Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are original members of The Time — but they are best known as a songwriting duo and production team, having had more than 40 No. 1 hits on the Billboard charts. As producers and songwriters, they have been nominated for Producer of the Year at the Grammys 11 times, with one of those times being a big win. That big win came for work released in 1986, 40 years ago.

When Jam and Lewis returned to their hometown this summer to perform a concert at the Minnesota State Fair, they visited Minnesota Public Radio for a conversation with The Current’s Jill Riley all about the year 1986. It was a pivotal year for the Minneapolis duo, as they racked up chart-topping hits for artists including Janet Jackson, The Human League, the S.O.S. Band and others.

Jam and Lewis shared stories and reflected on that landmark year and on the significance of the Minneapolis Sound. Watch and listen to the full interview in the video player above, and find a full transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are in the studio, gentlemen. Welcome to The Current.

Jimmy Jam: Thank you. Nice to nice to be here.

Jill Riley: How does it feel to be home? What's it like to be home back in the Twin Cities?

Jimmy Jam: Home is wonderful. You know, see your friends, see all of that, and yeah, it's amazing. It's great to be home. We we like good excuses to come home.

Terry Lewis: Yes, and we we love the Minnesota nice.

Jimmy Jam: Yes.

Terry Lewis: It's all wonderful. Yes, lots of hugs.

Jimmy Jam: Yes, lots of.

Jill Riley: I bet. I bet there's been just like a warm welcome back into Minnesota because you guys have been spending quite a bit of time in Vegas. I understand. How has that been?

Jimmy Jam: Vegas was great. We did a residency called Nothing But Hits. We did it in April. It was wonderful. We did six shows. We were totally sold out, and we actually are doing more shows later on in the year. We're September 23 through October 3. We did,e're going to do seven more shows.

Jill Riley: Wow!

Jimmy Jam: So it's been a lot of fun. But it's, you know, we're kind of in the part of our life where we're trying to do things we haven't done yet, and playing our own catalog of songs live is one of those things, and so that's the reason that the Minnesota State Fair is going to be so fun because it's giving us a chance to go back to our musical roots as musicians, as local Minneapolis musicians, and but we get to do it on a wonderful stage.

Jill Riley: Yeah, well, welcome back.

Terry Lewis: Thank you.

Jill Riley: So celebrating 40 years or 40-plus years of the Minneapolis Sound. Now we know that the Minneapolis Sound goes back farther than 40 years, and the Minneapolis Sound, when folks talk about it, I often hear a lot of genres brought up that are mixed together and build upon each other. But I'm curious as we get into your production style and songwriting style of the Minneapolis Sound. Just to kind of start this and and to get your perspective and a definition from you guys, the Minneapolis Sound: What does it mean? I mean, Terry Lewis, could I start with you for the Minneapolis Sound? We know rock and funk and R&B, but what else does it mean to you?

Terry Lewis: The Minneapolis Sound in one word, I would say, would be Prince, and I would say he was the author of the Minneapolis Sound as people know it. Now there, to me, is a lot of different sounds of Minnesota, of Minneapolis, and but the Prince sound I think is notably the one that people think of when you say Minneapolis Sound, and what that is is the use of synthesizers as line-driven or horn-driven instruments, and the way he played guitar and bass and everything else very aggressively. That's the Minneapolis Sound, and all that stuff came out of him. It was this just the way he did things. So that's what I think of when I think of Minneapolis Sound.

Jill Riley: I'm with Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam on The Current. Innovation, I would say, is another big word that I think of when it comes to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis as a production team, songwriting team. The way that you took the groundwork and then you know made it really your production style, this signature style, 1986 was an incredible year. I spent a lot of time just recently, and I knew you guys were coming in, listening to Janet Jackson, Control, and I had my husband listen with me, and I'm like, to take a listen and and hear that, like, the through line through the album Control. And I know that this isn't the only point in in your guys's partnership together that was like a pivotal point or a turning point, but 1986, could you just talk about that year and what it was like to have Control just hit the way that it did?

Jimmy Jam: Well, it was life changing in many ways, but we had kind of, I guess, kind of laid the groundwork for what Control was, and and Janet being the artist, we had met Janet actually when we were members of The Time, and so she was big fans of ours. She had come to our show in Long Beach with her mom, and so we got a chance to meet her. So kind. We felt the seeds had already been planted, and we were always big fans of hers. Anyway, and when we got the call to ask, you know, would we produce, you know, a record with her, we were like, "Yeah, we want to do the whole album, not just a couple songs." So that was really important. We also had made — we had gone to L.A. for a few years after The Time, so coming back to Minnesota, that was a Terry Lewis decision. He said we should go back home and make music, and it really changed creatively what we were able to do, and to bring the artists to Minnesota. So it was great, you know, starting with you know, who came up, and Thelma Houston. I remember we worked with Patty Austin, we worked with people like Alexander O'Neill, who was, you know, born here. So by the time we got to Janet, we were pretty much we had built our own studio at that point. So it was really the the perfect environment to have an artist come, and Minneapolis was a perfect city for an artist to come, particularly one like Janet, who, if you think about growing up with her, it was probably bodyguards and limousines and all that kind of stuff. She came to Minneapolis. It was a Chevy Blazer, a Thomas guide. Get yourself from the hotel to the studio. So the idea of her being out on her own was truly happening as we were making the record. But then we also had our own studio where, whatever the ideas we talked about were, we were able to then put those ideas immediately on tape and start recording. So the environment was the perfect environment, both as a city and also our own studio. So the timing of everything was, you know, perfectly aligned.

Jill Riley: And Janet Jackson had a couple of albums before she worked with you, but this time it was such a kind of incredible way for her to almost like reintroduce herself, and the way that the two of you helped her find that identity to share with people. I mean, that I think is a really important thing as well about about the album Control.

Jimmy Jam: Well, you know it's interesting because her, you know, the first two albums that Janet did, I don't know whether she really desired to make an album, but she had a great voice, and so I think it was more probably her dad's idea. She always used to joke, she said, "Everybody in the Jackson family has to work," you know. So I think it was more that on those first two albums, but on the third album, on Control, it was different because she was in a different place. She was at the time on the first album, she was also doing a lot of acting and a lot of whole bunch of other things. Control, she was really focused on being an artist, being a recording artist, and then I think the combination of her, you know, taking some of the other things out of her life, like the acting and those things, and I also think we got her excited about the idea of whatever we talked about, that's what we were going to write about, because I don't think that the other albums, the songs were good, the people that produced and wrote the songs on the first two albums, were they were great, but they weren't necessarily her ideas. And I think with Control, we were able to have conversations with her, and then take her ideas and put them into songs, which excited her and made her realize. And I think the attitude that she was missing on the first two records she did, I think we were able to bring that out also, because that was the thing we noticed when she was a little girl: She had all this attitude, and we were like, if we can give her tracks that are aggressive, you know, as we talked about with the Minneapolis sound, part of it is the aggression of the tracks, we were able to give her tracks that were aggressive, and then she was able to then put that attitude on those tracks when she sang them.

Jill Riley: Songs like "What Have You Done for Me Lately," "Nasty, the title track "Control, "Let's Wait Awhile," "When I Think of You," that went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. And I, when I hear that song, I am back in my childhood bedroom. My older sister's got the boombox going. We got the pop station on, and we were hearing that song constantly. That was a big moment, "When I Think of You." Could you talk specifically about that song?

Terry Lewis: I call that song "the happy song."

Jimmy Jam: That is, that is a happy song. I will say, what's interesting was when the Control album was done, we actually played it for all of Janet's brothers. Michael wasn't there, but all the other brothers were. And I remember when we played the album the whole way through, and they all said, "Oh man, that one song — that's going to be a No. 1."

And we said, "Which one?"

And they said, "Oh, the one, that one song."

And we said, "Oh, like 'Control'?"

"No, no, no, no."

"'Nasty'?"

"No."

"'What Have You Done for Me Lately'?"

"No."

We're like, "Well, wait, how'd it go?"

And they said, "It had a piano, and it started with a piano."

We said, "'When I Think of You'?"

They said, "Yeah." They said, "That's going to be a No. 1 song."

And in our minds, we were like, yeah, that's OK, but not compared to the other songs. And of course, they were absolutely right. That was our first No. 1 pop hit, you know, "What Have You Done for Me Lately." And "Nasty" — both went No. 1 on the R&B charts and top five on the pop charts. But as far as our first No. 1 pop record, it was "When I Think of You." So the brothers had the ear for it. They totally knew what it was. And the idea was just, it was, yeah, it's super simple. Just a couple of chords. We would always tell her when she was singing a happy song that she needed to smile when she sang because it would come across. You could hear it and feel it, and that was one where she had a big smile on her face as she was singing it. And the laughter and all of the things that happened that you hear on the song, those were all very natural. We didn't say laugh here; like, those laughs and those kinds of things happened, and so we kept them.

Jill Riley: I've been curious about the laughter. I mean, in all of these years, and hearing that song, even when I was a little kid hearing that song, there's a point in the song where it sounds like she saw a mouse and, like, jumped, or there was, it's like a squawk sound that she makes.

Jimmy Jam: Yeah.

Jill Riley: What happened?

Jimmy Jam: We made we made the squawk sound, I think, because we were doing like backgrounds and hand claps or whatever. We were all in the studio together, and there was a kind of a buildup, and then I think, I think one of us went "Awk!" like that, and then she laughed, yeah, and then said, "Feels so good..." So I mean, that's all kind of spontaneous, but we always really wanted to put those things on records because you know videos were a thing at the time, but not the way you know they turned in to be. And Prince always had told us, you know, make visual records, you know, and so we always tried to make records where the artist's personality was part of the record. And so sometimes those little mistakes or those little quirks, that was the thing that kind of took you inside and made you feel like you were part of the process of making the record.

Jill Riley: Yeah, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in the studio, Janet Jackson, Control, massive success. That had to have opened some pretty major doors as you started working with more artists. And one that I was actually surprised by, but now that I go back and listen, not so surprised by, working with the Human League, and I wonder if you could talk about how you got connected with the Human League and kind of where they were at at the time.

Jimmy Jam: Well, John McLean, who was the A&R person at A&M Records, he was the one that had you know connected us with Janet, so he he called one day and he said, "Hey, do you guys like the Human League?" And we said, "Yeah." And he said, "Oh," he said, "OK." Well, what had happened was the Human League was making a record, and John was A-and-R-ing the record. And when they sent the demos of what they were doing, John said, "What are y'all trying to do?" And they said, "Oh, we're trying to make a Jam and Lewis record." And John said, "Why don't you just get Jam and Lewis to do the record?"

Jill Riley: Right!

Jimmy Jam: And so he called us, and that was the thing. And we said, yeah, we're fans. So anyway, that's how that happened. It was a bit of culture shock. I think them coming to Minneapolis from Sheffield, England, where they were from originally, I think there was a shock of culture, I think there was a shock of weather, because I think they came probably in February or something like that. So, you know, the coldest month of the year. But it was an interesting process. I don't know whether it was always the most pleasant process. I know in their minds, I don't think they necessarily liked the experiences that they had, but, you know, the result of it was a huge record called "Human," which, from what I hear now, they still perform it obviously, but it went to No. 1. And one of the things that happened on that record was the two girls in the group didn't like the other girl singing on the track, and the other girl was a girl named Lisa Keith, who was like our background singer; like our secret weapon on all our records, you know. She she made every record we did sound beautiful, right? And they didn't like that.

But part of being a producer is problem solving. And so we, after kind of saying to the record company, "Well, we're going to take the song off the record," and they said, "No, that's the single. That's the single!" So then Terry came up with the idea of, "I know what I'm going to have the girls do. I have a part. I wrote a part." So Terry wrote the part where she goes, "I forgive you. Now I ask the same of you. While we were apart, I was human, too." And what that did was not only include them on the record, but also made it where it wasn't a one-sided human thing. It wasn't the guy confessing to the girl, then the girl then had to confess to the guy, and that to me made it really lyrically important. Like, when I heard that, because I hadn't heard when he did it, and when Terry played it, I was like, it felt like a gut punch. I was like, ooh! Like to have somebody say that. You're trying to admit that you did something wrong, and then that person back to you goes, "Yeah, well, I did the same thing. So now, what you're asking me, you need to forgive me too."

Jill Riley: Yeah.

Jimmy Jam: There's something very cool about that. So that came out of the adversity, though, of the girls objecting to Lisa Keith being on the song.

Jill Riley: Yeah, Terry, do you have anything to add to that?

Terry Lewis: No, that was a pretty good summation. Other than I know that's reality. That's things that happen in real life that you see in real time, and just being able to be real with it, I think, is kind of what hit the spot for most people, because it's always both ways. You know? My mother used to say things like, you know, "You think you're out there getting it, and you're getting got. Who's making love to your old lady while you're out making love?" So, you know, those those kind of things are real, and people just don't write about them that way too often.

Jill Riley: Yeah. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis at The Current, and we are talking about a pretty huge year. You know, it's 2026, we're going back 40 years to 1986. We've been talking about Janet Jackson, Control. We've been talking about the Human League, the Crash album. Talking about the song "Human." Now the next group that I want to move on to, I think we could go back before 1986, and maybe the story will lead us a little bit back before we come back to 1986. But The S.O.S. Band, they are associated with, I would say, a pretty big turning point from going from the time to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis as a songwriting and production team. But in 1986, there was a song called "The Finest," which did quite well on the R&B chart, and so I wonder if maybe we should start with when you started working with The S.O.S. Band and what really that led to.

Jimmy Jam: So The S.O.S. Band was really very much pivotal to us. Clarence Avant, better known as the Black Godfather, for those that have Netflix, definitely check that documentary out. But Clarence Avant had Tabu Records, and The S.O.S. Band was on his label, and he said, "I want you guys to produce a couple songs on The S.O.S. Band." So we had to go to Atlanta to do it, and we were on Time — we were on tour with the Time and Prince for the 1999 tour. We were in New York. We had four days off. We said, "OK, let's go down to Atlanta and record." So we record, we end up getting caught in a snowstorm down there.

Jill Riley: In Atlanta?

Jimmy Jam: In Atlanta. And by the way, by the way, let me just make for the Minneapolis people, the Minnesota people, this is what we would call a dusting of snow. You wouldn't even take the shovel out. You'd maybe sweep the sidewalk off, but it shut the whole airport down. So it wasn't a snow. It was a snowstorm, not to us, but to them it was a snowstorm. We ended up missing the next gig, which was in San Antonio with the time. And so fast forward to the summertime, Prince calls us to the studio to Sunset Sound, and the same night we were supposed to be mixing the S.O.S. Band record at a different studio, but we of course we went to see Prince at Sunset Sound, and he said, "I told you guys not to produce other bands.”

And we said, "Yeah.”

And he said, "And you produced the S.O.S. Band?”

And we said, "Yeah.”

And he said, "So you're fired.”

We're like, "Oh, OK.” So I walked out. Terry tried to reason with him a little bit. Terry comes out, says, "Oh, what do you want to do?

"Well, might as well go to this other studio and mix the S.O.S. Band record.”

So we go to the studio called Larrabee Studio. The gentleman there was an engineer named Steve Hodge, and we had never met Steve before, but we knew him from the liner notes of songs that we really liked. So we knew we wanted him to mix our record, and we said, "Nice to meet you, Steve. He said, "Nice to meet you guys. What's wrong? And we said, "Oh, we just got fired from the time. He said, "Oh, that's messed up. He said, "Well, I don't think he have anything to worry about because this song here is a smash. He hits play, and the Steve Hodge mix of "Just Be Good to Me" comes out the speakers. So that ended up being our very first hit, and literally the day we got fired, we mixed our very first hit.

So that was '83. So now, fast forward. When we do “The Finest,” the thing that was interesting about that record in '86 was that that was probably one of the first records that what we heard in our minds is actually what ended up being the record. For me, that always felt like now I feel like we're real producers because I feel like what we hear in our mind now, we know how to execute it, and that record was actually really successful. You know that record. You know the record. I think one of our own records held us out of No. 1. I think the finest got to No. 2 on the chart, and it might have been, I don't know, there was “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” but it was a Janet record that held us out of No. 1. So we had the No. 1 and No. 2 records at the same time, which was pretty cool. But yeah, the S.O.S. Band was very pivotal in our career, the beginning of our career, and of course the continuation of it.

Jill Riley: Yeah, and and kind of getting you to this point where you you hear what you want to do, and then to be able to, like you've said, execute it and hear it back, like not just in your own mind. Now, when it comes to Jimmy Jam andTerry Lewis production team, when you guys got started and you got fired by Prince, but then you were able to move forward. That needed to happen for the two of you to move forward.

Jimmy Jam: Yeah.

Jill Riley: And I know that there wasn't a lot of time to sit around and think about it, but in order for the two of you to have continued on in the way you have, and even in those early days, did you kind of like make a deal with each other of like, "Hey, we're gonna work together, we're gonna be a team," like, "This is how we have to do it." Was there any kind of ground rules that you set down? Because I know that you're friends, but you're also going to be working together.

Terry Lewis: Yeah, we shook hands and said, "Whatever we do, 50-50." And that was our pact that we made with ourselves. We were fired, as you say, but I kind of rephrase it and say "freed" by Prince. But it was a ploy to kind of divide and conquer, actually, because then I was asked to come back.

Jill Riley: Just you?

Terry Lewis: Just me.

Jill Riley: OK.

Terry Lewis: And so, when Jellybean Johnson, rest in peace, called me and asked me, you know, "Would you want to come back? Because Prince wants you to come back and be part of the movie," whatever. And I said, "I'm I'm cool with that, but um, what about Jam?" He said, "He doesn't want Jam," and I was like, "Oh no, that's not gonna work for me. So y'all, y'all got it." And that was the end of that.

Jill Riley: Yeah.

Terry Lewis: And so we were off just doing productions from then on.

Jill Riley: From there, the handshake, that kind of gave me chills, quite frankly. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis at The Current, talking about the year 1986. There is one more song that I want to talk about because it's a song that it goes again. We might have to go back in time a little to bring it back to 1986. But the song, "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On," a song that the two of you wrote and produced. It was Cherrelle's debut single, debut single being a pretty big hit. So I wonder if we could get some background on that song and Cherrelle before we talk about the version of the song that went to No. 1 in 1986.

Jimmy Jam: OK. Well, yeah. So Cherrelle was once again Clarence Avant at Tabu Records. He said, "I got this artist I want you to meet." We met Cherrelle. We got along great, he said. "I want you to produce some songs on her." So we said, "Great." So we were at the time we were working in L.A. and Cherrelle was a background singer, so she hadn't really done a whole lot of lead work and a whole lot of in-the-studio stuff. And so when we started working with her, it was a lot of nervousness and a lot of clock-watching because the studios were super expensive, and it just kind of felt like a time crunch to us. And Clarence Avant had mentioned to us, you know, "When you're driving, don't look at the Hollywood sign or you'll crash." And that was like the metaphor that meant, "Don't get too in your head about Hollywood." And Terry said, "You know what, we should just move back to Minneapolis and work." And we found this little basement studio called Creation Audio. Of course, they're a you know big studio now, but they were just in the basement of a house, and we thought that sounds like the perfect place for us to just be creative and not worry about, you know, the high price of studios and all that kind of stuff. And I remember literally the first song that we did when we got back to Minneapolis and went down into Creation Audio was "Didn't Mean to Turn You On," or at least the track to it. We didn't know what it was going to be called, but we did the track. And once that song jumped off, and of course Cherrelle felt very comfortable coming to Minneapolis and recording in that environment because the pressure was off, and the fact that that song became a huge hit was great, you know. And it also — we talked about the Minneapolis Sound earlier — and as Terry said, you know, Prince is the Minneapolis Sound, and if you think of the trunk of the tree, if you think of the branches of the tree, to me, a song like "Didn't Mean to Turn You On" has those elements of the Minneapolis Sound with the synthesizers and those types of elements, but a little different, you know, but with the Jam and Lewis ingredient in there. So it was a pivotal record for us, and also for Tabu Records, which was Clarence Avant's company, and we really wanted to see Clarence be successful in a big way.

Jill Riley: Yeah, and speaking from the point of view of a woman here, I hear that song, and I'm like, oh, like, "Ladies, we've had this experience where, OK, yeah, we agree to go on a date, you take us out for dinner, but this isn't transactional. There's no guarantee for dessert here." You know what I mean? And you know, Terry, you were saying that, when we were talking about the song "Human," that there are these, like, very, you know, real-life moments, and I wonder from the point of view of you guys writing that song, had you had like conversations with ladies, girlfriends ... Where did you, like, draw ...? Because it's such a real, it's just such a real, and I know it's 2026 now, but that is still a very real thing that hangs in the air.

Terry Lewis: Right. Well, I was raised by women, so a lot of my upbringing was just seeing all the things that happen to women, and so I'm very comfortable writing for women from a woman's point of view, although I'm a man. Sfo that dynamic was always present. There was always a transactional attitude in every relationship that I saw, so it was really easy to construct those lyrics for Cherrelle because she just has a bubbly personality. Like, you want to like her, and she's really friendly. So it would give someone, like, the idea that she's easy, but she's not. So we just had to come up with the proper scope of things, and I think we did a really good job with that.

Jill Riley: Yeah, you know what? She shouldn't have to feel guilty for being so nice. Yeah.

Jimmy Jam: And I was trying to think, where the where did the saying come from? Do you remember that? I mean, we used to have what we called "The Book of Titles." So whenever we'd hear a phrase or something, we'd like we'd always write it down. But I can't remember somebody said that.

Terry Lewis: It might have been in a movie or something.

Jimmy Jam: Maybe so. There was somewhere it came [from], and we just loved the way that sounded, "I didn't mean to turn you on." It was like, OK, let's write that.

Jill Riley: Do you still have The Book of Titles on a shelf somewhere?

Terry Lewis: We still have it somewhere.

Jimmy Jam: We do. We absolutely do.

Jill Riley: Maybe in a safe somewhere.

Jimmy Jam: Yeah, sort of safe.

Terry Lewis: Yeah, I think we just have it somewhere.

Jimmy Jam: Yeah. Totally.

Jill Riley: Well, OK. So then, in 1986, Robert Palmer covered this song, and I listened to the Cherrelle version, and then I listened to the Robert Palmer version, and I was so confused by Robert Palmer's version. And just to note, like, that was a pretty major hit in 1986. But listening to it, I'm like, "I think he's missing the point here." Or I don't know if he was trying to be clever to turn it in a different direction of being, you know, from the man's point of view that he was going to take out a gal who maybe had a reputation for guaranteeing dessert, if you will, and then he's saying like, "No, no, we're not going to do ... " I'm sorry, you guys. I was just very confused by his take on the song when he covered it, and I wonder if you could talk about that a little bit, like what your reaction was to the changes that he made.

Jimmy Jam: I think we were confused, also.

Jill Riley: OK.

Jimmy Jam: Quite honestly. So we had gotten a call about that he wanted to redo the song, and he had redone quite a few songs, kind of R&B songs. He always enjoyed doing that. I remember he did "You Are in My System" by The System. He had redone that song and a couple of other ones. So, so he said, "I want to redo 'Didn't Mean to Turn You On.'" So he sent the demo of the song, and I just remember we put it on, and he's going, "You read me wrong ..." And we were like, "Hmm." So I don't think we ever got back to him with an answer, like a yes or a no. It just kind of went away because we were because we were busy doing other things.

So now fast forward, we're in our studio in Minneapolis. Now we now we're at our own, we have our own studio at this point. We built our own studio. And we would always, on the TV, we'd always have MTV or BET. We'd always have something on. I think we had MTV on, and he had already had "Addicted to Love," right, which was the first single with the girls with, you know, all wearing the white and and doing the dance and the band type of thing, which was great. So I remember looking at the screen, and all of a sudden, it was the same thing, but the girls were all in black. And I thought, "Oh wow, that must be his new single." But we didn't have the sound on, so we're just looking at the picture. Then the chyron comes up after, you know, the song's over, and it says, "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On,' Robert Palmer," and we went, "What??" We had no idea he had even done the song, and when we heard it, it sounded just like the demo.

Bernard Edwards, who was now Nile Rodgers’ partner, Bernard Edwards actually produced a version of it, and now I totally get it. I love it now. And that was another one, that song got to No. 2. Also, I can't remember what held it out of No. 1, but it went to No. 2. I do remember that, and I think No. 1 in the U.K. probably. But yeah, it ended up being a huge record, and it was great. And a cool thing we did. So Terry and I got honored at the T.J. Martell Foundation in New York, and rather than doing the traditional dinner, we put on a concert, and I remember we had Boys II Men, and we had a whole bunch of different people. We even reunited with The Time and played for I think our last $100,000 we wanted to raise, and we did that. We said, "If we raise $100,000, we'll get together and perform," and we did. And I think we raised like $5 million for that. So it was great. So, but what was cool about it, it's the only time that "Didn't Mean to Turn You On" was done as a duet with Cherrelle and Robert Palmer.

Jill Riley: Wow.

Jimmy Jam: We had them do it together.

Jill Riley: OK.

Jimmy Jam: And that's the only time that ever — and we can't find ... We were thinking there was probably a tape somewhere that existed of it, but we haven't been able to find it. But that's the one time that that song was done together with the both of them at the same time.

Jill Riley: Yeah. Well, and perhaps the tweak in the lyrics didn't exactly work lyrically, but it clearly hit sonically. I mean, it's such a catchy song, that, and Robert Palmer was such a big star at the time, that it makes sense. It just, it was a real head-scratcher for me. So if I had to choose, I'm gonna go with the Cherrelle version. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, it is not every day that we have hitmakers, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, and again, just such a pride coming out of Minnesota. And so I just say, you know, cheers to you, welcome back home, and here's to another 40 years.

Jimmy Jam: Thank you. We look forward to it.

Jill Riley: Wonderful, gentlemen. Thank you so much, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on The Current.

Jimmy Jam: Cool.

Jill Riley: Thank you so much for the conversation.

Credits

Guests – Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
Host – Jill Riley
Producers – Derrick Stevens, Nilufer Arsala
Video & Audio – Josh Sauvageau
Video Edit; Digital Production – Luke Taylor

External Link

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis – official site