South Carolina- James Brown’s widow says she has been kicked out of the mansion she shared with the singer and their five-year-old son, claiming the gate has been padlocked at the request of Brown’s lawyer and accountant.

The “Godfather of Soul” died on Christmas Day at Atlanta’s Emory Crawford Long Hospital of heart failure.

Tomi Rae Brown, who was one of James Brown’s backing singers, said yesterday she was at a retreat when her 73-year-old husband died shortly after he was hospitalised in Atlanta.

“The last thing he said to me was, ‘I love you baby and I’ll see you soon’,” she said.

However, when she returned to their home hours after her husband died, security guards told her James Brown’s lawyer Buddy Dallas and accountant David Cannon said she was not allowed inside.

Speaking outside the home she shared with her husband, Mrs Brown said she did not own the deed to the home but had a legal right to live there.

“This is my home. I don’t have any money. I don’t have anywhere to go,” she said.

Mr Cannon would not comment. Phone messages left for Mr Dallas were not returned.

The couple had a tumultuous relationship since they married in December 2001.

James Brown pleaded guilty in 2004 to a domestic violence charge stemming from an argument with his wife and was let off with a $US1388 fine.

He was accused of pushing her to the floor and threatening to kill her.

Details of Brown’s last hours emerged yesterday, with friends saying he knew he was about to die.

Brown went to a dentist last week, who noticed him coughing and recommended he see a doctor.

He was admitted to hospital on Saturday with severe pneumonia.

“He was having pain before, but then the pain went away and he told me ‘I’m going away tonight’,” Charles Bobbit, Brown’s manager and friend, said.

“I didn’t believe him,” he said, adding Brown died quietly soon after.

Brown was one of America’s great showmen and band leaders. He created a revolutionary sound that mixed funky rhythms and staccato horns behind his own often explosive vocals.

Hip hop and rap artists revered him and extensively used his beats as the backdrop to their own music, while singers such as Michael Jackson drew on his dance style.

In his final months, Brown’s health was in decline but he masked it with good diet and lots of rest to maintain his punishing schedule as the self-styled “hardest working man in show business”.

He was due to perform in New York’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve and this year alone did more than 100 live shows.