Randy Jackson
Since 2002, Jackson has been one of the three regular judges on the Fox Network reality television series American Idol.
Jackson also hosts a radio top 40 countdown known as "Randy Jackson's Hit List", which is syndicated by Westwood One. Every week Jackson counts down his top 30 Urban AC and Mainstream AC hits, and gives behind-the-scenes information on American Idol with American Idol Underground.
On 7 July, 2007 Jackson presented at the American leg of Live Earth.
The qualification round for America's Best Dance Crew, a new dance contest produced by Jackson, was broadcast live on MTV on 26 January as a teaser to the elimination dance off battles which premiered on 7 February. On March 11, 2008, Jackson will be releasing an album produced entirely by himself, titled Randy Jackson's Music Club, Vol. 1. The album will be preceded with the single "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow", performed by fellow American Idol judge Paula Abdul.
While in the Bay Area, Jackson played in bands with Carlos Santana and Jerry Garcia. He moved to Italy in the late 1980s and produced a record for Italian pop star Zucchero. The record, Zucchero and the Randy Jackson Band, produced one of Zucchero's biggest hits, "Donne". Jackson was bass guitarist for Tracy Chapman and is featured on several tracks of her 1992 release, Matters of the Heart. He performed on the singles "Bang Bang Bang", "Open Arms", and "Dreaming on a World". That same year, Jackson also played bass on Bruce Springsteen's hit "Human Touch". Jackson has also recorded, produced, or toured with many well-known artists and bands, ranging from Mariah Carey (whom he knew since she was a teenager; and has been her musical director for a number of her tours; he was in her band at Live 8 in London in 2005) to *NSYNC, Cˆ©line Dion, Wild Orchid, Stryper, and Madonna (he played bass on her number-one hit "Like a Prayer"). He has also worked as an executive, spending eight years as vice president of artists and repertoire (A&R) at Columbia Records and four years heading A&R at MCA Records.
Jackson had performed with the Rock band Journey on their 1986 album Raised on Radio.
-Wikipedia