Bobby Byrd (August 15 1934 – September 12 2007) was an African American funk/soul/R&B/gospel musician and songwriter, best known as James Brown's longtime sideman and co-vocalist on songs such as "Licking Stick - Licking Stick", "Get Up Sex Machine" and "Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved". He was born in Toccoa, Georgia. Byrd also recorded many solo funk tracks, most famously "I Know You Got Soul" (1971), which have been sampled by musicians including Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim, Ice Cube, LL Cool J and A Tribe Called Quest. He was the original leader and founder of The Famous Flames, the vocal group with which James Brown first became famous. Byrd is actually the man who discovered James Brown. Byrd and Brown met in a Georgia youth detention facility, where Brown was an inmate. Byrd's local baseball team played the prison team of which Brown was a member. It was Bobby Byrd's family that sponsored his release and took him in afterwards (R