Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Chad Thevenot, a.k.a. Sugar Jones, serves up southern-fried sex music for brainiacs - a spicy masala of funk, rock, and pop. With his second CD, Bring Your Own Insanity, Chad has crafted an ambitious work laced with infectious grooves, inventive arrangements, and introspective lyrics. The record features the funky riffs of George Porter Jr., legendary bassist of The Meters. OffBeat, Louisiana's music magazine, calls it "the most thought-provoking funk CD of this young year."
Chad's unique talent caught the attention of the public when he was just 15, after KLSU in Baton Rouge put tracks from his first demo on rotation. Barred from performing at adult venues, Chad showed his savvy by producing live shows featuring young bands at local halls headlined by his own group, The Gist. At 19, Chad performed a showcase at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in Austin, Texas, which landed his band a five-song demo deal with Epic Records. Two years later, Chad moved to Austin.
In Austin, Chad launched Sugar Jones in 1993 with guitarist/songwriter Miles Sapp, inspired by the funk/soul legends that he was weaned on, acts such as Edgar Winter, Sly and the Family Stone, and Curtis Mayfield. In 1994, Sugar Jones self-produced their first CD, The Push, described by Austin Arena magazine as a "surprisingly strong first effort." The magazine concluded, "Thought-provoking songs of love and love lost, race, compassion, introspection and violence contribute a worldly consciousness to this colorful frontispiece of words and music."
In 1996, Chad moved to Washington, D.C., to pursue music, politics, and marriage. He began writing and planning a new record. In 1999, while Chad was struggling to find the right bassist for the new record, a local studio owner asked him what he was looking for. "Someone like George Porter Jr.," he said. The owner replied, "Why not ask George himself?" An Internet search and a few e-mails later, George was confirmed for the project. The unique story behind the production of Bring Your Own Insanity attracted the attention of a freelance writer from New England, whose feature article appeared in the September 2001 issue of OnStage, a national music magazine.
In addition to recording and performing, and studying classical Indian carnatic music, for the past six years Chad has been a leader in the drug policy reform movement, advocating at the national level for more humane and effective drug policies. In 2000, he initiated and managed the Coalition for Jubilee Clemency (CJC) campaign, which helped persuade President Clinton to free almost two dozen low-level, nonviolent federal drug offenders, including Dorothy Gaines, the "poster person" for the CJC campaign. Chad continues to advocate for drug policy reform and for other policies based on non-aggression, in his life and in his music.
