JAMES BROWN - STUNNED SHARPTON TRIED TO PASS OFF BROWN'S DEATH AS BAD DREAM

US civil rights leader REV AL SHARPTON was so stunned by the news his longtime friend and mentor JAMES BROWN had died, he tried to shake off the late-night phone call as a bad dream. Sharpton, who referred to Brown as his second father, was the first person the soul legend's manager CHARLES BOBBITT called when the singer passed away on Christmas Day (25DEC06) after battling pneumonia. The family friend was on his way to South Africa when he heard the news Brown was ill in an Atlanta, Georgia hospital, but Bobbitt assured him he'd be OK in three or four days and urged him to go ahead with his travel plans. He rang back a few hours later with grave news. Sharpton recalls, "At three in the morning Mr Bobbitt called back and said, `Reverend Sharpton, your man is gone.' "I, literally, rolled over and went back to sleep, trying to tell myself I had a bad dream. "When I woke up, I realised that he was really gone and I rushed to Atlanta to meet the kids... and we began trying to do what he always told us to do if something happened." The family then asked Sharpton to preside over Brown's funeral service, which he conducted last weekend.