Who is the greatest musician in American history? If you ignore your own personal musical preferences, a list of finalists includes Michael Jackson, Leonard Bernstein, Miles Davis, Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Louis Armstrong, and too many more to consider. It’s impossible even to make a short list. How do you compare George Gershwin with Bob Dylan or Taylor Swift? 

Who is the greatest live performer in American history? It’s James Brown, and there’s no competition. The law of conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but if Albert Einstein had heard “Sex Machine,” he would have reconsidered.

The man who became known as “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business” earned that title for his constant motion on and off the stage. He played up to 330 nights a year for more than 50 years, usually as one-night stands before traveling on to another city. What he brought to the audience was sheer lightning. While he was electric as a keyboard player, a drummer, and probably on several other instruments, he rarely played them live because he was unparalleled in singing and dancing. He became the most sampled musician of all time, not just because the beats are so tight, but because his performance is irreplicable.

Brown was notoriously demanding of excellence and precision from his backing band, and he knew how to play off them live like no one else. He would interact with keyboardist Bobby Byrd or sax player Maceo Parker to hype up the crowd: “Bobby! Should I take 'em to the bridge?” He controlled every detail of the live shows, from the band’s shoes to their dance moves, and if they ever played a note out of line or stepped a toe in the wrong direction, there were consequences.

Martha High was a backup singer with his band for more than 40 years, and she described the experience for Paste Magazine, “Everything was the way he could see it, or wanted it. And with all the rehearsals we had, I thought it was for the best because he was known to be the greatest entertainer in the world. And his shows were always tight. If you sang wrong, or played the wrong notes, or did the wrong steps, he could hear it. And you’d get fined.”

Brown’s unwavering attention to detail paid off in the studio, too. As a drummer, I can play the beat for just about any of his songs, but can I play them as perfectly tight as Clyde Stubblefield or Jabo Starks? Never in a million years. How many bassists can match Bootsy Collins’ groove? He settled for nothing less than the best of the best.

Brown wasn’t easy to work with, but he was impossible to live with. He was abusive of his three wives and countless girlfriends, and even he probably didn’t know how many children he fathered. In his later years, he suffered from drug and alcohol addiction, which is a stark contrast from when he would fine or fire musicians for drinking and drug use in the earlier days.

He wasn’t a good person, and he did unforgivable things. At the same time, the songs and performances he left behind transformed the world. This is a too-common juxtaposition in music, but on stage, there was no one like him, and there never will be again.