Born in 1943, Fred Wesley joined the Ike and Tina Turner Review in 1962. In 1968 he joined the James Brown band to eventually become one of their most valuable members for the Funky years ahead.

Disillusioned with working in the music business and ready to pursue a career as a milkman in his hometown Mobile, Alabama, Fred Wesley was asked to join the James Brown Revue in late 1967. After touring with the band for almost a year, 'Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)' was recorded in one take in August 1968. Fred Wesley left together with most of the other members of James Brown's sixties band in the mutiny early March 1970.