Jon Secada, who writes about the hardships he faced breaking into the music industry in his book Secada: A New Day, reveals that Don Johnson still owes him an unpaid debt from decades ago.

Jon Secada Says Don Johnson Owes Him Money

Back in the 80s, before Secada went on to become a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter, he was a struggling artist. To make money on the side, he’d coach for an hourly rate. One of his clients in those early days was Miami Vice star Don Johnson.

“We got the call by somebody that was working with Don Johnson,” Secada told uInterview exclusively. “He was doing a duet in Spanish. They needed someone to coach him though the song. He was doing the duet with a really well known Mexican singer. I got the job. I got the call. I did the job, and I helped him with the song. He liked me enough to help him with some of the other songs that he was doing.”

At the end of his week coaching Johnson along in the duet, Secada turned in his invoice for his work. Patiently, the aspiring musician waited for his payment to come through – but the check never arrived. When he got in touch with Johnson’s management, they played dumb and refused to acknowledge that Secada had been on the clock with their client for all of the hours he’d noted.

“That stayed with me and years later I was able to coincidentally talk about it. It happened in the middle of pre-interview for The Jay Leno Show, the first time I was on Jay Leno. Something inside of me just popped,” Secada told uInterview. “They asked me something about my career or what happened in the beginning of my career things that I wanted to talk about. I said well, you know, ‘Don Johnson owes me money,’ and they just jumped all over it and it became a story. But it’s a true story though, and he still owes me money!”

Following his run on Miami Vice from 1984-1990, Johnson went on to star on TV in Nash Bridges, and most recently, From Dusk Till Dawn. On the big screen, he’s been in Guilty as Sin, Machete, Django Unchained and The Other Woman.

Secada has won a pair of Grammys and sold 10 million albums over the course of his career. Among the artists he’s written for are Jennifer Lopez, Gloria Estefan and Ricky Martin.

Secada: A New Day hit bookshelves last month.