AIKEN --- A national magazine says James Brown couldn't possibly be papa to the young boy the singer's disputed fourth wife says is the music legend's heir.

Men's magazine GQ 's lengthy article on the singer says Mr. Brown, a noted womanizer who fathered at least 10 children, had a vasectomy nearly a quarter of a century ago.

The claim raises further doubts about the paternity of James Brown II, the 6-year-old son of Tomi Rae Hynie Brown.

Mrs. Brown says the child, born in 2001, is Mr. Brown's son, but longtime advisers say the boy Mr. Brown called "Little Man" is not the singer's child -- and even he didn't believe so.

No paternity test has been done on the child, whose court-appointed guardian ad litem has challenged the singer's will to get the boy a share of Mr. Brown's estate.

Neither James II nor his mother were mentioned in the singer's 2000 will, which was drafted before the child was born and before Mr. and Mrs. Brown exchanged vows.

Though the article does not name the source for this information, confidant Andre White, who was with the singer when he died in an Atlanta hospital on Christmas Day 2006, told The Augusta Chronicle on Friday that Mr. Brown's closest friends and at least one daughter knew he'd had the surgery.

"He was very proud of it," Mr. White said Friday. "It was just common knowledge among all his friends."

Mr. Brown said the surgery was painless, Mr. White said, although at one point he did say he was considering having it reversed.

Mr. White also shared other information with the magazine, along with his theory that his longtime employer was murdered.

In an interview Friday with The Chronicle , Mr. White wouldn't say whom he believes to be behind Mr. Brown's death. Mr. Brown's death certificate says he died from cardiac arrest.