Portland Musician and Restaurateur Jonny P. Jewels Has Died

In addition to fronting mid-aughts power-pop band the Soda Pop Kids, he was also a former child actor who played Worf's son on "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Jonny P. Jewels (second from right) with his recent band P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S.
By Matthew Singer

Longtime Portland musician Jon Steuer, better known in the local punk scene as Jonny P. Jewels, has died, according to multiple reports on social media. He was 33 years old.

A cause of death has not yet been confirmed.

Born in Escondido, Calif., Steuer was a child actor whose credits include the children's sports comedy Little Giants and Star Trek: The Next Generation, where he portrayed Worf's son. He had a starring role on the '90s sitcom Grace Under Fire, but the experience caused him to quit acting at the age of 12.

"I had never really gotten into acting for the stardom or the fame or the attention," he told The AV Club in 2015. "I did it because I liked acting. That show brought a lot of press and attention around me and my personal life. I was right on the cusp of puberty, going through that awkward stage. To be put under a microscope like that is kind of a bizarre addition to your life that obviously not a lot of other people can relate to. "

In 2003, Steuer moved to Denver, where he formed his best-known band, power-pop outfit the Soda Pop Kids. Two years later, the group relocated to Portland. Described as "good, rough, trashy fun" by AllMusic, the Kids earned comparisons to fellow garage-rock throwbacks Exploding Hearts. Steuer, in particular, gained a reputation as a charismatic frontman.

"Jewels instantly understood the jerry-rigged catwalk's potential, landing a twirling leap four feet from the stage just as a climactic beat crashed home," Willamette Week contributor Jay Horton wrote in 2008, reviewing a Soda Pop Kids performance at a rock'n'roll fashion show. "Some people, as they say, don't do fashion. Some people are fashion."

After the Soda Pop Kids broke up in 2009, Steuer went on to play with several other projects, most recently the punk band P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S. with former Pierced Arrows drummer Kelly Halliburton.

In 2015, Steuer opened Harvest at the Bindery, a vegan restaurant in Northeast Portland. He also DJ'd around town, frequently at Star Bar.

P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S. were scheduled to perform this Friday at Crystal Ballroom in a tribute show for the late Fred Cole.

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