Why child-star advocate Corey Feldman agreed to record Halloween song with Flavor Flav's 4-year-old son: 'I was just amazed at his energy and his talent'
"I'm not really a big fan or supporter of kids in the industry. I think everybody knows that. So, I don't really like to push a child-working agenda," admits Feldman. But the 'Lost Boys' star knew that JRD was born to do this.
Actor and musician Corey Feldman is famous for his roles in Halloween classics like The Lost Boys (and its two sequels), Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Gremlins, The Goonies, Bordello of Blood, and Corbin Nash. So, when next-generation child star Jordan Drayton, aka 4-year-old viral singer JRD, needed a duet partner for his spooky-season single “Here Comes Halloween,” Feldman, who’d become fast friends with JRD after they met at one of his pool parties, was the logical person to ask.
However, it might be surprising to some fans that Feldman, who has long campaigned against child exploitation in show business and has been very vocal about how he was forced into an acting career when he was just a toddler himself, would sign on for such a project.
“I'm not really a big fan or supporter of kids in the industry. I think everybody knows that. So, I don't really like to push a child-working agenda. That's not really my thing,” Feldman, 52, admits to Yahoo Entertainment. But Feldman could tell from their first meeting through their mutual attorney, Anita Rivas, that JRD — the son of Public Enemy rapper/Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Flavor Flav and entertainment executive Kate Gammell — was born to do this.
“Actually, what bonded Jordan and I is, I played my new single for some of the guests at my party, and Jordan was the first one out on the dance floor, kicking it. And he was eating it on the dance floor!” Feldman chuckles, sitting on Zoom with JRD, who’s already wearing his Jack Skellington costume in anticipation of his favorite holiday. “I saw it right away, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, look at that little kid dancing!’ … I was just amazed at his energy and his talent, and he was such a show-off.
“If there's a true passion there and there's a true love and it's not being pushed on them, and you've got good parents who are very on top of things and making sure they spend all their time with their child on the set or in the recording or whatever it is, as long as your parent is fully aware and active and engaged, then it's fine,” Corey explains. “You’ve just got to make sure that's the kind of the preset requisite. And when we did the [“Here Come Halloween”] recording, Jordan's mom was there. … I think there's even a shot of her [in the video] handing him the headphones, just to show everybody, ‘This is how you're supposed to do it responsibly. Make sure that Mom's in the room.’ That's just the responsible way. So, I think if anything, it was kind of a way to help him out, but also a double sword for me, which is putting a little bit of the message in there that there's the right way to do things, and the wrong way to do things.”
A natural “rock star,” as Feldman puts it, JRD seems to show no fear. For instance, JRD wasn’t scared when he watched The Lost Boys, which surprises Feldman a bit. (“You've seen The Lost Boys? Oh my God, I didn't know that,” Feldman gasps. “Brave kid. Well, you're too young, as far as I'm concerned. I didn't even show my kid The Lost Boys until he was 11 or 12.”) And JRD is already a bigger star than Feldman was at age 4. He has studied movement with Debbie Allen, perfecting his Michael Jackson-inspired, “electronic” dance moves; has performed in Ye’s Sunday Service gospel choir; has racked up more than 12 million TikTok views for his cover of James Brown’s “I Feel Good” alone; and has earned praise from Smokey Robinson and Jennifer Hudson. And Feldman makes it clear that JRD has top billing on “Here Comes Halloween.”
“This is his thing. … It wasn't my idea,” Feldman says of this torch-passing moment. “I just did it as a little fun thing to help him out, because he's a sweet kid, that's all. I don't expect much from it [for myself], but I think it's good for kids. It's a really cute, catchy song. That's the thing: It's got a really good jingle to it. I think it's an earworm, and people will be singing it all season.”
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