Jesse Camp


Josiah "Jesse" Camp is a musician and television personality who was the winner of the first Wanna Be a VJ contest on MTV.

Career

Camp won a reality contest to become an MTV VJ in 1998.
Following his departure from TRL, Camp parlayed his MTV fame into a rock career with his 1999 debut album Jesse & the 8th Street Kidz on the Hollywood Records label. The album was produced by Rob Cavallo and Julian Raymond, and specialized in the 1980s style glam metal that fell out of fashion almost a decade before the album's release. Guest stars on the album included Stevie Nicks duetting with Camp on ballad "My Little Saviour", Rick Nielsen, Steve Hunter and Gregg Bissonette. Camp cowrote the album with Alex Kane, Bam Bam and Jo Almeida and Share Pedersen. The album sold 2,600 copies in its opening week.
A video for the first single "See You Around" included cameos from Reverend Run and Marky Ramone. Critical reviews were mixed. Rob Sheffield gave the album a review in Rolling Stone, while Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the album 1 star out of a possible 5, writing: "At times, the music is catchy, but most of the time it's simply irritating, since Camp's singing is every bit as grating as his persona." In a retrospective review for The A.V. Club, Nathan Rabin noted that the album was well-produced and featured solid performances by the session musicians, but that the choice to obscure Camp's vocals on most songs betrays his limited musical ability, particularly on the duet with the far more talented Stevie Nicks.
Camp appeared in an impromptu cameo on the documentary titled Power & Control LSD in The Sixties, by Aron Ranen.

Personal life

On July 19, 2018, Camp was reported missing by his sister Marish to the Riverside Police Department. She stated that he had been out of contact with his family for about a week, which was unusual behavior for him, and that he was seen in Riverside around "the 11th or 12th of July". He was later seen in Fontana on July 19, when a bike patrol officer made a "pedestrian check" on Camp outside of a Sherwin-Williams store, just hours before his sister reported him missing.
On July 24, 2018, the Riverside Police Department confirmed that Camp was found safe.