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Tim Jones is known by several different monikers; Preacherman, Midi Man and Ironing Board Band to name a few. Though perhaps his most notable is the one that describes him best, T.J. Hustler. In 1979 as T.J. Hustler, Jones self-released one extremely rare LP, Age Of Individualism. In the years since, he’s released two even rarer CD’s as Preacherman, of which the tracks on this forthcoming reissue, Universal Philosophy: Preacherman plays T.J. Hustler’s Greatest Hits (out October 12th on Luaka Bop), are taken.
In the 1980’s Jones was a technician for IBM in both Las Vegas and San Jose where he repaired Selectric Typewriters and word processors during the day. At night he world perform in the Las Vegas lounges. Thoroughly fascinated by technology and also an engineer in his own right, Jones adapted a Hammond B3 organ to play a Moog synth with some of the organ’s keys (some still played the organ) and also adapted the organ’s foot controlled bass levers to play two Moog synth bass pedals (a failed item Moog made for a few years). Thinking he wasn’t much of a live performer, he had a custom wooden puppet made named T.J. Hustler. Together, Tim Jones/Preacherman and T.J. Hustler would perform long philosophical soliloquies.These days Jones, (“pronounced JOANZ”, says Tim), is CEO and founder of Up Productions and lives with his 103 year-old mother — the eldest living person in Oakland — in a stunning apartment overlooking Lake Merritt. With his Casio CTK-7200 keyboard, equipped with five wireless mics, a P.A., Jones performs karaoke, easily matching whatever song request you might have. Unfortunately, T.J. Hustler (the puppet) live in a storage unit in Las Vegas, Nevada, along with the modified organ.
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