Les Jones

A&E > Idol's Randy Jackson Played with Journey?

The other day Melissa told me that American Idol judge Randy Jackson had played in Journey. I looked it up, and she's right.

Of the four musicians hired to fill the shoes of Ross Valory and Steve Smith during the recording of Raised on Radio and the subsequent tour (1986), only Randy Jackson appeared both on the album itself and live with the band, thus making him the only one who came close to being considered a full-fledged member of the band. He had also previously appeared as an additional bassist on Frontiers (1983). His membership was, of course, temporary; the band cut the tour short due to Steve Perry's exhaustion and went on a hiatus which lasted ten years. During the hiatus, Randy maintained his friendship with Steve Perry, and helped him put together his band for the For the Love of Strange Medecine solo album (1994) and tour (1995). Following the hiatus, Smith and Valory returned to the band for Trial by Fire (1996), thus eliminating the possibility of a return to Journey for Randy Jackson.

And from Wikipedia we find out that Jackson also played with bands that didn't suck.

As a musician Jackson plays the electric bass. One big break of his was that he played bass for violin virtuoso Jean-Luc Ponty as well as playing bass in the band Journey for a period in the 1980s. He was a highly regarded session player in Los Angeles during the 1980s. His credits are far too many to note, but range from playing with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Billy Cobham, Herbie Hancock, Richard Marx, Billy Joel, 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 Randy to be quite in demand as a producer himself. While in the Bay area Randy played in bands with Carlos Santana and Jerry Garcia.