When the world paused in 2020, Danny Jewkes pressed play on something new.
After losing his job teaching Spanish, Danny says, “It was learn this business, or who knows?”
The business in question is one he’d grown up adjacent to but never truly explored. “My dad was a piano technician growing up,” he says. “I helped him move a lot of pianos when I was a kid, but I never asked him about tuning or anything like that.”
But 2020 came with the decision to follow in his father’s footsteps. “My dad had all this knowledge, so I started asking him questions,” Danny says. After learning to tune pianos from his dad, he put up some ads. Tom Zimmerman, the owner of Utah Pianos, called Danny and asked how he’d like to tune all the pianos in his shop.
What started as a tuning job turned into a valuable mentorship. “He ended up teaching me how to tune, how to regulate, how to repair,” Danny says. But now, Danny doesn’t just repair pianos. He transforms them with amazing paint jobs.
That idea was born from the 2008 recession. Danny recalls his father started to paint pianos around that time. “In order to sell pianos during that recession, he learned that if he doesn’t make it stand out like a sore thumb, it’s not going.” So, Danny’s dad asked his wife for her insight, since she was an artist. “He used her expertise as an artist to help guide him,” Danny says. “And I think a bit of that’s in me. I like to have fun with it.”
That’s why when Danny Jewkes launched his business, Danny Jewkes Piano Company, he gave it a bold nickname: Pimp My Piano. Danny says it’s a nod to the early 2000s TV show Pimp My Ride, where beat-up cars became show-stopping masterpieces. “That’s what I’m doing,” Danny says. “You get to see something transform from junk into art.”
Although he gives some pianos more modest paint jobs—the standard whites and blacks and browns of your typical household piano—Danny likes to branch out when he can. From seafoam greens and deep blues to wine reds and graffiti texture. “I like to have fun with it and make it stand out,” he says. And they sell. “They usually disappear quickly.”
Danny’s workshop is crowded with pianos in every stage of transformation. Whether it’s a 100-year-old family heirloom or a quirky secondhand piano someone messaged him on TikTok about, every instrument gets the care and detail it deserves.
And business is booming. “I feel like a dude with eight arms,” he says. “It’s nonstop. People need me daily.” For a long time, Danny handled everything on his own: sales, deliveries, tuning, refinishing, painting, social media, and everything else that goes into running a business. “But I’ve overcome that pain of trying to do it all myself.”
With a couple of employees helping out with the business now, Danny finally has a bit more time to himself. But beyond that, what’s mattered even more to him is how the business has brought his family together.
“We finally have a relationship now,” he says of his dad. “We connect real well now, like we never have before. So I’m very grateful for that.”
And that piano legacy goes both ways. Danny’s son, Tae, also became a core part of the business before leaving on a two-year service trip to Washington. Danny taught Tae everything he knows. “He could be running this whole business by himself if he wanted to,” he says. “I have no words to describe how proud I am.”
Father and son tackled everything together. Although Danny trained Tae, he also learned from him. “He’s just full of light and joy,” Danny says. “It’s just a pleasure to be with him and have him around.”
He says Tae brought a beautiful culture to the workplace. After each job, he’d look at Danny and say, “Good job, Dad.” With emotion in his eyes, Danny says he tries to pass that on to his employees now. “Even if it’s just a text: ‘Hey, good job.’” He says he’s proud to call Tae his son. “I like to keep that aspect of culture that he brought, you know, keep that around while he’s not here, the best I can.”
“If he goes on to do something else,” Danny says, “I’ll always cherish getting to work with him.”
Even Danny’s daughter, Hani, though not directly involved in the business, plays a role in it. She loves horses. “A lot of this piano business is for that,” he laughs. “Gotta save my pennies for that ranch.”
With his growing workload, Danny is trying to find a good work-life balance. “I can’t wait to go camping,” he says. “I like to spend a lot of time outdoors.”
Still, even as he dreams of snowy slopes to snowboard and remote reservoirs to fish in, Danny finds deep satisfaction in his work. “I like helping people with their pianos,” he says. “It’s a piece of junk in the beginning, but slowly, hour after hour, I might have a piece of junk concert-ready in like five hours. And I’m proud of that.” He pauses, then adds, “And I get to play it while I fix it.”
What started as a forced career change has become something so much more for Danny. It’s become a way to connect with both his father and son, and a way to help others’ lives become more beautiful along the way. “This is art in itself,” he says. “Then someone plays on it… and you’re able to make more art with it.”
“I just want to get your piano back in its best shape possible,” Danny says. “I guess that’s my business model."