Bobby Howard Byrd was born on 14 August 1934, in Toccoa, Georgia, USA. He was a singer, songwriter, producer, musician and talent scout well known for his associations with The Famous Flames and James Brown. He is credited for discovering James Brown and subsequently recording and composing songs together. The success he’s had in the music industry put his net worth to where it was when he passed away in 2007.
How rich was Bobby Byrd? As of early-2016, sources inform us of a net worth that was at $10 million, mostly acquired through a very successful music career. Bobby was responsible for numerous songs released by “The Famous Flames”, and for keeping the band together and managing each person of the band. After that opportunity, he still continued to work with James Brown before making it on his own.
Bobby Byrd Net Worth $10 Million
Bobby was born into a religious family who were very active in their local congregation. He became a part of the local choir group, the “Zioneers” and also became part of the “Gospel Starlighters”. Their secular singing was disapproved by the church, so band members left the state and moved to South Carolina as the “Avons”. They eventually left gospel behind, continuing the band with Byrd as the lead vocal and piano player. During the period of the “Gospel Starlighters”, Bobby met James Brown who was serving jail time for robbery charges. He saw talent in Brown, and befriended him including helping arrange help for his parole. Byrd then offered Brown a drummer spot in the band, now renamed the “Flames”. While James started as a drummer, he soon found love for doing lead vocals, especially since lead singers attracted more women. Eventually they hired a manager, and changed their name to “The Famous Flames”, and releasing their first record entitled “Please, Please, Please”. They were called “James Brown and the Famous Flames”, which some members didn’t agree with, and led to the group disbanding.
The rest of the group formed “Byrd’s Drops of Joy”, but without James Brown they couldn’t find much success. Eventually James came back to them on an offer to reform “The Famous Flames” which some accepted. This became the longest running line-up of the Flames, and they had several hits during the years 1959 to 1964. They also worked on various television shows and films, playing hits like “Try Me”, “I’ll Go Crazy” and “Shout and Shimmy”. Many were led to believe that the Flames were actually just a backing singer group for James Brown, and eventually the group could not settle on money and disbanded in 1968.
After two years, Byrd and Brown joined together to collaborate on various songs, which was in the genre that would soon be known as funk. They made the hit “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine”, and Bobby started to earn credit as a singer with his own songs. In 1973, Byrd ended his association with Brown, and it was not until the 1990s when Brown would approach Byrd again to help him perform for concerts and other appearances. It ended in James’ last album in 2002 called “The Next Step”. During Brown’s funeral in December 2006, Byrd along with a few bandmates performed at his funeral.
In his personal life, Bobby married band member Vicki Anderson, who left Brown’s band along with Byrd during 1973. He had three children from his first marriage, and later had another one with Vicki, as well as four children Vicki had during her previous marriage. He stayed in Loganville for most of his life after music, and then died in September 2007 from cancer.
