All Photos: Alan Mercer Lighting: Eric V
He retired performing as 'Marilyn' in 1997. Currently, he performs voice impressions of female singers such as: Cher, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Eartha Kitt, Patsy Cline, Bette Davis, Macy Gray, Stevie Nicks, Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli.
His recent self-penned dance music album "JAMESTOWN" has garnered 4 & 5 star ratings on 'iTunes' and 'Amazon.' The concept album spawned a hit song entitled 'Fashionista' which has been used or licensed to television, film, fashion shows and more.
After 15 years in New York City, he recently moved to Los Angeles, CA where we did our photo session and talked about what is going on right now. Eric Venturo and I had a great time working with Jimmy on his new photos. I have loved Jimmy James since he started his career so it is with real joy that I share this blog with you!
AM: Jimmy, what brought you to Los Angeles?
JJ: Well, after I recorded my latest album 'Jamestown' and 'Fashionista' hit the world I wanted to be here for the media in Hollywood. I shot a reality show and they're shopping that around. But besides that I wanted to be back in California where all show business happens.
AM: How did 'Fashionista' come about?
JJ: I wrote this song and I thought it was weird. I played the song for the music producers I was working with over the phone and they said come down to the studio tomorrow and that's how it happened. I thought it would never see the light of day. It turned out to be the hit of the album. I can't judge what will be a hit. I have no idea.
AM: Jimmy don't you think you're 'ahead of your time' most of the time?
JJ: When I was doing Marilyn I started this look-a-like stuff and then I invented 'Beverly the Slut' who was a woman who knew her own sexuality and she was not afraid to show it. It was a little too ahead of it's time because it was 1992. Many years later we see Britney and Paris Hilton but I was showing my vagina long before they were! (much laughter)
AM: What was growing up in Texas like?
JJ: It was great, but I wanted to be in show business so I wanted out of Texas. The other thing is my physicality. Everywhere I went people thought I was a girl. That was hard for me to deal with. I wasn't exactly transgender. I didn't exactly want to be a girl. It was kind of annoying for people to always think that I was a girl. Today it still happens but I'm acclimated to it now. I'm fine with it. It's actually funny. At the time it was hard because I was a teenager and I looked like a girl.
AM: Do you think there are more transgender people today or are we just more open minded and aware now?
JJ: I think God has no sex. I think God is a combination of both male and female. That is my theory. He obviously loved women and men. He made the two. I think if you feel more comfortable in the opposite sex then you should do it. I always wanted to fit in. I wound up looking like a girl not because I wanted to, it's just the way I was born. Talk about creation, that's the way I was made. I understand the struggles people have. If you're a boy and identify more as being a female then you should be female. I don't think there's any big deal.
AM: I don't either. What do you think about this horrible trend of teenage suicides going on?
JJ: There's a campaign going on right now that it gets better and you know what, it does get better. I was made fun of in school for my voice being too high but it's the one thing that's brought me all my gold. As a voice impressionist who does voices of famous ladies that's the one thing that made me a huge success. It does get better and all those people who were bullying you are going to be the idiot dorks later in life because they are so full of themselves right now. You stay humble. Keep your eye on the prize. Move forward and you go out to live your dreams the best you can. These people who bully you are going to fall by the way side. I've seen it a million times with the people from school who made fun of my voice who are nothing now and I'm out living my dreams. It does get better. High school and teenage years are very difficult. Even nineteen and twenty year olds. You'll find yourself.
AM: Was it like this for you as a teenager or was it easier?
JJ: I did have thoughts of suicide when I was younger. I did because I felt like I was born a boy but I look like a girl. That was not of my own design. That was just nature that made me that way. Knowing that killing yourself was a sin, I couldn't do it. I came from a very strict Catholic family. Suicide is not an issue but I did think as a teenager that I wanted to kill myself.
AM: Was it because of religion that you didn't kill yourself?
JJ: No, it was Joan Rivers on 'The Tonight Show.' She had a hard time growing up and I remember her saying, "It gets better. It will all turn around later. Just hang in there." So I remember that. It had nothing to do with religion. Years later as fate would have it I was a guest on her talk show.
AM: Did you tell her this story?
JJ: No I didn't have a chance because she was so amazed by what I was doing she wanted me to do more impressions and more impressions. She wound up kicking off Rue McClanahan. Poor Rue, this was 1991. That was an important part of my life because it took somebody like that to say, it's going to be fine, and it is...going to be fine. You're going to pull out of it. Don't kill yourself. Your life is precious. You were made and your life is precious.
AM: Since you grew up Catholic did you have any religious conflicts?
JJ: Well you see a lot of sin in the Catholic Church! You see Priests who fall short of the Grace of God! I don't put much credence in that.
AM: You never did?
JJ: No, eventually....no.
AM: What are you doing now?
JJ: I'm in Los Angeles writing songs. Working with new producers and hopefully to put my own music out there. My own music is what I want to write, it's not voice impressions. I still do the voice impressions and I love the voice impressions, it's fun. I still have shows where I do that, but there are some clubs who hire me just to do my own music which is great and I love that.
AM: You write all your music correct?
JJ: I write all my dance music. It's all mine.
AM: Your lyrics are personal aren't they?
JJ: My lyrics are very personal. Even 'Fashionista is personal. Everything I mention in the designer rack are all designers I've been fascinated with at some point or another. I wanted to fit all the people I love in there but I couldn't do it. 'Kissing A Fraud' is a part of my life. Something tragic happened with an affair I was having and I wrote about it. 'Famous' is another one of mine. It's about the game of fame, not necessarily lusting for fame, but the game of fame. You have to have a certain amount of fame to continue doing what you love to do. There's a bit of a trade off. I'm essentially a very private person.
AM: I remember you on all the shows! I've seen you everywhere.
JJ: I did 'Geraldo,' 'Sally,' 'Joan Rivers' and 'Donahue.' A lot of talk shows because back then you only had four channels. Those were the variety shows because there really weren't even that many variety shows anymore. The talk shows were "it" to get on so I could get on those shows. Then it changed from impersonators to who beat up your cousin or slept with your brother. It got real messy so then I couldn't be on those shows anymore.
AM: You had to refocus.
JJ: I always kept my eye on music. Music was the most important thing. I wanted to evolve. I didn't want to be stuck. How sad would it be if I was still doing Marilyn at sixty or seventy? It's impossible. She died at thirty-six so there are no photographs of me past the age of thirty six performing as Marilyn. I stopped it then. Once I got on the billboard in Times Square with Linda Evangelista...in the center of Times Square under the Sony Jumbotron, I'd done it! That's as far as I want to take the look-a-like thing. In the real scheme of show business it's not that well respected, but if you can write and sing your own music, you have it published, anytime a TV show wants to use my music they have to pay me. It feels really good to "own" your own music.
AM: Your own anything, your own art.
JJ: Your own art.
AM: You certainly are a good musician. Do you think your flamboyance gets in the way of the music?
JJ: Not in dance music. I like dance music because there is a flexibility with all kinds of images that you can present to an audience. It suits me better.
AM: Yet the ballad version of 'Kissing A Fraud' is one of the most powerful vocal performances I've heard by any artist.
JJ: A lot of dance music starts as a ballad and turns into a dance mix. This started the other way. The dance song came first and I went and made the ballad because I didn't think the label would like it. They did like it so they put it on the single. It's a true story that is very dark.
AM: I think darker than any of your other lyrics.
JJ: What I went through emotionally was very dark. I needed a way to express it and pull through. I should have gone to a shrink but I used my music to work through it.
To learn more about Jimmy James visit his web site http://www.jimmyjames.com/
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