Texans Jonathan Grimes

Texans Running Back Jonathan Grimes | Photograpy by Max Burkhalter

SPORTS | TEXANS JONATHAN GRIMES SAYS WE ARE IN A “TURN UP” MUSIC ERA

Most of our talents come to us by way of our parents. For JONATHAN GRIMES, that story is no different, not just on the football field in a Houston Texans uniform but when it comes to music. And particularly behind the piano.

Although the William & Mary graduate only has one official start under his NFL belt, last season Grimes became the third player in Texans history to score a rushing and receiving touchdown in the same game. The 26-year-old has talent for sure, hopefully more of which we’ll continue to see on the field, but his talents go beyond the field. Grimes started playing the piano about the same time he got into football, which was part of a deal he made with his dad. “I started playing football when I was 7 and started playing piano at the same age because my dad said ‘if I let you play football this year, you have to promise to play the piano,’ Grimes shares. “I wasn’t really that excited to play the piano at first. I just wanted to play football so I agreed to it, but I would say I started really liking it once I started playing songs I knew and other people knew.” He liked it so much, he actually got a degree in music, while playing football. Talk about making your dad proud.

If you see the similarities in Grimes and former Texan Arian Foster, you’d be paying him a compliment. And be spot on. The two are incredibly close and make music together often. Both are running backs and both are incredibly artistic and deep and spiritual guys, finding meaning in things so many of us overlook. “He’s not on the squad but he will always be my boy,” Grimes says of his friendship with Foster. “Music is a message that you constantly hear in your mind all the time over and over again – it can really affect the way you go about things, the way you think without even realizing it,” Grimes says on the importance music plays in his life. “Music is about bridging gaps and just relating to other people. My love for music has been growing, even just this past year. I’m realizing how important music is just in life in general. I feel like the things you eat and consume and everything else is just as important as the things you hear, like music,” he says. Grimes says music is what keeps him sane right now.

Originally from New Jersey, he loves the concert and karaoke scene here in Houston. “I love Houston, but, man, it gets scary hot,” he says. “I don’t come outside unless I have to.”

At just 5’ 10” and a little over 200 lbs., Jonathan Grimes has enough personality to fill an entire team’s roster. Starting with a White Men Can’t Jump quote to playing the keys and sharing his favorite Pandora stations (D’Angelo or Michael Jackson are his choices for being stranded on an island with only one station), he can talk about music all day. “It’s going to be hard to keep me off the piano if I see it,” he warns.

If he had a walk-up song like baseball, Grimes said it’d have to be Finna Get Loose by Diddy and Pharrell.

Best quote of the interview: I’ve sat with Bruce Springsteen before and, yeah, he’s a beast.

WE ASKED GRIMES TO FILL IN THE BLANK: I wish more people in the world would love.

This article originally ran in the May print issue of LOCAL Houston Magazine. Click here to see the online version.