Q 01/05

James Brown was born in 1933 in Barnwell, in which US state?

A) Georgia

B) Alabama

C) South Carolina

D) North Carolina

Answer · why

C) South Carolina

He was born in a small wooden shack to a 16-year-old mother; the family later moved across the Savannah River into Georgia.

Q 02/05

Brown's family moved to which Georgia city when he was four or five?

A) Augusta

B) Savannah

C) Macon

D) Athens

Answer · why

A) Augusta

He shined shoes there as a boy and later bought the local radio station WRDW; the city now has a James Brown Boulevard and a James Brown Arena.

Q 03/05

In his teens, Brown briefly pursued which sport as a career?

A) Track

B) Basketball

C) Football

D) Boxing

Answer · why

D) Boxing

He also danced for change to entertain troops from Camp Gordon and taught himself piano, guitar and harmonica in the same years.

Q 04/05

At 16, Brown was sent to a juvenile detention center in which Georgia town?

A) Valdosta

B) Toccoa

C) Rome

D) Albany

Answer · why

B) Toccoa

He formed a gospel quartet with four cellmates there, and a local businessman's job sponsorship secured his parole in June 1952.

Q 05/05

What was Brown's nickname among fellow inmates at the detention center?

A) Jukebox

B) Music Box

C) Songbird

D) Piano Man

Answer · why

B) Music Box

Bobby Byrd heard about 'a guy called Music Box' and later said his family helped secure Brown's early release.