Jellybean Johnson is Minneapolis music royalty. The drummer for the Time also leads the Jellybean Johnson Experience. Plus, he played with Prince, and co-produced the hit song “Black Cat” with Janet Jackson. Now, he's the co-founder of the Minneapolis Sound Museum.

Johnson spoke with Jill Riley, host of The Current’s Morning Show.

JILL RILEY: What is the Minneapolis sound?

JELLYBEAN JOHNSON: The Minneapolis sound is Prince. But also those of us who grew up with him and played with him and pushed him and one another to be great. We are the Minneapolis Sound, too. So this place is a place for the rest of us. I'm going to build a museum to honor this music that we created as kids growing up on the North Side of Minneapolis. Due to the politics of race, we were limited where we could play, especially if our bands were primarily Black. So, it was hard, but we persevered.

What is your vision for the Minneapolis Sound Museum?

We lost Prince five years ago, and I lost my son Regal in April to this thing that took Prince. So Prince left us a collection of music, and he left us Paisley Park, and I want to leave something for myself and my son, too. So this is how the idea of the museum came up. The Minneapolis Sound Museum will honor those who created the sound. It will have an event space for people to hear the sound. It will have a studio in honor of my son Regal the Rare for a new generation to create the sound, and it will have a retail space with merchandise and collectibles related to the Minneapolis Sound, including vinyls. Our goal is for the next generation to know what was created here in North Minneapolis.

What does this space mean for the community of Minneapolis, especially with everything that's happened in the past couple of years?

Well, it's gonna mean a lot. Minneapolis can do better for our Black residents. George Floyd and the civil unrest that it brought is a symbol to this city and we need to start honoring the legacy here. We want to try to make things better and live a better life. With the pandemic and the civil unrest, we need to have something to look forward to and see a path to where we can start to heal and enjoy our beautiful community. I travel all around this country and I tell people that nobody has a music scene like we do here. We're blessed in a lot of ways here.

The Minneapolis sound, it's Prince, but it's so much more. That sound has really continued to grow and evolve over the years.

When I moved to North Minneapolis as a kid, I grew up with Prince, Morris Day, Terry Lewis, and Andre Cymone. I was in a band called Flyte Tyme, and then the Time, and then came Purple Rain. And then the Family. And then I wrote and produced songs for Flyte Tyme and different people's stuff. I played a role in all the different camps. And, I might be one of the only ones that did that. As we grow older, we need to start to think about our legacy. We have a legacy here in Minneapolis, and I just want people to see what that looks like.

When it comes to the North Side of Minneapolis. What are some of the most significant landmarks when it comes to music?

Well, the North Commons Park, and the Capri Theater. I saw Prince's first concert there when it was a movie theater. It was the movie theater in that neighborhood that we all used to go to and see the Blaxploitation movies back in the '70s. I miss those days. And Phyllis Wheatley Community Center. I used to go there and play basketball and, you know, Prince was quite the basketball player.

Where can people learn more about this?

Go to mplssoundmuseum.com. We ideally want to keep it on the North Side in that area and see what happens.