On the third night, the “Chairman of the Board” burst into James Brown’s dressing room without knocking. Two imposing body guards accompanied him as Sinatra opened with a confrontational, “I hear you think you’re the biggest star in this building!” Brown told Sinatra he should knock before entering, as Sinatra replied that it was “his hotel.” Brown, getting ready to go onstage, knew who he was talking to but answered, calmly: “Get out of my dressing room. Now.”
Sinatra stood his ground and said that Brown’s shows were running long and pulling attention away from the headliner—Frank Sinatra. Brown said he was just performing up to his usual standards, and would continue to do so. Sinatra again warned Brown to stay within 60 minutes and again Brown refused, and once more ordered Sinatra to get out of his dressing room. According to witnesses, Sinatra dared Brown to say that again, and Brown did without hesitation. After a tense pause, Frank and his goons stormed out of the room but not before Frank made a speech.
“You’ve got guts,” he said to Brown. “I’ll give you that. Stupid guts, but guts….You don’t understand power. You think because you’re talented, because you work hard, that’s enough. But talent doesn’t matter if the people with real power decide you’re a problem. And I’ve got more power than you can imagine. “
James Brown went on that night without shortening the set, and heard nothing more until the week was almost over.
Then Brown’s manager informed him that Sinatra wanted to meet Brown privately for lunch. Sinatra reportedly told Brown he was naive about how power worked in Las Vegas, but he also conceded that he respected Brown for standing up to him. Sinatra apologized for entering the dressing room the way he had, and added, “You’re a hell of a performer, Brown. Maybe the best I’ve seen.” Frank then admitted that he had behaved like an insecure jerk.
“That’s not how legends like us should treat each other,” Frank added. “Now, you finish your week. You perform however you want, as long as you want, as loud as you want. And when people ask me what I think of James Brown, I’ll tell them he’s the real deal.”
Brown finished the engagement performing as long as he felt like performing, and loud as he wanted. Sinatra praised him publicly and profusely.
Ultimately both men behaved ethically. And they both had guts.
Ethics Alarms 
” ‘You’re a hell of a performer, Brown. Maybe the best I’ve seen.’ “
I saw Soul Brother #1 live in Madison in July 1969; no disagreement with Sinatra whatsoever.
PWS
Frank famously deferred to great talent. His appearance with Elvis on Sinatra’s TV show was classic.
The Godfather of Soul.
The hardest working man in show business.
Ain’t no drag; Poppa’s got a brand new bag.
Please please me.
Great story. In Jim Crow America. In a mob town in a mob hotel. Amazing.
Music, especially African rhythms and the fury of those bongos and the body movements, was and is a seductive power, and some part of the undermining of Occidental stoicism and uprightness owes a good deal to the influence of “jazz”. The “rebellious generation” — I gather it started with The Beatniks and their counter-culturalist resistance to The Establishment. Obviously, these are the currents that captured the Boomers and of course seduced them. And this is I think my principle interest (sociologically, politically, anthropologically): How a people became seduced and surrounded their power to a minority class. And, how that minority class uses cultural, emotional and sexual power as “enticement”. The power to seduce is, in fact, a expression of political power. And in the great Demographic Struggle, the 1950s and the 1960s seems to be where much of American decadence has its roots.
Consider for example Robert Bork’s Slouching Toward Gomorrah. Now there is an example of Conservative attitude! He critiques the seduction of the elders and established hierarchy by youth and youth movements with their novel arrogancies that, at least in a significant sense, undermined established, traditional orderings. Renovation is one thing, but revolution is another. And Sexual Revolution perhaps the most radical. So, when you seduce your women (as it was recently pointed out by reference to Ronans 1) you set in motion a General Rebellion that gathers power as it rolls along.
And then, as it happened, you wonder how it is that it all winds up with DEI Radicalism, a revolution in gender identity, and vast sectors of the population captured not by Elevated Ideas, but by the most base impulses of humankind.
It is, I guess, a difficult medicine to swallow but it seems true: You cannot simultaneously masturbate and pray to God. You cannot be given over to base impulses and still honor a commitment to higher metaphysical principles.
Plato explained that when the musical forms change, the effects and consequences are notable. It goes (for example) from Bach to James Brown but then eventually to Reggaeton. And then, you see, you have Bad Bunny not so much “preaching aby truth” but demonstrating what the undermining if your nation and your civilization LOOKS LIKE.
And no voice can oppose it. Or if there is a voice it simply cannot be heard: no one is home to hear it! Brutality is a downward movement. Sure, it is fun as it is going on, but it is not without consequences.
Jack,
What an awful story. Sinatra treated Brown like an asshole and only respected him after he didn’t give in to it. That’s akin to punching someone in the face and then lauding them for defending themselves. Gaining such a person’s respect feels more like a moral loss than a social gain.
In other words, Sinatra was an asshole’s asshole. If James Brown gained Sinatra’s respect, I don’t think his doing so demeaned James Brown in any respect. James Brown was simply doing what he deemed necessary to allow him to do to his performance in the manner and to the standard he saw fit. What an ugly world Sinatra moved in. He did it his way. Asshole!
That’s a thoroughly defensible ethics take on the story, Neil. My analysis begins with the knowledge that FS was indeed an asshole, but an asshole with principles and the integrity to admit when he was wrong, even though it took someone standing up to his bullying to do it. The story made me think of John Huston’s comment in an interview that a sure way for two men to come to respect each other and become friends is for them to have a fist fight. That’s “toxic masculinity” cliche that is laced throughout the culture (Like in “The Quiet Man”) but it also makes sense among Alpha Males like Brown and Sinatra.
An asshole with principles. Hmm. I’ll have to think about that.
Someone is tracking down and circulating “Sinatra being an asshole and then softening” stories. There’s another one where he supposedly told John Lennon on “The Tonight Show” that “Imagine” was crap. It is crap.