HAMMER: ...It'll be great to have you here in Indianapolis again...

JB: It's been a long time since I've been there. I wish I was playing the old Bush Stadium, but hopefully this time we'll be playing for a bigger crowd because we've been drawing some incredible crowds. We're looking for some big crowds. We know we're gonna come out and blow them away. But the next time we'd like to a big outdoor thing and kill them.

HAMMER: My favorite song of yours is "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open the Door, I'll Get it Myself)." How did that song come about?

JB: That song still remains, because of the fact that there are a lot of things closed to blacks, Hispanics, women. There are a lot of people who think they're in the system, but they're really not in the system. Uh, any time an Afro-American kid, 9 or 10 years old, can get up and say "Mama, I think I'm gonna study hard because I want to be president," and have a shot at being president, then we've got America. Other than that, we've got a name and we're trying to find out what it means.
Uh, one day, when you can go on any side of town and not be frantic, or curious, about what might happen to you, and be at home at any place in America, we won't have to worry about "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)." We won't have to worry about those songs by, uh, Joan Baez or Janis Joplin and John Lennon, that they made in the Sixties. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to let people know that, hey, don't give me nothin', just open up the door, and if I don't earn it, then I don't earn it.
I want you to quote me as saying this -- "If I become a bum, then let me become a bum by my own choice." Then, if I become a bum, don't label me as a nigger bum, just let me be a bum. Now, that's pride.

HAMMER: Uh...

JB: That didn't make you jump when I said the word "nigger," did it?

HAMMER: No, sir.

JB: We're talking about situations. If we're talking about the lower South, they called the whites the "crackers." That still is there, but hopefully we don't use those words any more. That day should be over with. We should judge a man by the content of his character, not the color of his skin, like Dr. Martin Luther King said. But now, we don't have to worry about that, they worry about what their social security number is and are they paying taxes.

HAMMER: Of all the live albums you've done at the Apollo, which one is your favorite?

JB: My favorite would be the first one. There's no greater number in the world than number one.
Live at the Apollo. They said it couldn't be done. 1962. October. I asked the record company would they let me do it. And they wouldn't give me no money to do it. I had to pay for it myself. So I debited my account $5700 and paid for the album. And it would cost you a million dollars to cut today. And now it's the number one live album in the world. It's just like I said, "I don't want nobody to give me nothing. Open up the door, and I'll get it myself."

HAMMER: Of all the artists who sampled your music, and have used it for inspiration, who has done the best job?

JB: The one that pays me. And a lot of them didn't pay me, but don't worry, we're going to get them too. Because that's all I have to sell, is my songs. But the ones that paid me did the best job. Hammer was one of the nicest ones of all. He paid me with no problem. The rest of them, a lot of them, tried to steal.

HAMMER: When you were recording your classics in the 1960s, did you think that people would still be loving them years later?

JB: Yes!! The system didn't want to let us in... Like the song "Sex Machine. We had a lot of problems in America with that song. And I sold 1,200,000, no, a million and a half, with that one... We lost out on "Sex Machine and now it's the number one dance song in the world. Because they thought the title "Sex" went some other place. But it wasn't about that. A fella and a girl were sittin' down in a club, and everybody was dancing, and the cat said, "Get on up! I feel like being a sex machine!"
It said, "The way I like it is the way it is. I got mine and don't worry about his." What is better than that? You cain't beat that. That record is so clean. They were worried about the title. Everytime I see the words "sex machine," it reminds me of a cash register opening up. That song opened up more cash registers than most songs I know.


HAMMER: But what about "Hot Pants"? That song was about sex, wasn't it?

JB: "Hot Pants"? "You gotta use what ya got to get just what you want"? It's as much about sex in there as Mom's apple pie!! (laughs) How you like that?
Ninety percent of the stuff you see on television is all sex, and they kill 30 people in a 30 minute show, almost before you see the title of the show. They worried about me? I was trying to make people happy. I'm just worried about our country.
...I want to say to say to the young kids: Education may be hard today, but if you go through it today, tomorrow will be easy. If you don't go through it today, it will be harder.

HAMMER: Thanks a lot, Mr. Brown. God bless you and we're looking forward to seeing you here July 7.

JB: God bless you and God bless America.

Steve Hammer (1996)
E-mail: shammer@nuvo.net
Web: http://www.nuvo.net/hammer/

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