If you know anything about the film, Purple Rain, then you’re bound to remember the characters with even the most smallest of roles in that iconic 1984 classic. Singer/actress, Jill Jones, is widely known for her role as the ‘nightclub waitress,’ who was sweet on “The Kid” (Prince’s character) in the movie. There are several other factors about her that many people may not know. Some of those include the fact that she was dating Prince back then (as were a few other female singers too), and that she has an unexpected deep family connection to the infamous Gordy fam.’

Jill exposed many previously unknown tidbits of shocking info about her past in a prior interview with Huffington Post.

Jill Jones On Why Prince Made Her Pass For White

In case y’all hadn’t noticed, even though Jill is oftentimes mistaken for a 100% Caucasian women, she’s actually African American and Italian. During the time that Jill was a part of Prince’s band, it was her White side, that her then-boyfriend, Prince, used to his band’s advantage when it came to uppin’ their spins on channels with predominantly White audiences, according to Jill.

When explaining how grateful she was that Prince gave a “voice” to biracial women like herself back then, Jill detailed his larger plan at connecting with all audiences…by tricking non-Black folks to an extent:

Jill Jones- “[Prince] really gave us a voice because I went through my life trying to figure out how do I fit in? Prince kind of helped. It appealed to putting blonde hair on me made the ratio on stage to appeal to the MTV generation. Black folks always knew I was Black. It’s just…we know (laughs).”

Despite It All… Jill Says Prince Was Pro-Black All Day, Everyday

Even though Prince did what he felt he had to do in to get his music videos seen and heard by the masses back in the day, Jill says do NOT get it twisted, the brotha was about as pro-Black as they come in real life:

Huffington Post- Though his image was provocative, he proudly embraced being Black.

Jill Jones- Having a Black man kissing a White woman on stage was provocative because it addressed what was happening in the culture. He came back to it [his Black roots]. He loved performing and he loved our community. He had the capacity to really set the world on fire with his words. […] He had a public side that he wanted to show but once he left the white record system, he was free to be, “This is who I really am.” He was a brotha. I don’t care what people wanna say. No, he was not Sammy lunchmeat! I’m sitting here and looking at everyone revising his history and somebody has to get on it because they’re just leaving out the chunks that matter!

Jill Jones & The Gordy Family Are Connected On A Deep Level

Embed from Getty Images

Jill Jones is Berry Gordy’s step-niece and the stepdaughter to Berry’s Motown Records executive brother, Fuller Gordy. Her mother was a well-known manager in the industry, who worked with many known artists alongside husband, Fuller. It was during a tour that her mom and stepdad were both involved, that then teenaged Jill met Prince:

“I don’t meet people and say something provocative. He [Prince] stirred my being, he unnerved me, he rattled me. I had not met anyone like him and I was really defiant with him out of the reactionary response. I was walking up the stairs coming from the sound check, he was coming down and we looked at each other eye-to-eye and kind of stopped. He said, ‘Hi.’ I went, ‘Hi. So what, the stage isn’t big enough for all of us or something really sh——.”

Years later, the two started dating and Prince had written the song, “She’s Always In My Hair,” about Jill Jones for his 1985 album, “Around the World In A Day.” However, Jill says that by the time Prince’s movie, Grafitti Bridge was released, she soon learned that, so was she- at least from Prince’s romantic life, that is:

“When you got an album completed, you were done as a romantic interest. Like, you were still there but he was putting you in a place where you weren’t going to just be a happy power couple. You were given your wings to go do your thing. His ability to let go of your how fast or slow, that’s because he was juggling, like we say, the inspiration for all these women. Some guys send you flowers, Prince would just give you an album (laughs).”

I tell ya,’ the things we learn when we do a lil’ digging.

Source

The post Purple Rain Actress On Why Ex Prince ‘Had Her Pass For White’ & Her Connection To Berry Gordy appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

When Prince’s former protege,’ Denise “Vanity” Matthews, passed away in 2016, it shocked the R&B world to no end. Not many were more heartbroken than Vanity’s ex-boyfriend, Prince, though. Although their lives had gone two different paths in their latter years- Vanity became a evangelist preacher; and Prince continued his musical career- the connection they shared was deep. Little did most fans know, however, at the time of Vanity’s passing, Prince was also deeply heartbroken over the death of his very first high school love, who died just months before Vanity. It was the combination of those two heartaches, that some say led Prince into a deep state of sorrow and grief.

How Prince’s High School Girlfriend Died

Prince’s ex-girlfriend was Kim Upsher. The two former lovebirds attended high school together in Minneapolis, MN. She also had a small role in Purple Rain back in the day.

Although many fans knew how hard Prince had taken Vanity’s passing – he spoke publicly about it – according to Purple Rain actress, Jill Jones, his major heartbreak was due to Kim’s death. In a prior interview with Huffington Post, Jill (also an ex-girlfriend of Prince) revealed the facts about Prince’s largely unknown ex, Kim Upsher, and how he was affected by her passing:

Jill Jones on Kim Upsher- “She was the kindest, patient, and supportive person for him. Watching the changes that come into your life, I had a lot of empathy for her because she helped me navigate through all that bull—— at the beginning. She passed away before Denise so he had a double whammy. So I know everybody is like, ‘Oh, Denise’ but his girlfriend who has been with him, lived in the same house as him, grew up with him, that was his big crush from school…Kim was an unsung hero in my opinion. They stayed friends throughout. She knew his family, everything and it was sad. She passed away from a brain aneurysm and that sadden my heart.”

Fun Facts About Prince & His Ex, Kim Upsher

1. Kim Upsher had a cameo role in Purple Rain, as the waitress who Morris Day pretended to give a huge tip to, in efforts to impress Apollonia…

2. Friends say Kim Upsher was Prince’s first heartbreak:

Via Diffuser- Around the time of the album’s release, Right On! magazine (as quoted by PrinceSongs.org) asked the rising young sex symbol if he had a girlfriend. “I had one but she left me,” he revealed. “I wrote some songs about it on the album.” When the interviewer marveled at the number of women who would love to take her place, he explained a little more: “That’s why she left me.”

“I’m so alone / And brokenhearted / It ain’t like my life is ended / But more like it never started,” he laments on the silky smooth disco-era piano ballad. “I spend my nights just a-crying / And i spend my days just a-trying / To find that love to call my own.”

3. Kim and Prince attended Minneapolis Central High School together, which is also where they wrote, directed, and starred in a love story that mimicked their real life story.

4. Although Kim had broken up with Prince decades go, they remained friends throughout their lives.

Ms. Upsher passed away from a brain aneurysm on November 15, 2015. Exactly three months later, Vanity died from renal failure on February 15, 2016.

Sadly, the Purple One soon died just months after exes, Vanity and Kim Upsher. Some have alleged that although Prince died from an accidental overdose to prescription pain meds, he ultimately passed away from grief. May each of these kind souls continue to rest peacefully.

The post Prince’s Private Ex-Girlfriend Died Months Before His Ex, Vanity…Friends Say He Was Hurt appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

She was victorious in her fight to find peace in the end, but not without going through the heartaches she described in the following excerpts from her past interview with soul singer, Rhonda Nicole (for Soul Train)…

JILL JONES GREW TO HATE THE ENTERTAINMENT WORLD

“It had become very easy to focus on the sad aspects of my life—the death of my mother, a divorce. I spent the 15 years after that album [her 2001 album, “Two”] not really being comfortable in my own skin, not accepting the parting of my mother, not being involved with a label and having to do everything myself. I became kind of angry about it. […] I felt music was one of the love affairs of my life…something that always left me hanging. It was like a really bad lover!

I did miss it [music], but I did cut it off. I wanted to be angry about it, to always have some negative thing to say. I was scared, I was terrified! I didn’t want to be rejected, I didn’t want everybody to know that I was a failure. […] There was so much humiliation. It was like, ‘What am I going to do, and how am I going to do this?'”

JONES ODDLY DEVELOPED NEW PERSONA TO RUN FROM MUSIC INDUSTRY

Jill said she so desperately wanted to run away from her music industry past, that she created a totally different identity, oftentimes lying about who she was:

“I had to re-build…I bar-tended. I remember a member of the Wu-Tang Clan came into the bar and he said, ‘You’re Jill Jones!’ And I was like, ‘No, I’m not.’ And I was speaking with a French accent. There was this shame…I had just disconnected and disassociated and pulled myself away. I cut out everybody.”

But things began to shift in her life…

JILL JONES OVERCAME HER GRIEF

Jill Jones says that she’s now at a point in her life where she has overcome her sense of failure, and is now very accepting of who she is:

“I had reached a place in my life where I was comfortable with who I am. During this time, when you let go of all the other concepts of what someone thinks of you or how you need to be, I found peace with who I was. And I decided I am who I want to be at this point. I got into Kundalini yoga a few years ago and started a serious meditation practice because I wanted to change some things. And then I realized there were some things that I’m not going to change—these are soul experiences that I just have to learn, and they’re not going to change until I finally accept what they are.”

Jill Jones has released her last album, “I Am,” was released in 2016, and is available on iTunes.

The post “Purple Rain” Actress Hit Rock Bottom After The Film And She Explained How appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

When Prince’s former protege,’ Denise “Vanity” Matthews, passed away in 2016, it shocked the R&B world to no end. Not many were more heartbroken than Vanity’s ex-boyfriend, Prince, though. Although their lives had gone two different paths in their latter years- Vanity became a evangelist preacher; and Prince continued his musical career- the connection they shared was deep. Little did most fans know, however, at the time of Vanity’s passing, Prince was also deeply heartbroken over the death of his very first high school love, who died just months before Vanity. It was the combination of those two heartaches, that some say led Prince into a deep state of sorrow and grief.

How Prince’s High School Girlfriend Died

Prince’s ex-girlfriend was Kim Upsher. The two former lovebirds attended high school together in Minneapolis, MN. She also had a small role in Purple Rain back in the day.

Although many fans knew how hard Prince had taken Vanity’s passing – he spoke publicly about it – according to Purple Rain actress, Jill Jones, his major heartbreak was due to Kim’s death. In a prior interview with Huffington Post, Jill (also an ex-girlfriend of Prince) revealed the facts about Prince’s largely unknown ex, Kim Upsher, and how he was affected by her passing:

Jill Jones on Kim Upsher- “She was the kindest, patient, and supportive person for him. Watching the changes that come into your life, I had a lot of empathy for her because she helped me navigate through all that bull—— at the beginning. She passed away before Denise so he had a double whammy. So I know everybody is like, ‘Oh, Denise’ but his girlfriend who has been with him, lived in the same house as him, grew up with him, that was his big crush from school…Kim was an unsung hero in my opinion. They stayed friends throughout. She knew his family, everything and it was sad. She passed away from a brain aneurysm and that sadden my heart.”

Fun Facts About Prince & His Ex, Kim Upsher

1. Kim Upsher had a cameo role in Purple Rain, as the waitress who Morris Day pretended to give a huge tip to, in efforts to impress Apollonia…

2. Friends say Kim Upsher was Prince’s first heartbreak:

Via Diffuser- Around the time of the album’s release, Right On! magazine (as quoted by PrinceSongs.org) asked the rising young sex symbol if he had a girlfriend. “I had one but she left me,” he revealed. “I wrote some songs about it on the album.” When the interviewer marveled at the number of women who would love to take her place, he explained a little more: “That’s why she left me.”

“I’m so alone / And brokenhearted / It ain’t like my life is ended / But more like it never started,” he laments on the silky smooth disco-era piano ballad. “I spend my nights just a-crying / And i spend my days just a-trying / To find that love to call my own.”

3. Kim and Prince attended Minneapolis Central High School together, which is also where they wrote, directed, and starred in a love story that mimicked their real life story.

4. Although Kim had broken up with Prince decades go, they remained friends throughout their lives.

Ms. Upsher passed away from a brain aneurysm on November 15, 2015. Exactly three months later, Vanity died from renal failure on February 15, 2016.

Sadly, the Purple One soon died just months after exes, Vanity and Kim Upsher. Some have alleged that although Prince died from an accidental overdose to prescription pain meds, he ultimately passed away from grief. May each of these kind souls continue to rest peacefully.

The post Prince’s Private Ex-Girlfriend Died Months Before Ex, Vanity…Friends Say He Was Hurt appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

There are several other factors about her though, that many people may not know. Some of them include the fact that she was dating Prince back then (as were a few other female singers too) and that she has an unexpected deep family connection to the infamous Gordy fam.’

Jill exposed many unknown tidbits of shocking info about her past in a prior interview with Huffington Post.

Jill Jones On Why Prince Made Her Pass For White

In case y’all hadn’t noticed, even though Jill is oftentimes mistaken for a 100% Caucasian women, she’s actually African American and Italian. During the time that Jill was a part of Prince’s band, it was her white side, that her then boyfriend, Prince, used to his band’s advantage when it came to uppin’ their spins on channels with predominantly white audiences.

When explaining how grateful she was that Prince gave a “voice” to biracial women, like herself, back then, she detailed his larger plan at connecting with all audiences…by tricking non-Black folks to an extent:

Jill Jones- “He really gave us a voice because I went through my life trying to figure out how do I fit in? Prince kind of helped. It appealed to putting blonde hair on me made the ratio on stage to appeal to the MTV generation. Black folks always knew I was Black. It’s just…we know (laughs).”

Despite It All… Jill Says Prince Was Hella Pro-Black

Even though Prince did what he felt he had to do in order to get his music videos seen and heard by the masses back then, Jill says do NOT get it twisted, the brotha was about as pro-Black as they come in real life:

Huffington Post- Though his image was provocative, he proudly embraced being Black

Jill Jones- Having a Black man kissing a White woman on stage was provocative because it addressed what was happening in the culture. He came back to it [his Black roots]. He loved performing and he loved our community. He had the capacity to really set the world on fire with his words. […] He had a public side that he wanted to show but once he left the white record system, he was free to be, “This is who I really am.” He was a brotha. I don’t care what people wanna say. No, he was not Sammy lunchmeat! I’m sitting here and looking at everyone revising his history and somebody has to get on it because they’re just leaving out the chunks that matter!

Her Mother & Gordy Family Is Reason She Met Prince

Embed from Getty Images

Jill Jones is Berry Gordy’s step-niece and the stepdaughter to Berry’s Motown Records executive brother, Fuller Gordy. Her mother was a well-known manager in the industry, who worked with many known artists alongside husband, Fuller. It was during a tour that her mom and stepdad were both involved, that then teenaged Jill met Prince:

“I don’t meet people and say something provocative. He [Prince] stirred my being, he unnerved me, he rattled me. I had not met anyone like him and I was really defiant with him out of the reactionary response. I was walking up the stairs coming from the sound check, he was coming down and we looked at each other eye-to-eye and kind of stopped. He said, ‘Hi.’ I went, ‘Hi. So what, the stage isn’t big enough for all of us or something really sh——.”

Years later, the two started dating and Prince had written the song, “She’s Always In My Hair,” about Jill Jones for his 1985 album, “Around the World In A Day.” However, Jill says that by the time Prince’s movie, Grafitti Bridge was released, she soon learned that, so was she- at least from Prince’s romantic life, that is:

“When you got an album completed, you were done as a romantic interest. Like, you were still there but he was putting you in a place where you weren’t going to just be a happy power couple. You were given your wings to go do your thing. His ability to let go of your how fast or slow, that’s because he was juggling, like we say, the inspiration for all these women. Some guys send you flowers, Prince would just give you an album (laughs).”

I tell ya,’ the things we learn when we do a lil’ diggin.’

Source

The post Purple Rain Actress On Why Ex Prince Made Her Pass For White & Her Connection To Berry Gordy appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Jill Jones is widely known as the actress whose character as a waitress in “Purple Rain” was sweet on “The kid” (Prince’s character) in the movie. But what some may not know is that Jones is a singer who was once signed to Prince’s Paisley Park Records.

After gaining notoriety in  “Purple Rain,” releasing two albums, and working with a plethora of hit makers in the music game, ranging from Prince; to the soul band, Chic; Me’shell Ndegeocello; to Rick James; Teena Marie and more, Jones’ career kind of hit rock bottom and she ended up going through a great deal of pain, embarrassment, and disappointed in the music industry, as well as in her personal life. She was victorious in her fight to find peace in the end, but not without going through the heartaches she described in the excerpts you’re about to see from Jones’ interview with soul singer, Rhonda Nicole (for Soul Train)

JILL JONES GREW TO HATE THE ENTERTAINMENT WORLD

After years of trying to have a successful music career, after the death of her beloved Mother, and after releasing her lightly promoted second album titled, “Two,” Jill Jones (pictured above) revealed that she hated the music game like a “bad lover”:

‘It had become very easy to focus on the sad aspects of my life—the death of my mother, a divorce. I spent the 15 years after that album [her 2001 album, “Two”] not really being comfortable in my own skin, not accepting the parting of my mother, not being involved with a label and having to do everything myself. I became kind of angry about it. […] I felt music was one of the love affairs of my life…something that always left me hanging. It was like a really bad lover!

I did miss it [music], but I did cut it off. I wanted to be angry about it, to always have some negative thing to say. I was scared, I was terrified! I didn’t want to be rejected, I didn’t want everybody to know that I was a failure. […] There was so much humiliation. It was like, “What am I going to do, and how am I going to do this?”’

That’s when she decided to make the bold move to do this>>>

SHE TOOK ON NEW PERSONA TO RUN FROM MUSIC INDUSTRY

Jill revealed that she so desperately wanted to run away from her music industry past that she created a totally different identity and erased all traces of her life as an entertainer. She oftentimes lied about who she was when asked:

“I had to re-build…I bar-tended. I remember a member of the Wu-Tang Clan came into the bar and he said, ‘You’re Jill Jones!’ And I was like, ‘No, I’m not.’ And I was speaking with a French accent. There was this shame…I had just disconnected and disassociated and pulled myself away. I cut out everybody.”

But things began to shift in her life>>>

JILL JONES OVERCOMES HER GRIEF, RELEASES NEW ALBUM

Jill Jones says that she’s now at a point in her life where she has overcome her sense of failure and is now very accepting of who she is and it I must say that it’s always a beautiful thing to see this level of empowerment:

“I had reached a place in my life where I was comfortable with who I am. During this time, when you let go of all the other concepts of what someone thinks of you or how you need to be, I found peace with who I was. And I decided I am who I want to be at this point. I got into Kundalini yoga a few years ago and started a serious meditation practice because I wanted to change some things. And then I realized there were some things that I’m not going to change—these are soul experiences that I just have to learn, and they’re not going to change until I finally accept what they are.”

Jill Jones has released her newest album, “I Am,” which is available on iTunes.

The post “Purple Rain” Actress Disclosed The Hardships & Odd Life She Led After Success appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Remember the ‘waitress’ who had the crush on “the Kid” (Prince) in the iconic 80’s classic, Purple Rain? Her name is Jill Jones and as we previously reported, she was also Prince’s background singer, released a few albums, and today she’s doing well at the age of 55.

When Purple Rain released, Jill was just 22 years old. It’s now been 33 years since the film’s release and she’s just let a lil’ secret slip through the cracks about the real deal between she and Prince. She also revealed another shocker about her connection to the iconic Gordy’s musical family.

Turns out, her character wasn’t the only one crushin’ on “the Kid,” so was she…as in real life. But based on info she recently shared online, her ‘crush’ went waaaay further than that and ultimately morphed into some sort of sexual manifestation with the beloved Purple One.

Jill’s Prince-secret came out in an Instagram post, in which she paid homage to the man who was like a stepfather to her (her mom’s longtime companion)- Motown executive, Fuller Gordy, the brother of Motown founder, Berry Gordy. By the way, that’s the other shocker. Who would’ve thought that the Purple Rain ‘waitress’ was actually linked to one of music’s most iconic families?

The Secrets Jill Jones Spilled

In her Instagram Father’s Day tribute to Fuller and her mother, Jill recalled an incident where Fuller busted she and Prince sleeping in Prince’s parked car. She also alluded that they’d just finished having sex…IN the vehicle. Jill said she was a “teen” at that time, but we’re assuming she technically means she was a legal teen (18 or 19) because she reportedly met Prince at the age of 18. Their ‘scandalous’ sexcapade apparently happened a few years before they filmed Purple Rain, so that on-screen chemistry we all witnessed between them was 100% official. Read Jill’s reveal about she and Prince in the her homage to her mother and unofficial ‘stepdad,’ Fuller Gordy…

jilljonesmusic: Now imagine this man on his way to work at Motown; early am like 7:30ish tapping on Prince’s black BMW with tinted windows parked in the driveway; waking me and Prince up in his car. 😂😂😂😂( the car over heated and we decided to , nevermind long story lol) I wasn’t an easy teenager lol but I digress Happy Fathers Day Fuller Gordy. You took the time when my own father did not. I got lucky 🍀 the knowledge, wisdom and values you shared will stay with me forever. Much gratitude & love always. Rest in power to both u and my mom. ❤️🎈🙏🏾

Prince’s Intimate Relationship w/Jill’s Female Co-star

This actually should come as no surprise because by now, we all know that the late, great Prince got around and sometimes ended up in relationships with his female colleagues. Also, Jill wasn’t the only Purple Rain actress who had a lil’ something going on with The Purple One, so did her beautiful co-star/singer, Susan Moonsie (of Vanity 6). Susan and Prince were childhood sweethearts and stayed together until their early 20’s. Geesh! Prince sure did have a way with the ladies back in the day…gotta luv it. Rest on Prince.

The post Oh My! “Purple Rain” Actress Just Spilled Interesting Secret About Her & Prince appeared first on I Love Old School Music.