An ‘80s musician and hit producer is dead at 69.
Garry George “Jellybean” Johnson, drummer for Morris Day & The Time and guitarist for another Prince-affiliated band group, The Family, died Friday, two days after his birthday. A cause of death has not been announced.
“I’m absolutely heartbroken! My beautiful brother Jellybean Johnson has passed,” The Family singer Susannah Melvoin wrote in a tribute. “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!”
Johnson helped pioneer the funk/rock/R&B sound coming out of Minneapolis as a member of the group Flyte Tyme, which became The Time in 1981 when Prince added drummer Morris Day and guitarist Jesse Johnson. Day became the group’s mirror-loving frontman, scoring top 20 hits with “Jungle Love” and “Jerk It Out.”
Johnson, Day and the rest of The Time appeared in Prince’s 1984 film “Purple Rain” as fictionalized versions of themselves. When The Time split in 1985, Johnson joined The Family as a guitarist.
“I met him when I was 19 years old and he was already a seasoned musical savant at 28,” Melvoin said. “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... This is a huge loss.”
Johnson later reunited with The Time for Prince’s film “Graffiti Bridge,” and returned touring with Morris Day. The group received a Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.
Johnson was also a notable producer, co-producing Janet Jackson’s No. 1 hit “Black Cat,” in 1990, and other Top 10 hits like Alexander O’Neal’s “Criticize,” New Edition’s “Crucial” and Mint Condition’s “Breakin’ My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes).” He also worked as a session musician and performed with Rihanna at the 2008 Grammy Awards, plus tributes to Prince in 2017 and 2020.
TMZ reports Johnson also loved his family, friends and home in Minnesota. He and his partner, Marty Bragg, and her daughter co-founded the Minneapolis Sound Museum to preserve the history and legacy of the Minneapolis Sound.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Johnson was especially renowned for his ability to create drum machine-programmed tracks on live drums, including The Time’s complex beat on “777-9311.”
“I don’t try to get it perfect,” Johnson told author Dan Leroy. “Trust me: there’s tons of world class drummers I’ve seen. They hit it, nail it pretty damn close. I never tried to get that close. I tried to get it the Jellybean way. It worked. It fooled a lot of people. I’ve heard people say, ‘Man, nobody can play like Jelly.’ There’s people who can play it better than me, but … at least I fooled you into thinking I did, you know?”
