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Celebrities
Jay Thomas Sets Record Straight on Relationship with Son JT Harding
By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
Aug 20, 2008


Jay Thomas would like to correct the misconception out there in the media right now that he's just gotten together with the biological son he never knew he had: "Everybody's making like it was last Tuesday. I knew I had a son and that he was put up for adoption. The mother was a woman I didn't know very well. We were young. Every discussion was had … it was as gutwrenching as those things are."
Jay Thomas Sets Record Straight on Relationship with Son JT Harding (Image: Wenn)

And in fact, musician JT Harding, now 28, hooked up with the Emmy-winning actor/Sirius Satellite radio host years ago. It's just that JT's star is rising now, with his JTX band and his hot Next Plateau Records song, "I'm Gonna Party Like a Rockstar."  Which makes the story no less fascinating.

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"I have been called JT, for John Thomas, my whole life. Larry and Kendra Harding -- his wonderful parents -- named him John Thomas, just coincidentally, and he's been called JT all his life," notes Jay. Raised in Grosse Pointe, Mich., Harding came West to make it in the music business as a teen, and wound up working at the Tower Records store half a mile from Jay's Hollywood home, "just coincidentally."

Coincidentally also, to Jay's mind, is the fact that JT happened to see him on television one night "about 2 in the morning, and after that there was an ad saying, 'You are entitled to know who your parents are'" -- from an adoption search service. He contacted the service and soon found his birth mother, who eventually contacted Jay. Married with two younger sons, Jay had misgivings, but arranged for JT to come to his sitcom taping, and for his pal, comic Rodney Conover, to check him out. Rodney's verdict: "'He's you 20 years ago.'"

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Jay and JT met over Fatburgers that night, and since then they've become part of each other's lives and families. JT's a big brother to the Thomas teens, his adoptive parents became good friends, and the Thomases spent a Christmas with the Hardings in Michigan, reports Jay -- who spoke at Larry Harding's funeral last year.

JT, who's toured with Marilyn Manson and written and/or produced for other artists, shares Jay's drive to make the big time. Jay says, "We never sat down and said, 'You know, because I'm your biological father, it'll be good for your music career.' If we tried to do that, it wouldn't happen."




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