Jill Jones Biography (Singer)
Jill Jones is an American singer and songwriter. She became famous after she performed as a backing vocalist for Teena Marie and Prince in the 1980s. Marie was the opening act for Prince on the 1980 Dirty Mind tour, which is where Jones and Prince met for the first time. Prince was very impressed by Jill and kept in contact with him. In 1982 Jones was invited by Prince to Sunset Sound sessions, where she sang on several 1999 tracks, notably “Lady Cab Driver.” She moved to Minneapolis at Prince’s recommendation in 1983, where she began work on a solo album.
Jill Jones Age|Birthday
Jones was born on July 11, 1962, in Lebanon, Ohio. She is 59 years old as of 2022.
Jill Jones Family | Jill Jones Parents|Siblings
She was born in Lebanon, Ohio. She is the daughter of a fashion model mother who is of African American and Native American, heritage and her father who is a jazz drummer and is of Italian. Jones was raised mostly by her grandparents until relocating to Los Angeles when her mother remarried. She started a singing career at age 15 as a backup vocalist for Teena Marie, whom her mother managed.
Jill Jones Husband | Jill Jones Dating | Jill Jones Child
She is not married but has been in three unstable relationships. She first dated an American actor Ray Liotta in 2006. They dated for about 5 months and got separated in the same year. The reason for their split has still not been revealed.
She had an affair with the actor Bryce Wilson in 2005. They separated in March 2006 and neither Jill nor Bryce has ever spoken a word regarding their relationship and separation.
In 2013 Jill dated a Russian musician Peter Drang. The couple got separated a year later in 2014. There were rumors some time ago of her having a child but it turned out to be nothing but a rumor.
Jill Jones And Prince
In 1980 Jones met Prince at age 18, when Teena Marie was the opening act during his Dirty Mind tour. Prince loved Jill’s voice, encouraged her to sing, and stayed in touch with her. In 1982 Jill became a backup vocalist for Prince when he invited her to the Sunset Sound recording studios to sing backing vocals for several tracks on the album 1999. Jill was credited under just her initials J.J.
Jones was featured in music videos for the songs “1999” and “Little Red Corvette”. She was also featured in an extended rarely aired music video for “Automatic”. She then joined the tour for 1999 to sing backing vocals with the Prince side-project Vanity 6. After the tour, he moved to Minneapolis and became Prince’s on-and-off again girlfriend. She had a bit part as a waitress in the film Purple Rain (1984), and had an appearance in the sequel Graffiti Bridge (1990), where she takes off an undergarment to end a conflicting scene with Prince.
Jill Jones Purple Rain
Jones had a bit part as a waitress in the film Purple Rain (1984). She had an appearance in the sequel Graffiti Bridge (1990), where she takes off an undergarment to end a conflicting scene with Prince.
Jill Jones Career
Her debut album was the self-titled Jill Jones (1987), released on Prince’s Paisley Park Records. Prince along with Jones was credited as a co-writer, but Jill wrote all of the songs himself. After the album was released, it received positive reviews from critics but was not a commercial success. The album has been out of print for many years as of 2007.
In the late 1980s, Jill recorded a number of demo tracks in London, including the tracks “Deep Kiss”, “Unattainable Love”, “Long Time”, “Red”, “White Dogs” & “Tango”, among others. She contributed a song (“The Ground You Walk On”) to the soundtrack for the film Earth Girls Are Easy in 1989. For a second album, Several demos were recorded on Paisley Park, and a video was filmed for the track “Boom Boom”, but an album never surfaced. Jill released the dance single “Bald” on Flying Records in 1993.
Jill did backing vocals for Apollonia 6 and recorded the Prince-written single “G-Spot”. She also sang lead vocals on Japanese artist Ryuichi Sakamoto’s single “You Do Me” from his 1990 album Beauty, and contributed a version of Blondie’s “Call Me” to a Giorgio Moroder tribute album. In addition, Jones wrote and co-produced the song “The Great Pretender” for Lisa Lisa. She was also lead vocalist for the band Baby Mother, who recorded an album in 1995 for London Records, which remains unreleased. In 1996, she toured performing co-lead vocals as part of Chic with Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards before his death, and can be heard on the 1999 Chic release “Live at the Budokan”.
Jill Jones Career “She’s Always in My Hair”
The Prince song “She’s Always in My Hair”, a B-side to the single “Raspberry Beret” (1985), was written about Jill. Though Prince aided in the production of her first album, there was no input from Prince on the second one, which was more pop-rock oriented. From 2001 to the present, Jones has been performing acoustic rock as well as producing edgy and modern dance tracks. She is also featured in the unreleased Vanity 6 song “Vibrator”. In this song, she does a skit in a department store where Vanity goes to get batteries for her vibrator. Prince is also in the skit.
Jill provided vocals on a cover version of Carly Simon’s “Why” on Ronny Jordan’s album A Brighter Day in 2000 as well as contributing a cover version of Blondie’s “Call Me” to a Giorgio Moroder tribute album. This was subsequently issued as a single with various remixes, including ones by Todd Terry and Mantronix. With the help of former Paisley Park photographer and close friend David Honl, Jones released a second album entitled Two in 2001, with instrumentalist Chris Bruce.
Jill Jones The Grand Royals
She performed lead vocals on 2004’s album, The Grand Royals featuring Jill Jones – Wasted. A collaboration with Dance outfit Funky Junction resulted in the single “Someone to Jump Up”, which has appeared on various Hed Kandi compilation releases. Jill joined a performance in New York in 2008 by Jeremy Gloff, coming up on stage to sing with Jeremy’s cover of her song “So Much in Love” On April 28, 2009, Jones released “Living for the Weekend” on the “Peace Bisquit” label. Although Wasted and Two are out of print, both albums can be found on the iTunes Store, along with “Living for the Weekend”. 2014 saw the release of the single “This Is How It Feels” with the Italian techno act Get Far.
Jones made the track “Forbidden Love” available via Soundcloud in August 2015. The track is from her dance album, released in February 2016 via Peace Bisquit.
Jill Jones Net Worth
Jones has an estimated net worth of $1 Million.
