website associated_acts years_active birth_place label background birth_date instrument genre image article_title name occupation
-lsb- http://www.randyjackson.com randyjackson.com -rsb- zebra 1975 - present new orleans , louisiana , united states atlantic records solo_singer 28 february 1955 guitar vocals hard acoustic rock rock , heavy metal , progressive rock , thumb randy jackson -lrb- singer -rrb-
 randy jackson musician
randy jackson -lrb- singer -rrb-

randy jackson is an american rock musician from new orleans , louisiana , best known for his role as frontman for the band zebra .
he was born and raised in new orleans , louisiana , united states .
he started playing piano and guitar at age five .
his earliest influences were les paul and mary ford , the beatles , the allman brothers , cream , jimi hendrix , the moody blues , and led zeppelin .
in 1973 , he joined shepards bush as lead guitarist .
it was here that he met felix hanemann .
hanemann worked at jazz city studios in new orleans owned by cosimo matassa .
shepards bush recorded a demo at the studio which was jackson 's first experience in a recording studio .
jackson and hanemann left shepards bush a year later .
they soon met drummer guy gelso and formed `` zebra '' in 1975 .
it was at this point that jackson started singing lead vocals .
after playing the new orleans area for two years , zebra moved to new york -lrb- long island -rrb- in 1977 and in 1982 signed a recording contract with atlantic records .
their first album , `` zebra '' produced by jack douglas , went gold and was the fastest selling debut album in the history of atlantic records .
during the next couple of years zebra played opener for aerosmith , journey , zz top , loverboy , cheap trick , sammy hagar and reo speedwagon .
the group has produced five albums and five videos with combined sales of over 2,000,000 .
in addition to working with zebra , jackson performs lead vocals for the music of led zeppelin , the music of pink floyd and the music of the doors ; tributes to the eponymous bands as backed by an orchestra .
he also frequently plays live acoustic shows across the country .
in 1989 , jackson got a call from drummer kenny aronoff to join him and tour playing guitar and keyboards with the original `` jefferson airplane '' -lrb- grace slick , marty balin , paul kantner , jorma kaukonen and jack casady -rrb- on their u.s. reunion tour .
`` randy jackson 's china rain '' , a project that featured songs co-written with mark slaughter and jack ponti was released in 1993 in the us , europe and japan .
in 1992 , jackson started performing `` solo '' live with the use of a macintosh se 30 computer he programmed to perform the drums , bass and keyboards and called it `` the midi show '' .
he also programmed the computer to run the sound mix and lights during the show !
he toured all over the south and the northeast u.s. with the show .
from 1992 to 1996 , jackson was involved with lonestar technologies -lrb- long island -rrb- in the hardware and software development of an interactive multimedia musical instrument called `` the key '' which allows anyone to play music instantly .
jon anderson of `` yes '' used `` the key '' to perform live and wrote many songs with the instrument during that time .
jackson completed work on `` zebra iv '' which was released on july 8 , 2003 .
he produced and engineered the entire album .
the sign were formed by mark mangold -lrb- drive -rrb- , randy jackson -lrb- zebra -rrb- , terry brock -lrb- strangeways -rrb- , billy greer -lrb- kansas -rrb- and bobby rondinelli -lrb- rainbow & black sabbath -rrb- .
their début album , released in 2000 , was `` signs of life '' .
jackson sang the national anthem at shea stadium in flushing , new york on july 7 , 2006 .
on july 10 , 2010 zebra was inducted into the louisiana music hall of fame .
on october 18 , 2012 zebra was inducted into the long island music hall of fame .
in 2010 , jackson participated in a tribute album titled `` mister bolin 's late night revival '' , a compilation of 17 previously unreleased tracks written by guitarist tommy bolin prior to his death in 1976 .
the cd includes other artists such as hifi superstar , doogie white , eric martin , troy luccketta , jeff pilson , rachel barton , rex carroll , derek st. holmes , kimberley dahme , and the 77 's .
`` a percentage of the proceeds from this project will benefit the jackson recovery centers . ''
the center is located in tommy bolin 's home town of sioux city , iowa and is not named for randy jackson .
on february 4 , 2014 , `` empathy for the walrus '' was released by red river records .
jackson produced and engineered `` empathy for the walrus '' , playing all instruments and singing all the parts .
in late 2014 , jackson recorded `` what it feels like '' with silvergun , an american rock band from dallas , texas , starring darren `` dpaul '' wise of the drew pearson show band .
