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Rick James
Abandoned by his father as a child, Ricky James was raised by his mother, a
vaudeville singer who allegedly ran errands for the Mafia. From a young age he
was performing on street corners and dropped out of school at 15, moving to
Canada where he started performing as Big Jimmy and formed the band Mynah Birds;
which for a while included Neil Young and was signed by Motown. They broke up
without releasing anything but James stayed with Motown as a songwriter and
producer and worked with Smokey Robinson, Bobby Taylor and the Detroit Spinners.
In 1973 he released a solo single My Ma...
