James Brown's Augusta

Wright Thompson: James Brown's daughter and one of his former assistants rolled through the streets of his hometown Thursday, worried about Masters traffic. They mostly focused on Deanna Brown-Thomas's little Maltese, named Sweetie, currently at the vet's office, awaiting emergency transport to an animal hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. Thomas had accidentally backed over the dog, and her voice lowered when the phone rang, bracing for bad news. That reminded her of the time her dad had done the same thing to a family pet, which brought on a run of stories, including the one that's got them laughing now, interrupting each other. It's about the time James Brown went to the Masters. Or, rather, past it.

Five or so years before he died in 2006, Brown was driving home from dinner at Michael's on Washington Road during Masters week. This was James Brown, who had a full hair salon in his country estate, so the car he drove down Washington Road was a gleaming, sky blue Rolls-Royce. When he arrived near Magnolia Lane, he slowed down, and the fans leaving the grounds found themselves face-to-face with the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, with that luxurious mane of hair he kept in place with white cans of generic hair spray.

"People went crazy," the former assistant, Elif Crawford, said.

He hammed, loving the attention, then sped off. That's about as close as he wanted to get to the circus around the National during Masters week.