James Brown – Star Time I had to put in the funk/R & B inspiration or connection on this list because it’s so great. My oldest brother, Daniel, he listened to War; he listened to Tina Turner; he listened to Isaac Hayes and he listened to James Brown. There was a bit of a funk influence very, very early in my life and I think Star Time by James Brown, which has almost every bit of his music, or certainly a good collection of his music, was a good choice to put in here because I love funk, I get into it. I seem to remember watching James Brown on American Bandstand as a child, because my sister used to watch that and I remember seeing that – it must’ve been a rerun, but I remember seeing it and I was just blown away by this guy, by his fire. Again, the energy and the fire, that’s so important to me.