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50 free James Brown trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
James Brown went from a South Carolina shack and a Georgia juvenile prison to the most sampled recording artist on earth. These James Brown trivia questions cover the Famous Flames years, the live album he paid for himself, the night he calmed Boston, the hits that invented funk, and the cape routine he borrowed from a wrestler. Every answer is sourced, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
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Q 01James Brown was born in 1933 in Barnwell, in which US state?
South Carolina
He was born in a small wooden shack to a 16-year-old mother; the family later moved across the Savannah River into Georgia.
Q 02Brown's family moved to which Georgia city when he was four or five?
Augusta
He shined shoes there as a boy and later bought the local radio station WRDW; the city now has a James Brown Boulevard and a James Brown Arena.
Q 03In his teens, Brown briefly pursued which sport as a career?
Boxing
He also danced for change to entertain troops from Camp Gordon and taught himself piano, guitar and harmonica in the same years.
Q 04At 16, Brown was sent to a juvenile detention center in which Georgia town?
Toccoa
He formed a gospel quartet with four cellmates there, and a local businessman's job sponsorship secured his parole in June 1952.
Q 05What was Brown's nickname among fellow inmates at the detention center?
Music Box
Bobby Byrd heard about 'a guy called Music Box' and later said his family helped secure Brown's early release.
Q 06Which song began when Little Richard wrote its title on a napkin?
"Please, Please, Please"
The Famous Flames cut it as a radio-station demo, and the 1956 re-recording on Federal sold more than a million copies.
Q 07Which 1958 ballad became Brown's first No. 1 R&B hit?
"Try Me"
It topped the chart at the start of 1959 and gave its name to the first record label Brown launched a few years later.
Q 08How many of Brown's singles reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart?
17
He also holds the record for the most Hot 100 entries that never reached No. 1 on the pop chart.
Q 09Brown's 1959 Apollo Theater debut was as the opening act for which idol of his?
Little Willie John
Three years later Brown would record the live album at the same venue that made him a national star.
Q 10Who paid for the October 1962 recording that became Live at the Apollo?
Brown himself
Syd Nathan thought nobody would buy a live album of songs fans already owned; it reached No. 2 and stayed on the chart for 14 months.
Q 11On 1964's The T.A.M.I. Show, Brown famously upstaged which closing act?
The Rolling Stones
The Police later name-checked 'James Brown on the T.A.M.I. Show' in a 1980 lyric, and the Stones covered 'I'll Go Crazy' on their 2007 tour.
Q 12Which 1965 single won Brown his first Grammy Award?
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"
It was also his first top-ten pop hit, and forty years later he sang it as a duet with Will Young at the final Live 8 concert.
Q 13Which 1967 track do some critics call the first true funk song?
"Cold Sweat"
It was among his first recordings with a drum break and the first to strip the harmony down to a single chord.
Q 21'Funky President (People It's Bad)' came out in 1974 just as which president took office?
Gerald Ford
Brown attended a Carter inaugural ball in 1977 and backed Reagan in 1984, yet insisted he was neither Democrat nor Republican.
Q 22Who wrote and produced Brown's 1985 comeback hit 'Living in America'?
Dan Hartman
It was Brown's first Top 40 entry since 1974 and won him the 1987 Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
Q 23'Living in America' featured in which film, with Brown performing at Apollo Creed's fight?
Rocky IV
The scene was shot in the Ziegfeld Room at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and the credits billed him as the Godfather of Soul.
Q 14Brown took the title 'Soul Brother No. 1' after losing 'King of Soul' to whom?
Solomon Burke
The contest happened at a Chicago gig two years before the new nickname stuck.
Q 15Brown's free televised Boston Garden concert came the day after which event?
The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Mayor Kevin White had the show rebroadcast on WGBH to keep people home; Brown then demanded $60,000 for the lost gate.
Q 16Which bandleader wrote the music for 'Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud'?
Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis
Brown wrote the lyrics but later said he would not have recorded it given the choice, because he disliked defining anyone by race.
Q 17Bootsy and Catfish Collins joined Brown in 1970 from which Cincinnati band?
The Pacemakers
Most of Brown's 1960s road band had just walked out over money, and the new recruits became the nucleus of the J.B.'s.
Q 18Whose 1972 reelection campaign did Brown endorse, prompting boycotts of his shows?
Richard Nixon
A Cincinnati show that November was picketed with signs reading 'James Brown: Nixon's Clown', and he later wrote a song about Watergate.
Q 19Brown composed the score for which 1973 blaxploitation film?
Black Caesar
The following year he returned to No. 1 on the R&B chart with 'The Payback', whose parent album also topped the R&B album chart.
Q 20What was Brown's final single to top the R&B chart, in 1974?
Papa Don't Take No Mess
All three of his 1974 chart-toppers came in one year; afterwards 'Get Up Offa That Thing' stalled at No. 4.
Q 24Brown appeared alongside other music legends in which 1980 comedy?
The Blues Brothers
He returned for Blues Brothers 2000, performing his cape routine over the closing credits.
Q 25Kurtis Blow called which Brown track 'the national anthem of hip-hop'?
"Give It Up or Turnit a Loose"
The drum break from its second version, collected on In the Jungle Groove, became a breakdance staple in the early 1980s.
Q 26In 1991 Brown appeared in the video for which MC Hammer song?
"Too Legit to Quit"
Hammer had already sampled the rhythms of 'Super Bad' for 'Here Comes the Hammer' and named Brown as his idol.
Q 27Brown performed in the halftime show of which Super Bowl in 1997?
XXXI
That game in New Orleans saw the Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots.
Q 28Brown made a cameo in which 2002 Jackie Chan film?
The Tuxedo
In the plot Chan's character accidentally knocks the singer out and has to finish his act himself.
Q 29Brown died on which holiday in 2006?
Christmas Day
He had been admitted to an Atlanta hospital the day before with pneumonia and still expected to play his New Year's Eve shows.
Q 30Which future civil rights leader served as Brown's tour manager from 1973 to 1980?
Al Sharpton
Brown persuaded him to go by 'Al' rather than 'Alfred', and the two met President Reagan in 1981 to push for a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.