Jesse Johnson made a rare appearance at Yoshi’s in Oakland on April 6, 2024 with the added bonus of a VIP meet-and-greet option before his performance.  I snatched up a ticket right away and didn’t know what to expect.  All I knew was that I love some of Jesse’s solo work, I like The Time too and that I had some great original vinyl for him to sign.  Let me fill you in on that incredible night and also talk about one of Jesse’s proteges Tamara (and the Seen). 

It turned out to be one of THE most memorable meet-and-greet and live performances that I’ve ever been to. 

The pre-show VIP experience started out with an MC asking questions of the audience of about 70 of us and stalling for time until Jesse showed up.  He walked on stage with an quiet, unassuming manner, sat on a stool, told us he was sick and asked the servers to bring him a hot toddy and started with “Ok … so what y’all wanna know?”.  We had been told in advance by the MC that Jesse was going to be keeping it real and not to ask questions if we weren’t prepared to hear the honest answers. 

I was in the front row center directly to his lower right and I had a couple of his records pulled out of my carrying case, so that he could see them.  One of the first questions off the bat was a guy asking how it came about for Jesse’s work with Sly Stone on “Crazay” and we were off … no holds barred! 

Jesse said that the album was almost complete when Sly joined the project and Sly said play me what you DON’T like from the album’s recording sessions. Jesse said he hated (still does not like?) “Crazay.  When Jesse played “Crazay”, Sly was all over it and insisted on being part of it.  I pulled out the “Shockadelica” album to show the crowd and said “So your collaboration resulted in this!”.  Now Jesse was talking directly to me and said, “You still got the plastic on that.  You notice how there is no writing on the cover?  I wanted full control of the imagery and artwork and insisted on no writing.  So the only writing (his name/album/song titles) were on the stickers adhered to the shrink wrap.  He then told us how “Crazay” and “Shockadelica” caused a little beef with him and Prince. He said Prince had called him “wasted, from a club” and said “Crazay” was a great song; the best!  Prince told Jesse he wanted to write a song called Shockadelica for Jesse (since there is NO SONG named “Shockadelica” on the ablum.)  Jesse demurred and said “naw, man, I’m good”.  And apparently Prince got pissed and said “Then I’ll write and record it myself and it will be a huge hit”.  Jesse’s response: “Go ahead man, do what the fuck you want”.  The floodgates of info and truth were open!   

Here are some bullet-pointed highlights from F-bomb loaded pre-show discussion: 

• Prince took him to a room in Paisley Park and showed Jesse a closet where Prince had every costume and shoes that he had worn in “Purple Rain”, on albums and tours because he told Jesse they would be memorialized as important pop-culture touchstones.  Very prescient. 

• On the other hand, Jesse said that he will be giving away all his awards and personal memorabilia to fans who purchase items directly from his site (being revamped), which will be subscription based.  “I’ll just be randomly mailing shit to people’s addresses. I don’t need all the awards, tour books, clothes, etc.  I know who I am and what I did.” 

• Jesse absolutely hates music streaming services like Pandora and Spotify because artists are ripped off. 

• He spoke at great length about artists’ rights, royalties, the value of printing on his own label and most importantly owning the copyright.  He mentioned R. Kelly owning all his music and having his own label, how Prince owned the copyright to Purple Rain, etc.  He said according to ASCAP, Michael Jackson and Diane Warren are the two highest earners because of copyright. 

• Jesse was asked if there were any Vanity 6 songs that he had produced or played on that had not been released.  He said he was always playing “behind the curtain” during the shows where they were an opening act and he didn’t produce or work on any Vanity 6 unreleased projects where Vanity sang … BUT there was an unreleased (Vanity 6?) song he worked on where the lead was another girl.   

• Jesse then segued into the fact that “Undress” still “makes good money for her” (Vanity).  “REALLY good money”.  Interesting fact, since I didn’t even know Vanity had been a co-writer on that song. 

• The last story was about touring with Prince and the massive food fights that the band would have and how he would fuck with Prince and irritate the hell out him.  Most of the band were intimidated by Prince but Jesse wasn’t – so they kind of grated on each other at times, it seems. 

Now on to the actual show and his performance.  IT WAS FRIGGING MIND BLOWING!!! 

There were serious mic and audio issues when he opened up with “Be Your Man”, but what I soon realized is that Jesse’s passion is not singing his songs – it’s his guitar playing.  He sang obligatory hits “Crazay”, “I Want My Girl” (my favorite), “Baby, Let’s Kiss”, “She, I Can’t Resist” and “Lovestruck”.  And it was funny when he played guitar for “When You Were Mine” and tried to have the audience sing and one person starting singing “Time after Time”.  Jesse said “This ain’t no remix shit … y’all need to get it right”  LOL 

But the guitar solos were out of this world. Jesse would seem to go into a trance and jam like crazy.  And it was very rock and roll, of a Hendrix caliber and ultra-amazing.  I had no idea what to expect of his show, I’m not a huge guitar fan, but watching him go into a trance and play that guitar was really like experiencing singular magic.  Jesse Johnson is simply one of the most talented musicians I have ever seen perform live. 

Then there was the personal one-on-one meet and greet.  As you can see from the photo here, Jesse greeted me warmly, remembered me from the pre-show and was super-engaging and soft-spoken as we talked about copyright issues, how art can revert to public domain and how it was Michael Jackson that really gave him a lesson on copyright.  We had been told that he would only sign one thing since time was running out, but he insisted on signing both of my albums and was just a warm, truly engaging person.  Plenty of artists have experienced the many struggles that Jesse has been through, but this man is not only a survivor; he is an astute businessman, humorous and honest, an excellent storyteller and an outstanding unique artist of the highest caliber. 

P.S. Check out my page on Jesse’s protégé under Ta Mara and the Seen