5 Things you don’t know about Herman Jackson

You probably know that American Idol co-host Randy Jackson is from Baton Rouge and attended Lee High School.

But there’s plenty you may not know about his big brother Herman, a veteran Southern University music instructor and successful jazz artist.

1. Herman has spent much of his life touring. “I played with B.B. King, traveling on the road 320 days out of the year. Every three months we’d go to Europe for a month and a half.”

2. He has known personally some musical greats. “Dizzy Gillespie once told me that Charlie Parker was the best musician to ever live because every night he would come up with something different. One time, Chuck Berry didn’t want to be recorded during a concert we were performing because of a contract conflict, so he had all of us in his band play really low with the lights off.”

3. He’s a tennis enthusiast. “I try to play twice a week. It’s similar to playing the drums. Like a tennis player, a drummer has to psychoanalyze the other players, sizing up their strengths and weaknesses, and then compensate for them.”

4. He once worked for a men’s clothing store. “I was interested in fabrics when I was in college, so I got a job at a local men’s clothier. Well, truthfully, I wanted the discount. I wanted a legal way to get all the nice things I wanted at a cheap price.”

5. Randy, who gained fame playing bass for the band Journey, started out playing drums. “I got Randy started in music. I became interested in music and started playing the drums, so Randy, wanting to be like his older brother, followed suit. Randy went from drums to alto sax to bass guitar because he saw the other instruments played live when I had band rehearsals at the house when he was 6 or so.”