It may be almost 20 years since Jesse Johnson last released a record on a major record label but that doesn't mean that the former lead guitarist with the Time has been resting on his funk legacy. He's been busy on a slew of new guitar based projects, one of which is his new album "Verbal Penetration".


Scott Lenz: What role did music play in your childhood? Was it an escape for you, and were you encouraged?

Jesse Johnson: I feel that the circumstances that surrounded my childhood, music was more of an escape for me, listening to it. I didn’t have a lot of encouragement or anything like that, I think just individually, it was more escapism, and it’s funny, but it’s still pretty much like that, even in adulthood. When I want to meditate, I can just pick up a guitar and start playing by myself, and it’s almost like if I play for 20 or 30 minutes, it’s like I’m meditating. It’s the exact same feeling one gets when they meditate.

My influences came from television, radio, mostly from what my parents played in the house. It was a real broad range of musical styles, and that’s why I have the ear as such. I have a pretty broad ear when it comes to what I enjoy listening to musically. It’s almost like how people have multiple personalities; one day I’m into classical, one day it’s all blues, one day Funkadelic, and one day all Hendrix. Today for instance, you called me and I was listening to Mozart. It’s just depending on what mood you’re in, so I’m just really happy for myself that I have a broad listening spectrum like that, to never really get bored with music.

SL: Tell me then, how did it go from being that escape, and being influences and things you listened to, how did that turn into what you figured was going to be a career for you?

JJ: I guess I didn’t realize it at an early age, because I started on drums and bass, and people think I started on guitar, but I didn’t pick up a guitar until 15 or 16, but it’s all about feelings, and everything feels good, but you’re not aware at that point in time that it’s your calling, and how fortunate you are to know at an early age what your calling is. I don’t think I ever really thought about it until I turned 30. I was like, “Wow! I’m so fortunate.” You meet so many other 20-year-olds, or 25 and 30-year-olds, and they still didn’t know what they wanted to do in their lives. At that point in time, you realize how fortunate you were, to know at such a young age, exactly what you were going to do.

SL: Would you say there was a specific light bulb moment, like “I heard this” or “I went to this show”? Was there a light bulb moment for you?

JJ: Well, growing up in East Saint Louis, there was a band down the street from us, and they were called Apathy. As little, young kids, we would look through the window and watch them rehearse, and it was this powerful 3-piece band, drummer, double bass, and guitar. It was the first time I’d ever heard all this Grand Funk stuff, and Zeppelin, and Uriah Heep, and James Gang, but I didn’t know who any of the bands were. I would just watch this band through the window, and they were so incredible, but it wasn’t until I got in a car once with my foster dad, James Alvarez, I got in the car with him and ‘Red House’ came on, the Jimi Hendrix song ‘Red House’, and at that precise moment in time, I knew exactly what I was going to do, because it was the original recording, and you know those 70’s cars, maybe because I was a little kid too, but the 70’s cars were so huge inside! They had the stereophonic speakers, so when ‘Red House’ played, one note would come out of one speaker, and the echo was just coming out of another speaker. At that precise moment in time, right at that moment, I knew exactly who I was going to be, and what I was going to be.

SL: I can imagine, because it starts with that jangle, that blues jangle at the beginning, that just grabs you by the throat. I know exactly what you’re talking about.

JJ: Ever since then, that’s been my drug right there. That was it! I knew exactly who I was and what I was going to be, and what I was going to love. I knew that was always going to be my main woman. That was it. It’s funny, because when I say it now, I remember the color of everything, right where we were, and just how startled I was. I was in such shock that it attached itself to your bones and at that moment, I knew.

SL: That’s well put. Following that, just talk about how you made your way, or what led to ending up in Minneapolis, and if you can, give me your opinion of the role that the scene in Minneapolis played in re-shaping funk and soul for the 80’s. A lot of people that I talk to, you know young’uns that are just coming up, you mention that and it’s just like it was Prince and the rest, but we know that it was more than that. So, tell me how you made it there, and what impact that had on funk and soul in the 80’s.

JJ: I was playing in a band at a biker bar in Rock Island, Illinois, and I was playing 6 nights a week. It was closed on Mondays, but Tuesday through Sunday we played, and it was right there on the end of the bridge from Rock Island, and you go across the bridge to Davenport, Iowa. Iowa was like the rock & roll belt of America, so every rock band: UFO, Molly Hatchet, Rush, they all opened their tours there. Rush for instance, would come there and stay for 2 or 3 weeks rehearsing at the RKO Orpheum, but then they would stay at the only hotel in town, which was right down the street from me at the biker bar, right at the foot of that bridge, the Centennial Bridge if memory serves me correctly.

So, a lot of those people would come into the bar and jam, so I was able to jam with a lot of people, and they would all say the same thing. “I can’t believe you play here. You should go to Hollywood” and this and that, well I didn’t have bus fare to go to Hollywood, but I did have bus fair to make it to Minneapolis, and some other people I had met were from Minneapolis, and they were saying, “You should come to Minneapolis” and telling me about this guy Prince, and I didn’t really know about Prince, because I was in this rock & roll thing, so I didn’t know who he was. Even when I met Prince, he was pretty known then, worldwide even, but I didn’t have a clue who he was when I was talking to him. That’s how it happened for me. I just went to Minneapolis not knowing anybody, stayed at the YMCA, and I knew something was up, because I would walk around downtown, where I was staying at the Y, and people would say, “Are you famous?” and I would say “uhhh, no.”

It all happened really story-tale quick. I went there in April of 1981, and by June of ’81 I was in the stores on an album cover for the first time. As far as how The Time or Prince influenced, it’s really hard to try to understand history when you’re in the process of making it. You don’t really think about it that way at that time, and there are a lot of people now that say “Oh, I see it just like you said” and that’s why I’m really not a part of the Internet, because I see it just like a time machine, but the people that are telling the history are not a part of that time, so a lot of the history is misrepresented.

SL: Misinterpreted?

JJ: Misinterpreted, and a lot of the people who are telling it are misrepresenting themselves as some sort of ambassador, yet they were born in ’85 or something. It’s just kind of hilarious to me. So, it wasn’t Prince and them, I mean Prince for what he does, it’s definitely his, and I will say that groups like The Time, they were definitely satellites of his thing, but myself, when people call me a protégé, it’s misrepresenting who I am, because I knew how to play guitar and do everything I’m doing before I ever met Prince. A protégé is somebody you take under your wing and show them how to do things, and it wasn’t the case with Prince. We were friends, like brothers even to this day, but when the public sees it, and especially the people that were not a part of it, that were not a part of that inside circle, they don’t really know the truth, but I do. It doesn’t affect me in that way, and I’m happy to see that people are that into it, even though it’s way after the fact of when they were around, but I guess that way, it just had a longer lasting effect than people could have predicted that it would.

With me, the new record straightens out a lot, and when I say straightens, it lets people know that I can walk in and out of music, because music is something I really love and enjoy, it’s part of my psychological makeup if you will, or if you look at the puzzle of me, it’s a huge part of that puzzle, but it’s not the whole puzzle. You don’t want a job to define who you are. It’s like when you were mentioning earlier about your son, there’s people that will see you doing what you do and your professional thing with radio, and they won’t know the other part of your life, but you know there’s many facets to your life that makes your life a whole life and an enjoyable life. It’s not just your thing you love to do, or your work, whatever it may be. So, that’s why I walk in and out of it, without it dictating me or me trying to dictate it.

It’s hard for me to say the influence that we’ve had, because at the time when “Get It Up” was out for example, there were great songs out by Zapp, there was Funkadelic, Bootsy, you know there was some really cool stuff out at that time, like Earth, Wind & Fire. People come up to me a lot and say, “The 80’s were a great time in music” and I laugh, because, you being a connoisseur of music yourself, you know that every given time in music has its gems and it has its garbage. No, everything in the 80’s was not great musically. There’s a lot of stuff that you’d rather not ever hear again, so it’s hard to say what influence it had on other people. I co-wrote “Jungle Love” and “The Bird” and “Ice Cream Castle” and stuff like that with Prince, and even I look up now and go, “Wow! People still dig that. Wow!” So, I’m the wrong cat to ask, because I wouldn’t know.

SL: It’s a good segue into my next question, which is about that, about different times, and it has its good and bad points. In the 80’s, you could be Eddie Grant or Robert Cray or Grover Washington, and you could have Top 40 hits, and nowadays, it seems like these genres are kind of marginalized due to what’s happened in the industry, and soul too, for that matter. So, I’d be curious to know your opinion on that, and is it harder or easier to be a musician now in that vein, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been at it for a long time like you have?

JJ: Well, first of all, I think where the music industry is, I think one would have to be Nostradamus to make that prediction. You take an entire industry of entertainment, whether it’s film, television or music, concerts, but you take that whole entire industry and let’s go back to ’84, ’85, ’86, you know that every age group was represented in the different genres of music, so when you had New Edition, you also had Freddie Jackson and Luther Vandross. New Edition was for one age group, and then you had Stacy Lattisaw and Johnny Gill for even a younger age group, but by the time I came in, and Prince, that was another age group that was above the New Edition thing, and above that, like I said, you had your Luther Vandross and Freddie Jackson.

We all know that Adult Contemporary is really the only age group that has real disposable income, so when the tides change, when things get tight, it’s still that age group that has the disposable income. Even right now as you and I are speaking, that age group still has the disposable income, and you know yourself, if we go on iTunes, a lot of the times we’re buying records we already have, because we’re like, “Man, I’m so bored. I want this new record so bad” but we go to the music store and we’re buying stuff from 40 years ago, because a lot of stuff isn’t coming. That was really one of the inspirations that drove me to do the album that I did, because my whole time being in the industry, I always had to look at Billboard charts and what are my numbers today, and how many have I sold, because you’re part of this corporate machine, and you have to do a certain thing to stay a part of this corporate machine.

I did a record years ago called Bare My Naked Soul, and it introduced me to the world of independent records, and also that you could make a certain amount of money without having all this pressure on your back, and Billboard and this and that. So, once I got a taste of that, I knew with the new record, I knew I had to own everything, because if someone robs you once and you didn’t know, then you were really taken. You weren’t even really robbed, you were just hoodwinked, but once you know the truth, you can’t plead ignorance anymore, so I always said my whole thing was having and owning everything I do from this point, whether it be the publishing, the writing, the masters, the whole shot.

With this new record, just so you understand, it was shopped by people, and that’s what they do, and everybody that the record went to, they said “yeah we’ll give him a deal, but we want all the masters and we’ll pay him more money up front” but I was like, “I gotta own this. I have to own this record.” I don’t want to be in that whole pimp game of people owning something that I created, so that’s why I did what I did with this record.

The other part of the answer to your question is, knowing that age group is ignored, I wanted to make a record that was for us, meaning you and I, and like-minded and likewise people in that age group. I wanted to make a record for us. I wasn’t trying to be 16. If a 16-year-old or a 20-year-old listens to it and they dig it, well great, wonderful. I appreciate it, I love it, it’s wonderful, but I wanted to make a record so that you and I could jump in our car and put it on, it was adult-themed lyrics, it was uplifting, it wasn’t exclusive of anyone, it was everybody’s record lyrically, musically, anyone could get to. I never expected it to be a record that everybody liked every song on it, but I think if you took 40 people and put them in a room to listen, if they are admirers of what I do, you’d still take that 40 people and put them in a room and one person will like this song, that will be that person’s favourite, meaning that no one is going to like everything, and I don’t expect them to, but it brings us to the modern times of the Internet.

The Internet has garnered or bred a whole new generation of cowards, because back in the day, if you said, “Jesse, I can’t stand your record. It sucks” you’d have to tell me. You’d have to say, “Jesse, this is Scott Lenz, I just wanted to tell you that your record sucked” and I’d have to go “Well, don’t listen to it.” The point is, there was still this table of respect, because if somebody said something, they had to deal with you direct, it had their name on it, you knew who you were talking to. Now with the Internet, everyone has this opinion that their opinion matters, so I think all of that affects everything. But as far as being a musician, unfortunately there aren’t a lot of things coming out nowadays that would push someone into becoming a musician.

A lot of kids I know want to do their MPC and rap, and it’s not bad. I would never discourage a child from doing anything or anyone else from doing whatever their dreams are, but there’s something about being a musician that your hair can be all the way white, and you can be 1,000 years old, and it’s still something that you’ll have. It has nothing to do with technology or anything. Whether it’s a saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, guitar, bass, piano, it’s hard to understand, but it’s something that you’re just so thankful and grateful for, that you learn that part of it and adapt with the times as far as technology goes as well, but there’s so much to be said for being an actual musician. There isn’t a lot of music that’s inspiring people, the younger kids and up, to want to be musicians. That’s what I also wanted to do with this record as well, is to say there’s no samples on this record, no loops, everything is 100% played, amps are mic’d, bass is mic’d. It’s how records used to be made, but I’m into modern technology with Pro Tools and so forth, but it’s like a recipe.

Your Mother could have given you a recipe that belonged to your Great-Grandmother. With the ingredients, or the brand of the ingredients, it might say to use this type, and that brand may not be around anymore, but there’s still baking powder, there’s still flour, meaning the recipe to a great cake never changes. It’s just the ingredients, the brand names might change, but the recipe of what makes a great song a great song will never change.

SL: Listening to what you just said about the industry, and mentioning about the ingredients and all, and this may be a little repetitive, but you can maybe put a different spin on it, but does your approach to making music change, or like you said, is it the same thought process going in, but then different stuff comes out?

JJ: To be honest with you, Bare My Naked Soul was one of those records that, I started making records on my own, which means I started making records outside of the corporate machine, meaning I didn’t take monies to make a record. I made the record first and then I would shop it and what not, but it put the power back in my hands, because your thinking is totally different, of how you make records when you’re on that corporate machine.

Say for example U2, I can’t imagine what their budget was. I ran into some other people in the studio when I was mastering this record and I just know their budgets are a lot greater, and my budget for this record was a healthy budget, but it was a budget that I created myself. What it freed from me was, that it would take the time to really re-invent yourself. A lot of times, when you’re into that corporate contract, you’re so under the gun to deliver things by the deadline, that to re-invent yourself, I don’t think I could have ever been able to make a record I just made if I had been under a corporate contract, because it took a lot of time for something. Say for instance on this new record, I would say, “If I played this chord before, I’m never playing this chord again on this record.” Whatever I played before on the other records, I didn’t play those chords at all on the new record, and that took time, to basically forget everything you know and start from scratch.

From equipment, all the way up to where you’re writing, and the whole shot, your writing and your creativity is totally affected by the avenue, because there are so many kids that are signed, and it’s like they’re rammed through a machine. A Gucci bag is a beautiful bag, but if you buy one, somebody is going to buy the same one that looks exactly like it. The whole uniqueness thing, you can’t really blame on artists coming up, the record company plays a big factor in the whole clone theory, if you will.

SL: For sure. What I like though, in listening to the record, and I wouldn’t say I live in the past, but when I need to escape, I always go back into that ’65-’75 Staxx, Atlantic, Philly International school if you will, I enjoyed not only the innovation on the record, but I did pick up things here and there, like on ‘U & I R We R Us’, I heard a little Curtis Mayfield vibe, and I really dug the guitar solo on ‘Don’t Throw Yourself Away’. I was listening to it, and it took me to the same place that ‘Breezin’ used to take me to, by George Benson, you know the Bobby Womack tune. You have to strike that balance between being conscious of your influences and maintaining the innovation. Would that be accurate?

JJ: No, what I did with this new record, I normally have a subwoofer in the studio, but the records you just mentioned, and the period you just mentioned, ’65 to ’75, there’s no sub-tones on those records, so when I was working on this record and recording the songs, not just writing them, but recording them, I had no subwoofer. I just had these two speakers with the same kind of tones like if you take a record from ’65 or ’75 or even ’80, if you put it in your record player, depending on the system, you’ll notice nothing coming out of the subwoofer, because those records didn’t have sub-tones on them.

Well, what I wanted to do with this record, I really wanted to just write a song and not be too caught up in the “you’ve gotta have these drum sounds” because all that stuff is what dates music. People get so caught up in the tempo and the sound of the snare and the kick that they forget about writing an actual decent song. My whole thing is that I was trying to get back to what I was always trying to do, because, do you know that song, and a lot of people don’t know that I did it, called ‘Nights Like This’ by After 7? A lot of people don’t know that I did that song. They think it’s a Motown original song, but a writing partner and I did that track together, and it was a period piece for that movie, The Five Heartbeats, well people talk to me and say, “My album has a Motown sound” and I just look at them and say, “been there done that”. I already did it, and did it successfully.

With this record, I wasn’t at all worried or conscious of anything. I just know that I have people that I absolutely adore, and man, Curtis Mayfield has got to be one of the most perfect writers to ever walk the earth. When I say perfect writers, when you go and look at anybody else’s catalog, whether it be Sly, James Brown, Albert King, it doesn’t even matter, go look at their first records. Their very first recordings are different styles from what they came to be known for. Curtis Mayfield is one of the only writers that came out of the box with exactly what he was known for. He’s one of the most perfect writers, and the lyrics right out of the box were super-positive, and he was a young kid when he did that stuff. It’s the same thing with Bobby Womack; his guitar style, and the style that he really brought to the forefront playing with Sam Cooke. I try to listen to it, well I don’t try to, it’s just part of what I love, I listen to it all the time, but what I meant by try is that I try to listen to it even now, on a daily basis or every few days or something, because when you think you’re so incredible, when you think you’re the best, and then you put on these guys and you go, “Yeah, I’m still working on it.” I think it’s healthy to have people, and have something that will scare the living mess out of you, when it comes to doing what you love to do. It keeps you at the top of your game.

SL: Do you think that attitude is maybe missing from this upcoming crop of musicians of any genre, that with all due respect, maybe a little arrogance to look back and not say, “maybe I have something I need to measure myself against.” Do you think that’s missing nowadays?

JJ: Oh, it’s missing in everything. People look at boxers and say boxing isn’t the same anymore. I don’t look at it like that. I like to think I’m lucky to witness what I witnessed, because when people call somebody great now, and that title is thrown around quite a bit, well you need to be really special to wear a title like that. It’s already negated by the fact that you’re calling yourself that. If you’re calling yourself hot, and you’re a genius and you’re great, because we know you’re not. I would be the first to tell you to question that. I think a lot of the problem is, people measure, but the yard stick they use is too in the present, and I always say you gotta know where you came from to know where you’re going, if you will. People tend to just be too current and they don’t understand that, for instance when I look at Beyonce, I already know about a Beyonce. I can see the first fine, voluptuous woman, who was actually Chaka Kahn with Rufus, the first time I had ever seen the look that Beyonce has now, with the hair, and I see the influence when she starts singing.

When I have the opportunity to work with younger artists, I always say, “Listen to Aretha Franklin, listen to Gladys Knight, listen to Mavis Staples” and they go, “Who?” There are so many great singers. See where these guys got their stuff. If I go into a music store and I play a Lightnin’ Hopkins blues lick, you can bet some kid is gonna come around the corner and say, “That’s like Stevie Ray Vaughn” and I have to look at him and say, “No, it’s not Stevie Ray Vaughn. You need to go listen to Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Freddie King and listen to where Stevie Ray Vaughn got his licks from.”

SL: Right. So is this current album available in stores or just digitally?

JJ: No, it’s in stores, but the official release isn’t until January 8th. I just had to get it out, because I was really concerned about leaks, and when Sony started taking it to the retailers, that thing happened where it started appearing all over the Internet on pirated sites and downloads, so I just had to get it out there. That wasn’t really my concern, the pirated downloads and what not, I was really more concerned with people taking the song title, where people will take your song title, and you’ll look it up and there will be a song with the same name as what you’ve written. That has happened to me before. I was actually more concerned about that, because I don’t release records; this is not the time of the year to release a record if you have moderate success, but I just wanted to have it out. All the official push and promotion really doesn’t start until January, because actually, we’ll start rehearsing in January, and I think I start doing dates in February.

SL: We’ll look forward to that. What have you seen to be the initial reaction so far?

JJ: So far, so good. People are really digging it. There’s always somebody out there that has something insane to say, and I’ve even seen where people have said the whole record is nothing, and that just blows my mind. If you knew those people by name, would you yell and scream and go off on them, or would you just say, “Okay, post what you have done. Post your accomplishments”? That’s all you have to say. Most of the people who are negative towards something are 90% of the time, people who have never accomplished anything, and it’s pretty hilarious, because people around me get really upset by that, and I don’t even get upset by it. Why? Why would you get upset about it? I’m bulletproof on this thing. I love this record. I just can only hope 5 people love it, but I love it. If you do something and you’re proud of it, that’s all you can hope to do in life. You can’t get bogged down or bothered by what other people have to say.

There was a time and place in music for me especially, that it was so dependent on people and what they wrote and what they said, and it’s just been quite a relief now. As you know from listening to the record, there’s no such thing as an independent record attitude or a major record attitude, because if you listen to my record, it has the exact same sound as a big budget record. There’s no difference in the production, there’s no difference in the layout, there’s no difference in the cover, so that’s all a myth, that people want you to believe that you can’t do such and such if you’re going to do it without a major, and I think that’s the whole voodoo behind it. The majors, maybe they want you to think that.

I know a lot of people are shocked when they hear it. They go, “Oh, God, it sounds amazing!” I’m like, “What did you think it was going to sound like, like it was done in a basement on a 2-track recorder? I make records for a living. That’s what I do.”

SL: If I have my legend right, I think Bob Dylan’s first record cost him $50.

JJ: Exactly. At the same time, people say, “I’m into music, and I don’t care about this and that” but I care about it all. I just don’t put one before the other. I know where it stands. First of all, you’ve got to have the songs. The songs have got to be about something. Then you have the recording, that’s a whole other point. In the same time, I’m telling you to pay your money for something, so why would I give you a piece of crap, where something has got to compete in the marketplace against other merchants, so it would have to have a certain quality to it just to be fair to the people you are asking to pay money for it. I wouldn’t ask people to pay money for something of mine that’s garbage.

SL: I’m more of a stay at home Dad now, but I was a full-on music journalist, whatever that term means. There used to be a time when that actually meant something, but this was in the mid-90’s…

JJ: Scott, not to interrupt you, but it will always mean something, and you know why? Because everybody with a computer is a critic or can critique, and they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. They have no depth when it comes to music history, and their musical library consists of about 3 or 4 records. It’s like Ebert and Roper reviewing Menace to Society. Are you insane? You don’t even know anything about that culture! You should have walked away from that. I’m sorry to interrupt you, but no, real music journalists come from a time where I do know the difference between something that’s written by a real journalist as opposed to something that’s written by some idiot with a computer. Don’t short-change yourself, dude. There’s a difference, and us that know it know it. Real recognizes real.

SL: I appreciate that. I was going to say that it got to a point where there was a little too much consolidation of the power and the criticism of music was held in too few hands. Nowadays of course, for every 5 people out there with a computer that are actually trying to make some sense of criticizing music, there are probably 5 or 600 fools, but at least there’s those 5.

JJ: You mentioned Curtis Mayfield, whereas most people would say, “Oh, it’s like D’Angelo” and I’m like, “No, D’Angelo and Prince are not the only two people in the world that sing in a falsetto. I know y’all think that because that’s as deep as your musical knowledge runs. It’s as shallow as a bird bath.” It depends on the way you look at it, and there are a lot of people that sing like them, but there are way more people that sang with a falsetto before them.

SL: Now an annoying question! I guess we’re not going to be seeing any more Time reunions. Is that correct?

JJ: My year coming up is really devoted to this project. With everything I’m doing, as far as the touring and stuff goes, I don’t know how I would possibly have time to participate in any of The Time’s shows, let alone trying to remember those songs and my songs. I can barely remember my songs, and I’ve got to play a lot of them this year. I’ve got to play the first album, second album, the third stuff, Bare Naked Soul, the new stuff, so I’m not going to be unoccupied for a minute. Plus, I think The Time never stopped touring. They’ve been touring for what, 13 or 14 years? It’s been ongoing for quite a while.

SL: Yeah, but at some point it sort of becomes like The Drifters or The Dells.

JJ: That’s not what I ever wanted. Somebody was talking to me the other day, last week or something, and they were mentioned. It was an interview, actually. I was doing an interview and they talked about touring. They said, “The Time has been out touring” and I said, “Yes, I could have been out touring for the last 10 or 12 years too.” I’ve gotten offers for the last 10 years to go to Belgium, to go to Australia, to go to England, and to play numerous dates in the U.S., but I can’t do that thing where I’m just playing songs from whatever years ago. That just smells like death to me. I have to be playing something new and fresh, and this is where I’m at today. That’s why I haven’t done those other things.

I worked the whole time, but people don’t know that I worked non-stop that whole time on movies and other artists’ records. You mentioned the blues earlier, and that’s what I’m finishing right now is a blues artist, and if you Google her name, you’ll see that she’s done a ton. Her name is Sue Ann Carwell, and her record is absolutely incredible. I’m doing her whole record, and we’re working on the last song right now. I have to mix it soon, but it’s just pure blues. It’s not like pedals or big amps. It’s just pure blues, and she is such an incredible vocalist that when you hear it, you’ll see that I was telling you the truth.

SL: Trust me, sir. I believe you. It’s kind of interesting, because this is the way that you hear about new music now. You just told me about this so I’ll go and check it out. I might not have found out about it any other way.

JJ: I’m trying to be Funkadelic. I’m trying to figure out how George Clinton was able to have Funkadelic be successful and never do an interview or TV show or anything. That’s what I want to do, because in my whole years of being in this thing at a corporate level, I’m telling you, it will make you walk away from something you love so much, because of the politics. I know there’s politics involved with just picking up your clothes at the drycleaner, you know there’s politics involved in everything if people know the true meaning of politics, but it just turns you off of something you love so much. It’s been a great experience for me to make this record and not have to deal with that corporate feeling inside, and “you’ve got to do it this way. You need a song that sounds like ‘Be Your Man’”. You know, the stupid stuff that has artists re-treading themselves and not allowing them to move forward all the time. You’d be surprised how much of “this sounds like your last record. This sounds like his or her last record”, you’d be surprised how much of that is the label as opposed to the artist.

If you have success, it can be a kiss of death for you, then people want you to do, and when I say people I mean the people of power, will want you to continue to do the same thing so they can keep making all this money. You’ll make it, but you’re suffering as an artist and as a person, because you don’t want to play the same thing again. I’ve heard people say really stupid comments, like “where’s the ‘Free World’ on here?” What? Do you realize that I have to play that every time I go onstage? Why would I put it on the new record? I guess you’ve got to do it to understand it. It’s a strange machine to be a part of, but it’s been a pleasure. I’m looking forward, probably for the first time ever, looking forward to just touring and enjoying myself as opposed to touring and doing tons of radio, and you have to do this and that, and people are still asking me, “What’s the single?” I’m like, “What? What year do you think this is?” Where do you think I would put a single anyway, if I were to choose it? What station and format? I used to make records that fit into all of that, and a lot of it was by force. I decided to do it, but I stopped that a long time ago, when I stopped making R&B records. I didn’t want to be forced into this little box all the time. That’s why it turned me off and made me not want to make records anymore. It was the politics of it. It wasn’t the music and all of that; it was the politics. It wasn’t the admirers that came out to the shows and bought the records and loved what you did; it wasn’t that. It was really just the business of it, and it’s been somewhat pleasurable to do this without all of that garbage connected to it.

I’m still trying to figure out how I can do this and not have to do a lot of interviews or worry about T.V. or that kind of stuff, because I really don’t want it like that. I want it to be successful, but do I want to do anything that it takes to be that? No, no, no. I’ll accept that I’m going to be like Wes Montgomery or somebody, or Eddie Hazel, and do really great things, but not really be above surface. I was telling my girlfriend yesterday about everybody she loves, like Bob Marley, and Jimi Hendrix, and Eddie Hazel, and I said, “Do you realize those people that you’re talking about were not as big when they were alive? It wasn’t until death that they became much bigger.” I saw Bob Marley in a club not long before he died, and the place was so small. People thought Eric Clapton did “I Shot The Sheriff”, you know? A lot of times, people are only appreciated after, and trust me Scott, this record, I believe it’s going to be one of those records. You know the web designer, she’s a sweetheart and I forget the name of her company.

SL: Indulge?

JJ: Indulgence Design. She built the site, and she asked me, “You don’t want to look at the reviews for Bare My Naked Soul?” and I said, “No, because when that record came out in 1996, you should have heard the people. It was the biggest piece of garbage that they’d ever heard. A lot of the same people are saying it’s great now!” So, that’s why I don’t read reviews one way or another. If you let them bring you up, you’ve got to allow them to bring you down, and I don’t want any of that.

SL: Well, rest assured that I am certainly not part of the corporate machine, and I hope you enjoyed the conversation, because I did.

JJ: Very much so.

Sounds like Jesse got Old-Man-itis and the big head just like Prince. I know they are mega talented, but why is it so impossible for them to do what they do best: The Minneapolis Sound? That is their genre, but they run from it like it's some kind of curse. Is BB King trippin if someone asks him to sing the blues? No. They could really learn something from Gene Simmons and KISS.

Sounds like Jesse got Old-Man-itis and the big head just like Prince. I know they are mega talented, but why is it so impossible for them to do what they do best: The Minneapolis Sound? That is their genre, but they run from it like it's some kind of curse. Is BB King trippin if someone asks him to sing the blues? No. They could really learn something from Gene Simmons and KISS.

funksterr said:

Shit Jesse has always had an ego. This is nothing new. It's like Prince
once stated,If i didn't think i was bad, i wouldn't be in this business
Jesse was and is no different. Why should he? He knows he is one of the
baddest ass guitarists on the planet. Jesse isn't running from his past but
dude has just challenged himself creatively to be more than just a member
of the Time or a part of the Prince era which is something Morris Day will
never be able to escape. Like Jesse said in the article, when he originally
did Bare My Naked Soul some people were like WTF is this crap,but just because
it wasn't the Minneapolis sound on initial listen people chastized it but
when you actually sit down and listen you realize it's a great piece of work
that steps outside of the Minneapolis sound. Why the hell would people want
to hear Free World part II or another Can You Help Me(dated)in 2009?
Jesse already will be performing these songs live. The original Minneapolis
sound is OVER. Get over it! Time to move on
Verbal Penetration is the new Minneapolis sound. A masterpiece.

funksterr said:

real talk. exactly how i feel.


Verbal Penetration is NOT minneapolis sound.

what are you thinking? you really dont think its possible for a modernized version of the classic sound? look at prince, he made an attempt at bringing it back and that worked out well although it fell short of my standards. JJ didnt even bother trying.


we want the funk. not a bunch of boring ass contemporary RnB.

as much as i like tracks such as merciful i would like to be able to rely on an artist who has provided the goods in the past.

i will not "get over it". i cant just give up.

I was really more concerned with people taking the song title, where people will take your song title, and you’ll look it up and there will be a song with the same name as what you’ve written. That has happened to me before.

I wonder what song he's referring to here.... LOL!
[Edited 12/21/09 9:36am]

Taurus said:

Surely he can't still be miffed about Shockadelica.

minneapolisFunq said:

You don't like 1000 watts of funky or Slow Burning. That's as
Minneapolis as you can get. You have to be lifeless if you don't
feel the energy in the title track. I also feel Propoganda shadows
some of his earlier work. Like i stated before, i dug the early
Minneapolis sound but come on it's 2009. I appreciate the fact that he's
grown musically and vocally without trying to be something he's not.

funksterr said:

Shit Jesse has always had an ego. This is nothing new. It's like Prince
once stated,If i didn't think i was bad, i wouldn't be in this business
Jesse was and is no different. Why should he? He knows he is one of the
baddest ass guitarists on the planet. Jesse isn't running from his past but
dude has just challenged himself creatively to be more than just a member
of the Time or a part of the Prince era which is something Morris Day will
never be able to escape. Like Jesse said in the article, when he originally
did Bare My Naked Soul some people were like WTF is this crap,but just because
it wasn't the Minneapolis sound on initial listen people chastized it but
when you actually sit down and listen you realize it's a great piece of work
that steps outside of the Minneapolis sound. Why the hell would people want
to hear Free World part II or another Can You Help Me(dated)in 2009?
Jesse already will be performing these songs live. The original Minneapolis
sound is OVER. Get over it! Time to move on
Verbal Penetration is the new Minneapolis sound. A masterpiece.

guess we can kiss the sapoused new time cd with all the og membersgoodbye even tho jimmy kam told me two weeks ago it was done and they were just looking for distrubution

I really take offense to his Roger Ebert comment. I get the point he was trying to make but Ebert knows films, period. Even if doesn't have first hand experience with black culture (uhh, but he does having an african american wife) he can still critique a film based on his knowledge of the medium.

sosgemini said:

My thoughts exactly. Overall, I loved the interview and am thankful it was posted but his commens on Roger Ebert was just plain wrong. You don't have to have any experience in the CIA to be able to critique Three Days of The Condor and you don't have to have any experience with the Mafia to be able to critique Goodfellas. Its a MOVIE.

And I take exception to his comments on Stevie Ray too. Based on Jesse's comments, he seems to imply that SRV was doing nothing more than copying Lightnin Hopkins and Freddie King licks. Man, that's just baloney. SRV, like any guitarist, had his influences (and SRV ALWAYS gave praise to the blues artists which came before him) but he put his own stamp on his incredible playing. SRV was a total bad-ass guitar player. Easily ne of the all-time greats. Other all-time great blues guitarists such as Albert King, B.B. King, and Buddy Guy have stated as much.

But as I said, other than his comments on Ebert and SRV I loved the interview. I especially loved the point he made about being a musician - how its always there for you regardless of technology or whatever.

Taurus said:

Surely he can't still be miffed about Shockadelica.

Surely he can't still be miffed about Shockadelica.