Here is an autographed thank you note James Brown sent to Henry Stone where you can practically feel the almighty funk of his spiritual dexterity as it’s jumping off the page with a foot kicked in the air before dropping to the splits and two stepping all over your psyche’s jukebox.

Brown and Stone were friends starting on the day in 1955 when Ralph Bass beat Henry to Macon, Georgia by a day and signed Brown to Federal Records. After Stone took James Brown’s “Please, Please, Please,” on the road with him while promoting his own million selling “Hearts of Stone” by Otis Williams and The Charms, and then got Brown a show at Ernie Busker’s Million Dollar Palms in Hallandale, and then got Brown several thousand dollars for its three night and matinee success, they were friends for life.

Soul Brother #1 always said, “There’s only one white man you trust, that’s Henry Stone.”

Henry was a longtime I.W. Harper drinker, but when he quit, Brown used to say to, “Henry, you lost your drunk, but you never lost your funk.”

Henry Stone never lost his funk, and neither did James Brown. Both guys are no longer living here on Earth in the physical, but their spirits will never die. And just in case you don’t believe it, check out that signature.

Blues is a feeling, soul is a spirit, funk is a way of life.

Here’s to the music business and making hit records!!!