feature: black punk history—jean beauvoir, the ultimate renaissance man

In today’s installation of Black Punk History we’d like to shout-out multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and music executive Jean Beauvoir! Most readily known for his presence in the Plasmatics which launched his surprising and long-lasting career. 

As a teenager, Beauvior was playing both the drums and the bass before becoming Gary U.S. Bond’s musical director by age 14—NBD. After several years of touring with doo-wop group The Flamingos, Beauvior moved to NYC where he responded to a newspaper ad for a punk-rock band, the Plasmatics, that was seeking a new bassist. Beauvior got the gig and ended up playing with them for two albums before leaving to join Steven Van Zandt’s Little Steven & the Disciples of Sou. In the coming years, Beauvior would dabble in a fairly successful solo career, on Virgin Records, and a collaboration with Sylvester Stallone for his film ‘Cobra’. Noticing a pattern? For the next three decades, Beauvior kinda did whatever the hell he wanted—writing, producing, and preforming with KISS, Ramones, The Pretenders, Deborah Harry, Lionel Richie, Nona Hendryx, N’SYNC and many more. More recently, Beauvoir was CEO/Managing Director of Steven Van Zandt’s media and entertainment company, Renegade Nation for six plus years, he founded and remains CEO/President of Universal Music Group subdivision, Voodoo Island Entertainment Group, and still performs, writes for, and produces for a range of acts.

And while, I guess, it’s fair to acknowledge that collaborating with the likes of Sly Stallone and N’SYNC might not sound like ultra-cool punkiness, I’m hard pressed to think of anything more punk than making whatever kind of music you feel like making without giving a crap about whether or not you’re hardcore enough.

By Erin White*, AFROPUNK contributor

*Erin White is an Atlanta-based writer and AFROPUNK’s editorial and social media assistant. You can follow her on Tumblr or friend her on Facebook. Have a pitch or an inquiry? Shoot her an email at erin@afropunk.com.