‘Will & Grace’ stars honor Leslie Jordan: ‘Everyone who ever met him, loved him’
On Thursday, Jordan will become a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2019 at a ceremony in New York City hosted by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and SiriusXM.
“We are thrilled and humbled,” his publicist, Amy Ryan, told The Hollywood Reporter Friday. Ryan said she’s known Jordan for decades but never had the opportunity to thank him before his induction. Jordan first met Ryan when she was 20, when Jordan was on the NBC stage with Whitney Houston. The two became best friends and the two became business partners.
One of Jordan’s earliest shows was as an opening act for Prince. “We hit it off,” says Ryan. She says Jordan would visit his dressing room frequently and would always invite her to his show, saying he loved her and wanted her to join him. Ryan says they met with Jordan once at a Prince show when they were in their early 20s. He was in awe of her and took all her advice.
“I remember him telling me just how funny he was,” Ryan says. “I had no idea the extent to which he could be funny, but I said he was funny. What else was I going to say to him? He said, ‘I love you,’ and that was that. He had that kind of ability and he was the most giving person I knew.”
When they met again a year later, Ryan says she thought Jordan “would never stay with somebody that young. It was like I had won a lottery with him — that he would stay with a beautiful girl like me — and he did, and we became very close and continued to be best friends ever (after).”
Jordan went off to college at the University of Southern California (USC), where he met Michelle Monaghan and they began a friendship that lasted through their lives.
“He was an absolute gentleman,” Ryan says. “