JEAN'S BIO
Beauvoir was born in Chicago to Haitian parents. He played drums and sang and as a child and switched to bass and vocals as a teenager due to his parents lack of tolerance. He was discovered by Gary U.S. Bond's manager whilst performing at a local Long Island club with his band and was offered the position of musical director at age 15. He was then invited to join the classic Doo Wop group The Flamingos, (I Only Have Eyes For You) as the youngest singer/member. He gained his first music experiences with these groups touring the US performing at Dick Clark revival concerts across America. He moved to New York City during the punk rock explosion and answered a newspaper ad for a bassist, which led to his joining The Plasmatics for the most important years of the bands career.
During his time with the group, The Plasmatics went on to dominate the worldwide press and performed to millions around the world with their legendary stage antics and rebellious punk rock message. While with the Plasmatics and subsequently, Beauvoir sported a memorable Blonde Mohawk, which became his trademark for years to come. His look has been celebrated in Children’s cartoons, animations, TV shows and many celebrities have paid homage to Beauvoir for decades including Sly Stone who channeled Beauvoir’s look at the 2006 Grammy Awards as written in the press “La Weekly” etc.
He left the group after their release Beyond the Valley of 1984, advice that had been given to him by David Lee Roth, based on some internal info he shared with Roth. Beauvoir passed on offers from Prince and Billy Idol to pursue his solo career, but unable to find a label who would sign a Plasmatic who wanted to sing, he was convinced by Steve Van Zandt to join his group Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul for two albums and toured extensively with the group. This showed the world a different side of Beauvoir’s talent and added credibility to the mix. Yet still anxious to pursue a solo career, he departed and was introduced to manager Gary Kurfirst (The Eurythmics, Talking Heads) and Richard Branson of Virgin Records UK who saw the potential and offered Beauvoir his own label to record his first solo album in 1985 “Drums Along the Mohawk”.
He was granted full artistic freedom and a substantial deal to join Virgin. Beauvoir chose to record the album initially at media Sound in NY and then moved to ABBA’s Polar Studio in Sweden by special invite from the ABBA camp, who had actually offered Beauvoir a singles deal prior to him signing with Branson and Kurfirst. The album featured Beauvoir playing all instruments, producing and writing except for a few guest appearances by Mick Jones (Foreigner) and Tommy Lafferty, who worked with Beauvoir for many years. The album was released in the UK and the rest of the world with Beauvoir and Kurfirst retaining the rights for the US. That same year, the track, "Feel the Heat" was coincidentally chosen by Sylvester Stallone for his film COBRA and also as the lead song/trailer for the largest worldwide advertising/promotional campaign for a Hollywood film to date.
Al Teller, president of Columbia Records in the US spotted Beauvoir’s talent and immediately offered him a deal for the US making Beauvoir a priority release. The song was a hit, charting Top 10 across Europe and Australia and also entered the Billboard Hot 100. The video was on heavy rotation on MTV, VH1 for months in the US and also across the globe, which gave him the notoriety he had worked so hard for.
Beauvoir recorded two solo albums for Columbia and Virgin then decided to move on to pursue a group project he had in mind, “Voodoo X”, based on his Voodoo roots of Haiti. Columbia signed Voodoo X internationally out of the UK for the world and they began recording with Beauvoir and Max Norman producing with Uwe Fahrenkrog Petersen from Germany’s Nena onboard as keyboard player. Being a prolific writer/ producer, Beauvoir found time to produce/co-write with acts such as Kiss, John Waite, Ramones, Nona Hendryx, Cameo, The Pretenders, Deborah Harry, Lionel Richie, Nile Rogers, Doro, Carole Davis, Glenn Hughes, N'SYNC and others.
Beauvoir recalls that he was thrilled when he was pulled from the audience by Lionel Richie’s security and invited to take photos whilst being complemented by Lionel Richie with a special message from Michael Jackson stating that they were proud of him for his foresight and carrying the rock torch for black Artists, allowing them the freedom to explore self-expression doing music that was against the grain and adhering to a visual image that would open the door for so many to follow suit in the future.
Beauvoir has been able to maintain his integrity and credibility with audiences, press, labels, other artists and musicians whilst straddling different music genres.
He has appeared on over 500 albums and has collaborated with 5 Artists who have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, Beauvoir and The Plasmatics have recently been placed on exhibit in the Hall of Fame. Beauvoir has sold in excess of 40 million records as an Artist, Producer and Songwriter. Following the hugely acclaimed Voodoo X album that to date is still considered one of the best hard rock albums of the era, Beauvoir was called by record mogul Jimmy Iovine of Interscope Records and asked to record a new solo record.
At the time, Beauvoir was exploring a new project with fellow musicians Tony Thompson (Chic, Led Zeppellin, David Bowie, Madonna) and Micki Free (Shalamar).
Beauvoir suggested this project in lieu of a solo album, Jimmy Iovine agreed, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS were brought on board and Jean’s group Crown Of Thorns was signed for a much publicized record breaking deal. Other labels came forth with competing offers, but Interscope emerged as the winner.
Prince, a long time fan of Beauvoir's work offered to top the deal, providing Beauvoir would make a change to the lineup, which he did not agree to make. The album was recorded for Interscope, but due to a very sudden climate change in the industry “grunge”, it was decided that the album would not be released in the US. International labels caught wind of this news and immediately made offers to release the record around the world. The album was released in 1994 around the world through various labels and remained on the UK rock charts for 6 months alongside the international success and acclaim that the album received around the world.
This led to extensive touring in support throughout Europe including a stadium tour with Bon Jovi who was also a fan of Beauvoir’s previous solo works. Other acts on the bill were Van Halen and Slash. Crown of Thorns recorded 7 albums to date, with the last release “Faith” in 2008 through Frontiers and Sony Red in the US. Songs from this release gained heavy rotation airplay on rock radio, Sirius XM and are also featured in MTV’s “ROCK BAND” game.
Both Beauvoir’s hard rock groups have achieved significant success in the rest of the world and Beauvoir has earned a multitude of Platinum and Gold awards for his work in the US and abroad.
Beauvoir has made hundred’s of TV appearances throughout the years and has been photographed by legendary photographer’s including Annie Leibowitz for a worldwide Polaroid campaign, Lynn Goldsmith, Mark Weiss and many others per their request due to his iconic look.
In addition to his film music work with Sylvester Stallone, his credit list includes title tracks or theme songs for the movies Pet Semetary from Stephen King's novel, Wes Craven’s blockbuster Shocker, Flawless (with Robert De Niro), School of Rock (with Jack Black), Christmas with the Kranks (with Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd), The Guilty (with Bill Pullman), Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever, Why Him? (with James Franco), Berlin Nights (with Gabriela Tscherniack), RV (with Robin Williams) and Unthinkable (with Samuel Jackson). More films to come…
Beauvoir founded and serves as CEO/President of Voodoo Island Entertainment Group whose divisions included Voodoo Island Records and Voodoo Island Productions. Over the course of his professional career, he has created joint venture partnerships with industry luminaries such as Richard Branson, Al Teller, Ted Fields, Jimmy Iovine, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Hartwig Masuch, Martin Bandier, Lance Freed and others. Beauvoir is also the founder and CEO/President of Hot Boy Music and Tigre Noire Music. Beauvoir’s worldwide music catalogue contains over 600 published titles currently administered by Universal Music Publishing.
For 6 + years, Beauvoir took a break from music and was recruited by Steven Van Zandt to serve as CEO/Managing Director of his media and entertainment company, Renegade Nation, who’s operations include terrestrial and Sirius XM Satellite radio programming, live event and television production, record label operations, music licensing, merchandising and online ventures.
Beauvoir and Van Zandt worked together to lend their talents and experience in the effort to help up and coming Artists get exposure through these various channels. Beauvoir decided he was missing the creative aspect of music and left Renegade in 2011 to once again pursue his musical ambitions.
He negotiated a new publishing deal with Universal Music who acquired Beauvoir’s catalogue from BMG.
Since, he produced tracks for the “Joey Ramone” post humous album “Ya Know” released by BMG in 2012. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/joey-ramone-rocks-again-on-new-lp-20120221 and has been actively writing and producing for other Artists, his most recent successes are with the Artist "Vivi Jiang" (Fashion Show) #15 Global Pop Charts China April, 2013 and with the SHINEE mini album "Everybody" which was number #1 on multiple charts across ASIA as of October 15, 2013, #5 US iTunes and #2 Billboard World Charts in November 2013.
BILLBOARD # 1! February 2015, Beauvoir enters the US Billboard World Album Charts once again at #1 with the Korean superstar “Jonghyun”. They reached the #1 position in the world on ITunes in addition to topping the charts across Asia with the album and the single “Crazy Guilty Pleasure”.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/k-town/6450299/shinee-jonghyun-base-no-1-world-albums-chart
Beauvoir’s music is also featured in the world’s first Hologram Musical in the being staged in Seoul, “School Oz”.
http://www.koreatimesus.com/worlds-first-hologram-musical-to-be-put-on-in-south-korea/
He has contributed his writing and lead vocals to two other upcoming musicals developed by Andreas Carlsson (Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion, N’Sync, Brittney Spears, Westlife and Uwe Fahrenkrog Petersen from (Nena). Beauvoir participated in a charity song where he is a featured lead vocalist produced and written by Dick Wagner entitled “If I had the time”. The song also features Mark Farner (Grand Funk Railroad) and an amazing lineup of other legendary Artists who have donated their time to benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
Beauvoir has been featured legendary rock lead vocalists albums including “Voices Of Rock”, which also featured Joe Lynn Turner, Robin Beck, Dan Reed, Paul Shortino, David Reece, Tony Martin, James Christian and others. Beauvoir is also a featured Lead vocalist and songwriter on the recent (2015) “Radioactive - Legends of Rock” album produced by renown guitarist Tommy Denander, (Michael Jackson, Alice Cooper and many more), which features numerous icons including Steve Walsh, Fergie Fredrickson, Bobby Kimball, Dan Reed, Jimmi Jamison, Robin Beck and others.
In addition to his musical works, Jean was instrumental in the realization of the Internationally successful Norwegian TV series “LilyHammer” starring Steven Van Zandt. He was recruited in 2014 by “Lilyhammer’s” Executive Producer Lasse Hallberg to Executive Produce another "Hit" Television show for SBS Discovery Television Scandinavia, featuring the award winning comedian "Kristian Valen". Beauvoir added an International flavor to the show filming in LA and bringing in guests such as Sharon Stone, William Shatner, Lita Ford, Steven Bauer (Scarface, Ray Donovan and Esai Morales (La Bamba, NYPD Blue). The show was the highest rated show in the country upon its release.
Beauvoir also released an album June 2015 on Frontiers/Universal with his previous partner Micki Free under the project name BEAUVOIR/FREE. The album is co-written by Beauvoir and Free. Beauvoir produced, engineered and played all instruments on this release sharing guitar tasks with Free. The latest Classic Rock Magazine “AOR” which features Aerosmith, Foreigner and Bryan Adams includes a 5 page retrospective story on Beauvoir’s career. The album has received 9 out of 10 reviews from all the major rock magazines, including Classic Rock UK.
He has toured extensively throughout his career from the age of 14, where he started as Gary US Bond’s musical director, to lead singer of The Flamingos at 16, to the legendary punk band The Plasmatics, Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul (Bruce Springsteen), as a solo artist and also with his bands Crown of Thorns and Voodoo X. Jean has performed as a headliner, as special guest to artist such as Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Tina Turner, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, The Who (US Tour), Eurhythmics etc. and at many major festivals throughout the world, such as the US Festival, Hard Rock Calling, Sweden Rock, Bang Your Head, Rock Am Ring, Rockpalast, Graspop, Ramblin’ Man, Heat Festival and many others. Venues include Wembley Stadium, Nassau Coliseum, Don Valley Stadium UK, Cardiff Arms Park, Georg Melches Stadium, CA Greek Theater, Red Rocks, Pier 84, Seattle Coliseum, Pacific Amphitheater, Richfield Coliseum and many more.
In 2022 Jean released his long awaited life story book called “Bet My Soul on Rock 'n' Roll: Diary of a Black Punk Icon” through the publisher Chicago Review Press and he’s also currently working on an upcoming documentary.
Beauvoir serves on the advisory boards of the Naples Film Festival (NIFF) and also AMB, Academy of Music and Business (created by legendary songwriter Andreas Carlson), alongside other legendary writers (Desmond Child, David Foster, Dallas Austin and several other industry luminaries...
As a philanthropist, Beauvoir runs a 501C3 foundation, which he formed after the destruction of his family owned medical clinic in Haiti. The “Beauvoir Haiti Foundation” who’s focus is initiatives for the awareness and betterment of the people in his native country Haiti.