For over four decades, Joe Adams was "the man behind the man," music legend 21-time Grammy® award winner Ray Charles.

But his success is not a co-production.

A major network radio personality and film and Broadway stage actor, Joe Adams was a well-known entity long before he joined Ray Charles.

There are few personal managers who have guided a stellar client with the wisdom, discretion, taste, and phenomenal success that Joe Adams showed in his impeccable handling of Ray Charles' career.

It is Charles, of course, who is the unique, monumental talent.

But it is Joe Adams who has seen to it that he has been adequately rewarded and revered.

Adams' reputation as a shrewd negotiator is known internationally, as he personally negotiated all of Charles' business deals.

He made possible many profitable career moves for Charles, a good example being the long-running, award-winning series of commercials for Pepsi Cola and the creation of a whole company and studio based around the late entertainer's multiple talents.

Born into a middle class family in Watts, a suburban area of Los Angeles, Joe attended Jordan High School where his counselor pressured him into taking Auto Shop rather than public speaking.

Joe wanted to go into radio as an announcer but it was unheard of for a man of color to be an announcer in the United States.

He refused to roll over.

He taught himself the art of public speaking by speaking aloud in vacant lots, where he slowly mastered the art of speaking that eventually led to his teaching speech and diction.

Soon, he became a tutor for actors gearing up for roles at many major motion pictures studios.

In 1946, Joe married Emma Millhouse and was doing some sporadic radio work for Hollywood stations KFWB, KPAS, KFOX, KGFJ, and remotes for KFOX.

In those days, most stations did not encourage Afro-American men on its premises so Joe considered giving up on show business and joining his father, selling furniture.

About this time, Art Crogan, owner of Santa Monica Station KOWL, gave Joe the opportunity of going on the air.

A handshake found Joe on the air for 15 minutes a day and he was the producer, writer, musical director and sales representative for "The Joe Adams Show."

Two years later, Joe's five and a half hour daily radio show was the #1 rated deejay show in Los Angeles.

He soon signed over 56 sponsors for his airtime on KOWL, marking the beginning of a dazzling radio career that eventually spanned 20 years.

During this time, Joe also taped shows for KWBR in San Francisco, and had his own show on KDAY, making him the number one radio personality in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In 1947, he branched out into television with two shows of his own, "Adams Alley" for KLAC-TV, with a cast of 28 people, and "Joe Adams Presents" show on the CBS/Los Angeles Times station.

These were two of the most popular shows during the early television days and Joe was one of the pioneers of that era, using top name stars and musical greats.

Joe was one of the first personalities to do a simulcast by appearing live at the Paramount Theater downtown Los Angeles, where the big names appeared each week.

While headlining on stage at the Paramount Theater doing four shows per day he was also appearing live on his weekly KTTV television show, and from his dressing room doing his daily 3 ˝ hour radio show, all the while fronting his own 19-piece orchestra.

A long association with NBC began around this time and Joe turned in ten years' worth of shows for NBC radio, including the popular "Monitor" program.

He also hosted such musical greats as Nat King Cole, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, Tommy Dorsey and comedy giant Jerry Lewis, to name a few, and even found time to open a highly successful nightclub, "Pigalle," which was one of mid century Los Angeles's most popular clubs.

Joe was the first man of color to do on air coast network radio and as if additional proof is needed that Joe Adams is the exception to the rule, Duke Ellington recorded two musical themes for Joe's broadcast shows, both written by Billy Strayhorn.

The first is the classic "Take the A Train" which was Duke's own theme and the second being "Smada" which is Adams spelled backwards.

Eventually, Hollywood came calling for the handsome leading man.

Appearing in more than 26 motion pictures, two of Joe's most notable roles are Husky Miller in "Carmen Jones" (with Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge and Pearl Bailey) and as Frank Sinatra's psychiatrist in "The Manchurian Candidate."

Already a success, Joe retired from radio and TV in 1957, when producer David Merrick sought him to star alongside Lena Horne and Ricardo Montalban in "Jamaica" on Broadway.

Following "Jamaica's" historic two-year run, Ray Charles, a friend from Joe's' radio days, asked him to join him for a month-long-tour.

The 31 concerts that comprised Charles' first Big Band tour (1959) included New York's Carnegie Hall and Boston's Symphony Hall.

After the tour, Joe never left.

Joe has been with The Ray Charles organization for over 45 years, even though Joe claims he has never been formally hired.

Joe Adams wears many hats at the Ray Charles organization: As business manager, Joe directs Ray Charles' career.

As Vice-President/CEO in charge of RPM International, he supervises the myriad activities of the parent company including its business holding and its publishing companies, Tangerine and Racer Music, as well as Ray Charles Enterprises, which covers the activities of the Ray Charles Orchestra, the Raelettes, and Ray and Joe's outside business interests and investments.

In addition Joe served as producer of the Ray Charles Show, from lights to wardrobe, which he personally designed both for Charles and the Raelettes.

And, over the years, Joe is a man who was not adverse to driving the band bus or flying their four engine aircraft, (he is legally licensed to drive the 45 foot bus and to fly a 4 engine 80 passenger aircraft) if it was deemed necessary to get the job done.

Along with his many Ray Charles duties, for a time Joe was also Executive Vice President of Queen Booking Company, once the largest Afro-American owned booking agency in the United States.

In 1976 he resumed his association with NBC, receiving credit "as Executive in charge of production" for the TV special "Cotton Club 76," a project originally conceived by Joe.

Despite all the travel, Adams somehow found time to return to flying and became a fully licensed commercial multi-engine and instrument-rated pilot.

His interest in flying is probably the result of his World War II experience with the 332nd Tuskegee Airmen Fighter Group featuring the first Afro-American fighter pilots in the world.

In 1958, Joe Adams was the first man of color to receive the coveted "Golden Globe" Award as the Outstanding New Actor.

These days Joe Adams seems content "behind the scenes," his formidable talents welded into a position both challenging and powerful.

In addition to steering the late, great Ray Charles to unprecedented successes, Joe Adams has also been a tireless philanthropist.

Both he and Ray Charles have supported numerous community causes as well as a number of African American colleges.

Along the way, Adams has received four doctorates, including one from Morehouse College where a special educational facility has been designated in the name of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Adams and a performing arts center is being built in memory of Ray Charles.