Tales from the Tour Bus - The Vickery Family

Rick James Part 1

Narrator: Aaron and Zola were 21 when Super Freak was on the radio, their adopted parents Melba and Levon decided not to hear it.

Levi Ruffin Jr.: When I was on the road with Rick, I couldn't stand cops, man. They're always fuckin' with you. I love 'em now. I love the police. Please protect my old, black ass. Keep these fuckin' renegades out there, like I was growing up, away from me, please. Yeah, I love the cops now.

Narrator: Levi Ruffin Jr. grew up with Rick James, and spent a dozen years on the road with the king of punk-funk as the keyboardist and leader of the Stone City Band.

Levi: I remember one time, we were coming through Florida, going toward Little Rock. And one of the promoters had called us -he said, "Man, you guys gonna get arrested, man, they're waitin' for you," that he saw something on television. What the fuck you mean they're waiting for us And on the bus, man, we had a television with satellite on it, kind of bad, you know, but, anyway, we found a spot to stop, and that's when we saw it. Shit, they had a prosecutor there, and the AG, whatever you call 'em with all the cops and shit. "We're not gonna have that Rick James and that Stone City Band comin' through our town, spreading all these narcotics and Mari-ju-anas (A/N Marijuanas), and stuff amongst our children. We'll arrest every one of them." We laughing our asses off. I'm sitting there, cracking the fuck up, man. Said that cannot be serious. They were serious man. We finally get to the goddamn gig, and these motherfuckers, they all you know, the Smokey the Bear hats. They was all around us. There must've been a hundred goddamn police up there. I'm lookin' around, I see cats all over the top of the building with M16s. Said, "What the fuck is going on?" This is in Arkansas or some shit. Remember this lady cop, I guess she was runnin' this shit, she was the sheriff or some shit. She say, "We're coming on your bus." Rick was pissed. Talkin' 'bout, "No, you're not." "No, no, no, no. You know damn well you can't come on this bus. This is a private fucking bus. This is our home: We sleep here, we eat here, we fuck here, and we do other things here." 'Course, he didn't mention the drugs. "Do you have a warrant?" "No." "Well, you can't come on this bus. "Leave us the fuck alone 'cause we got work to do." We gettin' ready to go out on stage. Now, see, I never smoked weed, but I smoked weed that night. If we goin' to jail, we all goin' to motherfuckin' jail. That lady cop said, "We're here to arrest Rick James." And she started asking our names, and said, "Which one of y'all are Rick James?" - "I'm Rick James." - "No, I'm Rick James." 'Cause, you know, "I'm Spartacus." "No, I'm Spartacus." And then we just walked out on stage, and Rick said, "You see all these goddamn cops?" They said, "Yeah." He said, "These son of a bitch talkin' 'bout arresting me if I smoke this weed here. "Are you guys gonna let him do it?" " No!" Can't hear you!" "No!" Fuckin' crowd was in a frenzy. Rick was just a brother, man, went out there and did whatever the fuck he wanted to do.

Danny LeMelle: I understood Rick, and Levi understood Rick probably better than most people because we grew up together in a family sense, in a black man sense.

Narrator: Danny LeMelle was the arranger and director of the horn section for the Stone City Band. He played saxophone and traveled the world with Rick for seven years.

Danny: Rick grew up in the ghetto, like the majority of us. The people that we looked up to were either for good or bad, it doesn't really matter were black athletes, pimps, the semi-gangsters of our neighborhoods. These were the people we had as role models. Why? We didn't have anything else that we could look to, unless you were lookin' at Leave it to Beaver, and that shit ain't had nothing to do with us. But, that's what was on TV at that point. So, Rick had this thing that, "When I hit the stage, I have to pimp the audience." In a good way. They have to follow everything I say." They have to let me pimp them. They have to love the music. They need to know all the songs. They need to know this joint is not a cigarette. This is a joint, and if you want to smoke it with us, we'll do that.