Funk Musician Rick James Dead
Funk Musician Rick James Dead in Los Angeles at 56
Fri Aug 6, 2004 04:15 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Funk music pioneer Rick James, famed for the energetic dance tunes "Super Freak (Part 1)" and "Mary Jane" and for his subsequent drug and legal problems, has been found dead in his Los Angeles home, police said on Friday.
"This morning Hollywood officers responded to a radio call of a natural death," a police spokeswoman said, and found the body of James. She said detectives were at the scene.
James, 56, who was born James Johnson in Buffalo, New York, saw his career falter in the past decade after a crack-cocaine addiction led to a spell in prison for assault and false imprisonment. He suffered a stroke in 1998 after bursting a blood vessel at a concert in Denver.
