Randy Jackson

Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American record executive, television presenter and musician, best known as a judge on American Idol from 2002 to 2013.

Jackson began his career in the 1980s as a session musician playing bass guitar for an array of jazz, pop, rock, and R&B performers. He moved on to work in music production and in the A&R department at Columbia Records and MCA Records. Jackson is best known from his appearances as the longest-serving judge on American Idol and executive producer for MTV's America's Best Dance Crew.

In May 2020, Jackson was rehired as bassist for Journey following their sudden split with founding member Ross Valory. Jackson had previously filled the role on the band's 1986 album Raised on Radio and its tour.

Jackson was born June 23, 1956, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the son of Julia, a homemaker, and Herman Jackson, a plant foreman. He graduated from Southern University in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in music.

In the early 1980s, he played on three albums for Jean-Luc Ponty and with the rock band Taxxi. From 1986 to 1987, he joined the rock group Journey, initially as a session musician for their 1986 album Raised on Radio, before joining the band for the subsequent tour. He moved to Italy in the late 1980s and played on a record by Italian pop star Zucchero. The record, Zucchero and the Randy Jackson Band, was produced by Corrado Rustici who played guitar with Jackson on many albums in the early 1980s. Zucchero and Jackson presented the album's lead single "Donne" at the 35th edition of the Sanremo Music Festival.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.