Hello and welcome to you. I hope you’ve been enjoying your week. It’s funny, you know, my entire mission with this show is to capture some of the biggest names in music from the 60s, 70s and 80s in their own voices, telling their own stories.
So if you’re a regular listener, you’ll know that some of the people I’ve interviewed have already passed on and a breath of fresh air has become a bit of an archive where not only today’s music fans, but tomorrow’s too, can head for to listen to some of their favourite stars. Hello. Bill Manzanera.
Hello, Sandy. Hello, Ricky Lee Jones. I’m chatting with Kenny Loggins.
Your journey’s just been a little bit different to mine, Miss Debbie Harry. Gordon Lightfoot. Yes.
Unfortunately, we lost another one very recently. So today’s episode is dedicated to him. He was born Toriano Adarel Jackson and became known by his nickname, Tito.
As part of Motown’s greatest discovery, the Jackson 5, Tito spent his life enchanting music lovers everywhere. He had an unyielding passion for music, in particular R&B, pop and the blues. And his last ever solo album, Under Your Spell, was one he’d yearned to make for years.
This is Tito’s story. Hi, Sandy. How are you? I’m good.
I was starting to think that you’d had enough of doing press interviews. I like talking. Do you? That’s good.
Because a lot of people want to talk to you. Yeah, I was so quiet in the Jacksons group, but I have a lot to say in my old age. Why were you so quiet in those days? I had four other people trying to talk.
So you just sat back and let them do the talking? Yeah, they jumped in and answered the questions before I could open my mouth. So it’s your turn now, Tito, huh? Yeah, exactly. I was chatting with Tito on the occasion of the release of what was to be his last solo album.
But let’s back up a minute and fill in some blanks. In 1962, before the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons, Tito performed in a local group called the Jackson Brothers. After competing and winning local talent shows, the precocious brothers won on the most prestigious amateur stage of them all, Manhattan’s Apollo Theatre.
That same year, Tito and his brothers made their first studio recording entitled Big Boy. Oh, yeah. The song not only turned out to be a local hit, but it set the stage for a partnership with Motown Records and subsequent appearances on the top-rated Ed Sullivan show, American Bandstand, Soul Train, and later their own primetime TV series in 1976, when they officially became known as the Jacksons.
In 1978, Tito co-wrote the songs Everybody, Destiny and Push Away. As the Jacksons, Tito and his brothers self-produced the Destiny album. Later, for the Victory album and tour, Tito produced, wrote and sang on We Can Change the World.
Tito’s initial successes were with the recording masterpieces I Want You Back, Never Can Say Goodbye and I’ll Be There, as well as so many other mega hits that we all know and love. But the true essence of Tito Jackson as a solo artist was his love of the blues. It was the genre he came back to for what was to be his last solo album and one that he says he was most proud of.
I’ve always said to myself that I’m going to do a blues record someday. But then my first record was Tito Time and it was more in the pop R&B type of range, genre I should say. Then my next album is going to be blues.
To make a long story short, I’ll tell you a quick story from my roots of the blues. Please do. Prior to the Jackson 5, my father and my uncle used to play a lot of blues.
That’s when I first took interest in the guitar and my family played blues all the time. So I started playing a little guitar, you know, blues licks that I’d watch, stare at them and stick my father’s guitar out when he was at work. And then Jackson’s doing blues in their show.
We were doing Bobby Blobby playing stuff, B.B. King stuff, Jimmy Reed, Hideaway and stuff like that. And then after Jackson 5 was born to the public and when most towns got a hold to us, blues was gotten. You know, only time I got to play blues or play some kind of whatever was that Michael or Jackie split their pants and I played a little blues guitar thing.
It’s always been in my heart, something I always loved and cared for. Because it’s one of the musics that my family grew up on as far as the brothers. So, you know, we do the blues thing in the show, like I said.
I got married after school, you know, still had kids when the brothers were putting out solo records and all that. So I wasn’t putting out any albums. I read that about you, that you wanted to be a good dad and give the kids all your time.
Yeah, and that’s what I did. Some people say I missed the boat, but I don’t think one life is bigger than the boat. You know, I have a responsibility as a human to be there for my children.
I think that’s very admirable. Tito was father to three boys, Taj, Taryll and TJ, who later became known to the music world as 3T. The trio are an R&B pop music group who had inherited their Dominican ancestry from their mother Dolores, Dee Dee Jackson, and their musical DNA from their father and his family.
But the boys had been mentored by their uncle Michael Jackson and signed to his label, MJJ Music. What the story says is true. You know, I raised them, they got into the music business.
I worked with them on it a little bit and then did some demos on them, got them lessons and they became 3T. And I was managing them at that period of time. 3T was formed in the 90s, blending R&B, pop and soul.
They quickly gained popularity for their smooth harmonies and soulful sound, obviously carrying on the musical legacy of their famous family. The group’s debut album, Brotherhood, in 1995 was a commercial success, featuring hit singles like Why, which was a duet with Michael Jackson, I Need You and Anything, which became their biggest hit, reaching the top 10 in various countries. Wish you were here so I could hold you tight, I will do it.
Thinking of ways that I’m so confused, I don’t know where to start. Visions of love forever in my mind. I wait for the day when I could say that love’s mine.
I would do anything for you. After a stratospheric career in the 90s and early noughts, the brothers decided to take an extended hiatus to tend to their education, creating music for both 3T and other artists and to start their own families. However, as we all know, in 2009, their lives took a tragic turn with the loss of their uncle and mentor, Michael Jackson.
They told him don’t you ever come around here. Don’t wanna see your face, you better fill it clear. So beat it, just beat it.
You better run, you better do what you can. Don’t wanna see no blood, don’t be a macho man. You wanna be tough, better do what you can.
So beat it, but you wanna be bad. Just beat it, beat it, beat it. You know I want to beat it, beat it.
Showing how fucking strong is your fight. It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right. Just beat it, just beat it, beat it, just beat it, beat it.
You can, don’t wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man. You wanna spend your life, better do what you can. So beat it, just beat it.
You have to show them that you’re really not scared. You’re playing with your life, this ain’t no truth or dare. They’ll kick you if they beat you.
They’ll tell you it’s fair. So beat it, but you wanna be bad. Just beat it, beat it, beat it.
You know I want to beat it, beat it. Showing how fucking strong is your fight. It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right.
Just beat it, beat it, beat it. You know I want to beat it, beat it. Showing how fucking strong is your fight.
It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right. Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it. After Michael’s death, the Three T’s turned their attention to the care of their uncle’s three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket.
Since Michael had stepped in to be a tremendous source of support after their own mother Dee Dee was tragically murdered in 1994, Taj, Taryll and DJ had wanted to do the same for their cousins. Then I think brothers uh uh uh because to Jackson brought this head on the big tour and we never let them know musically happy but then I decided I wanted to do a record you know because there were comments being made saying fans half of the fans saying will Tito ever do a blues record another half saying I don’t think so. So I had to make it.
Yeah, yeah. So with that and other comments pushed me into it. Then I said to myself instead of that first record is now a blues record and I had said something I wanted to do something for the fan, Jackson fan base, which is more pop R&B stuff.
So that’s why I did that first record. That first solo album came in 2016. Aptly named Tito Time, it was an R&B pop album with contributions from Big Daddy Kane, Jocelyn Brown and 3T.
If you wanna leave, I’ll hold the door. But I think you should know, it’s a one-way street. Going nowhere fast.
It’s a dead end, girl. My feet must feel the last. It’s a one-way street.
Going nowhere fast. Fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. Feeling like we’ve been here before.
Or maybe it’s daydream. I’ll give you all that I work for. I said my next record is gonna be a blues record.
So here it is. The album Under Your Spell was Tito’s second solo album released in 2021. It was an homage to the blues that had shaped him from childhood onward.
Tito is supported on this debut blues album by an array of special guests. George Benson, Joe Bonamassa, Marlon Jackson, Eddie Levert, Kenny Neal, Bobby Rush and Stevie Wonder. All add their special talents to the proceedings.
I can’t mix, baby, I can’t. I can’t mix, baby, I can’t. You got some mojo, I can’t.
You got some mojo, I can’t. Just what’s going on, I can’t explain. Girl, you’re on my mind today, yeah.
Darling, what you did to me, you did well. Cause I’m under your spell. Yeah, baby, I’m under your spell.
I got this monkey on my dress, won’t cut me in pieces. I asked my God for a little help. He said, what you got, can’t be good for your health.
Darling, what you did to me, you did well. Cause I’m under your spell, your spell, your spell. Both solo albums are vastly different, but show the many parts to Tito Jackson.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kay. It’s a beautiful day. So there’s the outline.
How about we back up once more and dig a bit deeper into what we’ve just glossed over. Let’s head to a time when Tito and the brothers were growing up in Indiana. I wondered how and why they’d decided to form a band in the first place.
Well, our TV had broken down and we used to sing a lot of country western with my mother because she loved that music. And we harmonized with her. And my father played guitar with his brother every weekend.
They’d play and I’d sit there and just stare and stare and stare. And he knew we loved that guitar. And so he used to say before he went to work, he’d put it away in the closet in the case and tell us, sit us on the couch and point his finger, don’t you touch my guitar when I’m at work.
You know, so of course, you know, children, that mean you can touch my guitar while I’m at work. That’s what I heard. You know, so I was playing this guitar for many, many, many months.
And my mother would let me play it. She knew I wasn’t supposed to play it, but she thought I was making progress and whatever. So one day I broke the string and I didn’t know what to do about it.
I didn’t know how to change the string. I didn’t know what string I broke or whatever. Couldn’t even buy one.
He came home, saw the string broke and was really upset about it. Man, he took care of my ass. And then he sat me down and put the guitar in my lap and said, show me what you know.
So here I am playing this guitar and crying. You know, I’m about like seven, eight years old. He looked at me and said, dang, you’re playing just as good as me.
So he gave it to me. He gave me the guitar right there on the spot and bought himself another guitar, a better one, of course. But I still have that original guitar.
He said, I want you to learn every song on the radio. So that’s what I started doing. And I was learning songs by the Isley Brothers, Temptations, whatever.
They smell so sweet. You know you could have been some perfect. Well, you could have been anything that you wanted to.
And I can tell. You were brought up on music and you said that your father was right into music. But your parents didn’t encourage you to go ahead with a musical career, did they? In fact, that’s not what he wanted for his kids at all.
No, no, no, that’s not true. What had happened, he didn’t want me to play his guitar. So I don’t know if that was so much him not wanting a little kid to mess with an instrument that was expensive for him at that time.
And I was just a real young little boy. But when you all started singing together and he wanted to hear what you were doing, he wanted to discourage you from forming a group, didn’t he? What happened, we used to make noise in the bedroom. You know, singing, you know, trying to sing probably wasn’t too pleasant, you know, but it grew.
And one day he told us to be quiet in there making all the noise and it was my mother who said, Joe, I think you really ought to listen to them. I think that they might have something. He said, Kate, them boys ain’t got nothing they can’t sing.
And she said, no, seriously, I think you need to listen. And so he auditioned us, told us basically sing something or whatever. And this mouthful, he got an idea and then his next paycheck, he went out on loan and bought all kinds of microphones and PAs and practiced us and put us on schedule, you know, helped build the group.
So he realised you indeed did have something. Yes, yes. He wanted to get his rest because he had to go to work, you know, the next day or whatever.
He was tired. And as parents we all know about that, don’t we? Absolutely. So the boys just kept working at it whenever they could.
Jackie and Jermaine in there were harmonising and Michael and Marlon were just little bitty things, you know, they were somewhere around two, three, four years old, playing with little cars, you know, what little boys do, and we’d kick them out the room. And one day, like a year or two later, we hear Michael singing a little thing in kindergarten, singing Climb Every Mountain in a school performance, and he tore it up. We couldn’t believe our mouths flew open, couldn’t believe that was our brother up there singing.
Climb every mountain On every spring Follow every rainbow Till you find your dream We rush him home, tell him he’s in the group. Mom said, Me too? I said, Yeah, you too, come on. So that’s how the Jackson Brothers were formed.
We did a wedding, and the lady said to us, What is your name? And we said, Well, we really don’t have a name. We’re going by Jackson Brothers because we’re brothers. She said, No, no, no, you should use Jackson Five because there’s five of you.
And it stuck, so we called ourselves the Jackson Five. In 1966, the group won their first talent show at the local high school. Several competitions followed, all of which they won, and after their appearance at Harlem at the Apollo Theatre, Gladys Knight reached out to them and asked if she could send Motown Records their tape.
That tape was rejected and sent back, but their father, Joe, didn’t give up. He continued to drive his boys hard. He was tough, but that’s what fathers did back then.
I’m glad he was tough on me because I tell you, all my friends and Gary that’s my age are either in prison or a lot of them are dead, so he did what was necessary. The Jacksons received a recording contract from Motown in 1969. Shortly after that, Joe Jackson moved his family to the Los Angeles area and sat in on every recording session the group made.
Their first single for Motown was I Want You Back, and it shot to number one. Oh, baby, you ain’t no chance, no, it’s better off left to me, left to me, left to your heart Oh, darling, I was blind to let you go, let you go, baby, but now since I see you, baby I want you back, I do now, I want you back, oh, oh, baby I want you back, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want you back, I, I, I do He worked you pretty hard, didn’t he, in the lead up to getting you as professional as he could? Well, he was smart. We didn’t understand that being kids and knowing our friends are outside playing and having a good time and we can’t go out because we have to learn this song or we have a show tonight, so we need to rehearse for that, you know? We didn’t understand that that’s quite as important as it is today.
And when I look back on it all, I say to myself, my father understood life. He used to say, your childhood is only maybe 10 years where you can really remember it and have fun and then the rest of your life, you’re an adult and you have to be a man and take care of yourself. So he prepared his son with what he felt would be a good situation for them and that was become entertainers and singers.
Yeah. He used the little bit of talent he saw in his kids and developed it. And that often meant you sleeping in the car and grabbing naps or going to bed late at night and trying to get up for school the next morning.
He drove you pretty hard, but for good reason. Oh, he drove us hard, you know. And a lot of people, they concentrate on the heights of Michael or the Jackson 5 or the Jacksons.
But my father, you know, the way he put the group together after he got involved is what made the Jackson 5 thrive. You said that your own kids have formed a band. Do you drive them as hard? Oh, no, not at all.
You know, I didn’t have to because after they saw their uncles and their dad and all the people, that’s what drove them, you know. They wanted to be like us. And thrive, as we all know, the Jacksons most certainly did.
With four charting singles, one after another, the life they were living was a world away from their earlier existence as poor black kids in Indiana. In Indiana, we dreamed a lot. We wanted to be stars.
I remember we used to look at the cloud formation on the back bedroom window and imagine that those were mountains and we’re in California and things like that. So when we moved from Indiana to California, we were so fascinated. And we were young.
You know, I think I was something like 13, 14 years old, and Michael must have been around 8 or 9. We were so fascinated with palm trees and mountains that we didn’t think about whatever. You know, you’re a child. We used to go by different celebrities’ houses and knock on their door and visit them, introduce ourselves, and, you know, we’re from Indiana, you know.
It was exciting. Moving to California was a dream come true. Motown had rented this house for us and had a swimming pool.
We’d never really seen a swimming pool in Indiana, so it was great. You and I must make up, must bring salvation back. Where there is love, I’ll be there.
I’ll reach out my hand to you. I’ll have faith in all you do. Just call my name and I’ll be there.
And, oh, baby, I’ll be there to comfort you, build my world of dreams around you. I’m so glad that I found you. I’ll be there for the love that’s strong.
I’ll be your strength. I’ll keep holding on. When did you first know that Michael was a superstar? I knew that before Motown because what he represented in front of me was just phenomenal.
I’d never seen anything like it. It was like the way he sung and danced and moved. It wasn’t just Michael, but Marlon was a great dancer, and so was the other brothers, but Michael had that special talent of it all.
He can sing, he can dance, he knew melody. He can take a song that you write and then sing it and just knock it out the park, add elements to it that you never thought of or never would imagine. What we used to say, he knew how to bring a song home.
He really knew how to bring a song home. You went to Coachella, girl. You never, never did it before.
I hang out before he comes down to say, Can’t you? Can’t you? Can’t you? Oh, my God, no, I can’t. I’ll take a seat. Oh, you gotta do the beat after me.
A, B, C. Easy as 1, 2, 3. I’ll say B, C. 1, 2, 3, baby. You and me, girl. Easy as 1, 2, 3. A, B. A, B, C. 1, 2, 3, baby.
You and me, girl. Come on now, let me do something. I’m gonna teach you how to sing it loud.
Come on, come on, come on. Let me show you what it’s all about. We can take a ride and we’ll be dancing.
Just gonna show you. Just gonna show you. How to get an A. 2300 Jackson Street, Gary, Indiana is where it all began.
Humble beginnings for what we know as a family musical dynasty. The Jacksons sold over 150 million records. They’re members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and have been honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
I can’t imagine what it would have been like to swap out singing in their little bedroom to appearing on stages everywhere with girls just throwing themselves at them. It was very exciting. It was scary as well.
I remember that we used to go on to shows and we’d barely get through the first number. And we couldn’t finish the show because of the girls and the excitement. We would basically do our escape from there.
And we didn’t really realize how much of an impact we had made on the music scene until we were older and was able to measure and read and really understand that. But when we were children, we were just doing what we had to do, making music, doing what we loved. And travelling and seeing the world was very exciting.
Things that you read about in textbooks in school, you actually got to go there to these wonders of the world and go to Asia or China or wherever in the world, Europe. And we’d come home and share our events with the classroom and that whole thing, and it was just great. The Motown years which ensued saw the group have 17 Top 40 singles in five years, including six number ones.
They left Motown for Epic Records in early 76, with the exception of Jermaine, who was replaced by youngest brother Randy. He’s very, very effective in the group. And we got Marlon, which is a year or two older than Michael.
So what happened when Michael wanted to go off solo? Well, that going solo thing is something that started back in the Motown days, because Michael’s first solo record, which was Got To Be There, was a Jackson 5 original record that was presented on the album. Got to be there Got to be there In the morning When she says hello to the world Got to be there Got to be there Bring her good times And show her that she’s my girl What a feeling there’ll be The moment I know she loves Me Cause when I look in her eyes I feel I need her sharing the world Beside me So I… After that album, Jermaine did a solo album, and then Jackie did a solo album. It’s something that we grew up with.
We always looked at our career as a group and as well as a solo. Every brother and sister has had a solo record. But not yet Tito, although it was soon to be Tito time.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. After each of his siblings put out their own albums, Tito was itching to release one too.
But he was torn between pursuing a solo career and raising his three boys, following the divorce from his wife Didi in 1988. He did begin a solo career in 2003, performing at various clubs with his band. It was in these clubs that his confidence grew.
We did a lot of shows, but what happened is one of the members had a club, and in that club they had, because this is Oxnard, California, they have vegetable fields and lettuce and corn, and these guys, they’re the ones that take care of these fields and pick the vegetables. They come to this little beer joint that one of the members owned, and they drink beer and play pool and speak Spanish. They’d rather have mariachi music, I think.
But I was able to use my friend’s club to rehearse, because these guys wasn’t paying attention to what we were doing music, because it wasn’t their kind of music. So you got your confidence up there. Yeah, so I was able to build my confidence, and it went from there.
I started playing a few things for churches, and I played a few weddings, and then I played a little festival, and I just grew out of the whole shy thing. So are you telling me all those years that we saw you on the stage with the Jackson 5, you were nervous as hell inside? All the time. Really? Were you the only one of the brothers that was nervous? No, I think everyone gets nervous.
Before a show, I was getting nervous when I had parts to do, not throughout the whole show, but if it’s my turn to play a solo or sing on a certain background part or something like that or a certain note that is probably out of my range, but I still have to make it work. Did you cover that up from your brothers, or did they know how you felt? Oh, they knew I was shy. They knew I was.
So did they encourage you? Not really. They were too busy doing their own thing. Exactly.
That’s just the way he is. I was just like that. I don’t know if you call it being smart or whatever, but in interviews, when the interviewer would ask the brothers a question, I wouldn’t say anything because I know one of them was going to answer it.
And quick. Who was the biggest mouth? Who got in first? I would say Jermaine. Jermaine gets right in there.
Yeah. You’re my love. You’re my angel.
You’re the girl of my dreams. For awaiting patiently. Yeah, yeah.
Daddy’s home. Daddy’s home to stay. Yeah, yeah.
How I’ve waited for to be by your side. Your best friend wrote and told me you had teardrops in your eyes. Daddy’s home.
Your daddy’s home to stay. In 2009, Tito executive produced the TV reality series The Jacksons, A Family Dynasty. That same year, the death of his brother, Michael, completely rocked his world.
It was the worst feeling I’ve ever experienced in my life. You know, I’ve had other relatives who had passed away, but they weren’t my close siblings. But when my brother passed away, it just seemed like my whole inner self just melted.
My son called me and he said, that is the truth of what they’re saying on the news about Uncle Michael. I said, what they saying, son? He said, they said they just rushed him to the hospital under cardiac arrest. I said, I don’t know.
Let me find out. So I immediately called my mom. I couldn’t get her.
So then I get a call back from my cousin and he said, your mother would like for you guys to come to the hospital right then, right now. So, of course, I go to the gas station because I got to go to L.A. And on my way there, my sister Janet calls me and she says, Tito, are you driving? And right then I knew that she was going to give me some really, really bad information. That’s when I found out that my brother had passed away.
Saddest day of my life still. All those rumors about Michael, you don’t agree with any of that, do you? Absolutely not. Not at all.
I think it’s all the money, hun. Absolutely. It was all about greed and money.
Because Michael wasn’t just around kids. He was around rich kids who had money as well. You never heard anything from somebody that had the money.
All the people that tried to accuse him. Either owed him money or wanted to extort money from him. It’s the money, hun, as far as I’m concerned.
And why did the family keep quiet about all of that? Was there nothing you could achieve by all speaking out in his defense? No, it’s always been a lot of comments made from the family to the media over here, especially here in America. So you all tried to do whatever you could? Oh, yes. And my son absolutely went on a whole campaign on this.
My oldest son, and he’s still in defense, speaks on radio shows and other TV shows in Michael’s defense. Which album do you think was Michael’s greatest? Thriller. Thriller was his greatest album.
I just liked the whole production of the album. I liked the video content. The storylines are great.
It’s visual. The music is just fabulous. And he performed it well as well.
And it was a bigger sale. It sure was. In fact, it still holds the record for the best-selling album ever.
An incredible 100 million copies had been purchased by the time of his death. You start to breathe. And so it looks you right between the eyes.
You’re paralyzed. Don’t say goodbye. Since Michael’s death, Tito’s eldest son, Taj, has been taking care of Michael’s three children, Prince, Paris, and Blanket.
My son is very bright. He loves children. He spends a lot of time with his kids as well.
It’s just a perfect arrangement. My mom also told me that if I was married, she would have chose me, but she wanted them to be around a family-married type of environment. Tito was 62 when finally, in 2016, he released his first solo album.
He called it Tito Time because that’s exactly what it was. Time for Tito. One of the reasons that I decided to do it, there was a survey on the internet, will Tito ever do a solo record? And it was sort of going even.
And then there was sort of jokes being made, and how come Tito doesn’t do this, or he’s the one that’s standing in the corner and don’t say much and just play his guitar or whatever. And there was a comment that really pushed my button, and I said, you know what, I have this music over here that I’m just holding. I should just go and finish this thing and put it out.
So I decided to do that, and maybe I won’t be so much of a joke anymore. Wow. Get It Baby became Tito Jackson’s first commercially successful solo single, and he took his place as the ninth and final Jackson family sibling to place a solo single in the charts.
Five years later, in 2021, Tito made good on his promise to himself to release a blues album. It was a great time to get in touch with a lot of the friends I had that would talk about doing something in the future. So, you know, I knew they weren’t in concert working or whatever, you know, out and about or shooting TV or whatever because of the pandemic, quarantine.
Yeah. So a great time to get in touch with them and actually participate. No one really said no, you know, and got some great participation from George Benson and Eddie LaVerd and Stevie Wonder and my brother, Bobby Rush, Kenny Neal, just a lot of different artists.
And we put together this album entitled Joe Bonamassa. Yeah. We put together this album entitled Under Your Spell, which is the title song that Joe Bonamassa performed on.
And did everybody do it remotely, obviously, because of the pandemic? Well, no, because we had done some music prior to the lockdown and all of that whole thing, especially the George Benson track with BB King Band. That was recorded at Scottsdale, basically. But some of the other things were recorded.
I have a friend by the name of Kenny Neal, who’s the American Blues guy. So brothers and friends of his got together and made my tracks. Under Your Spell, it’s called, and that’s the single from it.
Is that your favourite track? No, it’s hard for me to push one single because they all have a uniqueness to it, I feel. Right now, my focus is on the single, which is Love One Another. That’s the Stevie Wonder feature.
That’s got a very pertinent message right now, doesn’t it? We need that more than anything today. Yeah, it’s a crazy world we live in, for sure. Yes, it is.
What is it with your family that music just runs through your veins? I think it’s in the DNA, because I’ve got nieces and nephews that have wonderful voice and talent, parents have a wonderful voice and talent. Everybody’s just doing well with this. You’ve got to be very proud of your whole family, Tito, and obviously very proud of yourself too for coming out of your shell, for putting this new fabulous album together.
You’re also trying to bring the blues to a whole new generation, which is so important to keep it alive. Absolutely. Blues deserves that.
Tito Jackson, thank you so much for chatting with us today. It’s been an absolute pleasure. All right, thank you.
Bye. See you. Bye.
On September 15, 2024, Tito Jackson suffered a heart attack whilst on a road trip and died in New Mexico. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to Tito Jackson’s story. I’ll be back same time next week with more.