NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - The Drink with Kate Snow: Howard Jones

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

On this bonus episode of The Drink, Kate Snow sits down with 80s icon and musician Howard Jones. He reflects on his journey to stardom, from working in a Saran Wrap factory, to surviving a near-fatal accident that changed his life. Kate shows him a mixtape that he once appeared on and asks whether he minds being defined by decades-old hits, even as he continues to create new music.

Hi everybody, it's Kate Snow. For this episode of The Drink, I caught up with musician Howard Jones. He's known for his 80s synthesizer sound with hits like What Is Love and Things Can Only Get Better. We sat down at Lamani. It's a restaurant right on Rockefeller Plaza. If you're new to The Drink, it's always about how people get to the top of their field. For this conversation, we had a three-step drink, Howard's go-to Yorkshire tea, oat milk creamer, and manuka honey. It was fantastic. We talked about his foundation in classical music, working in a saran wrap factory, for real, and how a near-fatal accident actually changed his life completely.

He also explained why he's not bothered that most people still know him as an 80s icon. Enjoy. And as always, you can catch all of my conversations with top artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries at NBCNews.com slash The Drink. I'm sorry, Howard Jones got a job in a saran wrap factory. Yeah. Why? It was the first job that anybody offered me, and I just needed something to have some money coming in

so that you could do your music. To get the ball rolling. Oh, hello. My pleasure. Thank you. Oh, wow. Thank you so much. Thank you.

So Howard Jones, musician, award winner, extremely well-known 80s synthesizer, magician. We are in Le Mans. What is your drink? What do we got? So it's Yorkshire English tea that I drink quite a lot of at home. Would you add oat milk creamer? Yeah, oat milk. And then I like Manuka honey because it's good for you. It's good for me? Okay, this is a three-step drink and I'm loving it. Most people aren't this organized, I have to say.

I hope you're going to like it. I do so far. The process is enjoyable. I like it very much. Yeah? Yeah. Howard Jones. I think people of a certain age know you immediately, right? Because they remember the 80s and you were everywhere. It was at that time when there was an explosion of all kinds of things. One of the things was the synthesizers like you were saying, and all this new equipment, the drum machines. And that's what I did. I had a one-man band. Yeah. So I know as a kid you studied piano, took piano lessons.

That's right. Seven years old I started. Got to nine years old and heard something on the radio. And I, I mean, oh, I heard it and I could, and I could play it. Like, I could do that. And soon as that happened, that was a magic moment. Oh, wow, I can hear something and play it. I could play it. Like I could do that. And soon as that happened, that was a magic moment. Oh wow, I can hear something and play it. And that was it. It feels like that leads to everything in your career since.

Yeah, it does. Well, you go to college for music. Classical, right? Yeah, yeah. I wasn't gonna make it as a classical musician. It wasn't my thing. I got the chops from it, thank you, I've done that. But now it was time to get on with my own music.

And imagine what my parents thought. And everyone. Did you move back home? Yes. Okay. And I got a job in a factory. I heard it was like a saran wrap factory. Yeah, yeah, saran wrap factory.

I'm sorry. Howard Jones got a job in a saran wrap factory. Why? It was the first job that anybody offered me and I just needed something to have some money coming in. So that you could do your music? The ball rolling, you know, for the music. Do you start just performing and going out to clubs?

What happens? Yeah, it was putting together this idea for the one man electronic band because I didn't know anybody in High Wycombe that I could form a band with really. I had a little tiny little drum machine and then I played piano to it and then I got a synthesizer and then oh this could be really expanded. Which is way ahead of your time. Well I think I think it was I mean I didn't know I didn't know of anybody else who was doing it. Your wife Jan you've been married over 40 years. We grew up together.

I taught her to play the piano when I was 14 and she was 11. We did all this together, you know what I mean? Like we ran a fruit and veg round as a way to make money. Which is selling- Like a truck? Yeah, a truck, yeah. Where you sold fruit and veggies?

Going around people's houses. But one night, we were out on the road at night, parked, serving a customer, and a drunk driver smashed into the vehicle and pinned Jan underneath. Jan was trapped. And it was like, oh, my God. I mean, it was bad. It sounds like it was lucky you survived. Well, we both could have been killed that night.

And it was a turning point because it was like, there's no time to waste now. Full commitment to like, let's get the music going. And Jan, the money she got, compensation, she said, I want you to buy equipment. Like she got money from an insurance company for the accident. And I bought equipment. and then pretty much a year Later, I was signed

The first big song that you put out the first really the first single It goes like Wildfire, although it it came in at number 96 in the chart. Every week it just jumped up a bit more and a bit more, a bit more. Got to number 40. You know the program Top of the Pops that we used to have in the UK,

which broke every artist ever. All the bands they wanted to have on weren't available. So it got me on. Rock your mental chains. And that was it. Explosion then, and my life changed overnight from there. New song seems to be about you, about your life. It's very much autobiographical.

The video has a factory scene. Yeah, exactly. It was like, throw off your mental chains. It's important to not just dream about stuff but to actually put those dreams make those dreams real it was my manifesto you know please believe in yourself you're amazing you're an amazing human being and you know I did this I'm just a regular guy you know a bit of. Everyone's got a bit of talent in something. Just do it. From your first hit, you have a series of hits in the 80s.

Like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm going to confess something. Somehow my friend Danielle, one of my best friends, knew who you were. And I have something to show you. Oh, wow. She made me this mixtape in like 1986 probably. Number five, What Is Love. Oh, wow. Fantastic. probably number five what is love every time I hear your song I think of the next song because I listen to this

mix so many times I'm very honored to be in that in that company you've had a long life since you've got a long career, you've put out a lot of music. You just recently did a trilogy, three albums and you have a fourth coming to go with those. So you've put out a lot of music but I think people still think of you as this icon of the 80s. Does that bother you at all? No, it doesn't bother me at all, because I think this is a common thing to most artists. There's the golden era when you have all the attention, the spotlight's on you, and then there's a time

when other people move into the spotlight, and it's as simple as that. I know that those songs will always be really special to people because they grew up with them. So I want to respect that and I'm going to play them. You play them now. And I update them and I remix them. You're not slowing down.

I just don't think the story's not over yet. Every time I go out on tour, we improve it. And that process is so enjoyable for me. I love that. We watch everyone. Can I ask you some speed round questions, like some really fast questions? I'm so looking forward to speed round.

Most memorable moment in a live performance? Well, there's no two ways about that. It was performing at Live Aid and getting to the chorus of Hide and Seek. And the audience, the whole audience, 100,000 people in Wembley joined me. They joined me. It's like being uplifted by all these people and supported by all these people, you know. If you had to pick your favourite instrument? Ah, well it's the piano. 63 years I've been playing the piano, so it's like walking.

Favourite hairstyle you ever had? My favourite hairstyle was probably the one right at the beginning. It was spiky, it was like two-tone, it was like orange down the side and blonde at the top. When you look out at the crowd, when you're performing, in a word, what do you feel? I feel joy with a tinge of fear. Like, am I going to get it right? Am I going to sing it in tune? So you never know. That's the beauty of being on stage. It must be the same for you when you're doing your live. Yeah, it is. You have to be a little nervous or you're not going to be as good.

Unexpected things happen. It's true. Howard Jones, thank you so much for the tea. Cheers. I'm so glad you like the tea. I really do.