James Victor Kelly was born on 18th of February 1971 in Gamonal (Spain). Already at the age of five he sang in the streets with his family and collected money to a hat.
His brother Joey is just about two years younger than him, so they’ve always been like best friends and done everything together. At home their job used to be dishwashing, so they used the same knife, drank from the same glass that they wouldn’t have to wash so many dishes.
Jimmy had told in one interview that they used to put grass into potato sacks and tried to sell them to get money for candys. He also told that when the started to interested in girls he often said that he wanted to be alone instead of playing with Joey but that was only an excuse to meet girls. "Once I met a simple farmgirl and we fell in love. She was the first girl I kissed. We were together over one year until I moved away with my family. When I came back after three years, she had another boyfriend.
At the age of fifteen he learned to play guitar, he was the last one of the family with Joey who learned to play an instrument. Kathy and Paddy taught them some simple things and the rest they learned by themselves. Nowadays he plays guitars, bass, flute, accordion, drums and congas, he says his favourite instrument is accordion.
Jimmy used to read a lot when he was young. I guess that’s why he told fantastic stories to his siblings when he was just eight years old.
Nowadays he says he likes poems because they have that special kind of atmosphere he needs to write songs.
One of his big interests is movies. When he was yough he used to make films together with Maite, Paddy and Angelo and he has always dreamed of making his own movies.
Jimmy has directed few of the music videos of the Kelly Family and he has also made a shortmovie (12 minutes) called "Fortune’s fool" which won some award at the film festival of Cannes in the summer 1998.
It’s a story of Thomas and his brother Shames. Every free minute they spend with their beloved father, more or less successful boxer. Right in front of their eyes they have to see one day how their father not only looses a fight, the hittings of his rival John McCarvey hurts him so much that he dies in the circle. Completely despairing the children swear revenge, they only have one aim in front of their eyes, they want to become boxers themselves to fight against the murderer of their father one day. Pushed by hate they practise day by day, month by month, year by year. No training is hard enough for them, no fight is left out, the aim is coming nearer and nearer by the years. But one day it comes to a quarrel, Shames does no longer see a sense in the revenge, his brother Thommy feels betrayed. It comes how it had to came, the brothers become embittered rivals. Filled with hate they hit each other so long till one goes to ground. Not until he is in the hospital Thommy really recognizes what had happened there. The doctors fight despairingly for the life of his brother, in vain. For Shames every rescue comes too late.
Joey appears as a stuntman in the movie.
One of the music videos he has directed is "Nanana". It tells a true story about that how Jimmy left his girlfriend because he wanted to tour around with his family.
Jimmy is the rebel of the family. He goes his own way and once whe he was 20, he left the family and went to Ireland.
"I got fed up with the streetconcerts and felt too close to my family sometimes and wanted to get some air, without my family. After a fight at home I packed my bags and my accordion and flied to Dublin. I love Ireland but after two days I longed for my family and wanted to get back home. But I wanted to show I could stand on my own legs so with my accordion I earned money to the ticket so I could fly back home after four weeks. In Ireland I learned that I could make it on my own, but I also learned that my place is with my family".
He says that he can be a real sulk and that he’s the only one of the family how’s like that.
Jimmy is also the one who always makes the others laugh. On the videos of the Kellys (like Tough Road III) he tells lots of jokes.
When the Kellys were filming the music video "Why why why", a little accident happened to Jimmy. Jimmy and Joey were playing knights or soldiers who were fighting with swords. Joey accidently hit Jimmy with a sword to his head and they had to stop recording till Jimmy was ok.
When Jimmy was in the concerts with his family, he usually played guitars or accordion. He sang lots of songs like Nanana, Cover the Road, I can’t stop the love and Thunder. He also sang Leave it to the spirits (with Barby), Please don’t go (with Patricia), Ego (with other boys), Ares qui (with Paddy and Kathy) and All along the way (with Barby and Kathy) on the albums but at concerts where he isn’t, Paddy usually sings his parts.
Many people say that the cousin of the Kellys, Adam, came to replace Jimmy but they say it isn’t that way. Adam usually sings Jimmy’s part of Peces and Paddy’s part of We are the world while Paddy sings Jimmy’s part.
At the moment Jimmy lives in Dublin and concentrates to his films. He haven’t been in many concerts lately and doesn’t sing much on the new albums. But he’s still with his family every time they do something big, like new musicvideos and new songs.
I hope that someday he will be at all the concerts again, but I think the most important thing is that he's happy where ever he is and what ever he's doing.
And though he wouldn't sing on stage, he'll always sing in our hearts.
So, thank you Jimmy for all what you've done, we miss you!