Vocalist/guitarist/keyboardplayer
RANDY
JACKSON is
a man with a 
long history of music behind him. He
is most known for his work with ZEBRA, CHINA RAIN and of course,
more recently THE SIGN, the super AOR group. I had a little chat
with Randy...
Can you tell me about your first attempt in playing an
instrument?
1963 - Guitar/Piano - BEATLES chord book. I am more self taught
than anything else although I played Baritone Horn all the way
through college.
When did you form
ZEBRA, when did the band start and how was the time before the
release of the first LP (I believe you played in bands called
SHEPHARD'S BUSH and MAELSTROM)?
Shepards Bush - 1973 (5 members including Felix who was the lead
singer and rhythm guitarist)
Maelstrom - 1974 (This was Zebra PLUS a great keyboard player
named Tim Thorson)
Zebra - 1975
In 1983 ZEBRA
released its first album, please tell us all about it such as the
recordings, the songs, the airplay/press you got?
2-Videos (Who's Behind The Door and Tell Me What You Want) Lots
of MTV play on Who's Behind The Door.
Who's Behind The Door was the #2 AOR song in the U.S. for 6 weeks
behind "Every Breath You Take: by the Police.
Which bands/artists influenced you for
ZEBRA's music which was quite different than most other acts
around that time?
Beatles, Zeppelin, Moody Blues
A year later you
released 'No tellin' lies', please tell us all about that record?
Not enough material written for that CD. We were rushed to get it
out and it suffered for that. I think the only "new"
song that was written for that CD was "Lullaby".
Two years later
ZEBRA released its best and last album '3v', please tell us all
about that album and why the change in style to a more AOR based
rockstyle?
3.V was a real "Album". The songs worked well together
and it was much less of a "hodgepodge" than "No
Tellin Lies". I wrote over a hundred songs for that CD.
Are there any funny stories or things you
never forget about the time with ZEBRA?
When we first started performing in 1975 we got a gig at a
"Wet T-Shirt" contest in New Orleans at a place called
"The Root". There were a lot of bands performing that
day and a lot of people attended. At the end of the day the owner
of "The Root" asked if we could perform again the
following week because he was having another "Contest"
and he would put us on the main stage this time. We showed up the
next week and there were only a handful of people at "The
Root". It turned out that it was a "Men's Wet T-Shirt
Contest" with some "professional" women as judges.
It was pouring down rain and it was miserable but pretty funny.
(Especially the contest)
Why and when
exactly did ZEBRA split up?
Zebra never split up.
I always thought
ZEBRA had split up after the 3rd album, but now I hear the band
never split up. Anyway, in the early 90s you formed a band called
CHINA RAIN and released a great record called Bed of nails,
please tell me all about that record, did it sell well because it
was released right before the grunge explosion...
Atlantic did not release the record
(probably because of the "Grunge" movement) and it was
shelved. They gave me the masters and a couple of smaller labels
put the CD out.
Whatever happened
to CHINA RAIN and the other bandmembers?
Brian Tichy has been on tour with Zach Wilde, Foreigner and
Slash. Teddy Cook went on to play with Great White for a couple
of years and now he has been perfoming with me in "The
Sign". I haven't heard from Ronnie Snow in a long time.
What did you do
after CHINA RAIN?
I put together a 1 man MIDI show which I performed for about a
year (Florida. Teaxas. Louisiana, New York) . I was then hired by
a company called Lonestar Technologies to help develop an
interactive musical instrument called "The Key". Thye
idea was to be able to play "The Key" along with music
videos either on tape or that were being broadcast.
In the late 90s
ZEBRA released a best of CD and a video, please tell me about
them?
Atlantic was nice enough to give us use of the Zebra videos and
we added a live performance we did at "The Summit" in
Houston. The Compilation was put together by our Ex- Manager,
Mark Puma for his "Mayhem" label. We included a couple
of unreleased tracks from the the 3.V sessions and we put the
demo versions of "Take Your Fingers From My Hair" and
"One More Chance" on the CD!
Then came the surprise, because you
released a fantastic AOR record with the supergroup THE SIGN, how
came the idea to form this band?
Mark Mangold called me and from there we looked for a singer,
eventually contacting Terry Brock. I called Bobby Rondineli and
Terry called Billy Greer and that was how it happened.
What is the future
look like for THE SIGN, any more recordings or even a tour
schedule planned?
Nothing scheduled but it could happen.
And how about
ZEBRA, will there be a reunion?
We perform at least once every couple of months. You can get our
schedule at www.thedoor.com
What are the other things you are
planning for the near future?
An acoustic solo CD. I will also be performing with the Buffalo
Symphony doing a set of Led Zeppelin on January 5th of 2002.
Looking back, what
do you consider yourself as your best musical effort?
The 4th Zebra CD will be my best work!!!