Tito Jackson, guitarist who found global fame as part of the chart-topping Jackson 5
Tito Jackson, who has died aged 70, was an original member, with his brothers Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael, of the Jackson 5, the family band from Gary, Indiana, which became one of the biggest phenomena in pop during the early 1970s and provided the launch pad for the career of their lead singer, Michael.
It was Tito’s skills on the guitar which inspired the boys’ father Joe to form a band, originally called the Jackson Brothers, with Tito, Jackie and Jermaine, in 1963. A year later Michael and Marlon were added to the line-up, initially as backing instrumentalists. In 1966 they changed their name to the Jackson 5, with eight-year-old Michael sharing lead vocals with Jermaine.
After winning local talent contests, in 1968 the group signed with Motown Records, by which time “Baby” Michael had emerged as the star. Their first single, I Want You Back (1969), became a US chart-topper, and over the next seven years the group released 13 albums, mixing R&B, soul, funk and pop.
With their synchronised dance routines the Jackson 5 became huge international stars, appealing equally to black and white audiences and even having a cartoon series based on them.
Despite Tito’s talents on the guitar, Motown refused to allow him to play the instrument in the studio, insisting on using session musicians instead. His guitar work did not make its debut until 1976, when he and his brothers left Motown for Epic records, with whom, renamed the Jacksons, they triumphed with the disco-inflected album Destiny (1978).
The following year Michael, now 21, moved to New York, and from then on his solo career began to eclipse his work with the Jacksons.
The Jacksons continued to perform, notching up 18 top 20 singles in the US and 13 top 40 hits in the UK. Tito and Jackie Jackson were the most consistent members of the band, which continued to tour, on and off, until recently, performing classic hits such as Can You Feel It, I Want You Back and Shake Your Body, the most recent line-up consisting of Tito, Marlon and Jackie, as well as Tito’s son Taryll.
Tito began a solo career in 2003, the last of the siblings to do so, making his recording debut in 2016 with the album Tito Time, having held back because he wanted to focus on bringing up his three sons.
Toriano Adaryll “Tito” Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana, on October 15 1953, the third of 10 children – seven sons and three daughters – of Joe Jackson, a steel mill worker who played guitar in a band, and Katherine, née Scruse.
Joe, who died in 2018, would gain a reputation as the toughest father in the music business. In 1993 Michael Jackson told Oprah Winfrey that if his sons did anything wrong Joe would beat them with a belt, leaving them covered in welts, while his sister La Toya alleged that Joe had abused her sexually from the age of 11.
But when Tito and his brothers Jermaine and Jackie were interviewed by The Guardian in 2021, they staunchly defended their father, saying that without his iron discipline they would never have made it. They recalled how, in their early days as a band, they would typically rehearse for four hours after coming home from school before playing a gig, then doing their homework, and finally going to bed between 2am and 4am.
“The reason he was tough with us,” Jackie recalled, “was because we had gangs in the neighbourhood and he didn’t want us to fall into them, so he kept us busy. We worked all the time, whether it was on our music or just moving bricks in the backyard from one spot to another spot.”
In 1984 the Jacksons embarked on a “Victory Tour” of the US and Canada, and after releasing 2300 Jackson Street in 1989, the group ceased recording, though they continued to tour.
Jackson was inducted with his brothers into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and in 2007 he appeared as a judge on the BBC talent show Just the Two of Us.
He remained active until shortly before his death, releasing a second solo album, Under Your Spell, in 2021, performing with the Jacksons as headliners at Rewind South in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, on August 18 this year, and at the Fool in Love Festival on August 31 in Inglewood, California. He also managed 3T, a band made up of his three sons, Taryll, Taj and TJ.
He had married their mother Delores “Dee Dee” Martes in 1972, but the couple divorced in 1988, and in 1994 Delores was found dead in a swimming pool. The death was originally ruled accidental, but in 1998 Donald Bohana, a Los Angeles businessman was found guilty of second-degree murder.
Tito Jackson, who reportedly suffered a fatal heart attack while driving to Oklahoma from New Mexico, is survived by his sons.
Tito Jackson, born October 15 1953, died September 15 2024