The Original 7ven’s Jimmy Jam – HuffPost 11.15.11

Mike Ragogna: Jimmy, do you have any advice that you would give to new artists?

Jimmy Jam: First off, I think it’s always a good thing to be able to play an instrument. It’s not a necessity, but I think it’s good to know your way around a keyboard or a guitar or something. I think if you’re going to make music, it’s cool to be able to do that. Nowadays, it’s really easy to make a record on your laptop without having to know how to play anything, and there’s a song on our album called, “If I Was Your Man” that came out of my laptop on a family skiing vacation because I don’t ski. So, I’m not against technology or anything like that, I’m just saying that for me, the technology aspect always has to be rooted in the fact that I’m a musician and I think that’s important. The other thing that I would tell people is to be prepared. It sounds cliché, but when Prince told us that if we put a band together he could get us a record deal, we could have said we weren’t ready because we hadn’t been practicing or whatever, but that would have been the end of it for us. Instead, we said, “Okay, let’s go!” So, when people tell me that they’re waiting for their big break or waiting to be noticed, I tell them to take the word “waiting” out of their vocabulary and substitute it with the word “preparing.” Say “I’m preparing for my break,” because that implies when your break comes, you’ll be ready to take it to the next level. I am the Chairman Emeritus of the Grammys and I go and talk to kids a lot in schools. They know I’m coming to speak to them and when I ask them who has a demo or a card with a link to their music or Facebook and only three or four hands go up out of hundreds of kids, that’s not being prepared. Even if you don’t like the music that I make or know who I am, ask your parents about me and get something together for me to listen to. It doesn’t mean I’m gonna actually get to listen to it, but it’s about you being prepared. So, even though it may not seem like a big deal, whatever it is you want to do, make sure you’re prepared to do it at all times. If you got a call from me saying that I wanted you to come and audition for my good friend Eli Reed in an hour, if your response is that you can’t be ready in an hour but you could be ready in three, you’re done before you even start. You have to be prepared.