Long before he was a record producer, before he was even a teenager, Jun Mhoon was playing drums on tour with the Staple Singers, gazing in amazement at thousands of faces while warming up crowds for bands like the Doors, passing love notes from Bob Dylan and asking “who’s Bob Dylan?”
“Jun was a little kid and just as cute as he could be,” recalled singer Mavis Staples. “And he really became a member of our family, the baby of the family. We all loved him and looked after him.”
Mr Mhoon died April 13 from cardiac arrest. He was 69.
Mr. Mhoon (his name is pronounced like June Moon) was in the 6th grade when Mavis’ brother, Pervis Staples, a South Side neighbor of Mr. Mhoon, recruited him to join the family group and tour on weekends.
The cub performer didn’t understand the scale of the shows they were playing until the house lights unexpectedly came on one night and he saw thousands of faces, Mr. Mhoon recalled in an interview with the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum.
“It was incredible, and I didn’t know it was incredible,” he said of the surreal childhood experience, noting that Bob Dylan used to hand him love notes to deliver to Mavis Staples.
“I didn’t know who Bob Dylan was,” he said.
Mavis Staples laughed at the memory.
“Bobby would write little notes, and here come Jun: ‘Mave, Mave, I got something for you.’ And it was another note from Bobby, yes indeed.”
Pervis and his father, family patriarch Pops Staples, kept an eye on their young charge, once rushing Mr. Mhoon away from a “whites only” drinking fountain in the Deep South the youngster mistakenly sipped from.
Mr. Mhoon’s run with the Staple Singers ended when he began attending Harlan High School, but in his later teen years, he worked for Pops Staples as his valet and personal assistant.
Mr. Mhoon stayed by his boss’ side, even during negotiation sessions with record executives, and later worked as the band’s road manager.
In addition to playing with the Staple Singers, Mr. Mhoon was a teenage drummer on staff with Brunswick Records, where he kept time for the Chi-Lites, Jackie Wilson and other well-known musicians.
The experiences helped pave the way for a successful career as a record executive and producer.
In the 1970s, he worked as marketing director for Warner Bros. before joining RCA Records in 1978 as the label’s Midwest regional director. While working in the music industry, he began attending Columbia College Chicago, where he founded AEMMP Records, the school’s student-run record label. He later became vice president of A&M Records, in Los Angeles.
Mr. Mhoon worked with artists ranging from Al Green to Janet Jackson and Barry White.
He also got early experience as a producer when Pops Staples tapped him to run a studio he opened.
“If you listen to the music he produced back in the ‘80s, he was always ahead of the curve musically with sounds that were the precursor for artists like gospel singer Kirk Franklin,” said his ex-wife, Tahjma Hall-Mhoon
Mr. Mhoon was also an executive with Un-D-Nyable Records, a record label founded by Chicago White Sox big hitter Frank Thomas in the 1990s.
In 1987, Mr. Mhoon founded I AM Records, a label that specialized in gospel, spoken word, hip hop and jazz that later evolved into I AM Music Online.
In 2004, it was one of roughly 200 independent labels that signed deals to supply content to a nascent iTunes.
Mr. Mhoon provided iTunes with tracks from Pops Staples as well as gospeel singer James Cleveland, R&B dance music artist Jody Watley and poet Nikki Giovanni.
Before inking the deal, Mr. Mhoon was invited, along with the heads of other independent labels, to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, where he met Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
When Mr. Mhoon arrived he was met by a Korean interpreter who presumed he was an attorney working for Jun Mhoon.
“He kept asking me when was Jun Mhoon coming, and I kept saying ‘I’m Jun Mhoon,’ ” he recalled in the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum interview.
Mr. Mhoon was African American but also had Asian and European roots.
Mr. Mhoon was born on June 10, 1954, in Chicago. He was the namesake son of Justina Williamson Poole and Wilbur Leon Mhoon Sr.
The name “Jun” came from the childhood mispronunciation of the name his father called him: “Junior.”
Mr. Mhoon’s love of music was cemented in 1965 when he saw a sharply dressed Ringo Starr beating the drums before an audience of screaming girls during a televised performance of the Fab Four on the “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
“I saw Ringo Starr, and I saw all these girls screaming and hollering ... and I said, ‘That’s what I’m going to do,’” he said in the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum interview. “So I took the coffee out of my parent’s coffee cans and dumped it on the floor, and I put that rubber top back on and went and got some clothespins, and I started playing like Ringo Starr.”
He wasn’t the only musical talent in the family.
Mr. Mhoon was extremely proud of his son, Josh Mhoon, a Whitney M. Young Magnet High School grad who’s attending the famed Juilliard School in New York to study piano.
Mr. Mhoon traveled the world with his son, who was hailed as a prodigy at a young age.
“He was a really great father and a coach,” Joshua Mhoon said. “He knew the amount of work and discipline it takes.”
“He could play music by ear, and I just remember dancing around as a kid while he played,” said his daughter Carson Mhoon.
In addition to Carson and Joshua, Mr. Mhoon is survived by his daughters Jordan Curry, Myriah Mhoon and Season Mhoon, as well as four grandchildren.
At the time of his death, Mr. Mhoon was engaged to be married to NBC5 Chicago reporter LeeAnn Trotter.
Services are being planned.
