- NINE #1 HITS
- THE BEST SELLING SINGLE IN MOTOWN HISTORY
THE JACKSONS
JACKIE, JERMAINE, MARLON AND TITO
TALK TO THE HAT
HAT: Hello to all of you! Regular guys from Gary, Indiana. Currently you are in Paris. So how is the French leg going? Are you eating croissants and coffee for breakfast?
JACKSONS: The French leg of the tour is going great! We love travelling and performing for our fans all over the world.
HAT: Jackie, you are the oldest. Are you in charge? Do you lay down the law to these youngsters?
JACKSONS :I don’t need to! We’re all adults now and we all work together as a family.
HAT:The Unity Tour has been a great success to this point. You play classic Jackson 5 hits, some of Michaels hits and more. How did you decide on the set list? Was it a group decision? And which tracks really connect with the crowds?
JACKSONS: We’re playing all the hits and putting on a feel-good, high-energy show for the fans. The hardest thing to do was narrowing down the song list because we have so many songs, and fans want to hear those songs in each show. So with certain songs we do a shortened version of them, or hook some of them onto others so we can take ourselves and the audience back down memory lane. We definitely tried to pick some of Michael’s most exciting songs too, so the fans get a little bit of everything.
The Jacksons Q & A July 2014
Carcassonne has a festival that is always a great occasion even if it is occasionally plagued by idle gossip and suspect local organisation. Superstars, local bands, the whole gamut arrives and we flock to see the old and the new and the coming.
And this year if you look at the line up there is one gig that you should cancel the visitors, take the phone off the hook and get ready for a funk and disco celebration with music royalty.
The 25th July 2014 at the Carcassonne Festival you have the chance to see one of music’s great families and a band that to this day influences music from a range as far as Celine Dion to Usher.
Yes, mark the day, for Jackie, Marlon, Jermaine and Tito, better known as The Jacksons are coming.
We spoke to the brothers:
HAT: Who were your biggest musical influences when you were growing up? We ran a poll and everything came out Motown.
JACKSONS: Our biggest influences were James brown, Jackie Wilson, the Isley brothers , the Temptations , and Smokey Robinson.
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HAT: And who do you guys listen to now?
JACKSONS: We actually love a lot of the younger artists…Bruno Mars is great.
HAT: If you had to start again and music was not an option, what would you have liked to do?
JACKSONS: I love sports; I would have been a baseball player (-Jackie)
HAT: How is it different on the road now compared to the 70s before the turmoil and media intrusion?
JACKSONS: It is a lot different. Technology has certainly changed things. Although we do really love being able to connect with our fans on social media (fans can follow us @Jacksons).
HAT: What is it like being back together as brothers? You are obviously a very tight family but the stresses and strains of being on the road must be different and / or difficult?
JACKSONS: There’s nothing better than being able to do what you love while spending time with your family. We’ve been travelling the world together since we were just kids and we love touring and performing together.
HAT: This tour is the first in 25 years. Why now? There have been differences s there are with any family. What brought everything together this time?
JACKSONS:This tour is something that we had been wanting to do for a while, and it really was just the right time. It is a dream come true for us to be performing together back on stage as a family.
HAT: Wouldn’t you like to just say “Man, we did it all, what about some me time’. Aren’t you tired? What really keeps you going? It’s hard work out on the road.
JACKSONS: Our love of performing and our love of music is what keeps us going and keeps us inspired! There’s nothing we’d rather do than share our music with the fans all over the world.
HAT: In Vegas you had a truly touching tribute to Michael. Will we see that in Carcassonne? And do you feel you are continuing his legacy as well by still performing?
JACKSONS: What we are doing is honoring his legacy and his spirit the best way we know how, which is performing. Michael would want to see us carrying on his memory through the music and through performing for the fans.
HAT: Las Vegas was more than a show, it was a family gathering with music, the atmosphere and the anecdotes. I read that you couldn’t say them all. Can we have one of the memories you DIDN’T say?
JACKSONS: That was a deeply intimate show for us and for the fans. We shared the truth of how the Jacksons started. How things came about. Our ups and downs. And the whole focus of the show is high energy, dancing, music and lights. And we really gave fans the unfiltered version of exactly what happened. It was a fun different format for us so far and we love giving fans the inside scoop and sharing our stories.
HAT: The publisher here says he learnt his dance moves from Jermaine and passed them onto Usher via Prince. Any chance of a video dance off Jermaine (and Marlon)?And can you agree on the best dancer?
JACKSONS: There probably won’t be a video dance off-- but we would all agree that Marlon is the best dancer.
HAT: Has your audience changed? I have a 13 year old daughter who sings ABC and is wildly excited to be seeing you. What is it about your music that is so timeless?
JACKSONS: All we’ve ever wanted is to create music that makes people feel good and that gets people up out of their seats and dancing. People of all generations respond to that and we love that fans are still as excited about our hits like “ABC” today as they were when the song was first released.
HAT: So what does the future hold? There is always rumours about a new album. Anything in this?
JACKSONS: Yes, that’s correct. We have been hard at work in the studio every second we’re not touring and have gotten a lot of work done on the album.
HAT: Do you want to keep on gigging? Or do we have another 25 years to wait just to keep us keen?
JACKSONS: We’ll keep going for as long as Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones are going!
In truth we asked a lot more question than this but hey, they answered some of them and allowed us to go to print so I say 'that's cool'.
And do believe that this Is the show to see at carcassonne this year!