough. Like I 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:16.400 was redlining there anyway. Nineteen sixty six, Rick James Neil Young, 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:18.960 as I said, they have this band together, they're living together, 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:21.400 making a racket up in Toronto. Things are going well 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.240 for them. They put a single out on Columbia Records 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:26.880 that gets them deal with Motown. Now they just need 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.720 to record their debut album, and that, of course, is 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:32.560 when the bottom suddenly drops out, Otherwise it wouldn't be 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.480 an interesting story. The manager for the Miner Birds tells 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.120 the band, hey man about that advance we got from Motown. 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:39.800 They're like, what'd you do with They say, hey man's 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:43.080 about that money's gone, right. They have no money now 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.160 to record their album and they owe the money to 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.920 Motown because it's an advance against record sales and they 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:50.400 have no record to sell. They got two problems, right, 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:53.640 So rick James goes after the manager. Things get heated. 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.720 Manager gets fired, right, but the manager knows a dirty 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:01.600 little secret. He goes to Otown Records. He shares what 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:03.880 he knows with Motown Records, and Barry Gordy is like, 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:08.560 h mmmmmm because he this manager. He tells that Ricky James, 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.680 their new young star, is actually James Ambrose Johnson Jr. 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.040 And he's not from Canada and he's hiding out from 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:16.000 the Armed Forces because he went a wall from the 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:20.440 US Navy in wartime. So Motown is like, oh no, no, Son, 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:22.160 We're not about to play with the US government. We 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:24.120 got all sorts of tax issues we're trying to dodge, 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.120 so we don't need a draft dodger messing up a game. 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:29.120 So you haven't even recorded the album. 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:30.720 Yet, So yeah, I think that's the biggest. 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.080 So they tell Ricky James he needs to go do 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.160 what he needs to do with Uncle Sam and gets square, 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:39.000 and so Rick James contacts the FBI turns himself in 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:40.440 as a fugitive from the law. 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:41.000 No way. 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.840 At this point, Motown shelves the minor bird record that 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:46.240 they are, you know, like whatever, it's future tracks they 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.120 have recorded. They all get shelved. This leaves Rick James 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:51.240 and his bandmates totally in the lurks. They got nothing 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.520 to show for their time. So what did Neil Young do? 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.920 It drove him into the arms of Stephen Still's. 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.120 Practically Elizabeth Is. He and his fellow band mate Bruce Paul. 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:02.560 They decide to get the hell out of Toronto. They 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:04.680 head down to la they make the scene, they join 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:06.680 up in the Laurel Canyon scene we've talked about, and 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.320 they start a band called Buffalo Springfield. Meanwhile, Rick James 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:14.040 gets tried for draft evasion, convicted, sentenced to five months 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.440 hard labor for going a well from the US. Now 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.320 he is just eighteen years old, Oh my god, but 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.639 being stubborn, full of himself as only a Rick James 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:24.720 can be. With a month and a half of being 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:26.840 locked up in the Naval brig Rick James is like, 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:29.680 this ain't working for me, so he stages a prison breakout. 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:34.960 Good for him, He successfully escapes military imprisonment. He manages 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:36.760 to stay on the lamb for six months. 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:37.280 Wow. 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:38.960 Then he runs out of energy to stay on the 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:41.760 lamb and he turns himself back. So at this point, 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:45.160 Rick James is facing a court martial in five years 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.040 in military prison. He fights the case and he gets 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:51.120 his original sentence reinstated. He has to do the remaining 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:55.480 five months hard labor on a sentence. Finally, August sixty seven, 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:57.439 Rick James is a free man. He steps out of 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:01.520 Portsmouth Naval Prison, freeze in a big breath of that free, clean, 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.359 fresh air, this thing that tastes like freedom, right, and 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.800 he sides, I'm going back to Canada. I don't blame him, right, 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.240 And that's where he will also Elizabeth meet another future 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:13.880 famous musician who will change the course of his life 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.000 on his way to be coming Rick James. 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:16.320 Bitch. 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:18.480 Okay, let's take a break and listen to some ads 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:20.200 and then we'll be back into and too. 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.480 Okay, Elizabeth, alright, Saren, we're back, Yes, we are. 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.880 So Neil Young you love him? You love him right? 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:51.800 You know you know his nickname Stevie Wonder Marvin Gayeah 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:56.920 right here giving them too. Who is the next future 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.520 famous musician to change the course of young Rick james life. 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:01.440 That I don't know. 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.200 I'll give you a hint. Okay, he also loves drugs. 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:06.359 Well, that narrows it down. 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:11.399 His hair looks like he loves drugs. You won't guess it. 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:12.520 I don't think it's gonna be a tough one. I 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:13.400 didn't give you good hints. 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:15.240 Hair looks like he loves drugs. 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:21.880 Hendrix the Atomic dog himself, Oh that is you see. 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:24.720 After Rick James gets out of prison in sixty seven, 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.640 he does indeed go back to Toronto, and that's where 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:29.560 he becomes George Clinton's drug dealer. 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:33.720 Oh my god, that's a busy. 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:35.560 Job, right, You've got hours. 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.800 I saw George Clinton walking down the street in La 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:42.920 once and from behind it totally looks like a muppet. 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:43.960 Oh yeah, yeah, completely. 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:44.880 He's just had like. 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:47.280 Big coat and like, yeah, he's just popping along. 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:49.640 And also his hair, he had all his extensions in there. 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:54.119 Yeah, so he has ropy hair and yeah, it's incredible. 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.840 He's gone now though he's reduced that look. Anyway, back 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:00.960 then sixty seven, these two men naturally they hit it off. 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:04.560 They become friends, fellow drug abusers. Now, admittedly, I would 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:06.199 want to be in this small room as the two 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.199 of them got high ast maybe draft eyebrows. I think 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:11.440 I would want to be in that room. Yeah, yeah, 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:12.720 I think that'd be fun. I mean a little wild 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:14.200 for a lot of people. I think I can hang in. 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.480 I think they managed to record some songs together through 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:20.640 all of this, and but none of those songs ever 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:21.520 saw the light of day. 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:22.600 Oh really, yeah, same. 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.040 But the charms of Toronto could not hold Rick James. 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.120 Soon enough, he follows Neil Young down to Los Angeles 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.840 to seek his fame and fortune. In the scene, when 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:33.600 he gets to LA he hooks up with his old 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:36.760 friend Neil Young and Neil Young's new friends, and that's 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:39.680 how Rick James ends up crashing at Steven Steele's place. 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:43.240 I love Stephen Still the old tree. 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.760 Top flyer exactly now. While Rick James is there in 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.440 his first few days in LA He's staying on Steven 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:52.760 Still's couch. He's not alone in this apartment though, right 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:54.960 there's other people coming to it. Took a crash pad 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.720 almost now. Eventually, one morning, I could be an afternoon, 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:01.600 I don't know. He waked up and there's another future 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.600 famous young musician seated on the floor who looks to 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:07.000 be meditating. Do you want to take a guess who 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:07.240 he was? 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:13.640 Elizabeth, As Rick James colorfully remembered in his own autobiography, quote, 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:15.720 I woke to see a young dude sitting on the 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:16.240 floor in. 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:21.000 The lotus position. Stone doesn't nothing unusual about that, except 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:24.480 for the blood dripping from his wrists. What Elizabeth the 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:31.639 young man was Jim Morrison Lisa of the Blood, the 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:36.280 byronic poet Jim Morrison, right, his area is. As Rick 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:40.040 James recalls it, he was quote saying things like, isn't 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.560 the blood beautiful? Isn't that the deepest red you've ever seen? 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:47.000 Yeah, he's all looking. 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.240 At me. 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:51.680 At this point Richard Torture. 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:55.040 He's freaked out by this crazy white boy who's out 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:58.720 of his arms. Yeah, exactly Young you know that as well. 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.320 So Rick James goes up and he wakes Steven Stills 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:02.679 up right and he's like, man, come, you get your 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:04.240 friend bleeding on your view of couch. 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:08.040 So Steven Stills is like, for what it's worth. 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:13.159 Now he does come to. His first words are is 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:15.000 he doing it again again? 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:15.879 Yeah? 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:17.679 So he gets out of bed and he goes and 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:20.960 he bandages up Jim Morrison. Now, a little while later, 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:23.200 Rick James and Jim Morrison are at the Whiskey a 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:26.520 Go Go on Sunset Boulevard, the doors opening act for 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:30.359 Neil Young's band Buffalo Springfield. After the doors perform, and 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:33.959 you know Buffalo Springfield is ostensibly on stage, Jim Morrison 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:36.680 hooks up backstage with Rick James and he tricks Rick 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:39.280 James into dropping acid with him. And that's like Rick 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:41.439 James's introduction to like, hey man, this is like what 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:42.160 a real acid? 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:46.960 Rick James and Jim Morris. 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:50.680 That's like the plot of the best drug movie never made, 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:55.800 but you would never see. I would watch it. Around 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:58.720 this same time, Buffalo's Springfield. They break up, and Neil 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:06.159 Young joins a new group. That's right, Elizabeth, this supergroup Crosby, Stills. 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:06.480 And sometimes Young. 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:11.480 Now there's Rick James, really love exactly. Rick James was 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:13.719 hanging out with all of them. He's friends with all 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:16.320 of them. He's a qualified musician, and it's, you know, 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:18.280 kind of fun to imagine if you're me and you 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:21.560 and you're fans of chaos. But at this point, you know, 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:25.760 he almost was in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:27.920 Rick James and James. 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:30.240 No not, he wouldn't have been a front name. He 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:34.119 would have been a backing musician, all the way front. 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:36.760 Rick James and Crosby still smash, and. 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:42.760 Crosby still smash. James and sometimes Young Neil can't always hang. 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:45.400 So it's his sixties were ending. Rick James has one 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:48.280 more brush with a future famous musician. Only this guy 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:51.119 wouldn't get famous for his music. Instead, he become famous 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:52.920 for his cult of thrill killers. 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:54.840 No WHOA. 0:23:54.960 --> 0:23:57.200 The year was sixty nine and Rick James was still 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:00.080 in Hollywood, bouncing around the Laurel Canyon music scene, and 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:02.439 he was also getting along partying with the young stars 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:04.760 in Hollywood. Who had made their name on the silver screen. 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:05.280 Right. 0:24:05.359 --> 0:24:08.040 So he was friends with one famous hairstylist, this guy 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:11.280 named Jay Sebring, and he was hopelessly in love with 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:14.640 one of his best friends, Sharon Tate. And one night 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:17.479 in sixty nine, j Seabring invited Rick James to come 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:19.720 over to his friend's house and party with them. But 0:24:19.840 --> 0:24:21.960 being Rick James, he had party way too hard the 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:23.560 night before. He was hung over. He's like, man, I 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:25.400 can't come through there. Who over there? 0:24:25.520 --> 0:24:25.680 Right? 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:28.479 So he chose to stay home and lay about. And 0:24:28.520 --> 0:24:31.520 so later that same night, Charles Manson's followers showed up 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:34.040 at Charon Tate's home made bloody History, which would be 0:24:34.080 --> 0:24:36.080 the one percent of the story. So we will skip 0:24:36.119 --> 0:24:37.160 past that now. 0:24:37.240 --> 0:24:39.200 The next Rick James was supposed to be there. 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:40.480 He was supposed to be there that night, so I 0:24:40.520 --> 0:24:41.960 don't know if he would have fought them off or 0:24:42.080 --> 0:24:42.400 just like. 0:24:42.440 --> 0:24:43.560 Actually been a victims. 0:24:44.680 --> 0:24:47.960 Rick going wild on people get down in my face 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:51.720 with that. The next day, Rick James he reads about 0:24:51.720 --> 0:24:54.159 his near miss with history in the La Times and 0:24:54.200 --> 0:24:57.479 he's like, oh man, and then moves on to now 0:24:57.520 --> 0:25:00.880 I got one more pre famed Rick James ready for you, Elizabeth, 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:03.040 just because I love this one. Do you know who 0:25:03.080 --> 0:25:04.119 Salvador Dhali is? 0:25:04.640 --> 0:25:05.200 Yes, he too. 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:07.960 I thought you did now since you know who he 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:10.680 was and you also know how he was. Yeah, now 0:25:10.720 --> 0:25:13.280 can you imagine him and Rick James hanging out? 0:25:13.600 --> 0:25:19.520 Oh no, he Rick James is like this chaos magnet and. 0:25:22.359 --> 0:25:24.399 In the society draw this. 0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:28.080 So the story goes. The two men read a party 0:25:28.119 --> 0:25:31.000 in Hawaii in the nineteen seventies. Now by this point, 0:25:31.080 --> 0:25:33.240 Rick James is coming up, but he's not quite world 0:25:33.240 --> 0:25:36.800 famous yet. Anyway, Salvador Dali is at this dinner party 0:25:37.040 --> 0:25:40.280 in Hawaii and he's wonderfully charmed by Rick James, his 0:25:40.359 --> 0:25:43.359 whole look, his vibe. Yeah, and the Spanish surrealist painter. 0:25:43.480 --> 0:25:46.040 He's like, you know, he's transfixed. He's key staring at him. 0:25:46.080 --> 0:25:48.320 He cannot take his eyes. Rick James like, yeah, appreciate it. 0:25:48.440 --> 0:25:51.400 I enjoy it, you know, you know. Rick James, though, 0:25:51.640 --> 0:25:54.439 eventually notices Salvador Dolly come even closer and he's like, 0:25:54.680 --> 0:25:58.879 what's this about? And he explains to him that he says, 0:25:58.880 --> 0:26:01.840 anti quote, I am mad about the way you look. 0:26:01.920 --> 0:26:04.239 Please allow me to sketch you, all right? And Rick 0:26:04.320 --> 0:26:07.320 James is like, okay, Rother, go for it. So he 0:26:07.440 --> 0:26:10.080 just sits there and he lets Dolly adore him. He 0:26:10.080 --> 0:26:12.720 whips out his materials, gets to sketching. He stares at 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:14.359 Rick James right until he gets it all right, and 0:26:14.359 --> 0:26:16.880 he draws a little more. Twenty minutes later he's done. 0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:20.399 Dolly hands Rick James the sketch. It's drawn on like 0:26:20.440 --> 0:26:23.080 a napkin. Right, Rick James is, He's totally impressed. He 0:26:23.160 --> 0:26:26.240 loves it. He's showing people he's got this rare momento. Yeah, 0:26:26.280 --> 0:26:28.840 but it must not have made enough of an impression 0:26:28.880 --> 0:26:32.000 on Rick James because the next morning he got up 0:26:32.000 --> 0:26:34.800 and went swimming, never changed his short when he got 0:26:34.840 --> 0:26:38.080 out of the water. The Salvador Dolly drawn napkin was 0:26:38.119 --> 0:26:38.920 just a mess. 0:26:38.720 --> 0:26:42.160 In his pocket. 0:26:42.280 --> 0:26:47.200 Elizabet, Yes, exactly, and I'm sure Salvador Dolly would appreciate it. 0:26:48.440 --> 0:26:50.720 Now we've reached the early eighties when Rick James really 0:26:50.800 --> 0:26:53.280 is a worldwide famous person, right, and this is when 0:26:53.280 --> 0:26:55.720 he's releasing a string of hits. Give it to Me Baby, 0:26:55.840 --> 0:26:56.480 super Freak. 0:26:56.680 --> 0:26:56.960 Sure. 0:26:57.040 --> 0:26:59.160 Okay, Now that second song that's his big hit, that's 0:26:59.160 --> 0:27:01.120 the one that set the old for how people think 0:27:01.160 --> 0:27:02.360 of Rick James. 0:27:02.040 --> 0:27:02.920 Super freak guy. 0:27:03.080 --> 0:27:03.320 You know. 0:27:07.200 --> 0:27:08.639 You don't pay to mother. 0:27:09.600 --> 0:27:12.440 Now, following on the hit of that super freaky vibe, 0:27:12.840 --> 0:27:16.600 Rick James becomes Rick James because at this point he's 0:27:16.600 --> 0:27:18.960 been Rick James, but now he has turned loose on 0:27:19.040 --> 0:27:20.600 the world. You know that. 0:27:20.640 --> 0:27:22.359 I once met him really. 0:27:22.440 --> 0:27:24.440 Oh yeah, I was at the Lenox Mall in Atlanta, 0:27:24.480 --> 0:27:26.240 and I was a kid. I was like with my pop, 0:27:26.560 --> 0:27:30.440 just the two of us exactly. So I go, he's 0:27:30.440 --> 0:27:33.199 got the white coat and he's like, I was like, 0:27:33.200 --> 0:27:34.760 that's Rick James. And he has me go over and 0:27:34.800 --> 0:27:36.800 get an autograph. And we have the same name, so 0:27:36.840 --> 0:27:39.719 really it's an autograph for him, but I swear your 0:27:39.760 --> 0:27:42.320 father name, not Rick James. My father and I have 0:27:42.359 --> 0:27:44.040 the same name, and so I got the autograph for 0:27:44.200 --> 0:27:46.360 my father and had his name on it because that's 0:27:46.400 --> 0:27:49.160 my name. So essentially he just used his son. He 0:27:49.280 --> 0:27:52.240 you know, he just child labored me into getting him 0:27:52.240 --> 0:27:55.720 a momento. Yeah. Anyway, but uh, Rick James, he does 0:27:55.760 --> 0:27:58.760 have an aura. I gotta say, Charlie Murphy is range. No, 0:27:58.880 --> 0:28:01.359 I mean it didn't. It moved, Elizabeth. It was like 0:28:01.359 --> 0:28:04.520 a very depending on the white blue, it was very impressive. Yes, 0:28:04.600 --> 0:28:07.760 but all right, Elizabeth where it was all right. I've 0:28:07.760 --> 0:28:09.239 met a lot of celebrities though, so I don't mean 0:28:09.320 --> 0:28:12.400 like brag about it. I just bumped into a crazy. 0:28:12.400 --> 0:28:15.600 Really, you know, I have a very limited number of 0:28:15.640 --> 0:28:19.480 celebrities I've met, very limited And you know, I saw 0:28:19.600 --> 0:28:23.359 Tyne Daily once in real life from across the street, 0:28:24.200 --> 0:28:26.840 and then that old George Clinton walking down the street. 0:28:27.760 --> 0:28:30.560 And I think, you know, I had Gary Coleman once 0:28:30.640 --> 0:28:35.480 cooked beef for me at a Korean restaurant. Wait, yeah, 0:28:35.600 --> 0:28:38.240 you know the Korean barbecues are a stove on the 0:28:38.520 --> 0:28:41.160 on your table. He's like standing on his seat cooking 0:28:41.160 --> 0:28:42.840 the beef and he's like putting it on my plate. 0:28:43.040 --> 0:28:47.120 I was tripping out. Now, I've seen, like I said, 0:28:47.160 --> 0:28:49.360 a lot of celebrities had weird moments. None of them 0:28:49.360 --> 0:28:51.520 were like Rick James in terms of just the presence. 0:28:51.560 --> 0:28:53.880 It was incredible. Immediately I was a boy. 0:28:54.000 --> 0:28:56.600 But have you seen Tyne Daily from across the street? 0:28:56.720 --> 0:28:59.520 No, you got me there, I like, I've never experienced 0:28:59.560 --> 0:29:00.000 the full time. 0:29:00.440 --> 0:29:01.040 There you go. 0:29:01.400 --> 0:29:05.160 Now the scenes when Charlie Murphy is talking about bent 0:29:05.240 --> 0:29:07.720 in the Aura earlier, right, yeah, and then he also 0:29:07.880 --> 0:29:09.800 has the times, like the talk about getting in fights. 0:29:09.800 --> 0:29:12.120 You know, there's the whole thing about ruining the couch, right, 0:29:12.200 --> 0:29:15.240 and then he has the very classic thing where it's like, 0:29:15.280 --> 0:29:17.240 I'm Rick James bitch. Right, that's the line that he 0:29:17.280 --> 0:29:20.240 says all the time that excuses all this bad behavior. Sure, 0:29:20.480 --> 0:29:23.080 now that's what really seems to stick with people from 0:29:23.120 --> 0:29:27.600 that skit, that attitude I'm Rick James bitch. Now this 0:29:27.680 --> 0:29:30.240 brings us to the crimers. I promised you up top 0:29:30.240 --> 0:29:32.680 of Rick James inspired criminals. 0:29:32.680 --> 0:29:35.640 Well, and it's like that was like pre meme era, 0:29:36.240 --> 0:29:38.600 and so that was like what people would just shout 0:29:38.680 --> 0:29:39.360 for no reason. 0:29:39.640 --> 0:29:41.720 Yes, that was essentially verbal means. 0:29:41.400 --> 0:29:44.680 Frat boys in particular. Oh yeah, I loved that completely. 0:29:44.720 --> 0:29:50.080 And then it kind of led into like theuzzier. So 0:29:50.120 --> 0:29:52.800 it was like there were catchphrases that people would yell 0:29:53.120 --> 0:29:54.760 for absolutely no reason. 0:29:55.800 --> 0:29:58.320 Yes, totally, and also from random shows is one lines. 0:29:58.320 --> 0:30:00.920 And then then you'd also get like your Lebowski's like 0:30:00.960 --> 0:30:03.520 the weather just over and over. But yeah, this was 0:30:03.600 --> 0:30:05.560 like something transcendent even amongst that. 0:30:05.440 --> 0:30:09.080 Tradition apropos of nothing. Yeah, that's what I loved about it. 0:30:09.200 --> 0:30:13.800 So other crimers, Yes, September nineteenth, twenty fifteen, just a 0:30:13.880 --> 0:30:17.320 little after noon, two men walk into a bank in Indianapolis. Well, 0:30:17.360 --> 0:30:20.160 technically it's a credit union, the indian Anna members credit 0:30:20.240 --> 0:30:23.560 Union and quote. According to witnesses, two black males wearing 0:30:23.600 --> 0:30:26.240 all black entered the bank armed with handguns. Both suspects 0:30:26.240 --> 0:30:29.800 approached the Tayler counter and demanded money. The suspects fled 0:30:29.840 --> 0:30:33.200 on foot in an unknown direction with an undisclosed amount 0:30:33.240 --> 0:30:37.880 of money. Where's the Rick James and all this? A well, 0:30:37.960 --> 0:30:40.200 they didn't mention what they looked like. Right now, the 0:30:40.280 --> 0:30:42.800 suspects descriptions, the ones that are given by the cops 0:30:42.800 --> 0:30:46.200 are straightforward. Suspect one black hat, long dark hair, sunglasses, 0:30:46.200 --> 0:30:49.840 all black clothing five eight to five ten armed. Suspect two, 0:30:49.960 --> 0:30:52.640 long hair, dreads, all black clothing five eight to five 0:30:52.720 --> 0:30:55.640 ten armed. What they leave out is that the two 0:30:55.760 --> 0:30:58.960 men redressed as Rick James and young blood priest the 0:30:59.200 --> 0:31:01.600 Harlem Koch there the main character of the seventies black 0:31:01.640 --> 0:31:03.680 sploitation flick Superfly. 0:31:03.480 --> 0:31:07.080 Right yright right right, yeah, So imagine they didn't. 0:31:07.840 --> 0:31:10.640 They left that out. They told why, I don't know 0:31:10.640 --> 0:31:13.360 if they didn't recognize the characters they like. I no 0:31:13.440 --> 0:31:15.240 one fella kind of resembles Rick James. 0:31:15.600 --> 0:31:17.360 Fella, I don't know about the platform. 0:31:17.440 --> 0:31:21.160 Shoot, oh you better believe yeah, like the coats, it's amazing. Now, 0:31:21.360 --> 0:31:23.720 imagine you're Elizabeth are in a bank in Indianapolis in 0:31:23.760 --> 0:31:26.160 twenty fifteen. All of a sudden, two seventies super pimps 0:31:26.240 --> 0:31:28.360 come in and stick up the joint, right, Like, what 0:31:28.360 --> 0:31:30.440 would you even think was happening? Would you think that 0:31:30.520 --> 0:31:32.160 maybe maybe they're shooting a movie around? 0:31:32.360 --> 0:31:32.560 Yeah? 0:31:32.600 --> 0:31:34.280 Know, honestly that's what you would know. 0:31:34.320 --> 0:31:35.120 Way this is real? 0:31:35.400 --> 0:31:37.800 Yeah? Or just I don't know that. I'm like, have 0:31:37.920 --> 0:31:39.920 I been hanging out with Rick James and now I'm 0:31:39.960 --> 0:31:41.680 just hallucinating? 0:31:42.760 --> 0:31:43.480 How I am? 0:31:43.520 --> 0:31:45.160 I am? I Rick James? 0:31:46.000 --> 0:31:49.000 Well, this robbery wasn't there first or their last? Oh 0:31:49.040 --> 0:31:51.920 the super Freak and Superfly bank robbers. They went on 0:31:51.960 --> 0:31:56.040 a spree. They started in September twenty fifteen. They first 0:31:56.120 --> 0:32:00.280 hit the Advanced America check Cashing service in Indianapolis. Next 0:32:00.280 --> 0:32:02.840 they hit the Indiana Members Credit Union. You can probably 0:32:02.880 --> 0:32:05.560 hear they're hitting small chapters or small branches. 0:32:05.640 --> 0:32:07.720 I imagine they're not grabbing a whole lot. 0:32:07.840 --> 0:32:09.600 I don't know. They didn't get numbers. I said no, 0:32:09.920 --> 0:32:11.120 the mounse were undisclosed. 0:32:11.160 --> 0:32:12.800 It is so large they don't want anyone. 0:32:12.960 --> 0:32:14.560 I think they're getting like rent because it seems like 0:32:14.600 --> 0:32:16.200 they hit like in the middle of a month, and 0:32:16.200 --> 0:32:19.160 then it's like in November nineteenth they hit a month later, 0:32:19.240 --> 0:32:22.440 So yeah, November nineteenth, twenty fifteen, they hit another Indiana 0:32:22.520 --> 0:32:25.280 Members Credit Union, this time in the neighboring town of Avon. 0:32:25.880 --> 0:32:28.680 Nearly a month later, on December twelfth, once again middle 0:32:28.720 --> 0:32:31.320 of the month, it's Rent Money twenty fifteen, Super Freak 0:32:31.320 --> 0:32:34.240 and Superfly they hit again. They go into a branch 0:32:34.280 --> 0:32:38.080 of the Indiana Members Credit Union in the town of Carmel, Indiana, 0:32:38.680 --> 0:32:42.120 but this time Rick James's whole vibe of untouchability it 0:32:42.240 --> 0:32:44.520 fails them and they have to flee. That leads to 0:32:44.560 --> 0:32:48.120 a high speed chase that goes tearing through three counties. 0:32:48.400 --> 0:32:51.920 Boone Hamilton Marion the getaway driver. He's good, but not 0:32:52.000 --> 0:32:54.480 good enough because the death despite going over one hundred 0:32:54.520 --> 0:32:57.160 miles an hour and running red lights, crossing oncoming traffic 0:32:57.160 --> 0:33:00.000 the whole nine. In the end, Super Freak and super 0:33:00.040 --> 0:33:03.600 Fly they get caught and busted. Five day trial, thirty 0:33:03.680 --> 0:33:06.480 eight year old dupries Jet and thirty eight year old 0:33:06.600 --> 0:33:10.320 Damien mckissic and thirty eight year old Earl Lee Walker 0:33:10.600 --> 0:33:13.440 all found guilty. 0:33:12.840 --> 0:33:14.360 I went to school together. 0:33:14.600 --> 0:33:16.920 I'm guessing all exactly the exact same age, or there 0:33:16.920 --> 0:33:20.760 are their cousins, many in the hood next to each other. Now, 0:33:20.960 --> 0:33:22.880 what was what was it like for this gang known 0:33:22.920 --> 0:33:25.640 in the press as the Rick James Robbers? Well, the 0:33:25.640 --> 0:33:28.200 getaway driver you got six years, the super Freak and 0:33:28.240 --> 0:33:32.400 Superfly bank robbers themselves, they each caught sentences of twenty 0:33:32.440 --> 0:33:37.960 four years in prison. Four yes, right, do not play yep? Okay, Elizabeth, 0:33:38.000 --> 0:33:41.440 Let's take another little break, and after these delightfully persuasive ads, 0:33:41.720 --> 0:33:44.600 I'll be back for some more of who made I'm 0:33:44.680 --> 0:34:08.759 Rick James bitch into a criminal mantra? We're back, Elizabeth, 0:34:08.960 --> 0:34:10.440 We're back. You haven't found so far? 0:34:10.520 --> 0:34:11.799 Oh my gosh, So I. 0:34:11.800 --> 0:34:14.640 Got a little more Rick James inspired lunacy for this please. 0:34:14.800 --> 0:34:19.600 This next story also takes place in twenty fifteen in Springfield, Massachusetts. 0:34:19.600 --> 0:34:22.320 I was just a young girl then, I know, weren't 0:34:22.360 --> 0:34:26.880 you just said, just out of kindergarten, barely. 0:34:26.520 --> 0:34:28.799 Able to walk. There's around two fifty in the morning 0:34:28.840 --> 0:34:32.120 when patrol officers on Eastern Avenue spot a Blue Infinity 0:34:32.200 --> 0:34:35.320 rolling around right, that's like suspicious right away. The trouble 0:34:35.440 --> 0:34:37.680 was the car had already been reported stolen, so the 0:34:37.719 --> 0:34:40.400 cops give chase. They catch up to the blue Infinity. 0:34:40.640 --> 0:34:43.320 Driver pulls over. When the cops approach and they speak 0:34:43.320 --> 0:34:45.919 with the driver of the stolen Blue Infinity, he tells 0:34:45.960 --> 0:34:48.319 the Springfield police that his name is wait for it, 0:34:48.840 --> 0:34:51.879 Rick James. The police are like, well, mister James, can 0:34:51.960 --> 0:34:54.880 we see your driver's license? The self appointed Rick James 0:34:54.880 --> 0:34:56.759 tells the cops he doesn't have his lescens on him 0:34:56.800 --> 0:34:59.560 at the moment. Officer Now, The cops are like, well, 0:34:59.560 --> 0:35:02.399 mister James, would you politely and police kindly step out 0:35:02.400 --> 0:35:05.680 of the car. Turns out this was definitely not Rick James, 0:35:05.680 --> 0:35:08.200 because this is twenty fifteen and Rick James at this 0:35:08.200 --> 0:35:11.200 point had been dead for eleven years, right and more 0:35:11.280 --> 0:35:13.600 than that, the driver of this stolen car was actually 0:35:13.680 --> 0:35:17.880 named Scott. Now, after the police finger printed Scott, they 0:35:17.920 --> 0:35:20.920 found out that his full name was Scott Taylor of Springfield. 0:35:21.200 --> 0:35:22.800 The thirty year old was charged. 0:35:22.560 --> 0:35:26.799 With receiving his full name was like, hi, Scott, Taylor Springfield. 0:35:27.120 --> 0:35:31.760 A nice he was receiving a stolen motor vehicle, driving 0:35:31.760 --> 0:35:33.800 with a revoked license, giving a false name to a 0:35:33.800 --> 0:35:34.480 police officer. 0:35:34.480 --> 0:35:38.160 Outstanding warrants, the full slate. Nice little raption you got, now, Scott, 0:35:38.600 --> 0:35:40.799 this brings us to the cherry on this Rick James 0:35:40.800 --> 0:35:43.680 flavored pie. Elizabeth. I'm happy to report that this guy, 0:35:43.880 --> 0:35:48.960 he's a Florida man and he's super freak a the 0:35:49.040 --> 0:35:51.879 story goes, his name is Paul, but Paul Kidgik. He's 0:35:51.920 --> 0:35:54.319 fifty years old, and he was at the Back Bar 0:35:54.480 --> 0:35:58.280 and Lounge in Saint Petersburg, Florida, at around four am 0:35:58.800 --> 0:36:02.360 on a Sunday morning, after a Saturday night out. Obviously, 0:36:02.920 --> 0:36:04.840 he decided he'd had enough to drink and it was 0:36:04.880 --> 0:36:07.000 time to go home, so he walked out and got 0:36:07.040 --> 0:36:09.960 in his car to drive home. No, Luckily, there were 0:36:10.000 --> 0:36:12.680 a few people, multiple people in the parking lot outside 0:36:12.680 --> 0:36:16.279 this Florida bar, and they all saw how drunk this 0:36:16.360 --> 0:36:19.759 dude kill Jack was. Yeah, and he was quote kept 0:36:19.760 --> 0:36:22.799 from driving by multiple witnesses due to his level of intoxication. 0:36:22.920 --> 0:36:25.319 Good for them, that was notable since this Florida man, 0:36:25.400 --> 0:36:28.280 Elizabeth was six foot three and three hundred pounds an 0:36:28.440 --> 0:36:29.520 easy person to persuade. 0:36:29.560 --> 0:36:30.200 It doesn't matter. 0:36:30.320 --> 0:36:32.680 Oh they should, I totally agree, But they had to 0:36:32.680 --> 0:36:35.560 stand up and you know, get loud. Maybe who see 0:36:35.560 --> 0:36:37.520 if someone though felt we should probably call the police. 0:36:37.520 --> 0:36:39.839 And so they did. And the police arrived on the 0:36:39.840 --> 0:36:42.920 scene at backbar in Saint Pete and they see this 0:36:43.040 --> 0:36:45.360 drunk man who wants to drive home or whatever. And 0:36:45.400 --> 0:36:47.840 the cops were like, buddy, let's just call you a taxi. 0:36:47.880 --> 0:36:50.000 So they call a taxi for kill Jack. When the 0:36:50.040 --> 0:36:52.440 cab arrives, the drunk Florida man gets in and the 0:36:52.520 --> 0:36:55.400 drivers are like, Ferry may home or whatever. But he 0:36:55.440 --> 0:36:58.080 doesn't make it, Elizabeth, Why why doesn't he make it? 0:36:58.560 --> 0:36:58.680 Well? 0:36:58.760 --> 0:37:01.239 Rather than me tell you about it, Elizabeth, I like 0:37:01.280 --> 0:37:04.080 you to close your eyes, eyesac close. I like you 0:37:04.360 --> 0:37:08.239 to picture it. It's late on a Saturday night, and 0:37:08.280 --> 0:37:10.880 you are standing outside of the back bar and lounge 0:37:10.880 --> 0:37:13.600 in the parking lot of a suburban style mall complex 0:37:13.600 --> 0:37:17.600 in Saint Petersburg, Florida. At the moment, it's about four am. 0:37:17.680 --> 0:37:20.520 So clearly you're not making the best life choices. But 0:37:20.560 --> 0:37:22.640 there's a man here in the parking lot who's making 0:37:22.880 --> 0:37:25.480 far worse life choices than you. He looks to be 0:37:25.520 --> 0:37:27.959 about fifty years old and five sheets to the wind. 0:37:28.000 --> 0:37:30.680 The man is drunk, and he's thrashing about like a 0:37:30.719 --> 0:37:34.160 tranquilized elephant who refuses to go down. This is strange 0:37:34.200 --> 0:37:36.879 since there are cops on the scene talking to him. 0:37:37.000 --> 0:37:39.160 They've been talking with the drunk for quite some time now. 0:37:39.200 --> 0:37:41.640 In fact, they're trying to get him into a taxi. 0:37:42.120 --> 0:37:45.440 You're betting against the cops getting him in the back seat, 0:37:45.520 --> 0:37:48.319 but they're stubborn, Elizabeth, and they managed to get him 0:37:48.320 --> 0:37:51.560 in the back and shut the door. The cops turn 0:37:51.640 --> 0:37:53.839 back to you in the small crowd standing near you. 0:37:54.200 --> 0:37:56.640 The cops panami, ma, look like, get a load of 0:37:56.680 --> 0:38:00.080 this guy. As the taxi pulls away, your attention fall 0:38:00.239 --> 0:38:03.040 the car. Soon enough, the cops turn to look too, 0:38:03.520 --> 0:38:07.080 because all of you can hear shouting and yelling coming 0:38:07.120 --> 0:38:09.200 from inside the taxi. They're not even out of the 0:38:09.239 --> 0:38:12.000 parking lot. But it's not just shouting and yelling. It 0:38:12.040 --> 0:38:14.840 looks like, yep, the drunk in the back seat is 0:38:14.920 --> 0:38:18.720 punching the cab driver in the face from the back seat. 0:38:18.800 --> 0:38:19.399 Oh my god. 0:38:19.640 --> 0:38:22.160 The taxi cabs breake, lights flash the car comes to 0:38:22.200 --> 0:38:24.840 a screeching stuff. The back door bus open. The drunk 0:38:24.840 --> 0:38:28.680 man hops out. His mood has now violently swung in 0:38:28.800 --> 0:38:32.840 the opposite direction. He's now laughing and dancing in the 0:38:32.880 --> 0:38:35.600 parking lot. The cops look at you and the crowd 0:38:35.640 --> 0:38:38.120 again and they pantomime a new look that seems to say, 0:38:38.280 --> 0:38:39.520 I guess we got to do something. 0:38:39.600 --> 0:38:40.000 Huh. 0:38:40.480 --> 0:38:44.240 The dancing drunk is now gleefully insulting anyone, and everyone 0:38:44.400 --> 0:38:46.520 is watching him. He shouts in the direction of you 0:38:46.600 --> 0:38:49.520 and the small crowd standing near you and the two cops. 0:38:49.680 --> 0:38:54.480 He yells you you wait, and he follows that up 0:38:54.520 --> 0:38:58.760 with I'm Rick James. Betch that cuts it. The cops 0:38:58.800 --> 0:39:00.960 now have to rush the six but three three hundred 0:39:00.960 --> 0:39:03.319 pound drunk man dancing around and doing his best Dave 0:39:03.400 --> 0:39:06.959 Chappelle impression. You are not impressed with its accuracy. Neither 0:39:07.000 --> 0:39:10.280 are the police, Elizabeth. They arrested drunk Kiljick for battery 0:39:10.320 --> 0:39:15.080 and disorderly intoxication. And your cheap evenings entertainment is over. 0:39:15.200 --> 0:39:16.960 So you asked the cab driver if you can get 0:39:16.960 --> 0:39:19.680 a ride home. He looks at you like, are you kidding? 0:39:19.719 --> 0:39:20.399 I'm going home? 0:39:21.440 --> 0:39:22.080 I hope. 0:39:22.160 --> 0:39:24.520 So this is what happens when you spend time in 0:39:24.560 --> 0:39:26.800 the Tampa's eight Peenede area at four am. 0:39:28.320 --> 0:39:29.680 Oh my god, Elizabeth. 0:39:29.760 --> 0:39:33.040 This last Rick James inspired legal kerfuffle that I want 0:39:33.080 --> 0:39:36.000 to tell you about brings this all full circle because 0:39:36.040 --> 0:39:38.760 we've come back to Dave Chappelle and his famous Charlie 0:39:38.840 --> 0:39:41.759 Murphy skits. In two thousand and four, the same year 0:39:41.760 --> 0:39:45.080 that Rick James passed away, Dave Chappelle pulled his first 0:39:45.080 --> 0:39:48.080 big disappearing act. Not all people know this, because what 0:39:48.200 --> 0:39:51.399 works out like this. It was in two thousand and four, 0:39:51.520 --> 0:39:54.080 in December he walked away from the Dave Chappelle Show 0:39:54.080 --> 0:39:56.080 for the first time, but it was all quiet. Nobody 0:39:56.120 --> 0:39:58.160 really heard about it. And then he walked away again 0:39:58.239 --> 0:40:00.080 in two thousand and five, and that's when he very 0:40:00.120 --> 0:40:03.680 famously went a wall. So before all of that, back 0:40:03.719 --> 0:40:07.600 in June of two thousand and four, he was in Sacramento, California. Hey, 0:40:07.800 --> 0:40:11.240 aka the Big Tomato, aka the Big Easy Chair, aka 0:40:11.320 --> 0:40:15.560 the City that Always Sleeps Sacramento, and he was there 0:40:15.600 --> 0:40:18.040 doing a stand up show. Now, he was at the 0:40:18.120 --> 0:40:20.520 four thousand seat Memorial Auditory. I'm not sure if you're 0:40:20.520 --> 0:40:22.719 familiar with them, so he was doing his act and 0:40:22.760 --> 0:40:26.240 he gets irritated because the fans and Sacramento kept shouting 0:40:26.280 --> 0:40:32.439 at him. I'm Rick James bitch os, Oh my god, 0:40:32.520 --> 0:40:34.239 and that's fun. You're trying to do your job and 0:40:34.280 --> 0:40:37.080 you've got Sacramento yokeles yelling punchlines at you from your 0:40:37.080 --> 0:40:39.040 TV show. So David gets pissed at him, and he 0:40:39.080 --> 0:40:43.759 tells these Sacramento yokels, you people are stupid. Good now, 0:40:43.880 --> 0:40:46.120 as you know, Elizabeth, I grew up in Davis and 0:40:46.200 --> 0:40:49.319 Mere twelve miles from Sacramento, so to hear the Dave 0:40:49.400 --> 0:40:53.240 Chappelle called the stupid delights me in a very ugly 0:40:53.440 --> 0:40:57.440 regional rivalry kind of way, so forgive me. But the 0:40:57.480 --> 0:41:00.359 story goes like this, It's a Tuesday night show mid June, 0:41:00.520 --> 0:41:03.320 should be fun for everyone. Dave Chappelle is about to 0:41:03.400 --> 0:41:05.760 drop the third season of his show It's the hottest 0:41:05.760 --> 0:41:08.640 thing in comedy. But his fans they just well, as 0:41:08.719 --> 0:41:11.200 Dave put it, shut up and listen like you're supposed to. 0:41:12.080 --> 0:41:15.080 At one point, Dave Chappelle tells the Sacramento crowd the 0:41:15.200 --> 0:41:19.560 show is ruining my life. Oh god, he confesses to 0:41:19.600 --> 0:41:22.080 the audience. That quote, stand up is the most important 0:41:22.120 --> 0:41:25.560 thing I do is because I'm on TV. You make 0:41:25.600 --> 0:41:28.200 it hard for me to do it. People can't distinguish 0:41:28.280 --> 0:41:31.160 between what's real and fake. This ain't a TV show. 0:41:31.320 --> 0:41:34.760 You're not watching Comedy Central. I'm real up here talking. 0:41:35.880 --> 0:41:38.400 At that point, he gave the Sacramental crowd a lesson 0:41:38.440 --> 0:41:41.000 on how stand up comedy works in case they unfamiliar 0:41:41.040 --> 0:41:43.839 with the real structures and structures. And he said, and 0:41:43.920 --> 0:41:47.400 I quote, I say something you mulled over and decide 0:41:47.440 --> 0:41:50.279 whether you want to laugh or not, and then you 0:41:50.320 --> 0:41:53.319 do or not. Then I say something else and you 0:41:53.360 --> 0:41:56.920 think about it. It's worked well all across the country. 0:41:57.200 --> 0:42:00.000 But you people and knowing them as I do, Elizabeth, 0:42:00.480 --> 0:42:03.560 I bet when Dave paused here, someone actually shouted I'm 0:42:03.600 --> 0:42:06.960 Rick Jags match. I'm just guessing that if he did, 0:42:07.120 --> 0:42:09.440 they would have missed the insult that Dave was about 0:42:09.440 --> 0:42:12.319 to drop. Because Dave made sure that they understood it. 0:42:12.360 --> 0:42:14.239 And this one landed because he was talking to people 0:42:14.239 --> 0:42:17.319 from Sacramento, so he sold them. Coming to Sacramento to 0:42:17.360 --> 0:42:20.719 do comedy was probably quote a bad idea, like chocolate 0:42:20.760 --> 0:42:25.600 covered fish not done. Insulting the Sacramento crowd. Dave Chappelle 0:42:25.640 --> 0:42:28.640 next tells the same crowd why his TV show is 0:42:28.680 --> 0:42:31.640 so funny. He said, and I quote, you know why 0:42:31.680 --> 0:42:35.399 my show is good because the network officials say you're 0:42:35.440 --> 0:42:38.080 not smart enough to get what I'm doing. And every 0:42:38.239 --> 0:42:41.320 day I fight for you, I tell them how smart 0:42:41.400 --> 0:42:45.200 you are. Turns out I was wrong. You people are stupid. 0:42:46.719 --> 0:42:49.359 And again, knowing them as I do, Elizabeth, I would 0:42:49.440 --> 0:42:52.839 bet cash money. Someone yelled back in the response. 0:42:52.880 --> 0:42:57.600 Oh, Rick James Batch, this is what drove Dave Chappelle bo. 0:42:57.520 --> 0:43:01.520 I'm telling you, Sacramento did it? I recognize this now. 0:43:02.440 --> 0:43:05.239 At this point, Dave Chappelle tells his fans in Sacramento, 0:43:05.480 --> 0:43:08.640 you guys are the worst listeners in the country. It's 0:43:08.680 --> 0:43:13.479 like the silence of the Lambs without the silence. This, too, 0:43:13.600 --> 0:43:15.480 is the power of Rick James. He can make a 0:43:15.520 --> 0:43:19.600 whole cowtown lose his camp mind. Elizabeth, Please do remember 0:43:20.040 --> 0:43:24.080 I'm Rick James bitch. Enjoy yourself. So what's our ridiculous 0:43:24.120 --> 0:43:24.799 takeaway here? 0:43:25.560 --> 0:43:28.840 Oh my goodness. I feel for Chappelle. 0:43:28.920 --> 0:43:31.839 And that's that case of just you know, I think 0:43:31.880 --> 0:43:36.120 any artist who hears those things repeated back to them constantly, 0:43:36.160 --> 0:43:36.480 And I. 0:43:36.440 --> 0:43:39.240 Wonder if Rick James heard super Freak all the time. 0:43:39.320 --> 0:43:44.120 You know, it's it's annoying. I would imagine, Oh god. 0:43:44.840 --> 0:43:50.279 But my takeaway, I think is that Rick James the 0:43:50.520 --> 0:43:51.960 gift kept giving. 0:43:52.480 --> 0:43:55.239 My takeaway, Elizabeth, thank you for asking me. It's ridiculous. 0:43:55.320 --> 0:43:59.160 I'll share it with you. He's like our idea of 0:43:59.200 --> 0:44:03.120 a pirate come to life, you know, like the recklessness, 0:44:03.239 --> 0:44:06.719 the big Yeah. He really is. Like so now I'm 0:44:06.719 --> 0:44:08.440 going to think of Rick James as a pirate. 0:44:09.840 --> 0:44:13.640 His characterization by Chappelle of like holding a like a 0:44:13.680 --> 0:44:18.200 gobb it gives that pirate aesthetic too, just to. 0:44:18.200 --> 0:44:20.279 Something about him. So you in the move for a 0:44:20.320 --> 0:44:23.000 talk back? Of course, I am all right producing. Could 0:44:23.000 --> 0:44:23.919 you favor us with one? 0:44:26.400 --> 0:44:39.200 Oh my god, I saren. 0:44:39.680 --> 0:44:43.680 I had to pause the podcast, the latest one and 0:44:43.880 --> 0:44:46.279 the name I can't pronounce it because you haven't said 0:44:46.280 --> 0:44:48.879 it yet. I had to pose it when you said 0:44:48.880 --> 0:44:53.400 the word serendipity, and you missed a huge opportunity to 0:44:53.520 --> 0:44:57.279 call it serendipity. 0:44:57.440 --> 0:44:58.080 How could you? 0:45:00.520 --> 0:45:03.640 I did drop the ball, But I love that. 0:45:03.719 --> 0:45:06.600 I'm listening to this now I'm going to pause it 0:45:07.120 --> 0:45:10.480 and complain about something that maybe has or hasn't happened 0:45:10.800 --> 0:45:15.200 now luckily it hadn't happen, but still serendipity. 0:45:16.160 --> 0:45:18.800 You know, my mother uses that as a nickname, because 0:45:18.920 --> 0:45:25.200 does she. She's dippy like that. Well, as always, we 0:45:25.239 --> 0:45:28.120 appreciate y'all's talkback, so please keep them coming. Get the 0:45:28.160 --> 0:45:31.400 iHeart app downloaded. You can leave yourself a talkback that 0:45:31.440 --> 0:45:33.520 we will then possibly play here and you can hear 0:45:33.520 --> 0:45:36.400 your own voice right here now. You can also, obviously, 0:45:36.480 --> 0:45:38.400 you can catch us on the social media, so you 0:45:38.400 --> 0:45:40.320 can just look up ridiculous Crime on most of social 0:45:40.320 --> 0:45:42.520 media's except for that one with X. We have a 0:45:42.560 --> 0:45:46.480 website ridiculous Crime dot com. We obviously also have an 0:45:46.480 --> 0:45:48.800 email account because we mentioned it from time to time. 0:45:49.000 --> 0:45:52.239 It's also a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. So 0:45:52.560 --> 0:45:54.480 hit us up and as always, please start the email, 0:45:54.520 --> 0:45:58.520 dear producer d and as always, thank you for listening. 0:45:58.600 --> 0:46:05.920 We will catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted 0:46:05.960 --> 0:46:09.600 by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnette, produced and edited by 0:46:09.600 --> 0:46:13.560 the Rick to Our James Dave Coustin, and starring Annalise 0:46:13.680 --> 0:46:17.280 Rutger as Judath. Research is by our resident miner birds 0:46:17.280 --> 0:46:20.640 Brissa Brown, and Andrea song Sharpened Tear. Our theme song 0:46:20.719 --> 0:46:24.840 is by Ricky James Matthews. Cosplayers Thomas Lee and Travis Dutty. 0:46:25.040 --> 0:46:28.920 The host's wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred, guest Haron 0:46:28.960 --> 0:46:33.800 makup by Sparkleshot and Mister Andrea. Executive producers are Ben 0:46:33.920 --> 0:46:36.920 I Wanted to be Rick James Bitch Boland and Note 0:46:37.120 --> 0:46:39.120 I Am Rick James Bitch. 0:46:39.000 --> 0:46:49.760 Brown Reds Why Say It one More Times? 0:46:49.840 --> 0:46:50.160 Crime? 0:46:51.239 --> 0:46:54.600 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four More Podcasts. 0:46:54.719 --> 0:46:57.880 My heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 0:46:57.920 --> 0:46:59.720 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.