[1] He went on to have four million-selling hits: "Hold What You've Got" (1965), "Skinny Legs and All" (1967),[4] "I Gotcha" (1972),[5] and "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)" (1977).

[3] Tex played baritone saxophone in the high-school band and sang in a local Pentecostal church choir.

[1] Joe Tex took part in the amateur portion of the Apollo Theater, winning first place four times, which led to his discovery by Henry Glover, who offered him a contract with King Records.

He later claimed he sold musical rights to the composition "Fever" to King Records staff to get money to pay his rent.

The song's credited songwriters, Otis Blackwell (who used the pseudonym John Davenport) and Joe Cooley, disputed Tex's claims.

[1] Labelmate Little Willie John had a hit with "Fever", which inspired Tex to write the first of his answer songs, "Pneumonia".

[1] In 1958, he signed with Ace and continued to have relative failures, but he was starting to build a unique stage reputation, opening for artists such as Jackie Wilson, James Brown, and Little Richard.

Later that year, James Brown recorded a cover version, though with different lyrics and a different musical composition, gaining songwriting credit, making it a hit in 1962, and reaching number two on the R&B chart.

[8] Tex recorded and finally scored his first hit, "Hold What You've Got", in November 1964 at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

The intro saxophone riffs in his 1969 song, "You're Right, Ray Charles" later influenced Funkadelic's "Standing on the Verge of Gettin' It On".

[5] Following this and another album, Tex announced his retirement from show business in September 1972 to pursue life as a minister for Islam.

[1] Tex returned to his music career following the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975, releasing the top-40 R&B hit, "Under Your Powerful Love".

After that, Tex withdrew from public life, settling at his ranch in Navasota, Texas, and watching football games by his favorite team, the Houston Oilers.

[16][17] Since Brown was still on parole at the time, he relied on his agent Clint Brantley "and a few thousand dollars to make the situation disappear".

[16][17] According to fellow performer Johnny Jenkins, "seven people got shot", and after the shootout ended, a man appeared and gave "each one of the injured a hundred dollars apiece not to carry it no further and not to talk to the press".

[14] In his final performances as part of the Soul Clan, he appeared gaunt and unwell, and Killen claimed that Tex had "lost his will to live".

[21] US R&B group The Raelettes and UK hard rock band Nazareth covered "I Want To (Do Everything for You)", and Phish performed "You Better Believe It Baby".