Randy Jackson Journey On American Idol (Photo&Video)

The opening minutes of tonight’s American Idol season 8 auditions in Jacksonville, Florida might have taken a lot of AI fans by surprise, because they just saw Randy Jackson, the “dawg” himself, perform with 80s rock band Journey! That’s right. long before the American Idol season 8 judge became a record producer who boasts (he actually does this on the show, literally) of having worked with the likes of Mariah Carey, he was one of the members of Journey

American idol certainly seems as if it is off to a very slow start. But on Tuesday night the audience was treated to a bit of vintage video featuring a plump and dated Randy Jackson when he appeared with the rock band Journey. While the band was very popular in the late seventies and early eighties and Randy always seems to mention his stint, exactly when was he in the band?

Wiki rescues with this, "After the widely successful Frontiers stadium tour, Journey decided to take some time off. Lead singer Steve Perry and guitarist Neal Schon both pursued solo projects between 1982 and 1985. In 1985 the band released two songs previously intended for Frontiers--Only the Young, on the soundtrack to the movie Vision Quest; and Ask the Lonely, on the soundtrack to the movie Two of a Kind."

"Only the Young" managed to nick the top ten, reaching #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. When Journey finally returned to record their 1986 album Raised on Radio, bass player Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith were fired from the band for musical and professional differences."Enter Jackson. "Studio musicians handled the two vacant slots, including future American Idol judge Randy Jackson and established session player Larrie Londin. The album went multiplatinum selling over two million copies...the tour was videotaped by MTV and made into a documentary, which included interviews with the current band members and concert footage of the Mountain Aire Festival show in Angels Camp, California. Steve Perry left Journey in 1987.