907 Randy Jackson on Mastery, Health, and Success

This is episode number 907 with Randy Jackson. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Robert Greene said, Mastery is not a function of genius or talent. It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge. I'm super excited about this. I love sitting down with Randy Jackson and sharing stories of the past and lessons learned for today. If you don't know who he is, He's a big inspiration to so many people. He's a music industry vet, TV producer, author and entrepreneur. He recorded music on multiple albums for bands and artists like Journey, Mays and Kenny G. Starting in 2002, he became a famous television personality as a judge on the popular singing competition show American Idol. Sharing his secrets of success, he wrote the 2004 book, what's Up, Dog: How to Become a Superstar in the Music Business. He became an executive producer on America's Best Dance Crew, which premiered in 2008 and lasted eight seasons. This was one of my favorite shows actually at the time. And we talk about my love for America's Best Dance Crew. And in his personal life, he found out that he had type two diabetes in 1999. He changed his diet and exercise routine and underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2003, which led him to losing 100 pounds. and in this interview, we talk about how he set himself apart to record with some of the biggest artists in the world in the 80s and 90s. The power of music, when he knew that music and entertainment was what he wanted to master for the rest of his life, what it takes to stand out in any industry and get people to pay attention consistently. The original idea behind America's Best Dance Crew and why it was so successful for so many years. the power of taking care of your personal health and why he's dedicated to educating as many people as he can about it, and so much more. We have a lot of fun stories and banter back and forth. Super excited about this. Make sure to share this with a friend. You have the opportunity to change and save a person's life by sharing this message, lewishouse.com/907. We're on a mission to impact 100 million people every single week, and we need you to share it so you have that opportunity. So please share it with a friend, text a friend, or post on social media and let me know what you think. All right, and let's dive into this episode with the one and only Randy Jackson.

This podcast is going to be seven years in the end of this month.

Congratulations, man. You've been doing well with this, though. It's crazy.

That was fun. Yeah, we have 150 million plus downloads on the audio alone, videos, you know, bigger and growing.

Crazy, bro. It's crazy.

We were like kind of, we weren't the original podcast, but it was like we were in the first wave before like everyone else kind of got in like a few years after me.

Well, I heard about this. I got turned onto it 'cause I was watching Scooters thing.

Oh, Scooters. Interview with me or? Yeah, he's great.

And, he's awesome. That's one of the first, who's this guy? Yeah, yeah.

He's great.

Yeah, he's a good dude.

We did a show last year. I did like a Facebook Watch's first talk show. We partnered on that together. So he's a good dude.

Yeah. He's a smart guy.

All over the place, but he's a good guy.

Yeah, I mean, he's got where he came from. I've known him since the beginning.

From Atlanta days when he was like a nightclub promoter.

More than that when he was like basically An intern doing social media for Jermaine Dupri, looking for the next criss-cross. That's how he found Justin Bieber.

Wow.

Crazy.

Talking about getting to, finding something and running with it.

And Jermaine didn't want.

Didn't want Bieber.

But he happened to be working with Usher, and he happened to be working with Jermaine Dupri, who both started fighting over Bieber. Isn't that crazy? It's just like, you know, what do they call it? The perfect storm.

Crazy.

You know?

And he had talent and he was hungry and all these things. I mean, it's like.

I mean, they just, they picked all the right horses and Usher happened to have a deal with L.A. Reid. L.A. was running Island Def Jam at the time and he ran it the old school way. So it just worked out. Well, you could say, I'm gonna bet $10 million on Red. Yeah. And do it.

And then it, And Chery's the whole.

Company, 'cause he came up under Clive Davis, L.A. did. Clive would say, unless Whitney Houston is number one across the board this week, all of you getting fired. Wow. So you go, I still need my job. He's bought a new car, and he's got a dog.

I'm curious, if Bieber was on American Idol, and you saw him there, would he have made it through to the final round just like seeing him sing a song? or was there there had to be.

Something else would have been there, he would have definitely made it through. He might have even won, because what I think people mistake about him he's actually really talented.

There.

He's really talented. People saw how he started, you know, social media, YouTube, all of that, He's really talented.

He's got a gift.

He's really got a gift, man. He's better, I think he's better than most people even think.

Do you think he would have made it as big as he is now without, you know, Usher and kind of Timberlake fighting over it, without Scooter pushing as hard as he did with all of that? I think all of that, social media.

Usher happened to have a deal with LA Reid, Usher happened to be in a studio with Jermaine Dupri, so was Justin Timberlake, like I think, All those parts played such a pivotal perfect storm role that I mean, you know, Scooter with his assertiveness and him being smart. I mean, I think the whole thing, I mean, you know, LA signed it. I mean, I think the whole thing was a perfect storm.

Perfect storm.

Because you can't look at success that huge without saying that person must really be talented.

Yeah.

And The team around them must be really smart and talented. So you got that many smart talented people that are all hugely successful for a long time. Oh my god, that's a perfect storm.

It's gonna work. Yeah, you played with, you produced, you were manager with so many big artists. But it seems like a lot of big artists have some type of downfall. They have some type of like, It's too much to handle, it's too much success at that early of an age. Like you see even Bieber had a number of years where he went through a lot of stuff. Whitney Houston, like all these people kind of have this, like a dark, I don't know if it's a dark side or if it's just a success that's.

Too big for them. I think, you know, we often say in the industry and this is really true, artists are their own worst enemies, right? So, I always say it's not who you think you are, it's not who you think you want to be, it's who you actually are. that's gonna lead you out of the darkness into the forever light, right? So part of the issue to me is that you see all the Disney kids growing up. So when you're a young kid, be it whomever it is, thrust into an adult world, that's an adult business world, and you're making those kind of numbers, that kind of money in the business world, they're all clamoring for you, but you're a kid, you have no idea. how to assess, how to deal with, how to like, what is this? Who are these people? What does this mean? I guess that's why the team, once again, is so important. Do they have my back? Do they get me? Are they holding me down 100? Knowing that I don't understand, but being a visionary saying, But in the future, five months from now, a year from now, five years from now, this is what this is going to mean to us moving forward. So it takes an army, dude. It takes a village. Literally for everything. Takes a village.

Something I love that you did the most is America's Best Dance Crew. For whatever reason. For whatever reason.

Louis, good looking now, brother.

I don't know why that show's not on air anymore. Like it was the greatest show. I remember a moment in the show, it must have been after season two, maybe three, it was like one of the finales. You said, you came out on stage, I can't remember this vividly, for whatever reason, this memory, It's like a circular stage. You're coming out there and you say, this is the hottest show on TV. I don't know if you remember saying this. You're like, Right now we are the hottest show on TV. And it was like, maybe it was the finale or something. And I just remember, I was like, that show brought so much joy and inspiration to so many people. Myself included. And I remember it was like a darker time for me.

When did it come out? What was the first season? What year was that? I think the first season was 2007?

Yeah, that was 2006. the year I got injured playing arena football was 2007.

Right.

And I remember watching this show late at night on MTV and it brought me a lot of joy and inspiration just to see people going for their dreams.

Well, you know, it's a funny thing about that show. You know, I had an idea of trying to create something that was different and unique. So my agent at the time, WME, Lance and Sean Perry said, Hey, you should go and check out this dance competition, you know, Howard and Karen. who have hip hop international at a dance competition down in Torrance. So going down there, I'm looking at it and I'm thinking, wow, now, so this is interesting. Cruise. I grew up with dance cruise all around me because I grew up in the hood in Louisiana and, you know, all around me. So friends of mine were all in cruise and they were doing it for, like, a lifestyle of living, whether they're making money or not, they were getting together, you know, b-boys b-girls were, like, popping whatever, what it was, just. that camaraderie. And I thought, if I could take this and turn it into a competitive TV show, the world hasn't seen anything like this. You grew up in the hood, any hood, the black hood, the Chinese, the Mexican, the white whatever hood, you've seen something like this. You know, it's like almost having like, you know, pool players team or bowlers league or whatever. And dude, we We scrub it up and it just, we first sold it to NBC and then the president got blown out and we sent it over to MTV and, you know, the guys over there that were running it at the time, Tony and Liz, you know, graces with the show, you know, and it just, you know, it just became that thing, man. I mean, I was one of my proudest shows. Because it was first, doing something no one else had done. So hard. The same thing can be said though, for American Idol. We were first before the Voice, before any of that. The first one, I'm hearing the lyric of a song first cut is the deepest. But you know what I'm saying? So when you're first and you got it dialed in, and it's hot and it's happening, Dude.

Everyone's paying attention.

Everyone's paying attention and you get a chance to win.

Yeah.

You get a chance to win.

How many seasons did that go for?

Dance Crew went for seven seasons at MTV.

That's pretty big, right?

No, it was a great run, man. It was a great run. And it was so unassuming because I don't think people understood at first what it was, but I'm telling you what I loved the most and one of the things that we created I wanted to have it feel like you played sports, you played ball, I played ball. I wanted to have it feel like you were in at a pep rally in high school.

Yeah.

In the gymnasium with the bleachers and everybody going crazy, picking this team, yeah, go, Raw, Raw.

You know what I'm saying?

I really wanted it to have that like WWE, like, you know.

It was amazing. It was electric.

Dude, in the place where we shot it at Warner's, dude, It was rocking in there, dude. It was just rocking.

Electric, just loud, just screaming. College Pep Rally.

Dude, I love, and that was my, that was, man, I love that atmosphere because it just, it really fueled the performers, too. Wow.

When they have that whole audience and the cameras are on and screaming, you're going, oh, you're popping the lock and hard, right now.

Dude, you're jumping backflips. Great DJs, people dancing in the stands. It was just like a good, old-fashioned party. So you go to this show and people will just be lined up around the block because they know they're gonna have a good time. So it was really created for that. We're working on something else like that now that hopefully we'll get on this year 2020, but I just love that kind of electric energy.

It was amazing, man. Now why does a show like that have a big run and then why does it end? I felt like it was still great. Why do shows stop?

When they're still-- you- know, When you first started, it's brand new. Nobody knew, only a couple of us thought that it was going to work. And surprise, surprise, it worked big. So once you, what did they say? Failures have no fathers or sisters or brothers or cousins. Success, all of a sudden there's a million. All of a sudden everybody's telling, I knew it was going to work. I'm the one that told them to have the real cam. Around the round stage, you have the mirrors, ceilings, these lights. I'm the one that said do this and do that. So I think it just started kind of wearing. Everyone had a different idea. And when you get too many cooks and ideas in the kitchen, it not only spoils the soup, the soup is a wrap. So, and I think most ideas, simple ideas work best, right? We know this in life, keep it simple. There's a thing over every studio in Motown back in the day in the history of Motown records that had, I think, 150 number one records in the history of Motown. Over every studio there was KISS. Keep it stupid, simple or simple, stupid, whichever you like.

Keep it simple, stupid or keep it stupid, simple.

When it gets too complex, all bets are off. That's when people lose. Everyone's a genius. That means no one's a genius.

It's too hard to think that much. If it's too creative, it's too much thinking.

Too much thinking. We've over-thunk the thing.

That's why great songs follow a simple pattern, right?

A simple pattern. Dude, you speak it. Listen, I manage a lot of writer-producers. I'm one myself. I say this every week at our writer song meetings. Got to be simple. Simple ideas. The Beatles was simple. Motown was simple. stop in the name of the, well, I don't have to think. I don't have to think where's the chorus? I'd have to think like, let it be one of the greatest songs ever written in life. They say let it be seven times in the chorus. Oh my God.

Over and over again.

Over and over again.

I mean, what about frozen? Let it go, let it go. It's just like saying let it go over and over again.

Well, there's a lot of great writers. Max Martin being one of the greatest of our time. The last 30 years.

He was my neighbor.

Yes, I know where you live. I know where you are.

My neighbor in my building, CJ Barron, it works with Max and does a lot of songs with him. So he's always over there, come back and tell me what they're working on.

Yeah.

It's all about the simplification, which makes something really pop, whether it's a TV.

Show, a book, a simple idea. Yeah. Dance crew was a simple idea. You know, Biggest Loser is a simple idea, Dancing with the Stars is a simple idea. I mean, you know, any things that you find, and especially in the reality world that are simple ideas, you could probably make float. Because I think the public has to digest them. Every game show that you like, it's a simple idea. Password. Jeopardy. It's a simple idea.

Exactly.

You know, the execution has to be done, you know, cleverly, but it's a simple idea. Yeah.

Now, you're an Allstate football and track. Now, were you a better athlete or a better musician?

I was a better musician, obviously. You know what I say to people every time I meet them? I meet a lot of people. I see a lot of prospective artists, clients, whatever. We're developing a lot of TV, and I say to people this. They go, I'm an actor, dancer, singer, model, producer, TV host, writer, TV host. Dog parents.

Mom.

A mom, a dad. Okay, fine. I go, you can use this too, Louis. Where have you made your most money? And they'll answer one or the other and I'll go, I guess that's what you should do. So this is where the public is seen and said, I'm gonna give you money for this.

So the rest of the stuff is a hobby. Right, right. You love these things.

You love these things, but these are not your life's calling, per se. Because to find out what your life's calling means that you could be good at a bunch of things. What are you great and best at? And how does the public view you without you having to tell them? They see you and they go blah. So, I mean, you know, music's always been in my heart, It was never top of heart because, you know, like yourself, when you play in sports since you're like elementary school, junior high, high school, whatever, you're just, that's your focus. Because it takes all your time, all your training, all your thoughts, everything. But I'll never forget in high school, I started playing gigs in bars, like after games, you know, sneaking out. My parents didn't know. I obviously thought I was at McDonald's with the rest of the people, so I was playing in some bar, you know, like, So I guess thinking back on it, it's been a bigger part of my life than I ever even realized.

What got you into it in the first place?

My brother was a drummer. There was music all around my neighborhood, music all around my house. As I say, my brother was a very successful jazz drummer. He's a teacher at Southern University now in Louisiana. I mean, it just, you know, it's one of those things that When you're around it, you kind of absorb it and I think it's almost like taking a kid, showing a kid 10 things and see what they gravitate towards. Oh, you really like that, right?

Go do more of it.

Do more of that. What about that? Because I think it's exposing the kids to different things so they can see what they like.

And were you always playing bass or were you playing multiple instruments?

I started playing drums because my brother was a drummer. guitar, played saxophone, and I played piano. Then bass was really... Bass and saxophone were the last two. Really?

Yeah.

And that's the one that you stuck with, right?

Yeah.

It just, you know, it spoke to me, you know what I mean? Like, you know, I hear bass lines in my head. I can be in a noisy restaurant right now and hear just a glimpse of the bass line and go, Right, right. That's so-and-so song. That's Joni Mitchell or that's... Shoni Mitchell. Parliament Funkadelic or that's Tribe Called Quest or... Just by hearing the baseline. Just by hearing the baseline. Or that's the Revolution Shall Not Be.

Televised from Columbus, Ohio.

There you go. I like that.

That's great, man. Did you grow up learning jazz as the fundamentals or learning classical?

I grew up learning blues, rock, R&B, all of that. Because you know the great thing about growing up in the South in Louisiana, is you have its own forms of music being Dixieland and Zydeco, its own natural things. And it was a lot of Indian and French and Creole and all these settlements, along with the Afro-Cuban, African-American, and all these settlements that it created this sort of great potpourri of just amazing music. From the meters to the wild chapparoula Indians, to like even Second Line in the streets is this whole thing. when you look around now, you've got like Big Freedia, you got all the Zydeco stuff, all the Dixie Land, and along with rock, along with Southern Rock, along with all the funk, all the R&B, all the country, all the bluegrass. It's just, it's a great, I didn't know that growing up, but as I started moving around the country and meeting other people, they're like, man, you're so fortunate to grow up there.

That's cool.

You know?

Yeah.

'Cause you take it for granted.

Absolutely. It's interesting, my parents were opera majors at Ohio State.

Wow.

So I'd hear my mom and dad singing all the time when I was growing up.

You sing some opera?

No.

Louis Kpitz.

Exactly.

Come on man.

I wish man. I wasn't acquired high school and I did the musical one year just to like show myself that I wasn't just like a dumb jock that I was.

Gonna be a rock star. Yeah, you were trying to get that girl.

The girl was in the play too, yeah.

I get it.

And so my parents were opera majors. My brother was one of the top classical violinists in the country for his age group under 18.

Wow.

Then he went to prison at 18 for selling LSD to an undercover cop at Ohio State.

Wow.

Was in prison sentenced six to 25 years for selling one sheet of LSD to an undercover cop. Got out in four and a half years on good behavior. But during that time, he joined the prison band. And he was the only white guy. And all these older guys taught him blues, hip-hop, rap, so is he still playing guitar? -RB and jazz. And now he's the number one jazz.

Violinist in the world.

What?

What's his name? Christian Howes. He played with Les Paul for 10 years in New York City. He's played with all the greats all around the world. And he's the baddest mfer on the electric or Jazz violinist who will ever watch. It's unbelievable to watch. Tell them to start a band. For sure, man. I'll have them come out here and connect with me sometime. But so I grew up in jazz clubs watching him play. Like every week, my dad would take me out, and after he got out of prison, he was playing a lot to get his feet back on the ground. And I really learned about jazz and just started to learn, appreciate it. Like, you know, Jazz is like a sport. It's like bouncing off of each other.

And you're all listening and you're connecting and improvisation. Well, I often say that the quintessential jazz musicians are probably, in my estimation, the greatest musicians in the world.

It's unbelievable.

Because you have to interpret and you have to add your own voice to something. So you have to be able to improvise. This is why probably the biggest song learned in Berkeley School of Music or any of the colleges across the country is Giant Steps. by the great John Coltrane. Because the changes and the modality of which the changes follow and you play through and he's circled, I mean it's just, yeah. My God.

That's cool.

It's amazing.

Did you go to Berkeley at all?

I did not. I went to Southern University at the same time in Louisiana and my brother went with a great teacher named Alvin Batiste. And he just helped us all through tremendous, one of the greatest teachers. But I took privately and I really fell in love with Miles and Coltrane. And fortunate enough to play with Billy Cobham who was in the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Speaking of Jerry Goodman, jazz violinist, and I worked a lot with Ponty. He was also a big jazz violinist. And I just fell in love with it. The whole fusion thing to me is like rock and roll with every note, every mode, every time signature possible.

It's kind of like being a linebacker. You gotta learn everyone's point of view. Everyone's gotta understand it.

And when you think about Ornette Coleman, and then you think about PFunk, or you think about any of those bands like that, everything worked. Everything was used. I mean just unbelievable high caliber of understanding of music. I mean Sun Ra, all the Freedom Jazz guys, I mean, I can't say enough, John McLaughlin, probably one of the greatest guitar players in the world, if not for that music, the greatest. Just lived and breathed, cold train, started Mahavishnu Orchestra that was just oh my God, you know, like, I was listening to something the other day, this guy's just next level. It doesn't get any higher. It's like in the Olympics, the degree of difficulty, he's there with Cole Train and all the rest of them. I mean, someone turned me onto this kid years ago. His name is Joey. He's this young kid piano player. signed a verve, I think. He's just, I just fathom that you can improvise and play hearing all the notes and all the tones and just do it so expertly well. I just love.

It's beautiful.

To this day, I still love jazz.

Yeah.

You're extremely educated in a breadth of music and lots of different modalities of music. You've played with so many great people. You've also just seen a lot of great people that you didn't play with. Who is the in your opinion the greatest person that you played with for so many years and then who is the greatest either singer artist musician that you didn't play with that you were so in awe with that you didn't get a chance to play with God.

You know, it's hard to say.

I mean youn played with so many people on tour you I played with a lot of records.

I played with John McLaughlin there were there were in my visioning because I work with NArthAn Michael Walden. I work with Billy Cobham, both drummers. I work with both violinists, Jerry Goodman and Jean-Luc and, you know, work with Herbie who played him and John and all those guys played with Miles. I, you know, I, you know, some of those guys are probably the greatest. I mean, Herbie, I mean, yeah, I mean. Miles Coltrane, John, I just, you know, on the singer side, the pop star.

Side, who was the most talented?

Fortunately for me, I worked with, it's more like a top ten for me, from Springsteen to Billy Joel, to Elton John, to Aretha, to Mariah, to Whitney, to Celine Dion. to, you know, all those unbelievable greats.

I just, I- It's hard to pick one, huh? I mean- 'Cause you were a musical director for a few of them, right?

Yeah, but Aretha inspired so many people. God rest her soul. I mean, just, I mean, you know, and all of those greats that also, they all came with their own lane. None of those sounded the same. Even Dylan didn't sound like anyone else. I mean, you know, this is what I still challenge artists with today. I know you can copy anything out there. You can be the best, biggest trap star. People come up to me every day, music all sounds the same on the radio. Well, it's some of the same writers, same producers, same melody, same sounds, all of this. And people kind of just want to copy each other. 'cause they wanna just be on the radio well, they want something like this, I'm gonna give them that, but what is your brand? What are you selling? I know what everyone else is selling, but give me something unique to identify you by. If you can't, I don't know.

Who's the most unique person out there right now, the most unique artist?

I would say Bruno Mars has etched out his own lane. I would say what you've seen Lizzo and Billie Eilish do this last couple years. They've etched out their own. I think this girl, Tori Kelly, is so unbelievably talented. Tori Kelly. Tori Kelly. Tori Kelly.

Yeah.

I still hate that I didn't get a chance to sign her. You did? Well, Tori, I love you.

Well, she was on American Idol, right? She was on Idol. She got like top 10, and then.

You guys were like, yeah, you're not good at. It wasn't me. I think-- She's amazing, yeah. You know, I think on the countryside, I think people have done interesting things. I think this girl Ashley McBride is amazing. You know, I don't know. I mean, I think equally on that side, I guess Dan and Jade kind of come into their own. I think in the jazz world, you got Kamasi Washington, you got Corey Henry, you got Robert Glasper. you got all these guys, Esperanza Spalding, that's really come with her own thing. I think, you know, on the urban side, you got her, you got, I guess, SZA, you know, on the hip-hop side, certainly, I guess you got Drake, you got Kendrick, you know, you got Travis, you know, a lot of those guys have come out with their own thing.

Yeah, it's pretty exciting.

Yeah.

I'm curious, you've had an amazing, life, like just so many cool experiences.

So far.

So far, it's not over yet.

And a continuation, the continuation.

Keep going. But so far, you've had an amazing life that, you know, from sports to music to business to judging to management, you know, all the creative directing, so many different moments. Like, you've had some incredibly big moments. What would you say are like top three for you so far of, like, from all the touring you did, from all the awards you won, from all the shows you produced, the moment's in just some pub in the middle of nowhere where three people are playing, but you feel you hit that note, you hit the groove. What are those top three for you?

I think back as a kid in Louisiana, in Thibodaux, Louisiana, playing at a club called the Foundry, which is a big club at that time back in the day, playing with a guy named John Fred and the Playboys. He had a Beatles sort of kind of smooth song called Judy. in disguise that became a local regional hit. I think being in the studio with Erma Thomas, the queen of like the R&B blues thing from the South, playing on stage with Ernie Kado and those guys at Jazz Fest back in the day, I think about all the early years, you know, I think about the first tour with Billy Cobham, Being on stage with him, the Montreux Jazz Festival, seeing Oscar Peterson in the early days, I think about being on stage with Journey at Calaveras County Fairgrounds.

You play with Journey, too?

Yeah, with Journey and- yeah, that must have been epic. Them closing the show with the song Faithfully.

Oh!

And hearing everyone in the crowd sing every lyric and every- Still gives me goosebumps to this day.

How many people were there?

Must have been 100,000, 200,000. I don't know, crazy amount.

This is their height, huh?

This is the height of this band.

But oh my gosh.

I finally realized what it meant to write a hit song that really penetrated the public. They live, they learn every word and they sing it back to you where you can just hold out the microphone and you go, God, Thank you, Lord Jesus, I've made it. They finally understood what I was doing. I finally gave them something. They're living on every word. Wow. The power in that, it's crazy. Like, it still gives me chills to this day. I think those moments, I think being in the studio, we recorded Jumpin' Jack Flash with Aretha in Detroit, for this Whoopi Goldberg movie and being with Keith and Woody and Steve Jordan, Chuck Lavelle, myself on bass, Aretha in the recording, Steve Lillywhite, engineering, producing, mixing.

Which movie was this, Sister Act?

No. Sister Act. No, it wasn't Sister Act. Jumpin' Jack Flash, which got you the movie. It's like just recording that with them and shooting the video. and just being in the studio with Springsteen, you know, just those touches of greatness for me, just being a sponge, just even being able to be in that environment, thank God. So I always say to people, make sure you're a sponge and make sure you're open so that you can receive and learn something. Never block the blessings, Louis.

That's right.

Don't block the blessings, y'all.

Be open to the blessings.

Be open.

How do you stay open to blessings?

I think, you know, with wisdom and I think people like me and others saying it to you that, you know, the person with a closed mind and knows everything probably knows nothing. So they are operating out of fear. Why are you closed? Why do you know everything? I don't know everything. I mean, I've been a lot of places in the world. I'm gonna tell you right now, I don't know everything. I don't wanna know everything. I wanna learn something new every day. So, you know, I think.

What was the moment, and maybe it was this moment with Steve Perry and Journey, was there many moments or any moments where you just were playing and you're kind of in awe, like you had the chills and you're in tears of this moment?

That Calaveras County grounds.

I mean, I can only imagine hearing Faithfully sung back to you guys, just screaming at me.

I set the whole set. I mean, it just, you know, at the height of the band and, you know, just being so fortunate and so blessed to be in that spot.

And you're on stage playing.

Dude, I'm on stage playing and songs I didn't know they loved, like they loved Wheel in the Sky.

Oh, great song.

They love all, I mean, just like.

Oh, don't stop believing. I mean, that must have been electric as well.

I'm saying, dude, and I mean, Neil and Perry and Jonathan and Mike Baird, the guys are all so talented. I mean, just to be there, you know, it's just, it's such an achievement, accomplishments, a milestone. It's just, you know, but said equally, you're in the studio with Bruce Springsteen.

Yeah.

I mean, you're in the studio with Elton John, you're in the studio with Billy Joel. What's that like? In the studio with Dylan, I mean, wow. You know what? Aretha, dude, like, I don't even know Whitney Houston, I mean, Mariah.

What was that like with all those people?

You know, there was a song Mariah wrote years ago for a movie called Lead the Way that is still one of my favorite songs in life. The melody just kills me every time I hear it. I mean, just how unbelievably talented she is. Just, you know, being around that level of greatness that you say to yourself, don't get no better than this. God, wow.

Top in the world.

Thank you.

Now, it's undeniable that you're an amazing bassist, right? You're an amazing musician.

I think I'm pretty good.

You're amazing, right?

You're top of the heap. Amazing, though.

But there's also guys that I'm sure you saw you're like, this guy's gotta step on me. This guy's a little better.

Victor Wooten, this kid Mono Neon, who was ridiculous. And this girl, Day, D-E-Y from India. Oh, my God.

They're amazing, right?

And Hadrian Freud. I mean, these guys, I mean, Thundercat, I mean, dude, there's so many great players.

So what is it about for people listening or watching who are great, but they know someone's better? at their skill than them in the world. What is it about you that got all the big opportunities where the other potentially better basis didn't get? They weren't in the studio with Elton.

And find out where you fit. Find out where you do better than someone else and really try and explore that. Also, we're all a little bit different. So what's your difference? Once again, we're back to the original conversation. What is your brand? I know what someone else's brand is. What's your brand? Bruno Mars can sing anything. This guy's so uniquely gifted. I mean, my God. I mean, you know, he's like, reminds me of all the church guys.

Yeah.

You know, the Kim Burrells, the Karen Clark's, the, you know, The Smokin' Norfolks, the B-Slades, the Whatevers. This is like effortless talent. What is your unique thing? What makes you unique? What do you do better than anyone else? I know you can do a bunch of things. What is that certain thing that Louis does that no one else does?

What was that thing that you did that no one else did?

I think for me, I was a jazz guy, but I was also a church kid. I was also the R&B rock kid that I grew up loving R&B, I grew up loving music, country, I grew up loving everything. So I wanted to understand music on a deeper, different level and not become a music snob like a lot of the jazz guys. A lot of the jazz guys want to only play jazz.

So my brother, some of my brother, I'm like, you gotta start playing other stuff.

Yeah, so, and also for me, fortunately, when I moved to the Bay Area to start working for Nardo Michael Walden with his production team, we would do 10, 20 records before we ever got noticed by anybody because we were jazz guys trying to cross into the popular music, R&B world. But it took us a while to learn what that was really about, 'cause we could play any of the notes, but with the feeling of those notes, did we get the feeling? So was it playing with the right intention? Like, you know, there's this blues guitarist today, this guy that I absolutely love, Eric Gales. This guy is so gifted, but he can play all the notes with everyone else, but he also plays it with the feeling.

The emotion.

So the notes without the emotion. Or nothing.

Let's go play in the classical.

You can do whatever you want.

Play the symphony.

Do whatever you want. Where's the feeling, man? Give me some feeling. That's why the thing about BB King He ain't killing him with one note, while everybody else has got a hundred notes. He's killing you with one note. You just go, oh. You know, I grew up on Southern Rock. I love the Allman Brothers. I love Wayne Allman. Dude, not my cross to bear. He makes the guitar cry, dude. It's like that Clapton sort of like, dude, oh my God. Or like Derek Trucks, dude, like these guys are like, Nothing will ever replace the emotion. So that's really the key to someone's heart and their soul. Because really you're trying to get people to emotionally join you in that journey or that ride or that song or that solo or whatever you're doing. If you do that, you may have something. That's what we did with Dance Crew. Yeah. that's what Idol did. It touched your heartstrings. Maybe I was that kid that's auditioning. My eyes were too close together. I had buck teeth, I had Coke bottle glasses. I was overweight, I was skinny, I didn't know who I was. I didn't, you know, you know, whatever, whatever. That's what got me into Unify Health, this Unify Health lab thing because, you know, I was that kid. I was all those kids. So it's funny, I became a judge on Idol because I was all those kids trying to make it growing up.

Wow.

So I was them so I could actually feel the pain.

Yeah.

What they were going through. You know, I struggled all my life with my health too. So growing up in the South eating the best, the best food that like, you know, I've been saying we don't trust a skinny chef. There's a bunch of condiments on the table. I'm leaving the restaurant because they didn't taste that food before they served it to me. So like, what do you mean that's too much butter and salt and sugar in this? That's the way it's supposed to be.

Tastes better, right?

Tastes, man, tastes good. You know, what's the saying? Man, I see your belly growing. You must be doing something right. You must be living right. Your belly's growing.

Yeah.

But I'm curious. I want to get to your health transformation in a second because it's amazing what you've overcome and what you're doing now with this new brand you have. But I'm curious, there had to be something special you had to keep getting asked back. Go from one person to the next person, because you might be talented enough to say, okay, Whitney Houston's going to give you a shot, but you got to have something else to have like 10, 20, 40 other people say, We need you as well. Was it a relationship quality you had? Was it a...

I think it was the relationship thing. And I also think that I did a lot of sponging and listening. so I'm thinking about now when we were doing Hollow I Know, we were doing that and we were making a production and I said, you know, if she went up in that Beaver Somebody, who? Somebody, who? You know, I was like, really? Like, you know, because she's another. She was such an effortless, talented. unbelievably talented girl that, you know, I just, I would really listen and pay attention and never thought I knew too much, but always was trying to bring the positivity and the whatever to the session and really trying to find the greatness in the moment in the song. You know, what's going to make this great and how is this going to try? and get the listener to pay attention. Because something always has to grab you and make you pay attention, right? We're all busy. There's a thousand things. I mean, one of the downsides of social media, I think it's a double-edged sword, is there's way too much noise going on. There was too much noise going on before. Now with all that, there's way too much noise. So how do you get somebody to pay attention? You've got to grab them by the collar and pull them close to listen and force them to hear you out. so hopefully they get it.

Yeah.

But I think it's that, I think it's the combination of everything. I think it's that kid that grew up in Louisiana with all those potpourri of music around that love Zeppelin, Hendrix, James Brown, P Funk, Sly and the Family Stone, Elton John.

You want a one-trick pony?

You want a Marvin, you know, Miles. Cold Train, the original, you know, Hank Williams Sr. and Jr. I mean, I think it was that guy that loved boom chick country. You know what I mean?

Like, you know, they're like, we got to keep him around. Yeah.

Well, and also, there's a thing in the South that I always carry with me. They will say to you, Louis, is that really you? Meaning. are you being authentic right now? Is that who you really are in there? Are you trying to fake me out with this over here? And they're saying, is that really you? Because they don't believe that's really you.

Wow. I like that.

That's deep.

They keep it real down there.

That's deep. That's deep.

That's deep down there.

Authentic.

Is that really?

We need to know they like you before they even gonna ask what you do out here. Everybody you meet. So what do you do down there? They're going to take a minute. It may take three, four weeks before they ask you so. By the way, what do you do? You've eaten with them, you've had drinks with them. By the way, what do you do? Because they want to know, they want.

To know you first. They want to get to know your energy, your heart.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, do I even like this person?

Right.

Because I don't like them.

I don't care what they do. Who cares what they do?

Right.

That's interesting.

So you got, so people liked you. You were real. I mean, they liked you. They said people love me, but, you know, some people that don't like me, but whatever.

I like that, man. Can't please everyone. Now, you've gone through a big transition in your health. Back in 2003, you lost a bunch of weight. And you've kind of gone up and down in your health over the years, right?

Well, you know, the thing is, is I think there's a bunch of methods that you can use, and I've tried them all and used a lot of them successfully, unsuccessfully, to lose weight. But I think the thing is, is how do you keep it off?

It's so hard to keep it off.

So, it's really a lifestyle change. you have to literally change your life.

So when you grew up eating, knowing that eating everything all the time, that's right.

I moved away and while I'm here, I have to move even further away because you have to really to force food and start over. This has to be a food divorce. A food divorce. Start over. And also a health divorce. So what may be a great workout for you, you may be a Peloton, Right. Guy, you may be at Equinox every day or the great gym here or there or whatever. You may be a Barry's Bootcamp or whatever they help.

Love Barry's.

But that may not be my thing. My thing may be dancing. But no matter what you do, gotta move.

Yeah.

So whatever's gonna get you to consistently do it, that's what you gotta find. So once again, it's back to What's my brand?

Did you feel like when you were on tour for all those years with all these big artists that you didn't think about your health at all? It was just kind of like eat whatever. It doesn't matter if I'm overweight or...

You thought about it a lot, but I think also, you know, I wrote some books a while back and I used a couple of behavioral psychologists to talk about this because in order for me to get you to change, To adopt Unify Health Brand, the brand that we've come up with that I've made that I've got out now. I got to get you to change the way you think about that.

That's it.

So that's what behavioral modification therapy really is. I want to quit smoking. I want to quit eating, quit smoking. I want to stop this, stop that. So if I can get you to change your mindset around it, maybe we have a chance.

How did you change your mindset around it? Originally.

I had to divorce it. I developed type 2 diabetes. I had no choice. I didn't have to. There's no cure. You're gonna have this the rest of your life. You can live a great life with it, but you have to make changes.

And if you don't make changes, you're gonna be sick.

You're gonna injure yourself. You're gonna get this disease, this thing, this thing, that thing.

You're gonna die.

Yes.

So, what are you gonna do?

Wow. And so that was what, 15, roughly.

15 years ago or 20?

17 years ago. 17 years ago, you got that?

Yeah, so what am I gonna do? So I gotta get it together. So I can't eat like that anymore. Even if I go down there, I can't have everything fried. Everything was a ton of sugar, butter, salt. I can't do it. I mean, even the vegetables, I mean, you know, because to them, how does it taste?

Vegetables are soaked in butter.

Does it taste good?

They're fried or soaked in butter.

I mean, I think the desserts down there are probably the sweetest in the world. It's supposed to be.

It's just a bag of sugar. It's butter.

You know, one of my favorite things I used to love eating is the pecan pralines. It's literally butter, sugar, and pecans.

Literally. Oh, real.

Literally butter, sugar, and pecans.

So, have you pretty much cut out almost all sugar in your diet? on your diet or is it like.

You know, you have to all the carbs, you have to, it just, I had to have a divorce with it.

Do you struggle with it today where you see candy or sweets and you're like, I want that or is it more of like you've emotionally and mentally blocked it out?

No, what I've done now the last couple of years is I call myself, it's a funny thing, I call myself a Carnivore.

Okay. What's this? I already like this.

I'll eat a little bit of whatever I want if I really want to eat it. A little bit. Now, a little bit. Now, if I'm at a birthday party and I want a little bit of that chocolate cake, I'm gonna have a little small slice. But I'm gonna skip out on the bread or the pasta, the rice or the whatever later, because I know what that does to my blood sugar, how it spikes.

Spikes it quick, man.

Yeah, yeah. So I've got it down to a thing now. Because I've been living with it for a while and studying it.

Even one cookie will spike your blood sugar up tremendously, which will affect your mood, which will burn.

Same thing though with pasta, bread, or any of the carbs, because they turn into sugars and metabolizes. So I've kind of gotten a pretty good handle on it. And also, one of the things I'm proud of with this line of Unify Health lab stuff that we've come up with is about five to seven years ago I realized how important gut health was.

Huge.

It's the beginning of everything.

Everything.

Gut health is where everything starts, all the diseases start. So you really gotta get that under control. The leaky gut thing that Dr. Gundry talks about.

I mean, yeah, Gundry is great.

So Gundry is amazing.

It's great.

And it just, it really speaks volumes. It spoke volumes to me at the time. So to be able to come up with this as a pay it forward of a way to help people, also, you know, of things that we put in all the formulas, thinking about your everyday life and how you should really start to live your life. And also, that liquid formula of this is so great and so potent. this Multi-GI-5 because it absorbs into the bloodstream a lot quicker because it's a powder. It's a liquid. You mix. Yeah. So I just, you know, it's helped me. So I just wanted to do something to help people.

Sure. What is unique about Unify that most other health supplement protein brands aren't doing? What is it?

Well, this is definitely, I got together with some great doctors and came up with this formula. so it's not just me and what I've learned. I really went to the task, got some doctors, some labs involved to really test the stuff. Also, there's a postulate formula, a postate. There's like everything you could think of and for men and women. It's universal. Everyone can take it. So, and this is like the thing you think you don't need, the pre, the pro, every part of the whole gamut of the gut.

This is for the gut mostly.

Yes.

This one, yeah.

Yeah. And I mean, you know, it's like we all don't think we need it, but guess what? Everything you put in, it's always not good, is it?

It's always not good?

For you. No.

Right.

So especially being in the South, knowing all that butter, all that salt, all.

That sugar, it's just good for you.

None of that's good for you.

You didn't need a good that was healthy.

So this helps to give you a jumpstart on that.

How important do you think is optimizing your health in terms of relaying over to creativity? Like you were this incredible musician and creative director for the most talented musicians and artists in the world for decades, but you were so talented and your health wasn't in order.

No, because remember, you focus on things and everything else just goes to hell. So you're like, I'll never forget, I was on Idol and people would come up to me and they'd say, you know, because Kyle and I will always be giving it to these contestants, that was terrible. They go, yeah, but you're fat. I go, yeah, you don't think I got mirrors in my house? I know. Yeah. I mean, you know what I mean?

It's like... Do you feel like you're more creative now that your health is much better than what it was.

My energy is way more sustainable. It's way greater. I'm way more creative, way more clear.

Yeah.

It has helped me tremendously. And also I feel better, bro. Yeah, yeah. God, man, you know, like, you're exhausted or feel like you have a weight on your shoulder. Dude, I'm saying, you know, listen, I said once I lost a bunch of weight, I said, listen, I know why people always say in it's the people that don't need to jog that are always out in the streets jogging. When you're a ladder, you wanna run. You're ready to serve. You're happy to run. You're not carrying around the extra 125 pounds. Exactly. Like, oh my God, I feel like I wanna jump up and dance.

You know?

That's great, man. But yeah, it's a paying it forward to me, you know what I mean? I think, 'cause look, I take it, it works for me.

So it's great, man.

This is what I think is gonna help a lot of people. I love it, man. 'Cause I'm sure a lot of people have a lot of the issues that I have. You've been taking it, Louis.

Louis, you need to be on this.

I need to get on it now.

Come on, bro. I'm gonna get on it now. Come on, brother. Come on, brother. I'm gonna get on it. Yeah, Craig sent me a-- I've been.

On Craig's for years, and he sent me a bunch of stuff and over.

At the office, so we're gonna start trying it.

Craig and his wife are great people.

I love them immensely, dude. What an amazing guy. Amazing guy, smart guy, great in business. Dude, really just the best. And they're really doing-- they're making brands.

Like yours to really help you.

And that's why I appreciate and acknowledge him for it.

But to give back, to really offer something that people didn't think, and I just think for me, using my voice to say, Hey, listen, I did it. Here's some of the things that worked for me. Maybe this will help you. So you've seen my transformation. I didn't get here by myself. There's a team of people that helped me. I didn't have all these ideas. In fact, I didn't have any of these ideas. I was 125 pounds heavier, you know, 17-18 years ago.

So, I mean, you know, you look great now, man.

Thanks, brother.

Congrats and everything. I got a couple final questions for you. This one is called the Three Truths. I ask everyone of this at the end. So, imagine it's your last day on earth many, many years from now. You've got a whole nother lifetime to live, right? 150 years old as you want to be. but one day you got to turn off the lights and you go to another place. Hypothetical. And imagine you've accomplished anything else you want to accomplish for the rest of your life. All of your dreams that you have now, they come true. And you've had this incredible life. And all the content you've put out in the world, you for whatever reason got to take everything you've ever said on video or audio or written. it's got to go with you to the next place. So, no one has access to this information or anything you've ever said before. But you get to have a piece of paper and a pen and write down three things you know to be true about all the things you've learned in your life. The most important lessons that all people would have to remember you by are these three lessons. I call it the three truths. What would you say would be your three truths?

Make sure you remain open. So you can learn. Make sure you live your life with utmost compassion and humility. Make sure to listen.

Why is listening such an important one for you?

Music. Listen to what you're saying. Listen to what someone else is saying. Listen to Deepak Chopra. Listen to Gundry. listen to, you know, Chris, Craig, listen to, you know, things they can learn from listening to your podcasts. I mean, you know, the information you can glean. So you're listening to music, you're listening to what people say, because even in conversation, unless you listen, you're not going to hear what someone's saying.

That's true.

I love that.

I want to acknowledge you, Randy, for the amount of work you've done on yourself to be able to get to the top on so many different levels, first in sports, then in music for decades, then as a producer, executive producer, creator, the amount of work. You could easily say, I'm good. Like, I'm good, I've made it, I've got the money, I've got the rewards. Like, I can eat whatever I want. I'm good.

You decide to eat whatever I want.

-You can eat whatever I want.

-Yeah.

-But you decided to say, I'm going to work on myself and continue to transform, continue to learn. And I think it's hard sometimes I've seen for people who've made it to say, I'm willing to be open to learning new things. Learning new things about music, about your craft, about your health.

-That'S what I mentioned to you first. -Exactly.

-Open. -Yeah. So, I acknowledge you for that because you're creating a brand that's helping people heal, helping people become better human beings. And you're just a good human being. I really appreciate and acknowledge you for your gifts, your talents, your creativity, and your heart. You've got an amazing heart, ability to connect and share good information.

Thanks, brother. I love that you do what you do, too. I love, I've listened to your stuff for years, and I love that you give back and do what you do because you let people come on here and vent and talk about stuff and you ask the great questions. Great interview by the way. And I think it's important once again, listen.

That's all I've done for 70 years is just try to find brilliant people and just hear from them. And it's kind of selfish because I'm learning from great people and then I'm applying to my life but I'm also sharing with the world.

And even if you take one thing... -Say one thing. -It's all you need. -It's all you need. And there's some infinite deeper spiritual wisdom in there that if you listen, you'll remember the things you're supposed to get.

Where can we find the brand? How can we follow you online? Where do we go?

It's online everywhere, unifihelth.com. Give us a man.

And what about you personally? Are you on Instagram and Twitter and so on?

I'm on everything. Randy underscore I'm Jason. Okay. Yeah, I'm on everything Twitter, Instagram. Awesome. I'm everywhere.

I don't even want to be. I love it. Well, make sure you guys follow him. Check out Unify. Send him a message on Instagram and Twitter. I'm sure you'd love to see some people messaging you.

Yeah.

The final question is, what's your definition of greatness? When you've achieved massive success in whatever endeavor you want, and still are living your life with the utmost compassion and humility. It's not what you achieve, it's how you do it.

My man, Randy Jackson. Thanks, man. Appreciate it.

That was a good one.

Wow.

My friend, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I loved connecting with Randy. I love hearing his stories. He gave me chills when you talked about being sung at to hundreds of thousands of people with Faithfully on stage with Journey. I can only imagine the chills that would give me being on that stage and experiencing that. If you enjoyed this, share it with a friend. You can help impact, change and save a life by sending this message to a friend. Text them, lewishouse.com/907. You never know the impact you can make on someone's life and you can pay it forward by sharing this to a friend personally. You can post it on social media. Just tag me @LewisHowes and Randy Jackson as I'm sure he would love to hear from you as well. Every moment, every day is an incredible gift. We have an opportunity to either buy into the gratitude of the moment or to buy into the negativity of the moment. And everything you're experiencing is actually just a moment. And the meaning you put behind it will define your happiness, your joy, or the negativity you feel in your life and the decisions you make. So I really try to focus my time in making a positive meaning around challenging or negative moments to really switch the narrative so that I just come from a place of much more joy and positivity. All we are guaranteed is this moment right here.

Day.

And I'm just so grateful that you took the time to spend here and listen to this interview with Randy Jackson. As Robert Greene said, Mastery is not a function of genius or talent. It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge. We all have genius within us, and I know you have genius within you if you're willing to put the time and focus into what you want to do.

I love you so very much, and.

You know what time it is. It's time to go out there.

And do something great.