Life Grace Mendoza Jones began May 19, 1952 in Jamaica, in Spanish Town - the former capital of this island nation. However, this main town of Jamaica is so small that it does not remind the city at all. But here is the most famous church in the Caribbean region - the Cathedral of St. James, the oldest Anglican temple outside of England. It was this cathedral that played a special role in the fate of Grace, for the father of the newborn, Robert Jones, was the priest of this temple and the bishop of Jamaica. The mother of the singer and actress Grace Jones, Marjorie, was a housewife - a typical exemplary bishop's wife. "I was born in an extremely religious family," recalled the singer and actress Grace Jones in her memoirs "Hurricane Grace".
Believe me , Jamaica is the most beautiful place on earth, a real paradise for lovers of relaxation and relaxation. But if your father is a bishop, life here may not seem so gay. All my childhood passed in rigor and under vigilant control. I could not do anything indecent and frivolous, I could not wear candid dresses, sing popular songs, read romance novels, and even play with some neighbor's children. They were not allowed to wear costume jewelery, but they only had to dream about putting on their trousers. " The only thing that was possible for a young singer and actress Grace Jones is to go to school for lessons, go to church for service and read the Bible.
All this did not give too much pleasure, but she did not consider other options, and, to be honest, avoided. "Most of all, my father liked to intimidate me with rasta-manami, whom he considered Satanists and the embodiment of all sins in the world," says Jones. - And this upbringing was very successful - in my childhood I was just on the street there appeared guys with pigtails-dreadlocks. ran to hide under the bed, muttering prayers, and even as a teenager I tried to avoid them ... "
In 1962, Jamaica gained independence from the British Empire, and the radicals from the People's National Party came to power in the country - the same rastamans that the reverend Bishop Robert Jones was so afraid of. Unwilling to put up with the separation from the metropolis, he decided to quickly move to America. First, only the bishop and his wife went to the US, and Grace, along with her brothers and sisters, remained in the care of her uncle. "Our uncle was also a priest, even more stubborn than my father," Grace recalled. However, the matter is not in religion, but in the fact that the uncle always demanded blind obedience to his orders, and only his word was law. He acted at times by the most cruel methods.
One day, I remember , he heavily whipped us and his brother just because we turned on the light without his permission. He took an electric wire and beat us until the blood came out. But that day I learned another lesson, not the one our uncle hoped for. Our grandmother came running to our cries, which turned 93 years old. She took the wire from her uncle and began to lash it, and he stood without stirring, and silently, tolerated - of course, because it was his mother. " Then what happened so much impressed the young Grace, that she for a long time formed a rebellious attitude to any form of power. "I always tried to become as strong a woman as my grandmother, who could kick ass any man!" - she says. Surprisingly, such methods of education did not turn away from the religious education of her brother Christian, who also became a priest. Today, he is a famous performer of religious gospel hymns, performing in the United States under the pseudonym of the Reverend Noel.
When the singer and actress Grace Jones turned thirteen, she and her brother went to their parents in the US - in the town of Syracuse, in the state of New York. "I was the only black girl in the class, and our teachers called me and my brother" socially sick "types, - she recalls. "I only learned two lessons from this school: first, I began to hate time from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon-just at that time classes were going on. Secondly, I learned to hide my emotions. No matter how bad I am, no matter how insulted I may be, you will never see my tears. I always smile, I will always look like a winner. " Similar trials and ridicule Grace endured until she matured and became prettier. At least until it became a sexual object. "At sixteen I found that I have long legs that drive all the guys in the neighborhood crazy. Before that, I did not consider myself attractive, but rather, my father and uncle taught me that my body is disgusting, and all thoughts of carnal love are sinful. And I decided to make up for lost time, destroying all parental prohibitions and taboos for myself. "
The first taboo , which she destroyed, was education. Father was strongly opposed to Grace continuing his studies - in his opinion, the daughter of the Jamaican bishop should become only the wife of a priest and an exemplary housewife. But Grace ran away from home and entered the Theater University. In this case she was unexpectedly helped by her mother, who before her marriage was a professional dancer. Apparently, Marjorie Jones has decided in this way to compensate for her own career ruined for her husband's sake. Marjorie managed to insist on her, and my father agreed to pay for his daughter's education. Soon, long-legged Grace noticed, and began vying to invite to be removed for advertising.
In 1973, Grace also received her first film role - it was the box office fighter "The War of Gordon", where Grace played a drug dealer. In the same year, she began the modeling career - she participated in the shows of the collections from Pierre Cardin, she was photographed by Helmut Newton herself. "I then decided that I would become a model," recalls Grace. - I moved to Paris and rented an apartment - or rather, we shot it for three: I, Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange. It was not an apartment, but a real hole, but we lived in the center of Paris. Nothing that the rent of this garbage we had almost all the money earned, but we felt ourselves living in the center of the world. I am still often called the "product of American culture." This is utter nonsense. I always felt like an inhabitant of the Old World, I was raised in European traditions, and it was in Paris that my growing up and awareness of myself as a person took place. I'm a 100% product of European culture. " This was confirmed once again, when Jones went to try his luck in the modeling business of the United States. The issue was not immediately asked: the editors of the men's magazines found Grace too big and strong to please the average American.
On one of the shows on the high "black panther" drew the attention of the beginning fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, who worked for Cardin. It was Gauthier who introduced the singer and actress Grace Jones to a man who forever became Jones' closest friend and guiding star. It was the great Andy Warhol, already then bathed in the rays of glory. As Gauthier recalled years later, "Warhol was conquered by Grace from the very first minute and immediately invited her to make a series of portraits - almost the same as twenty years before Marilyn Monroe."
"Grace wounded me in the heart," Andy Warhol wrote in his diary. For two hours we sat and talked, or rather, she said, and I just looked at her face. Three hours later I realized that I had found a new muse. She was literally charging the air around herself with electricity, her eyes and body were so dazzling that my skin crawled. "
Together with Warhol, Grace returned to New York to become a permanent visitor to the legendary night club Studio 54. It was a cult institution founded by theatrical entrepreneurs Steve Rubell and Jan Shrager in the old theater building of The New Yorker and the CBS concert studio, where all the stars of the American scene began their careers. The same image has developed and the club Studio 54 - it was the place where the "stars" lit. There rested and entertained all the richest and famous, the Arab sheikhs were ready to make many hours of flights on personal liners, to spend a few hours there, they all went there. As the owner of this nonsense depiction Steve Rubelle liked to say, "if you were not known in Studio 54. nobody knew you." Dress code, hard face control and the need to immediately like Steve - there were those components that opened the door inside. Grace Jones won the Studio 54 on the first try.
"Every night , heartbreaking dramas played out at the doors of the club," she recalls. People were ready to sell the soul to the devil. I saw one secular lady offer to strip naked, if only she was allowed, and one guy even climbed through the chimney. What attracted them there? People, music, the atmosphere of the club, the smell of sex, the kingdom of vice, an endless celebration. For each party, the club's owners changed the interior, and all the guests had a feeling that every night you go to a new place. Day many of this club was the second house. Andy was always on his favorite sofa in the lounge, and if you were not, even for one night, he would say: "Yes, you missed the best party." And if Andy himself could not come, then he rang the next day very early in the morning and asked about how everything was. "
Relatives of the once obedient Grace were indignant at the way their girl was dismissed. Particularly soulful conversations were fond of Brother Noel. "We had very difficult relationships," writes Grace. "He's as conservative as his father and uncle." Several times he publicly called me a nasty whore and the incarnation of Antichrist, and, by God, at that moment I wanted to beat him to death and scratch his whole face. We have not talked for many years, but one day I told him so: listen, brother, in fact, I have a good relationship with God, the Lord knows what I really am. But this does not prevent me from believing in the reincarnation of the soul or in the magic of voodoo. "
"Star Time" Grace Jones came to a party in honor of the New 1977. Shreger and Warhol together organized a show in the spirit of a circus performance: a circus circus arena with sand, mermaids on trapezoids and a heart shaped dance dancer. Grace herself went to the public absolutely naked, or rather, her toilet was only a string of beads. She was accompanied by a pack of boys, who portrayed dogs in collars, their Grace leading them on chains. "Then, in the 70's, we all loved to have fun, and sometimes this fun went too far," says Grace. But, believe me, it takes a lot of sober mind, hard work and good makeup, so that the party will recognize in you that funny prick that can be allowed into a decent society. "
And Grace worked tirelessly. In the same 1977, she released her debut album Portfolio - an exotic mix of old melodic hits of the jazz era and fashionable disco-style rhythms. The next LPs Fame and Muse brought her the status of the world's "disco goddess." Even more successful albums were Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing - on the last album, Grace sang in the company of stars such as Iggy Pop, Sting, Bryan Ferry and The Pretenders.