Jean Beauvoir

Biography

Beauvoir was born in Chicago to parents of Haitian background. He played drums as a child and switched to bass as a teenager. He was Gary U.S. Bonds' musical director at age 14; following this, he sang in the doo wop group The Flamingos. He gained his first music experiences with these groups touring the US performing at Dick Clark revival concerts. 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 two albums. While with the Plasmatics and subsequently, Beauvoir sported a conspicuous blond mohawk.

He left the group after their release Beyond the Valley of 1984 to join Steve Van Zandt's Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul for two albums. Following this, he launched a solo career with the album Drums Along the Mohawk, released in the U.K. on Virgin Records in 1986. That same year, the track "Feel the Heat" was chosen by Sylvester Stallone for his film, Cobra. The song was a hit, charting Top 10 across Europe and Australia and reaching No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100. On the strength of the single, Drums Along the Mohawk was released in the U.S. and peaked at No. 93 on the Billboard 200. Jean Beauvoir's success has always been much greater in the rest of the world than in the US.

Beauvoir released several further solo albums since the late 1980s. Since then he has also written, produced for, and performed with acts such as Kiss, John Waite, Ramones, Nona Hendryx, The Pretenders, Deborah Harry, Lionel Richie, Doro and N'SYNC. He has appeared on over 100 albums over the past two decades. He has also fronted the bands Voodoo X and Crown of Thorns, which was originally signed to Interscope Records for a much publicized record breaking deal. Both these hard rock groups have achieved significant success in the rest of the world. Beauvoir has earned a multitude of Platinum and Gold awards for his work in the US and abroad and is ranked in the "Top 50 Most Influential Black Rock Artists Of All Time", by Guitar World Magazine.

Beauvoir produced and co-wrote the critically acclaimed Ramones song "My Brain Is Hanging", originally titled "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg". The emotionally charged commentary on the Bitburg controversy from earlier that year, in which U.S. president Ronald Reagan had paid a state visit to a German World War II cemetery where numerous Waffen-SS soldiers were buried. The song received the New York Music Award for best independent single of 1985. Rolling Stone's David Fricke called the song "brilliant". He wrote that it "vividly captures the sense of helplessness and confusion felt by rock youth in the Age of Reagan". In his book Music: What Happened?, Scott Miller includes it among his list of best songs from 1986, while Salon's Wyman retrospectively describes it as "the group's greatest song and [Joey's] greatest vocal performance".

In addition to his film music work with Sylvester Stallone, his credit list includes the 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, Berlin Nights (with Gabriela Tscherniack), RV (with Robin Williams) and Unthinkable (with Samuel Jackson).

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 veterans such as Richard Branson, Al Teller, Ted Fields, Jimmy Iovine, Lance Freed, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Hartwig Masuch 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 250 published titles currently administered by Rondor/Universal.

For 6 ¹⁄₂ years, Jean served as CEO/Managing Director of Steven Van Zandt’s media and entertainment company, Renegade Nation, whose operations include terrestrial and Sirius XM Satellite radio programming, live event and television production, record label operations, music licensing, merchandising and an online social networking venture.

Beauvoir was responsible for all aspects of Renegade Nation’s initiatives, which included the programming, management of staff, and coordination of two 24/7 Channels on Sirius XM Satellite, “Outlaw Country” and “Little Steven’s Underground Garage”. Negotiation of all agreements with artists, talent agents, managers, record companies, TV networks e.g., ESPN and VH1, retail outlets e.g., Best Buy and FYE, worldwide music distributors, brands/sponsors including Pepsi, AT&T, Dunkin Donuts, Rolling Rock, Budweiser, Hard Rock International, Olympus and others…

Beauvoir oversaw all events executed by Renegade in coordination with Steven Van Zandt including, Hard Rock/Underground Garage concerts and events, ESPN and Underground Garage New Year’s Eve in Times Squares NY, broadcast on ABC, Hawaiian Tropic weekly events in Times Square, Honda Grand Prix/Underground Garage in St Petersburg Florida, UG at SXSW, Teen Vogue at the Hard Rock and all UG national tours including the “Rolling Rock and Roll Tour” sponsored by Rolling Rock and AT&T.

He also negotiated personal agreements for Steven Van Zandt e.g., Lilyhammer, World Of Warcraft (TV commercial), IMG and others.

Beauvoir continues to produce, write and lead his group Crown of Thorns. Crown of Thorns re-released their 2008 CD "Faith" on June 9, 2009 here in the US through Lost Cathedral Sony Red. Crown Of Thorns is more so an alias for Beauvoir's works and he is currently working on a long-awaited solo album.

He continues to write and produce for other Artists, his most recent successes are with the Artist "Jonghyun" January 2015, EP "Base", who reached #1 on the Billboard World Album Charts, #1 iTunes World Album Chart and #1 on multiple charts around the world. "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.

2014 - Beauvoir was Executive Producers of the "Hit" Television show for SBS Discovery Television featuring the comedian "Kristian Valen", he also released an album "American Trash" worldwide through the label Frontiers Records with Micki Free under the project name Beauvoir/Free in June 2015.

May 2015, Beauvoir was recruited as US CEO of the Norwegian children's animated property, City of Friends. The internationally successful company has released 52 HD episodes plus Christmas and Halloween specials in over 200 countries around the world. The company also boasts an extensive merchandising/product line, 42 books released to date, apps, an arena live show and is currently working on an upcoming film. Beauvoir has since resigned from this position.

In 2016 it was disclosed that Beauvoir would appear at the three-day Rockingham 2016 melodic/hard rock festival, held in Nottingham, United Kingdom. He appeared on Saturday 22 October, second to the headliner, headlined by Steelheart. Beauvoir also appeared at Bang Your Head Festival, Germany 2016, Graspop Festival, Belgium 2016, Azkena Rock Festival, Spain 2016 and made a special invited appearance at Ramblin Man Fair, UK 2016.

Beauvoir serves on the advisory boards of the Naples Film Festival (NIFF) and also AMB, Academy of Music and Business with Desmond Child and David Foster (created by songwriter Andreas Carlsson).

The Plasmatics

Solo

Crown of Thorns

Voodoo X

Beauvoir-Free

Productions, Songwriting and Performances (other artists)

Nona Hendryx "Mutatis Mundtatis" (Producer/Songwriter and All Instruments)

Film - Television - Video

Post-Production 2018 Release Date