After he’d done a show in Nashville, James Brown asked me to engineer a session for him there. Well, there were no flights available, so I jumped in the car and drove all the way.
It took me five hours to get there, and as soon as I arrived at the studio James and the musicians were ready to record, so we cut four tracks and then, before I left, James told his manager, "Give Ron ten percent of that last song."
The song was "Sex Machine" so we wrote up the songwriter’s contract and I’ve been collecting on it ever since!Ron Lenhoff
James Brown was well known for turning up at recording sessions without having written any songs. He’d just have the idea in his head and when he came in he’d improvise right then and there.
He could also play the drums and the keyboard instruments, so he understood exactly what he wanted. He’d build a pattern with the musicians around the bass and drums, and then bring the guitar in.
All the musicians worked with James for a long time, so they knew what he wanted, and once he got the rhythm section going he would start working with the horns.Ron Lenhoff
Whenever James Brown was doing a concert in or near Cincinatti he would come by King Studios late at night and record maybe three or four tracks in just as many hours.
At King we had the facility to record, mix, master, press, and label the discs, so the finished product could be ready for shipping within 24 hours.Ron Lenhoff