{"id":398481,"date":"2025-11-23T05:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T05:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/398481\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T05:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T05:35:12","slug":"jellybean-johnson-the-time-drummer-prince-associate-dies-at-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/398481\/","title":{"rendered":"Jellybean Johnson, The Time Drummer & Prince Associate, Dies at 69"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jellybean Johnson, the Minneapolis musician and producer who was the drummer for the Prince-affiliated funk-rock group The Time<\/a>, has died. He was 69.<\/p>\n

His cause of death is unknown. TMZ<\/a> first reported Johnson\u2019s passing, noting that he died Friday night (Nov. 21) according to a statement obtained by his family.<\/p>\n

More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prince recruited Johnson (real name Garry George Johnson), who was self-taught on drums and guitar, in 1981 for The Time, an act born out of the city\u2019s Flyte Tyme. They\u2019d known each other since their high school years in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe drums are physical and violent for me while the guitar is spiritual and emotional,\u201d Johnson said in a 2018 interview<\/a> with Australian Musician. He also quipped to the publication, \u201cWhen you live here in the cold, you stay in [in] the winter time and you learn how to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a member of The Time \u2014 and later, Prince\u2019s The Family \u2014 Johnson helped establish the funk-rock, new wave and synth-pop hybrid that became known as the Minneapolis Sound. He appeared as a fictionalized version of himself in 1984\u2019s Academy Award-winning Purple Rain and as himself in 1990\u2019s Graffiti Bridge.<\/p>\n

The Time had five top 10 hits on\u00a0the Hot R&B\/Hip-Hop Songs chart in the \u201980s and early \u201990s (when the chart was called Hot Black Singles), including \u201c777-9311,\u201d \u201cJungle Love\u201d and \u201cJerk-Out,\u201d which reached No. 1 in 1990.<\/p>\n

Johnson is also known for his work as a producer, with Janet Jackson<\/a>\u2018s 1990 Hot 100 No. 1 \u201cBlack Cat\u201d among his credits \u2014 and he was an in-demand session musician.<\/p>\n

Sheila E.<\/a>, a longtime friend and a frequent collaborator with Prince, remembered Johnson in an emotional post on Facebook<\/a> Saturday morning, which she shared \u201cwith a heavy heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dear friend Jellybean passed away a couple of hours ago,\u201d Sheila E. wrote. \u201cWe are devastated by this news. I\u2019m praying for his family and all the kids. He was a kind human being, extremely talented and funny. He had a great sense of humor and [was] an awesome guitar player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Directing her words toward her late friend, she added, \u201cYesterday was your birthday, I forgot to call you and I\u2019m so sorry. I love u bean. Rest in peace and power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely heartbroken!\u201d The Family vocalist Susannah Melvoin wrote on Instagram<\/a>. \u201cMy beautiful brother Jellybean Johnson has passed. This band was and is the kind of Family that believed we all rightfully belonged together in love, music and kindness. Jellybean was the master of loving you like no brother could! My big brother, who watched over me and anyone who he loved!\u201d<\/p>\n

Melvoin\u2019s note continued: \u201cI met him when I was 19 years old and he was already a seasoned musical savant at 28. He\u2019d been in the Time and was masterfully put into a band that became what we lovingly and rightfully call the family. He went from being behind the drums to playing guitar in this band because he was a guitar player first and drummer second. Oxygen for him was the inhale and exhale of playing his guitar. I can barely get this out\u2026.his children and family members need our support and love. Please send it their way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMay you rest in all that is light and graceful,\u201d she said to Johnson.<\/p>\n

Johnson performed with The Time and Rihanna<\/a> at the Grammy Awards in 2008, a performance that had him playing the drums to a click track. After being a career musician with his \u201cown click track for 30, 40 years,\u201d Johnson said it was difficult to pivot \u2014 \u201cIf you go back and watch that performance, it came off flawless, but, man, that week of practice was hell,\u201d he said with a laugh, in a 2024 interview<\/a> with Dancing to the Drum Machine author Dan Leroy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys in The Time always trusted me, as far as tempos and all that kind of stuff,\u201d explained Johnson. \u201cBut there were a few times, like when I played the Grammys \u2026 I remember one time back in \u201908, man, I played the Grammys, and Rihanna was on there with [The Time]. And she was just getting huge, and she had that \u2018Umbrella\u2019 song \u2026 And she had dancers, and she was doing this thing with us, and it was gonna be part Minneapolis, part her. She\u2019s gonna be integrated with us \u2014 which means with me being the only drummer, I had to play to a click track. I struggled. I\u2019m not gonna lie. I called every hotshot drummer, young drummers that I know, all my top drum friends. I mean, how do y\u2019all do this? Because some guys, especially studio guys, they learn how to do that. Just deal with click tracks and all that kind of stuff. And I didn\u2019t. I never had to really do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He returned to the Grammys stage in 2017 and 2020 as part of tributes to Prince.<\/p>\n

Johnson co-founded the non-profit Minneapolis Sound Museum<\/a> in 2021, with the goal of preserving the history, culture and legacy of the Minneapolis Sound.<\/p>\n

In 2022, he was awarded<\/a> a Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award with The Time.<\/p>\n

Best of Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n

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