Randy Jackson

Randy Jackson
Image:Randy Jackson.jpg Randy Jackson singing on tour with Journey
Background information
Birth name	Randall Darius Jackson
Born	June 23 1956 (age 52)
Origin	Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Genre(s)	Rock
Instrument(s)	Bass guitar Singing
Years active	1983–present
Label(s)	Columbia
Associated acts	Journey

Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American musician and record producer, now best known as a judge on American Idol.

Music career

Jackson played bass in violin virtuoso Jean-Luc Ponty's backing band and toured with rock band Journey in 1983 and 1985. His numerous credits range from playing with Aretha Franklin, George Michael , Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Billy Cobham, Blue Öyster Cult, Herbie The Car, Richard Marx, Billy Joel, Journey, Banana Republic and Bob Dylan to playing at the Grand Ole Opry with The Charlie Daniels Band. His production/songwriting work in the San Francisco Bay area with Narada Michael Walden and Walter Afanasieff led Jackson to be quite in demand as a producer himself.

While in the Bay Area, Jackson played in bands with Carlos Santana and Jerry Garcia. He moved to Italy in the late 1980s and produced a record for Italian pop star Zucchero. The record Zucchero and the Randy Jackson Band produced one of Zucchero's biggest hits, "Donne". Jackson was bass guitarist for Tracy Chapman featuring on several Tracks on her 1992 release Matters of the Heart. He performed on the single "Bang Bang Bang", "Open Arms", and "Dreaming on a World". Jackson has also recorded, produced, or toured with many well-known artists and bands, ranging from Mariah Carey (whom he knew when she was still a teenager; he was in her band at Live 8 in London in 2005) to *NSYNC, Céline Dion, Wild Orchid, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna (he played bass on her # 1 hit "Like a Prayer"). He has also worked as an executive, spending eight years as vice president of artists and repertoire (A&R) at Columbia Records and four years heading A&R at MCA Records.^[1]

Jackson also hosts a radio top 40 countdown known as "Randy Jackson's Hit List" syndicated on hundreds of stations nationwide by Westwood One. Every week Randy counts down his top 30 Urban AC and Mainstream AC hits, gives us a peek into AI with American Idol Underground, and shares what's currently in his iPod.

American Idol

Jackson has been a judge with American Idol since its inception in 2002. On the show, he is known for taking a middle road of criticism between the supportiveness of Paula Abdul and the frankness of Simon Cowell. He has popularized the word "pitchy" as the way to describe off-key singing. He is also renowned for his heavy use of slang terms, most notably the words "dude", "dawg", "dope", and "yo". He is also well known for signing the word "Love" when introduced by Ryan Seacrest. Jackson sometimes also refers to the group of male semifinalists as "the dawg (dog) pound" (though during season five, the female contestants were also included).

Battle with obesity

In 2003, Jackson lost 100 pounds following gastric bypass surgery. [1]

Bibliography

• Jackson, Randy. What's Up Dawg?: How to Become a Superstar in the Music Business.. Hyperion, 2003. ISBN 1-4013-0774-4
• Randy Jackson's Hit List [2]

Wikipedia information about Randy Jackson This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Randy Jackson". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.