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- [00:01]
GoFundMe Announcer
Want to make a difference in your community, but not sure how? Go to GoFundMe.com right now and start a GoFundMe. Seriously. Your next fundraiser doesn't have to start in a school parking lot or a church basement. You can start a GoFundMe today in just minutes. Fundraise for yourself, a friend or family member or an organization. All that matters is that you care about them. GoFundMe is the trusted place to fundraise for what you care about. With no pressure to hit your fundraising goal but tons of tools to help you reach it, you can confidently start fundraising right now. Whether it's creative, local or critical, your cause matters and there's a reason why GoFundMe is backed by millions and chosen by fundraisers everywhere. It works and it matters. GoFundMe helps you make a real difference. Start your GoFundMe today at GoFundMe.com that's GoFundMe.com G O F U N D me dot com this is a commercial message brought to you by GoFundMe.
- [00:59]
Jeff Zito
This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. Last year I went through many different life changes. I needed to take a pause and examine how I was feeling in the inside to better show up for the ones who need me to be my best version of myself. When you're navigating life's changes, Talkspace can help. Talkspace is the number one rated online therapy, bringing you professional support from licensed therapists and psychiatry providers that you can access anytime, anywhere. Living a busy life, navigating a long distance relationship, becoming a first stepfather, Talkspace made all of those journeys possible. I could speak with my therapist in the office. I could speak with my therapist in the comfort of my home. I was never alone. Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a $0 copay. No insurance, no problem. Now get $80 off your first month with promo code space80 when you go to talkspace.com match with a licensed therapist today at talkspace.com save $80 with code space80@talk space.com hey, it's Jeff Zito. Happy Holidays and thanks for checking out another episode of the Celebrity Jobber Podcast, consistently in the top five on the Apple Podcast Music Interviews chart. Thank you so much for listening as we're now in our fourth year. And if you want to go back in time and check out past guests and episodes, you could do so on celebrity jobber.com streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you listen to Podcasts and very important. Please subscribe if you like what you hear. 5 star rating and please leave a review. I know I've just asked a lot of you, but it really is important and I thank you once again. So you know, I was thinking about this the other day. I love to be inspired. I love a story of redemption. And I'm just interested in hearing about other people. And when you think of the word celebrity, famous for being on tv, the movies, musicians, comedians. I often wonder what their life was like before the private jets and limousines and five star hotels. I love to find out what the person was like before they got all the attention. And I love to find out if there was a moment in their life that changed everything. A big break. So we're going to go back to 1985. Okay. I'm a 10 year old boy, a huge fan of Prince, wanted to see the movie Purple Rain but it was rated R. My parents were not going to take me to see a rated R movie. But luckily for me, I had a cool sister who's 12 years older than me and she's still cool to this day. Shout out to Karen pcillo. Back then she was Karen Zito and took me to see Purple Rain under one condition. There's any type of inappropriate scenes for a 10 year old boy. I was going to get my eyes covered. And if you watch the movie Purple Rain now, it's not really that bad. It really. Not at all. But you know that one part when Prince and Apollonia were getting to know each other a little better in the basement of Prince's house, where was his bedroom? My sister's hand went over my eyes there. So one of the bands that was featured in the movie Purple Rain, Morris Day and the Time was a big part of the Minneapolis music scene back then and also worked alongside with Prince. My guest today was in Morris Day in the Time talks about his relationship with Prince and how far it goes back. He's going to tell me about his big break, which you might find interesting because I'm. I know I sure did. And he's also going to tell you something you may have not known about Prince. Even though Charlie Murphy and Dave Chappelle made this pretty famous bit on the Chappelle Show. Plus we're going to find out what his first job was and what he's up to today. His name, James Samuel Harris iii. Songwriter, producer. Responsible for making Janet Jackson a superstar with her album Control and Rhythm Nation. 18, 14, 31 top 10 hits in the UK, 41 in the US in 2022, inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, one half of the production team, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Just a little FYI, I'm actually wearing my Prince Purple Rain shirt right now as I'm getting ready to talk to James Samuel Harris iii, AKA Jimmy Jam. My guest this week on Celebrity Jobber, the Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, give a five star rating and leave a review. Check out all our past episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you pod. What if these celebrities weren't famous? What would they have become? What was their first job? We're about to find out. Yeah, man, I got dressed. I got dressed for today.
- [06:21]
Jimmy Jam
I see you Purple Rain.
- [06:22]
Jeff Zito
Okay, dude. Yeah, man. Pleasure. Pleasure to meet you, man. I was just listening to something you did. Maybe it was Stern Rock and Roll hall of Fame. And I heard about when you did Control. I was like, a little bit of a mistake maybe. Like, you guys, you're like. You were like peg in the red. And they get. They get the master's bag. They're like, what, What. What is this? You're like, peg in the red. And that was how that sound. You got that sound. And it was. That was the way Prince liked it. You said.
- [06:59]
Jimmy Jam
Yeah, Prince always wanted. When we watched Prince record, he would always record with everything in the red, with the VU meters in the red. And what he said was, is that your ear perceives like a little bit of distortion as something being loud. And so he always wanted his records to sound loud when they came on the radio. And so that's why he always wanted to have just a little bit of distortion on it. We kind of took it a little further than that because we didn't know what we were doing. And our machines back in the day were set up a little different where zero meant plus six decibels. So it was already in the red. We were already in the red before we even got to the red.
- [07:36]
Jeff Zito
Right? But.
- [07:37]
Jimmy Jam
But that kind of mistake was the thing that really changed the way I think that record sounded and the way ultimately music sounded. I think from that it was.
- [07:47]
Jeff Zito
Yeah, man, that was a really cool story. And I know, you know, people, like, maybe a lot of people that aren't studio nerds, you know, wouldn't get it, but I was like, I just thought it was really cool. Jimmy, Take, Take me all the way back. Take, take me back to, you know, you and meeting Prince and Early Days of Music in Minneapolis. Tell me about how it all started. I know that your. Your father's a musician, but where did Prince come into your life?
- [08:21]
Jimmy Jam
Well, Prince came into my life in junior high school. We were students together, and we took a piano class together. And we both already knew how to kind of play the piano well. He could really play the piano. I played pretty good, but I was actually a drummer. I thought of myself as a drummer back in that day. And I remember at the end of the semester, they said, hey, we're going to do a musical. Who wants to be the band? And we all raised our hands and they said, prince, what do you want to play? And Prince said, guitar. And I looked at him like, guitar. And then they said, jimmy, what do you want to play? And I said, drums. And he looked at me like drums, because we thought we were both keyboard players. And then I remember he walked in the very first rehearsal, he plugs his guitar in, and there's a song called Make Me Smile by Chicago. And Terry Cath, the guitar player in Chicago, who's amazing, Prince, rips his solo off exactly like the record. And I just was like, wow, okay. This dude's crazy. Then I remember we took a break. I went to the bathroom. I heard somebody on the drums killing it. And I thought it was the band teacher. And I walked out. It was Prince on the drums. And I just was like, I never seen anything like that. And we were probably 13 years old, I want to say, at this point. So, yeah, it was. It was an amazing thing. So that's where it started. And then in Minneapolis, back in the day, it was a bunch of competing, you know, bands in competition with each other. You know, Prince had his band, which was called Grand Central. I had a band called Mind and Matter. Terry had a band called Flight Time. We all just were just up there trying to make music. And something about the environment up there was very artistic city, a lot of, you know, great culture up there as far as are the arts. And man, and it was cold. So we weren't outside doing stuff. It was like we'd be in the basement and we'd be, you know, rehearsing and working on our music stuff. So that was. That was always our first love is to do. To do music. And that that community was a very, very talented one. I will say that.
- [10:09]
Jeff Zito
Yes, I would say so. You know, and, you know, being such a big fan of Purple Rain and the movie has a lot of truth to it. And I didn't realize, you know, how the time was kind of put together by Prince, but there was this friction and this competing thing.
- [10:27]
Jimmy Jam
How.
- [10:27]
Jeff Zito
How is that? Like, I mean, is it because of Prince's personality? Because he was a. You know, it seemed like he was a. He was tough, he was a drill sergeant, but it seemed like he. He had something to do with putting together the time. And so you would. You would think that you guys would be on the same page, but there was some friction between you guys, like in the movie. Tell me a little bit about how that became.
- [10:51]
Jimmy Jam
Yeah, well, so the story with the Time is we were already a band. We were called Flight Time at that point. So we were already a band. And Alexander o' Neill was actually our lead singer at that point in time. And Morris called Terry and said, well, no, what happened was. So Prince had a song called Party up on the Dirty Mind album, and Morris was actually the writer of that song, actually did the music for that song. And so Prince said, what do you want? I'll give you 30 grand or whatever, or I'll. I'll get you a record deal. And Morris said, I'll take the record deal. So Prince said, okay, go put a band together. Or actually he said, go get your band and we'll do something. And Morris was like, no, I'm not going to get my band. I'm going to go get Flight Time because they're the best band. And so he basically got us. And at that point in time, Alexander o' Neill was our lead singer. But Alexander o' Neill talked his way out of. We had a meeting and he kind of talked his way out of it. He was like. Because he always talked in the third person. And he said, you know, Prince, you know, Alexander o'.
- [11:47]
Jeff Zito
Neill.
- [11:47]
Jimmy Jam
Need a paper. I need some paper. I need a new house. I need a new car. I need, you know. And Prince was like, you're. You're done. And he was like, the jelly bean is going to be the drummer now. Morris is going to be the lead singer and meet me at rehearsal at 10 o' clock or whatever. So it literally happened like that. So we were already together as a band. He didn't put us together as a band, but he gave us the opportunity to have a record deal. And. And then, so. And then the competition was simply because he drilled us to be the best we could possibly be. But then when we were his opening act, then it was like he created Frankenstein. It was like, oh, no, we're going to try to. We're going to try to kick his ass, you know, And. And we did. And to the point where I remember we never played New York. And we never played LA with Prince because he didn't want that ass kicking in those big markets.
- [12:35]
Jeff Zito
Wow.
- [12:36]
Jimmy Jam
But I will say the best lesson we learned from Prince, though, was work ethic, because he outworked everybody. He already had more talent than everybody, but then he also outworked everybody. He'd rehearse our band for, you know, eight hours. Six hours. Eight hours. Then he'd go rehearse a revolution for six hours. And then he'd go to the studio all night and work on a song. Then you walk in the next day with a cassette. Because the cassette days of the 80s, he'd walk in with a cassette and he'd put it in and it would be, you know, lady cab driver or something. It was like he was just a genius, absolute genius. And so, you know, that's what it was like working back in those days.
- [13:12]
Jeff Zito
What about is something, you know, it seems like such a mysterious guy even to this day. You know, never did a lot of interviews and just very, very mysterious. You've known him on such a close and intimate level. Is there something you could tell us about Prince that not a lot of people are aware of? What was, you know, what was he like? What made him tick other than music? Celebrity Jobber.
- [13:36]
GoFundMe Announcer
Want to make a difference in your community, but not sure how? Go to GoFundMe.com right now and start a GoFundMe. Seriously. Your next fundraiser doesn't have to start in a school parking lot or a church basement. You can start a GoFundMe today in just minutes. Fundraise for yourself, a friend or family member or an organization. All that matters is that you care about them. GoFundMe is the trusted place to fundraise for what you care about. With no pressure to hit your fundraising goal, but tons of tools to help you reach it, you can confidently start fundraising right now. Whether it's creative, local or critical, your cause matters. And there's a reason why. GoFundMe is backed by millions and chosen by fundraisers everywhere. It works and it matters. GoFundMe helps you make a real difference. Start your GoFundMe today at GoFundMe.com that's GoFundMe.com G O F U N D M E dot com this is a commercial message brought to you by GoFundMe.
- [14:35]
Jeff Zito
The celebrity jobber podcast with Jeff Szeto. There's something you could tell us about Prince that not a lot of people are aware of. You know, what was he like? What made him tick? Other than music?
- [14:48]
Jimmy Jam
There was nothing other than music.
- [14:50]
Jeff Zito
Wow.
- [14:50]
Jimmy Jam
It was, it was, he was, he was living, breathing music. I mean, walking music. Like that's what he was. I mean, back in the junior high school days, he was a heck of a basketball player. Very much like Steph Curry. Great handles. Didn't have the shot like Steph Curry, but nobody had the shot like Steph Curry. But, but he had great handles and he was really a good dribbler and a huge basketball fan. And people. So people probably don't know that about him. And of course, Dave Chappelle did the skit about, you know, Prince playing basketball and the whole thing, that kind of thing. That's the truth, though. That's the truth. Because Prince, Prince would play basketball. As a matter of fact, Sunset Sound, which is one of the studios he recorded at all the time, there's literally a basketball hoop at that St. It's just kind of between the studios. So you can't really get like a real game. But he would play horse out there and he could beat anybody because he would do it off the branch, off the roof. Like he had all these shots, trick shots, and he could beat anybody at his. Super competitive, super competitive.
- [15:53]
Jeff Zito
He wouldn't figure because he's a little guy, you know, so you wouldn't figure that he would be, you know, he could ball.
- [15:59]
Jimmy Jam
No, he could, he could ball. He could. I mean, you know, he would listen. He was close to the ground, so he had, you know, he had those good handles, you know, he could handle the ball really well.
- [16:07]
Jeff Zito
Tell me, tell me, Jimmy, ever have a job outside of music? Like, can you tell me what your, your very first job was and if you ever had a job outside of music?
- [16:18]
Jimmy Jam
Oh, I definitely had, I had a lot of jobs outside of music. But they all made me realize that music was what I wanted to do. But I had a job, actually. My dad got me a job at his company that he, that he worked at. And it was basically just changing light bulbs. And it was a great. I mean, it paid great, but I felt like I was totally wasting my time. Then I went and got a job. I remember during the Christmas season I got a job at a store called Daytona, which is like a department store back in that day. And I was in the toy department. And I remember they had these radio controlled cars and they were. Nobody, they, nobody was buying them. And I said, can I take one of these out and play with it? And I think if people see me playing with it, they might want to buy it. And I remember that day we Sold out all of them that same day. And they said, oh, okay, what else can you do? Want to play with? And I was like, okay. And I love that job, but that job didn't pay me any. Any money. So I was kind of like, I gotta find something that pays a little bit of money that I really like. And music was always that thing. But I DJed for a long time. I played in bands, but then I also DJed. So anything to do with music was just kind of my life. I never really wanted to do anything else for as long as I can remember.
- [17:31]
Jeff Zito
What do you think? You, like, when you were at the age where, you know, you're quote, unquote, you know, figuring it out, trying to make a decision, what did you think you were going to become? Like, when you were just kind of thinking into the future, visualization. What did you think you were going to be when you grew up?
- [17:48]
Jimmy Jam
Well, when I was really young, I thought I was going to be a pilot. A pilot, because I was really into planes. I knew every plane. My dad used to take me to the airport. We just watched the planes take off and all that I even took. And my dad was a. He had a private pilot's license and the whole thing. So I was really into aviation, and I thought that one day I would probably do that. But once the music bug hit me, I started playing drums for my dad when I was 12 years old, and that was my first professional gig. And once that happened, I just knew music. I didn't know whether I didn't know it would be record production or songwriting, but I just knew that it would have to involve music. It had to. And I actually dropped out of high school to pursue music, and my mom let me do it. And I will say, 10 years later, after I would have graduated from high school, I walked across the Grammy stage and that was, wow. Her in the audience as my date and awesome one producer of the year.
- [18:40]
Jeff Zito
So, yeah, that's awesome.
- [18:41]
Jimmy Jam
Worked out how it was supposed to.
- [18:42]
Jeff Zito
And, you know, I had so many different, you know, points of your career, so many, you know, big breaks, if you will. Meeting Prince, the time, Janet Jackson, Grammys. What do you consider the biggest thing that happened in your life, Jimmy? Like, if you were, like, if this one moment didn't happen, whether it was like a big break or maybe all this stuff, we wouldn't be here talking today. Is there a singular moment that you can think of? There's, like, very pivotal for. For you and Terry becoming who you are today. Celebrity jobber.
- [19:22]
GoFundMe Announcer
Want to Make a difference in your community, but not sure how. Go to GoFundMe.com right now and start a GoFundMe. Seriously. Your next fundraiser doesn't have to start in a school parking lot or a church basement. You can start a GoFundMe today in just minutes. Fundraise for yourself, a friend or family member or an organization. All that matters is that you care about them. GoFundMe is the trusted place to fundraise for what you care about. With no pressure to hit your fundraising goal, but tons of tools to help you reach it, you can confidently start fundraising right now. Whether it's creative, local, or critical, your cause matters. And there's a reason why GoFundMe is backed by millions and chosen by fundraisers everywhere. It works and it matters. GoFundMe helps you make a real difference. Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com that's gofundme.com G O F U N D me dot com this is a commercial message brought to you by GoFundMe.
- [20:21]
Jimmy Jam
The.
- [20:21]
Jeff Zito
Celebrity jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. Is there a singular moment that you can think of that's, like, very pivotal for you and Terry becoming who you are today?
- [20:34]
Jimmy Jam
Well, besides meeting Terry back in 1973, which was a very pivotal moment for me, and we're still together, of course, so that's 52 years ago. So I think that would be the pivotal moment individually. But I think that when I think about pivotal moments, it has to be this snowstorm in Atlanta where Terry and I had gone down to produce the SOS Band after Prince told us, don't produce any bands. And we kind of disobeyed him and went down and produced it. And then we got caught in a snowstorm down there, missed the next gig. Fast forward to that summer, the same day we're gonna mix the SOS Band song. Prince calls us to the studio, to a different studio, and he basically fires us because he tells us, I told you not to work with other bands, and you did. And so when we walked out of there, we just kind of said, well, what do you want to do? And it's like, well, I guess we're gonna go to the other studio and mix this. This record. And I remember walking in the studio and the engineer was Steve Hodge. And we knew Steve Hodge just from the liner notes. We never had met him before, but we just knew we wanted him to mix our record. And when we walked in the studio, he said, what's wrong with you guys? And we said, oh, we just got firm from the time. And he said, well, I don't think you have anything to worry about because this song here is a smash. And he hit play and the Steve Hodge mix of Just Be Good to Me SOS band came out of the speakers and we were like, oh, my God. And that was the pivotal. To me, the snowstorm in Atlanta would probably be the pivotal moment because it was the worst day of our lives. As it was happening. It was definitely the moment where we were. Why is this happening to us? That was that moment. And then the result of that snowstorm was us getting fired, which then led to our, you know, 40 plus wow. Career.
- [22:20]
Jeff Zito
Yeah, I would say not a lot of people would say their big break or the pivotal moment in life was getting fired by Prince. That's pretty cool.
- [22:28]
Jimmy Jam
That is a good one. Or is my pretty partner likes to say Freed.
- [22:31]
Jeff Zito
Right. So your partner. Let's talk about what you guys today. Where are. Where are you guys today? What do you do? I know there's something that you wanted to talk about today, which I. I wanted to learn about and, and let people know how they could be a part of it as well. But tell me a little bit about you and Terry Lewis today. Fast forward 2025.
- [22:58]
Jimmy Jam
Well, 2025 for us has been kind of an interesting year because we're trying to, in our lives, do things that we haven't done before. And so to that end, we've started doing. I remember when we were fortunate enough to get into Songwriters hall of Fame probably seven, eight years ago now. I think when people ask us, what do you want to do that you still haven't done yet? And we said, well, Babyface was standing on the red carpet and we said, oh, we want to work with Babyface. And so we did. We did a single with him, which was cool. And then I said, we want to finish our album that we started like 35 years ago at that point. So we did that, our Jam and Lewis Volume 1 album. And the third thing we said is we want to play our catalog live because we've never had the opportunity to do that. And so this past year and the year before, we've done some gigs. We played a Minneapolis gig that was very cool outdoor festival thing. We did seven, eight shows in Japan. Actually, we've done more than that. We've actually done like 16 shows in Japan now over the past couple of years. And so this coming year, we want to now do some US dates and some festivals and things and just play our catalog so that's one thing that we're doing that we haven't done yet that we want to do. The other thing is we're really heavy in the documentary space right now. We executive produced a Curtis Mayfield documentary that was directed by the singer Her. That's very cool. And where there is a Jam and Lewis documentary being done about us.
- [24:23]
Jeff Zito
Oh, wow.
- [24:24]
Jimmy Jam
And the gentleman named Peter Afterman who's executive producing that documentary asked us what documentary should be done that hasn't been done yet. And Terry and I said, Gamble and Huff. And he said, why? And I said, because there's no Jam and Lewis without Gamble and Huff. And of course that also includes Tom Bell, who just went in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, the Mighty Three, as they're called out of Philadelphia. So Terry and I are going to make our directorial debut directing the Gamble, Huff and Tom Bell documentary. And then we're also working on that for next year also. And you know, of course we're going to still continue to make music, but those two things are really kind of top of our list because we're, we just want to do things that we haven't done yet and just explore some areas. And the storytelling area to me is something that's really interest us and there's a lot of great stories to be told that haven't been told yet. So we're going to discover those and, and do a lot of those things.
- [25:20]
Jeff Zito
The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Szeto.
- [25:24]
Electronic Payments Coalition Announcer
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- [25:52]
Jimmy Jam
Paid for by Electronic Payments Coalition.
- [25:54]
Jeff Zito
Celebrity Jobber. Jimmy, can you tell me a little bit about the Next Verse event to benefit 100 billion meals?
- [26:05]
Jimmy Jam
Yeah, it sounds cool, right?
- [26:07]
Jeff Zito
Yeah.
- [26:08]
Jimmy Jam
Yeah. So the idea is 40 years ago, we Are the World and Live Aid both happened. And the idea was to try to eradicate hunger around the world. And in, you know, We Are the World's case. It was USA for Africa. So was in Africa. We now are faced with a food problem that's, you know, much greater than was happening back then. And there's something about the alignment of music in not only raising funds, which it does, but also in raising spirits, which is also needed because mental health is very important. And Tony Robbins, who founded the 100 Billion Meals Challenge, he was interested in us doing a song. And he said, I think a song would power us to 100 billion meals. And so as we started talking conceptually about what that would be, because it's, you know, We Are the World was a wonderful. You know, you watched the video, you bought the record, and that was your involvement in it. But nowadays, with technology, with Zoom, with TikTok, with Instagram, with all these different technologies, people are creating their own content. And we thought, what if we made a song that could be a living, breathing song, where we will do the foundational version of it, I guess we could call it, but now it would include people to now go and make their own, Write their own verses, do their own versions of the song, and all of that, which people are doing anyway on TikTok and all that kind of thing. And so that's the idea of the next verse. So what we're going to do is actually do a recording session very much inspired by We Are the World, that we're going to do at the Iheart Theater. We're gonna do it tomorrow and at 3:30 Eastern Time, 12:30 Pacific Time. And we're basically gonna have a bunch of artists, not only in the theater, but also on Zoom, because Zoom's a partner. And there will be people, you know, Duran Duran's joining us from England and Janet's joining us from London, I believe, also. But there's people around the world that will join in on this. And then there will be people actually at the theater. You will be able to actually zoom in.
- [28:25]
Jeff Zito
Oh, wow.
- [28:26]
Jimmy Jam
Which is 100 billion meals.org on that site. You will be able to watch the recording process take place. So it almost will be like you're the fly on the wall for We Are the World. If you could have done that, that's the event we're going to do tomorrow. So you'll actually get a chance to watch the song come together and then it will culminate with the actual release of that song on Christmas Day. And it'll be a worldwide release. And we're going to try to raise, once again, funds and spirits, but everybody can take a part in it, which is nowadays what people want to do. My partner always says, people don't want to watch the game, they want to be in the game, they want to be on the field. So this will give people a chance to do it. And if you go to the site now, all the information is there, but what's interesting is people have already started to write verses. You know, there's people on there doing spoken word, there's people doing singing. I talked to somebody earlier today that said that her and a couple of girls are going to do some things. So the idea is it's very interactive. We want it to be interactive and we want for people to experience, to me, the joy of giving during the holiday season, because you can see things in the world and go, man, I wish I could do something about that. Well, hunger is one of those things you can do something about. And we're going to try to make it in a way that lives and breathes and evolves over the years. And so the song will take different shapes and all that, but hopefully people enjoy what we're doing. And it's a $10 donation. $10 buys 44 meals. And it gets you into the zoom to watch the recording session tomorrow. And then. And there's an elevated one where there's 1995amonth, which is called the Lifesavers. So you can also join that if you want to do that. But the whole point is just join in and I think you'll enjoy yourself. And for the holiday season, I just think it's a good thing to do.
- [30:24]
Jeff Zito
100 billion meals. So is that 100 billion meals.org is the website to man. Very, very cool. And, you know, I'm very gracious with your time. I really appreciate it. If I could ask one final question. Everybody you've talked to, everybody you've worked with, I should say over the. I mean, you've. You've worked with everybody. Is there that one person or. Or group that you haven't worked with yet? And you and Terry are like, hey, we've got to work with this group or this person. Like, we've got. It's like maybe a dream that you haven't gotten to yet. Who is it? Wow.
- [31:11]
Jimmy Jam
So, yeah, there's so many people we haven't worked with that we want to work with. And we keep discovering new ones every day. That's the thing. But I've been saying, for probably the last 20 years, shade is top of my list of work. Wow. And I know her manager really well. I just saw him at the Rock and Roll hall of Fame this year. And I said, what's up with Shade? And he laughed. He said, you've been asking me that for 20 years. I said, I know. I said, I'm going to keep asking, but she would be top of my list. Terry, if he was on here, he would probably say, Janelle Monae. But I think Janelle is going to be involved with our, our 100 billion meals song, our next verse. So. So Terry will get a chance. So we'll get a chance to work with her on that. And I told people it's a great excuse to get together and do something, you know, with people who we haven't had a chance to work with. But I would say those, those two would be top of the list. There's many, many others. And hopefully we're not going anywhere for a while. So we'll try to get knocks, knock some of those off the list.
- [32:11]
Jeff Zito
Right on, man. Again, you're very gracious with your time and really appreciate it. 100 bucks billion meals.org it's such a great thing to be a part of during the holidays. Not. Let's not forget about people that, you know, don't. Don't have the means. And that's. That's important. And glad that you raised awareness and I could talk to you for an hour, Jimmy, but I'm sure that wouldn't be what you wanted to do today. But I just wanted to let you know how much you've impacted me when I was younger and what you do. And it was a real pleasure speaking with you today.
- [32:50]
Jimmy Jam
Oh, thank you so much, man. Appreciate it.
- [32:52]
Jeff Zito
Have a good day. Thank you.
- [32:53]
Jimmy Jam
All right.
- [32:54]
Jeff Zito
When he was really young, he thought he was going to be a pilot. Jimmy Jam told me it was always music, always thinking about music in the background. First job, worked at his dad's company, changing light bulbs. I think he said the pay was pretty good there, but not at the toy store. He said he worked at a department store in the toy section, had a lot of fun playing with remote controlled cars, which, by the way, no one was buying until Jimmy said, hey, can I just take this out of the box and play with it in front of people? All of a sudden, they sold out. It tells you right there. He could have been front of the house, you know what I mean? Which is kind of funny. He's good in front of people. Yet now, behind the scenes in the music biz, when you ask somebody, you know what their big break was. Jimmy kind of credits his big break with Prince firing him, which would have put me into a depression. Oh, no, I'm working for Prince and now I am fired. What am I going to do? He said it was that moment, as his partner, Terry Lewis says, they were freed from Prince. They weren't fired. They were freed and free to work with other bands and produce their records. Fast forward to 1986 and Janet Jackson's Control, followed by Rhythm Nation and Man, the list goes on. 41 top tens in the US and I thought it was interesting of everyone out there, Jimmy really wishes he could have a chance to work with Sade. And I know she's kind of huge, but I'm only familiar with Smooth Operator and the thing that he's involved with right now, the charitable 100 billion meals. So important around the holidays to just think about those who are in a hard spot. And you think about Christmas and gifts and how fortunate we all are to talk about what we're going to buy or receive for Christmas. And then there's some people out there that are hungry. And that should put a lot into perspective that just should not be here in the usa. I just made a donation. I hope you would do the same. 100 billion meals.org check out the website. You can actually see all of the things that Jimmy is doing to try to get to these 100 billion meals. They're recording a song, just kind of like We Are the World. You can go behind the scenes. You can watch them record it. You can be a part of the whole process. You could be like a $20 a month donor or just a one time. 10 bucks. You know, no amount is too small. Imagine if everybody donated 10 bucks. Problem solved, right? I think it's really important for people to do what they can for others during the holiday season. So anyway, one billion meals.org it's real easy. A little purple thing on the front page says donate now. It took me like five seconds. And by the way, who knew Prince could hoop? Are you kidding me? The guy was like 5 foot 2. He said he had such a feel. He had all the shots, like Steph Curry. So if you've never seen the Chappelle show bit. Charlie Murphy, True Hollywood Story on Prince and how they played basketball. Oh, my God. Search Prince, Chappelle Show. Oh my God. You're going to be dying for like six minutes. And it's true. That's what I can't believe. Prince can ball game blouses. So I got to tell you, I again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening. This was a very special episode for me. It brought back a lot of memories when my sister took me to see Purple Rain 40 years ago. I can't believe it. And I can't wait for you to hear next week's guest on Christmas. You'll have to listen. John Lennon's son. Sean Lennon will be my guest here on Celebrity Jobber and I tell Sean about the connection that I have with him from the time that we were five years old. And I think it's a really important story to hear. So it's a new episode on Christmas Eve. You've got to hear it. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Until next week, thank you for listening to the Celebrity Jobber podcast. I'm Jeff Zito. Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math@t mobile.com switch and now T mobile is in US cellular stores.
- [37:48]
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Jimmy Jam
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Jimmy Jam
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Jimmy Jam
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