Randy Jackson’s inspiring weight loss

Randy Jackson was born Randall Matthew Jackson in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on June 23, 1956. His father Herman worked as a plant foreman while his mother Julia worked as a homemaker. He was the youngest of three siblings.

He always loved music since when he was a child and loved playing the bass guitar the most.

Randy Jackson told Today, “I just got the bug, like, ‘Oh my God I love music, I want to be involved.’”

He was entirely in love with music and often sneaked out of home in other to play at local clubs at the night.

Randy Jackson said in describing his upbringing, “You had a huge jazz culture, a huge blues culture, a huge rock culture, everything that you can imagine. So, as a kid growing up loving James Brown, Motown, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin to death got turned on to the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane when I was 15… I couldn’t replace it for anything.”

“I immersed myself in music; that’s all I could think about. I practiced, took every lesson, listened to every record, and hung out every place I could hang out where the music was happening. I went for it. And that’s kind of the way my personality is, and what I do with almost anything I get into,” he said.

He finally got his breakthrough at the age of 17 after he got a chance to play with John Fred and the Playboy, an iconic band group in the 1960s.

He was later hired by Jazz drummer, Billy Cobham.

Randy said, “When you play with people that are that legendary everyone goes, ‘Wow, this guy can play because Billy wouldn’t have no slouch. I guess this guy’s good because John Fred can have whoever he wants in his band, and he’s got this guy.’ It’s the company you keep.”

His career was just getting better as he went on to perform with other great people in the industry and also went to work as a studio musician.

He also became a record producer and an executive with Columbia Records and MCA Records. 

He is a well-respected man in the industry who has accomplished so much and he will always be remembered for his deeds.

Randy’s life took another turn after he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and now weighed over 358 pounds.

Randy told People, “I was struggling with my weight. You come in and they go ‘Yeah dawg, you’re telling me I’m terrible but you’re fat!’ And I would go, ‘I am. I have mirrors in my house. I know!’”

Diabetes turned out to be both a blessing and a curse to him. 

Randy wrote in his book, Body with Soul, “It’s a curse to be saddled with a disease that’s life-threatening and that you can’t completely get rid of (though you can certainly manage it). But it’s a blessing to get that huge wake-up call.”

He was able to lose over 100 pounds after undergoing gastric bypass surgery and had to  change his diet and often exercised.

His weight loss journey is so inspiring and today he has co-founded Unify Health Lab. A product that helps people on their weight loss journey.

Randy told People about Unify Health Labs, “This is my sort of giving back.”

He also established a foundation called Randy Jackson Childhood Obesity Foundation. He became a spokesman for the American Heart Association’s Heart of Diabetes campaign.