Road Trip . . . With Al Sharpton!

If you happened to see a Ford Club Wagon van speeding up I-95 sometime in the last couple of days, that could have been James Brown:

William Murrell, who had shuttled the music legend around for the past 15 years, drove Brown’s body on an 800-mile pilgrimage from Augusta, Ga., to Harlem — a trip that took him from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 10 a.m. yesterday.

“I drove him in life, and I drove him in death,” said Murrell, 47. “I can’t say no to Mr. Brown.”

The coffin had arrived too late at the funeral home for staff there to make a scheduled flight out of Atlanta. And the remaining flights that could carry the remains were all booked as well.

Without a second thought, Murrell yanked the backseats out of his Ford van and loaded up. He and a co-worker piloted the Ford Club Wagon van up I-95 with the Rev. Al Sharpton, the funeral home director and Brown’s 24-karat gold-plated coffin in back.

. . .

The incredible journey started with a frantic phone call from the C.A. Reid Sr. funeral home around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday telling Murrell there was trouble.

The custom-designed coffin — which needed its blue lining replaced with a special one of white satin — was running late.

There was no time to make the 2-1/2-hour trip from Augusta to Atlanta in time for the 7:45 p.m. scheduled Delta flight — or any other flights that night — they said.

All charter flights were booked, including Murrell’s two planes. And eager crowds were already massing in Harlem to say goodbye.

“They had to get him to the Apollo. They tried everything,” said Murrell, “It was my last chance to give him a ride of a lifetime.”

. . .

So Murrell didn’t hesitate in taking out the back three seats of the van, snagging a co-worker and racing to the funeral home to pick up the coffin, Sharpton and the funeral director.

And as if Brown himself were clearing their way, they zipped along the darkened roads at high speed.

“I didn’t go over 90,” Murrell chuckled yesterday, hours before he was set to drive Brown’s coffin on the return trip to Georgia.