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Artist
Jill Jones
12+ albums
princefemale vocalistssoulpaisley parkMinneapolis funk
about
Jill Jones was born an only child near Dayton, Ohio. Barely into her teens, her mom had a relationship with Fuller Gordy (Barry's brother) and Jill moved to California. "Everyone was at Motown. That's really what started it because I got to see how it all worked, how sessions would take place. Those are my first recollections, when I moved to L.A. and was around all those people." "My mom started managing Teena Marie and Teena moved into our house. She invited me to start writing with her. I started to really understand my range because Teena has such a broad range. Being her background singer I started working professionally, leaving school to go sing on gigs." "I had finished high school when I ran into Prince. I had already been on a tour and we had met. I called and said I needed a job because school just wasn't my thing." With her hair dyed blond she was soon a staple on MTV standing next to keyboardist Lisa Coleman singing one of the three-part vocals of 1999. On the LP she put in a steamy performance as The Lady Cab Driver on the song of the same name. When 1999 hit the road Jill pulled double duty singing with both Vanity 6 and the Revolution. Unfortunately she was kept behind a curtain for all but two songs. Prince had deemed her "plain Jane" and audiences to this day have never understood why. "At the beginning of my relationship with the Prince entourage, it was to give a more credibility to the sound that was being pitched to the labels, yet it would go agai
