Top Jimmy

One of the legendary Los Angeles singers Tom Jimmy is not with us anymore. Wild life and alcohol got the biggest bohemian of Los Angeles. His band Rhythm Pigs was a cool feature of LA scene, everybody loved Jimmy. He was friends with Billy Zoom and Joe Doe, celebrities like Van Halen simply adored him, and he slept with evey stripper in Los Angeles.

Not many records left behind Top Jimmy. The first one, Pigus Drunkus Maximus came out 1987, and the second and last one, Good Times Are Killing Me came out eleven years later. Those records are hard to find and represent the real jewels in everyone's collection.

This is how one of Top Jimmy's friends Kittra remembers him...

One of my dear friends whom I've know since age 16 died this morning. Top Jimmy. You may recall a song by Van Halen that was written in tribute to Jimmy? He was one hell of a blues singer and a sweet person. Very sad. Most people know him as a wild child who drank and smoked and everythinged too much.

But he had not always been that way.

He was always good to me. We first met while we were both attempting to enroll at Hollywood High School. I was 17, he was 16. He was just a baby. Didn't even have hair on his face yet.

About a month later, when my then boyfriend, Billy Zoom, (who in fact at that time wasn't yet Billy Zoom but rather Ty Kindell) and I were robbed. All of Billy's instruments were stolen so he couldn't make a living. (Up until then he had been the only white boy playing guitar in an all black band on down on Slauson.) We lost our little apartment in Gower Gulch.

Billy and I lived in the 54 Ford Panel truck for about 3 months. Sometimes sleeping on the street out in front of Jimmy's sister's apartment. Sometimes sleeping on the floor of Jimmy's bedroom where Jimmy lived with his sister Mary and her twin babies.

Jimmy worked at a taco stand at the corner of Sunset and LaBrea across the street from A&M Records: "Top Taco" (therefore came the name Top Jimmy) If it hadn't been for Jimmy feeding us everyday, I don't know how we ever would have survived.

Jimmy's mother, Mary, eventually got me a job where she cooked at Toffs restaurant which was next to the Graumans Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

Jimmy's mother died when he was about 21.

This was huge turning point in Jimmy's life. No longer the optimistic boy. Honestly, he never recovered from his grief.

His whole life from that point on was struggling, grappling with depression and self destructive behaviors. A lot of gorgeous young strippers filled his bed. Hepatitis C destroyed his liver. He could not afford a transplant. This eventually killed him.

There is so much more to this story but that's enough for now.

~ Kittra

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