Rocky Jackson is a Texan. He’s been living in California for a long time, but he’ll still tell you he’s a Texan when all is said and done. Born in Austin, Rocky moved to the Detroit area in high school. What was supposed to be a summer visit turned into a nine-year stay. Then it was back to Austin for a few years, and eventually out to Los Angeles. What you’ve got as a result is a+b+c=d, with “d” equaling Rocky – Texas grit and intensity + Detroit rhythm and soul + LA polish and cool = Rocky Jackson.

Rocky wasn’t always “Rocky.” He was born Ernest Walter Jackson, III. Back then, Ernest was always searching the radio and juke boxes for Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, or John Lee Hooker. Seeing Ray Charles live at the Austin auditorium in 1963 was probably when the bug burrowed under his skin and Rocky realized that he wanted to be a musician.

Once in the Detroit area, Rocky hooked up with a guy in high school who taught him his first guitar chords and how to play folk music. Folk music, by nature, had to include the blues, and Rocky always felt the most natural doing the blues. Rocky joined a “jug” band, The Subourbon Jug Band, and played around for a couple of years in high school.

The popular coffee house scene in Detroit gave Rocky the chance to see some of the greatest blues artists that ever lived. Rocky will tell you that one of the biggest, most profound moments of his life came in Chicago when, as a 19 year old with fake ID, he got into a club with his sister visiting from Texas and saw Muddy Waters live and got to meet Muddy and shake his hand. Rocky asked Muddy to play “something by Robert Johnson,” so he did.

Then in college, he hooked up with a rock and roll band, and, since they were all from the Detroit area, a lot of the music they played had a heavy r & b and soul influence which drew heavily on the blues. The Detroit music scene was incredible, and you could see the likes of B.B. King, Freddy King, Albert King, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker at reasonably small venues.

Then there were the blues festivals, like the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, where you could see Sun House, Howlin’ Wolf, a young Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Magic Sam, and many, many more. Not bad influences. Rocky played in several different bands at this time, and blues was always on his mind.

Back to Texas

So Rocky moves back to Texas when Austin was starting to become a real well-known music city. Unfortunately, most of the hot stuff there at the time was country and country rock. So after Rocky’s band form Detroit broke up in Austin, he started working as a roadie for a popular new local country band called Freda and the Firedogs. Well, Freda’s real name is Marcia Ball. After a couple of years working for Marcia and the boys, Rocky joined bands with his brother Lee Jackson for a while, and then with a few other groups.

The days in Austin were at a time when Stevie Ray Vaughn was playing around town in funky places the One Night. Eric Johnson was about 18 and smoking everybody. Then there were the incredible concerts at the Armadillo World Headquarters and Antones. The music pulsated in the city every night and blues was starting to get bigger and bigger in Austin. Rocky soaked up a lot. A whole lot. Right before Rocky pulled up stakes in Austin to head for California, he worked a concert where he got to meet Jerry Lee Lewis, a long-time inspiration. On the same bill was the incredible Freddy King.

On to California

The big question was, why go to California when there’s such a great music scene going on in Austin? Then, as probably for a lot of people now, you kind of just eventually were going to make the trek to either LA or NYC. Rocky knew a former band mate was living in LA, plus it’s warmer. After a few years in LA, Rocky ended up living in Santa Barbara for a year, and when his job ended, coincidentally one of his close buddies in Austin called Rocky and asked him if he wanted to be a guitar tech on a one-month tour for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmy Vaughn’s band, who were opening for Tom Petty.

After that, Rocky soon moved back to LA and hooked up with The Magic Blues Band. They played all over the LA area for eight years, opening for and playing on concert bills with Big Joe Williams, Etta James, Smoky Wilson, Joe Lewis Walker, and others. They backed up Johnny Dyer, noted LA harp player numerous times, were a mainstay at the Starboard Attitude for years on Friday nights, and played The Lighthouse, The Music Machine, other local clubs and lots of Southern California Blues Society gigs.

A few years after The Magic Blues Band finally broke up, Rocky put together the first Rocky Jackson & The Igniters (spelled differently then) group, a three-piece band. They recorded a mini-CD, Blue Streak, and played around a while before they broke up. It was several years later when Rocky dropped in at a blues jam at a local pub with old band mate John Williamson from The Magic Blues Band.

Rocky met three great musicians who soon thereafter started working on the rhythm tracks for the first Rocky Jackson CD, Squeeze Here. When most of the tracks were finished and Rocky felt it was time to put together a band to start playing some of his contemporary blues material and some hard core classic blues, he found another bass player and the latest version of Rocky Jackson and The Ignitors was formed.

Currently, the four-piece band consists of A.C. Blue (harmonica and vocals), Eliot “Lee” Witherspoon (drums and vocals), Joel T. Johnson (bass and vocals), and Rocky on guitar, lap steel guitar, and lead vocals. The band has been playing regularly in the Los Angeles area. After the release of Squeeze Here (Rocky Jackson with other featured artists, including The Ignitors), slated for the beginning of 2006, Rocky and the boys will begin working on the next RJ & The Ignitors album.

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