James Brown Loved This Meat So Much He Expected His Entourage To Eat It When He Did

James Brown did it all, and nobody did it like him. He had a strong personality, and strong opinions about music, stagecraft, and discipline, and according to a GQ interview with his longtime friend, and short-time tour manager, Reverend Al Sharpton, those opinions extended all the way to the dinner table. Sharpton recalled Brown had a particular favorite: "James Brown was a steak man. Loved steaks," he said, remembering the meals they shared while traveling together. 

Sharpton said when Brown was in town, they often ate at the now-closed Stage Delicatessen on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, a classic Midtown Jewish deli spot popular with entertainers and theater crowds. When Brown walked in, he knew what he wanted, and everyone else with him at the table knew what they were getting, "because Brown was 'autocratic ... and we all had to eat what he ate.'"

This approach fits the reputation Brown cultivated as the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business," a performer known for running rehearsals with military precision and expecting the same rigor and commitment from everyone around him. Sharpton says the pattern repeated everywhere they went, "I went all over the world with him — steak, steak, steak," he recalled. The choice sounds restrictive, but it makes a lot of practical sense for a touring performer. Modern steakhouses are easy to find in every state, and a steak dinner plates up to be a predictable combination of sufficient, nourishing protein and reliable familiarity no matter where the tour bus pulls in. For Brown, that orderly dependability became part of life on the road for him, and his friends.

His group eating regimen mirrored the way Brown ran his band, where strict expectations and carefully controlled performances were part of the formula behind decades of hits. Steak also represents symbolic cultural meaning, especially for someone from Brown's background. Raised in deep poverty in rural South Carolina, Brown grew up in a world where food was hard to come by, and steak would have been a luxury. Ordering it whenever he wanted, and enough for all his friends, too, may have had a deeper meaning, representing the same upward trajectory that defined his meteoric career.

Sharpton said the singer was a steak eater for most of the time they knew each other, "I knew James Brown from '73 until he died, and for at least 25 years, he was totally a steak guy." Although Brown was a devoted steak head for decades, later in his life he reconsidered the habit. According to Sharpton, the change came after Brown caught wind of increasing warnings about red meat and health. "One day, he told me, 'I heard steak is no good'", Sharpton said. Brown began cutting back, a decision that echoed the broader cultural moment, when doctors and nutrition advice urged Americans to limit red meat because of concerns about cholesterol and heart disease. Eventually, even superstars have to worry about what happens to their aging bodies when they eat red meat every day. 

Sharpton also remembers a softer, more private food moment of Brown's that feels far removed from steakhouse dinners and tour stops. Brown had a daily routine that included a simple piece of fruit, "he would do his hair every morning, and would sit under the hairdryer and eat a banana," Sharpton said, a completely adorable image that should probably be enshrined in a portrait.