Source: Entertainment Weekly

Jellybean Johnson, the drummer for the Prince-shepherded Minneapolis funk group the Time, has died.

A representative for the musician confirmed that he died on Friday at age 69 in a press release to Entertainment Weekly. The musician’s family also shared a statement with local Fox affiliate KSMP on Saturday.

“The family of Jellybean Johnson is deeply saddened by the passing of their beloved husband and father,” they wrote. “Jellybean was an innovator of what became known across the world as the Minneapolis sound … [and] the only drummer the Time ever had from inception to the current day. Jellybean loved his family, his friends, and the city of Minneapolis.”

The Minneapolis Sound Museum, a nonprofit institution Johnson co-founded in 2021, also memorialized the musician.

“It is with profound sadness that the Minneapolis Sound Museum announces the passing of our founder, spokesperson, and guiding light, Garry ‘Jellybean’ Johnson, on Nov. 21, 2025,” the museum said. “Jellybean was more than a musical icon — he was a devoted grandfather, father, friend, and family member whose warmth and spirit touched everyone he met. The world is quieter without his guitar, and the drumbeat he set in motion within our hearts has fallen still.”

Born in 1956 in Chicago, Johnson moved to Minneapolis as a child, and began playing drums and guitar as a teenager. He attended the University of Minnesota and was a drummer for the band Flyte Tyme, from which Prince recruited members for his new funk-pop group the Time. The outfit also featured keyboardists Jimmy Jam and Monte Moir, guitarists Tony Johnson and Jesse Johnson, saxophonist David Eiland, bassist Terry Lewis, and lead singer Morris Day.

Prince produced the group’s self-titled 1981 debut album and its 1982 follow-up, What Time Is It, under the pseudonym Jamie Starr, writing almost every song himself and handling the majority of their instrumental recordings. The “Kiss” singer also oversaw the band’s 1984 album, Ice Cream Castle, though he credited himself as The Starr ★ Company on that record and allowed the other musicians to contribute more to the recordings.

The group opened for Prince on multiple tours in the early ’80s and appeared in his 1984 film, Purple Rain. After Day quit the group and Jesse Johnson also went solo, the remaining members reformed into the Family, releasing a self-titled album in 1985 that was mostly orchestrated and performed by Prince. That record featured the ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U,” which would become a worldwide smash five years later when Sinéad O’Connor released her cover of it.

The Family disintegrated shortly after that album, but Johnson continued working with his former bandmates Lewis and Jimmy Jam as they wrote and produced songs for other artists throughout the ’80s and ’90s.

The Time reunited for their 1990 album, Pandemonium, which finally allowed them to exert more influence over their recordings, though Prince still co-wrote several of its songs and oversaw its corresponding film, Graffiti Bridge. The group disbanded again shortly after, but they reunited for a performance featuring Rihanna at the 2008 Grammys and subsequently released another album, 2011’s Condensate, under the new name the Original 7ven.

Johnson produced Janet Jackson’s 1990 hit single “Black Cat” as well as other hits, like New Edition’s “Crucial” and Mint Condition’s “Breakin’ My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes).” He also toured as a guitarist for Ronnie Baker Brooks from 2003 to 2012.

Johnson finally released his first solo album, Get Experienced, in 2021.

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