Tito Jackson, a founding member of the iconic family group “The Jackson 5” along with brothers Michael, Jermaine, Jackie and Marlon, died Sunday at age 70.
News of Tito’s death was first reported by Entertainment Tonight, who reported that the news came from Steve Manning, a longtime friend and associate of the Jackson family. Manning told ET that Tito appears to have suffered a heart attack while driving during an outing, adding that the cause of death is officially unknown. People magazine confirmed the news with Tito’s nephew, Siggy Jackson.
He has recently been playing with brothers Marlon and Jackie under the new umbrella of The Jacksons and just a week ago in the UK. Audiences in Los Angeles saw The Jacksons perform at the Fool in Love festival at Hollywood Park on August 31. Tito has recorded and performed prolifically as a blues guitarist over the past 20 years, both under his own name and with the B.B. King Blues Band.
With Tito Jackson captivating homes around the world with his guitar playing, singing and, of course, dancing, the Jackson 5 scored four consecutive No. 1 hits in the late ’60s and early ’70s: “I Want You Back” in 1969, “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There” in 1970. “Dancing Machine,” released in 1974, was a nearly equal hit, peaking at No. 2. Though the young Michael garnered most of the attention during this early burst of glory, the unassuming brothers’ chemistry and choreography were essential ingredients in their success as top acts on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and other TV variety shows.
After switching labels from Motown to Epic, changing their name from the Jackson 5 to the Jacksons, and adding Randy, the group had several Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Enjoy Yourself” in 1976, “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)” in 1979, and “State of Shock” in 1984. These were more Michael’s solo projects, collaborations with Mick Jagger, than true group achievements. The group’s Victory Tour, which played stadiums in ’84, marked the brothers’ final outing as superstars, after the success of “Thriller” made it clear that Michael was dedicating himself to a solo career. Michael left the Jacksons at the end of that tour, taking most of the spotlight, although various members of the family group continued to perform and record sporadically thereafter.
Tito was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 along with the other members of the Jackson 5. Michael, who died in 2009, is the only one of the original five brothers to have died before Tito.
As one of the more low-profile members of the Jackson 5, Tito knew his name would sometimes be used as a joke. “I was always the quietest member of the group, so people would make fun of me,” he said in an interview with Jitney in 2018. “One of my favorite basketball players, Charles Barkley, said, ‘If Tito wasn’t in the Jackson 5, would we miss him?’ And that hit me right in the heart. I was devastated.”
Initially, Tito’s guitar playing was limited to Jackson 5 live shows, as Motown wouldn’t allow the brothers to write songs or play instruments on their string of early hits, but after the brothers broke with Motown in the mid-’70s and signed with Epic, Tito began adding guitar parts to their recordings.
Tito was the last of the original brothers to release a solo album, and it wasn’t until 2016 that he finally released his first solo album, Tito Time, which marked a return to and emphasis on the blues in the latter part of his life.
“I got married at 18 and didn’t do any solo work at that time because I wanted to be with my three boys,” Tito said, explaining Jitney’s lack of a discography, “but this record (Tito Time) and the first single I did with Big Daddy Kane (Get It Baby) were pretty big hits. The Alabama band plays it at halftime at football games, and it was pretty fun to watch the band and the cheerleaders dance to it.”
In 2021, Tito released and toured another blues-oriented album, Under Your Spell, whose recordings featured guests such as Stevie Wonder, George Benson, Joe Bonamassa and his brother Marlon.
Speaking to the Boise Beat at the time, he said the Jackson 5 had little-known blues origins, noting, “I started playing guitar and playing blues music before the brothers started singing as a group. We’d harmonize together while my mom was doing dishes or whatever. As far as the Jackson 5 or the three of us being in a band, it wasn’t organized at that point. My dad and uncle would come over and I’d jam with them.”
“That’s basically how the Jackson 5 started. Before we moved to the Motown sound, we played a lot of blues sets. Every time we did a show, we’d play five or six blues songs. After we moved to Motown, we stopped playing blues because we had so many records available and the audience wasn’t blues fans anymore. So we wrote our own blues songs. We didn’t have that many songs, so we covered other artists’ songs. The only time we could play blues back then was when we had an accident on stage and one of the other brothers’ microphone went out while he was playing. He yelled, ‘Tito, play the blues!’ That didn’t happen very often, but it did happen a few times.”
Tito was born on October 15, 1953, in Gary, Indiana, the third child of Joe and Katherine Jackson. He began playing guitar at age 10, and after his father caught Tito messing around with guitars one day, Joe bought him his own guitar.
Tito encouraged his three sons to get into the industry. His sons, Taj, Taryll and TJ, born with wife Delores “Dee Dee” Jackson, formed the group 3T with their father as their manager. 3T released their debut album, Brotherhood, co-produced with Michael Jackson and released on his own label, MJJ Music, which was certified gold in several countries, including the UK. 3T’s subsequent albums were released independently in 2004 and 2015.
Tito spoke about his quiet return to music in a 2021 cover interview with Blues Blast magazine.
“After the Victory Tour, I decided to take a break, but it was so long I just couldn’t take it anymore! I wanted to play music and get back on stage. I’d been playing Jackson 5 songs my whole life, but blues was the mainstream in my family. I just wanted to jam, but there was no one professional who could do that for me.
“I was living in Oxnard, California at the time. It’s not a big city like Los Angeles, so I started a little blues band with some guys. Music was their side job…they played drums on weekends and had regular jobs during the week. There was only so much they could do because I didn’t want to take them away from their jobs and take away the benefits they had built up over 15 to 20 years.” He said that for a long time he played mainly at weddings and church charity concerts, until he had built up enough fame as a blues musician to play in Japan and France, and finally recorded his first album 11 years ago.
Tito told the magazine that he was torn between R&B and blues, so he started by making a “Tito Time” album that was in keeping with the Jacksons’ classic style, including a collaboration with Big Daddy Kane. “Blues is music for all ages, so I said I can do blues anytime. The older you get, the more you embrace it. But I decided to make this ‘Jackson’ album first. … But deep down I wanted to make a blues album.” That became his second and final solo album, Under Your Spell. “I love that genre of music.”
Tito Jackson also served as a judge on the BBC celebrity singing competition show “Just the Two of Us” and as executive producer of “The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty,” a reality show following the brothers’ reunion.
Below is footage of the Jacksons performing at the Fool in Love festival in Los Angeles, about two weeks before Tito’s death.
