Last night when reporting on James Brown’s death, one of the news reporters gave a little smirk when he mentioned that Al Sharpton thought of James brown as his father.

In his thought bubble you could see the words.. “There he goes again, jumping on the hot ‘black’ event.”

The thing is, Al Sharpton is very closely connected to James Brown. He knew James Brown before anyone knew Al Sharpton existed.

Yesterday outside of the National Action Network’s House of Justice Sharpton explained that he was close friends with James Brown’s son, Teddy. Teddy introduced Sharpton to his father. Teddy was killed in a car accident. From that time on Sharpton said, “I kind of replaced Teddy for him and he became the father I never had.”

James Brown was also responsible for helping Sharpton become a civil rights activist. Though he had formed a civil rights group early on, Brown always encouraged him to continue with the work. Recently he called Sharpton to tell him he was proud of the work he was doing in the Sean Bell case.

That famous Sharpton doo? Brown took Sharpton with him on his trip to the White House to meet President Ronald Reagan. Before heading off, Brown had his personal stylist give Sharpton’s hair some fluff. Sharpton said, “When we got on the plane headed for Washington, he said, ‘Don’t change your hair like that until I die.’”

Whether he was joking or not.. Sharpton did just that. Although he has slicked it back a little, leftovers from his run for the democratic presidential nomination in 04’. Don’t be surprised to see some new puff going on for the funeral.

Sharpton said James Brown gave out turkeys every year in Augusta, GA. “Three years ago he asked me to stand in his place,” said Sharpton. “It wouldn’t have been right not to feed people in his name. And every Christmas we will feed people in the name of James Brown, because he cared about people.”

“James Brown was not just a guy who made a lot of hits. He changed culture for us. he made the common man matter.”

Sharpton is in Augusta, GA to assist with James Brown’s funeral.