James Brown Gets a Gig in Work-Release Program

Imprisoned soul singer James Brown, the self-professed “hardest working man in show business,” is getting back into the job market through a Department of Corrections work-release program.

But Brown, 56, has been assigned a job with the Aiken and Barnwell Counties Community Action Commission, headquartered in Aiken, S.C.

“Mr. Brown’s duties will involve community appearances, talking with young people and raising the consciousness of the public with regard to those who are poor, hungry and homeless,” said Corrections Department spokesman Francis Archibald.

The prison spokesman said Brown, who is serving concurrent six-year prison terms for trying to run down police officers during a 1988 car chase along the South Carolina-Georgia border, will spend nights and weekends at the Lower Savannah Work Center, a minimum-security prison in Aiken County. Brown is expected to begin his job in about two weeks.

The Grammy-winning entertainer had several job offers, ranging from disc jockey to singing trolley car conductor. Archibald declined to reveal the salary Brown will receive.

The “Godfather of Soul” is serving his sentences at a state prison in Columbia.

Brown was convicted and sentenced in both Georgia and South Carolina for an incident that began Sept. 24, 1988, at a building in Augusta, Ga., owned by the singer.

Police said Brown stormed into the building, waving a shotgun at people attending an insurance seminar. Authorities said the singer was apparently angry that someone had used his private bathroom. Officers chased Brown across the state line into South Carolina, where they said he tried to run over them with his pickup truck.