{"id":15204,"date":"2025-11-23T06:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T06:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=15204"},"modified":"2025-11-23T06:01:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T06:01:48","slug":"jellybean-johnson-celebrated-drummer-of-the-time-and-close-prince-associate-dead-at-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=15204","title":{"rendered":"Jellybean Johnson, Celebrated Drummer of The Time and Close Prince Associate, Dead at 69"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jellybean Johnson, a Minneapolis musical trailblazer and founding member of the Prince-affiliated band The Time, passed away on Friday, November 21st, just two days after marking his 69th birthday.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Born Garry George Johnson in Chicago, Illinois, the multi-instrumentalist relocated to Minneapolis at age 13.<\/span><\/span>He began drum lessons the same year, quickly teaching himself to play guitar two years later. By the age of 28, Jellybean Johnson was “a seasoned musical savant,” according to vocalist Susannah Melvoin, who performed alongside Johnson in Prince’s side project The Family.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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“Jellybean was the master of loving you like no brother could!” Melvoin wrote in a heartfelt social media tribute. She added, “My big brother, who watched over me and anyone who he loved!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Morris Day, lead singer of Morris Day and The Time, called Jellybean Johnson “a consummate musician” in a statement given to <\/span><\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/span><\/i> .<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Day reflected, “All he ever wanted to do was play and talk music.” He recalled that “Even after our concerts, he will find a local pub, get on stage, and jam with the house band.” Day concludes with a poignant thought: “I’m certain he’s up in heaven now with Prince assembling an All-Star lineup of some of the baddest musicians to ever do it. Bean will forever be missed.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Jellybean Johnson Helped Put Minneapolis on the Map<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

It didn’t take Jellybean Johnson long to find fellow music lovers in his North Minneapolis neighborhood. These new pals include Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Day, and, of course, Prince.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We will have this huge festival in the summertime, and all the rival bands and neighboring bands will come in to play in front of thousands of people out in the parking lot,” Johnson recalled during a 2021 interview with Fox 9 KMS. He added, “So we cut our teeth doing that like youngsters.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Prince ensured his friends were with him after signing his first record deal at age 18, forming The Time and anointing Johnson as the essential drummer. Johnson remembers how the iconic band was assembled: “Prince told Morris [Day], ‘You go back and get Jellybean, and we’ll do the band.'”<\/span><\/p>\n

After The Time eventually split, the towering 6’4 musician successfully transitioned his talents to production. <\/span>He worked with many big names in the industry, including a memorable collaboration with Janet Jackson, with whom he co-produced the 1990 No. 1 smash hit “Black Cat.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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A post shared by Morris Day (@themorrisday)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Jellybean Johnson, a Minneapolis musical trailblazer and founding member of the Prince-affiliated band The Time, passed away on Friday, November 21st, just two days after marking his 69th birthday. Born Garry George Johnson in Chicago, Illinois, the multi-instrumentalist relocated to Minneapolis at age 13.He began drum lessons the same year, quickly teaching himself to play…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}