Randy Jackson

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Randall Darius "Randy" Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American bassist, former television music competition judge, singer, record producer, entrepreneur and television personality. He is best known from his former work as a judge on American Idol and executive producer for MTV's America's Best Dance Crew. Jackson has won a Grammy Award as a producer.

Personal life

Jackson was born on June 23, 1956, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the son of Julia, a homemaker, and Herman Jackson, a plant foreman. His first marriage, to Elizabeth Jackson, was dissolved in 1990; they had one daughter named Taylor. In 1995, Jackson married Erika Riker, with whom he has two children, a 14-year-old daughter named Zoe and a 12-year-old son named Jordan. In 2003, Jackson lost 114 pounds (52 kg) following gastric bypass surgery. He stated in a February 2008 television commercial that he has type 2 diabetes.

Music career

In the early 1980s he played on three albums for Jean-Luc Ponty and with the rock band Taxxi. From 1986 to 1987 he was a session musician for the rock group Journey. Jackson played on Journey's 1986 album Raised on Radio. He moved to Italy in the late 1980s and played on a record by Italian pop star Zucchero. The record, Zucchero and the Randy Jackson Band, was produced by Corrado Rustici who played guitar with Jackson on many albums in the early 1980s. He also played with Billy Cobham.

Randy Jackson (baseball)

Ransom Joseph Jackson (born 10 February 1926) is a former American Major League Baseball (MLB) player for the Chicago Cubs (1950–1955), Dodgers (1956–1958; two seasons in Brooklyn, one in Los Angeles), Cleveland Indians (1958–1959), and ended his career back with the Cubs (1959).

Before Major League Baseball

After a year at the University of Arkansas, he transferred twice, and helped lead the football teams of Texas Christian University (1945) and the University of Texas at Austin (1946) to consecutive Cotton Bowl Classic appearances as a halfback. Playing baseball in college he hit .500, .438 and .400.

The Majors

The Chicago Cubs drafted Jackson and on 2 May 1950, the 24-year-old made his major-league début. "Handsome Ransom" had four solid seasons at third base for the Cubs from 1951 to 1955.

Jackson followed up a slow rookie season (in which he had 111 at-bats over 34 games) with a solid second season, in which he hit .276 with 76 RBI and 16 home runs. He struggled again in his third major-league season, his average falling to .232, with 34 RBI and 9 home runs.

Randy Jackson (offensive lineman)

Randall Belford Jackson (born March 6, 1944) is an American former college and professional football player who was an offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for eight years during the 1960s and 1970s. Jackson played college football for the University of Florida, and thereafter, he played professionally for the Chicago Bears of the NFL.

Early years

Randy Jackson was born in Lake City, Florida in 1944, and he attended Lake City High School.

College career

Jackson received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was a tackle for coach Ray Graves' Florida Gators football team from 1963 to 1965. As a senior in 1965, he was a member of the first Gators squad to ever receive an invitation from a "major" bowl, the 1966 Sugar Bowl. Jackson graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1968, and was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."

Cowell (surname)

Cowell /ˈkaʊəl/ is a surname with multiple origins.

Origin of the name

Cowell is a surname of English origin. It is a habitational name from several places in the counties of Lancashire and Gloucestershire called Cowhill, composed the Old English cu (cow) + hyll (hill). In some instances the surname Cowell may also be an Americanized form of the Polish, Jewish and Sorbian name Kowal. It could also be an anglicisation of a Scots Gaelic surname or from the Irish name McCawell.

People with the surname

Paula Abdul

Paula Julie Abdul (/ˈæbduːl/; born June 19, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, choreographer, actress and television personality. She is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 before rising to prominence in the 1980s as a highly sought-after choreographer at the height of the music video era. Abdul later scored a string of pop music hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Her six number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 tie her with Diana Ross for seventh among the female solo performers who have topped the chart. She won a Grammy for "Best Music Video – Short Form" for "Opposites Attract" and twice won the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography".

After her initial period of success, Abdul suffered a series of setbacks in her professional and personal life. She saw renewed fame and success as an original judge on American Idol in the 2000s, which she left after the eighth season. She went on to star on CBS's short-lived television series Live to Dance, which lasted one season in 2011, and was subsequently a judge on the first season of the American version of The X Factor along with her former American Idol co-judge Simon Cowell, the creator and producer of the show. She was also a guest judge on the All-Stars edition of Dancing with the Stars in 2012 and the tenth season of So You Think You Can Dance in 2013, and more recently became a permanent judge for that series along with the Australian version of the show for its 2014 revival.

American Idol (season 13)

The thirteenth season of American Idol, styled as American Idol XIII, premiered on the Fox television network on January 15, 2014.Ryan Seacrest returned as host for his thirteenth season. Keith Urban was the only judge from the twelfth season to return. Former judge Jennifer Lopez, who returned after one season absence, and Harry Connick, Jr. joined the judging panel following the departures of Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Randy Jackson.

On May 21, Caleb Johnson was announced the winner of the season, with Jena Irene as runner-up.

Show changes

There were a number of other major changes in the season, from the judges to the format of the show itself including the opening intro, which now uses the "Gyroscope 2.0". On May 9, 2013, Randy Jackson announced that he would no longer serve as a judge. On May 30, 2013, Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj also announced they would not return to the judging panel. On August 1, 2013, it was confirmed that Keith Urban would return as a judge for another season. Executive producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick were succeeded by Per Blankens, previously of Idol, the Swedish version of the Idols format. On June 25, 2013, it was confirmed that producers Jesse Ignjatovic and Evan Prager would join Blankens as executive producers of the show. Bill DeRonde replaced Warwick as a director of the audition episodes, and Louis J. Horvitz also replaced Gregg Gelfand as a director of the show, who had been directing since the sixth season. Fox television executive Mike Darnell who helped launch American Idol in 2002 left as programming head of Fox, and Fox Sports executive David Hill was hired to oversee the series.Rickey Minor returned to the show as musical director after having left at the end of the ninth season to go to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

American Idol (season 12)

The twelfth season of American Idol premiered on January 16, 2013, as part of the mid-season of the 2012–13 network television season.Ryan Seacrest returned to host. Randy Jackson returned for his twelfth season as judge and was joined by new judges Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban, who replaced Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler.

The season was the third to have four judges, after the eighth and ninth seasons. It was also the first season in the show's history where all of one gender's finalists (males) were eliminated before any of the opposite gender's finalists, therefore making it the first to not only have an all-female top 5, but also the first season since the sixth season to produce a female winner, as well as the first season since the third season to have a finale consisting of two women. It was also the first season where the judges did not use the "Judges' Save" since its introduction in the eighth season. This was the third season where both finalists were in the bottom three or two at some point in the competition, following the third and eighth seasons.