Jimmy Jam is reflecting on Prince’s death 10 years after the music icon’s passing in 2016.
Speaking PEOPLE at the Hollywood premiere of Michael Jimmy says, “there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him or think about what he would do in a certain situation.”
“We both already knew how to play. And I remember at the end of the semester they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to put a band together for a play. Who wants to be in the band?’ And we both raised our hands,” he recalls.
“And they said, ‘Jimmy, what do you want to play?’ And I said, ‘Drums.’ And he looked at me like, ‘Drums?’ They said, ‘Prince, what do you want to play?’ And he said, ‘Guitar.’ And I looked at him like, ‘Guitar?’ ”
While in the bathroom, Jimmy Jam overheard someone killing the drums.
“I’m thinking it’s [the] drum teacher,” he recalled. “It’s Prince on the drums.”
“So literally at 13 years old, I’m watching this wunderkind. It’s just like nothing I’d ever seen before.”
Jimmy Jam noted that Prince could “play every instrument and do everything.”
PRINCE FORMED THE TIME WHICH FEATURED JIMMY JAM
When Prince became a solo star, he assembled The Time. The funk band consisted of Jimmy Jam, Morris Day, Jesse Johnson, Terry Lewis, Monte Moir, and Jellybean Johnson. The group served as Prince’s opening act in the early 1980s.
“When we got a chance to get signed as The Time, which Prince made happen, and go and tour with him, it was every musical education that we needed, but really, it was about the work ethic,” Jimmy Jam shares. “Nobody outworked Prince. He’d rehearse us for 12 hours. He’d rehearse his band for 6 hours. He’d go to the studio all night. And something about that work ethic was amazing.”
In 1983, Prince fired Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis from The Time for missing a show and producing outside acts. But their termination launched the legendary careers.
“Prince was the one who fired us from The Time, but as my partner says, ‘He freed us,’” Jimmy Jam shares.
“He was the person that gave us our opportunity twice. He gave us our opportunity by bringing us into the fold, and he gave us our opportunity by letting us fly and separating us from the fold. And so I thank him to this day.”