AUGUSTA, Ga., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- The city of Augusta, Ga., has shelved plans to rename its annual music festival after James Brown in light of the native son's most recent arrest.
The Godfather of Soul, 70, was arrested in South Carolina Wednesday and charged with assault for an alleged altercation involving his wife, Tomi Rae, 33. Brown, free on bond, has denied the charges.
Members of the Greater Augusta Arts Council say they are now in "limbo" about the renaming the festival after Brown and Mayor Bob Young says plans to erect a statue to Brown are now on hold, too, the BBC reported Sunday.
"This certainly is not anything anybody could have planned for," Young told the BBC. "It's extremely unsettling and disturbing, but we will have to wait and see how this plays itself out."
It's not the first brush with the law for Brown. He served nearly three years in prison for a 1988 police chase and received a suspended sentence and went into rehab after a 1998 firearms charge.
