Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S3 Ep 1: Randy Jackson

Episode Date: May 30, 2018

Recorded at my sister's house in LA, to celebrate 4/20, we brought a slice of Britain to Table Manners newest guest Randy Jackson. Over Pimms, scones and cucumber sandwiches, we speak about managing Mariah Carey, 13 years on American Idol, working with Simon Cowell, his “morsel diet” and Randy’s favourite gumbo recipe. It’s a yes from us dawg! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm here with my mum. Hi. And I'm also here with my sister. Hi. Lenny, Hannah and I are sat in Hannah's gorgeous apartment in... Are sitting. What? Are sat. Are sitting.

What did I say? Are sat. Sorry. Are sat here. Mum, can we just talk? I just had root canal and that is why I sound... Sitting, sat. Sorry. We're sat here. Mum, can we just talk? I just had root canal, and that is why I sound... Sitting, sitting. That's why I sound a little bit like Marlon Brando in Godfather, you thought, didn't you? So, actually, I kind of think that you should take over this.

No, darling, carry on. Okay, we are sat. Sitting. Okay, we are sitting. Okay, I'm sorry. You're educated, darling. Sorry. I'm sorry. You're educated, darling. Sorry. I'm tired.

We are sitting in Echo Park in Hannah's gorgeous apartment. I'm waiting for our guest. I managed to get my whole family to come on tour for the first two weeks of my tour. And I managed to get a guest by playing Coachella. I pulled in a guest. I met this gentleman last week. It was a pleasure to meet him. I've been a big fan of him and I know mum's an even bigger fan.

Who do we have on the show today? Randy Jackson. Please tell the listeners who Randy Jackson is. Well, I only know him from American Idol, but I think he's a music producer. I think he's a musician, primarily. A bass player. A bass player. He is also a music producer.

I think he manages people. He's huge in the music industry. A mogul. Really big name. We could call him a mogul. A music mogul, yeah. I mean, it is quite funny. Hannah has been really kind and let us do it here, because our Airbnb didn't work out so well, did it?

No, it didn't. Because we were probably four yards from the edge of the 101 freeway. The noise is horrendous, even when you're... There's a constant buzz. How's your asthma? It's been terrible. I've been coughing every night. Yes, darling.

I find actually I find Los Angeles quite polluted and I don't know whether it is or not is it yeah I mean actually I start to think I maybe had cancer today because I was honest no I was wheezing so much and I feel quite odd it's like a burning sensation you get in your chest. Is it pollution? Yes. Well, it's been an eventful... It's... What has this burnt my chest?

Being by the 101. It's been a funny old week. We started in Palm Springs at Coachella and we moved there. And in the meantime, I've had to get emergency route canal. I think your mouth's coming back. Is it? It's much better now. Okay.

Mum, how has it been being in LA? Well... What did you think of Coachella, Mum? I hated it. Why? It was hot. I can't understand why you'd have a music festival in a place where people have to keep their faces covered to stop being sandblasted.

Oh, what, the bandanas that they all wear? Yeah, everyone walks around with that all the time because you can't breathe. Part of this husk is from working too hard, but also the desert throat. It's not a great place for singers, is it, really? No, it's not. Where you need moister conditions, I'd have thought. So it's a very odd place speaking of moist the lemon drizzle does look very moist moist explain the menu it's been okay no it's not very funny your brother we've

made English afternoon tea and so we've got cucumber sandwiches just Can I have one of them or do you think I'm going to bite my whole cheek off? Just wait a bit darling. So we've got cucumber sandwiches, some smoked salmon sandwiches, we've got English scones to have with clotted cream and jam and then there's a lemon drizzle cake which my darling son Alex has said it's been 10 days with family. He said he has to be on his own today. Situations that have made this quite difficult. The bread in America is shit. No, it isn't, darling. It is. Darling, don't be rude.

Sorry, no offence. There's an American person here. Why is it all sweet? All the, like, sliced bread in supermarkets is sweet here. So that's something that we struggled with. I think there's a black car outside. I hope it's an Uber because we don't have parking permits. OK, go and open the door.

Will you open the door? I feel like this spread looks a bit sad. Oh, piss off! I've got a bit of a funny mouth but it's fine. Whoa! Hi, how are you? Mom is so cool, mom is so great, if you show up and sister, I love it here. Would you like a pin?

Yes, I like pins. Oh, brilliant. You guys are really British. Oh, yeah, we are. Well, no, we're really laying it on thick for you. I was going to say, yes, so Randy really kindly came to my show. We met a week ago. Yeah, yeah. And we've seen each other twice since. So Randy, you really kindly came to my show. We met a week ago.

Yeah, yeah. And we've seen each other twice since. It's a really blossoming relationship. We could say that Coachella brings great things to life. The only thing that it brought that was good was you to me, to be honest. I like Coachella. Who's putting this stuff on the table? Sister.

Yeah, sorry. We've got a little, so we've got clotted cream. Clotted cream. This is so British. We've got scones. Scones. How do you say it, though? I say scones.

I say scones. I don't really know which one's which. Is it a northern thing and a southern thing? Do you know why I'm here, right? Why? Well, I love Jessie. But I'm also here because I want to be lorded. Oh, really?

I need a lordship. We can't help you with that. Unfortunately, mum is from Manchester and is a working class Jew. And so I don't think we're that close to being lords or ladies. However, I did quite, I thought maybe I was going to get an invite to sing at the Royal Wedding because Meghan Markle once came to my show Whoa I know

definitely emailed her to ask her about doing the podcast and she definitely had changed her email This email no longer exists I was like cool I don't know you do I But yeah

so thank you so much for doing this You were fantastic at your show your voice was sick dude thank you my god the band was dope i loved i liked the bass guy the drummer was like dope it's good but the bass guy was particularly playing up because he knew pino paladino was in the audience and pino paladino if people don't know who he is, they should know he is one of the greatest bass players in the world. In the world. You know.

In the world. One of your peers. Yeah, in the world. He's amazing. He's damn brilliant. So what are you working on now? I got three TV shows in development, two movies. We manage seven chefs.

They all have restaurants and stuff. And manage about ten writer- writer producers and five artists. So I got kind of a busy and we do branding licensing too, like Walmart, Costco, Sears, you know, we do a lot. I have a whole vertical team of people. So what I did over the last 10, 12 years is kind of entrepreneurial diversify my business in a weird sort of way. Entertainment is still a big part of it the film

tv side and the music side but i've just kind of gotten more artistic to keep myself interested sane and also you know because when you're creative i call myself a creative artist you want to expand you hate boxes it's about breaking down walls. It's about changing the rules. There are no rules. And like, you know, you want to feel that you can artistically create freely. But that's why I think like,

you know, indie artists and indie radio and indie sort of things. I think also the indie movie scene because the quality's gotten better. And over here in the States, the high-end cable. I mean, you know,

shows like Handmaid's Tale would have made it over here before. But like, it's cool. It's gotten better. And over here in the States, the high-end cable. I mean, you know, shows like Handmaid's Tale would have made it over here before. But, like, it's cool. It's interesting now. So you got a different... You feel like, as a creator, you can create again freely. Because, you know, nobody ever said to, like, you know, one of the great painters,

oh, no, you can't paint the Sistine Chapel this way, you got to go that, you know. I mean, some of the abstract stuff, I can't imagine somebody saying, no, you have to paint abstract, use these four colors. But I mean, still today, when you look at the art that's being created, whether you're a hip hop act, whether you're Stormzy or Black Coffee from England or yourself or, you know, Calvin Harris. I mean, his last record with like Frank Ocean, all these guys. He's a DJ guy, but it was an interesting record.

I think you're allowed. I just heard somebody said Rihanna may make a reggae record next. I think you're allowed to be creative. And like your audience, what I love that your show, me on the music side as a musician, producer, writer, music manager, I love when you go to a show and people love you. Like today, in today's music business, people are loving the song. Like people go like, well, I don't know who that is. I just like the song, bro. Well, go ahead.

Don't you care about the artist? So your real fans cared about you. No, they were, they, my fans, like my hardcore diehard fans in the States, like they'll, they come to every show and they're there and they're so devoted and it's amazing. And so, you know, for me, I've never been on American radio. I mean, KCRW has played me and it you know, I've had like NPR stuff, but so people don't know me as like the song,

like you're saying. So they have to only like me because I kind of, I don't know, chat to them and do, you know, they do like the songs, but it's not like.

So how did they hear the songs if you're not on the radio? The internet. And KCRW is pretty popular, at least in the LA area. I mean, you know, when you think about it, my boy Garth Trinidad and all those guys there,

they broke the roots. Lauryn Hill, Disciples, I mean, they're the first to play anything cool because they're an extension of college radio. And college radio here in America was the freedom radio. like if you listen my son goes to usc if you listen to college radio usc now you hear some of the wildest shit with the wildest names and you're like yo what in the hell is that because they're not living under any rules yeah right um so that's why you hear a lot of people talk about the gen z crowd the gen z crowd is those kids under 18 that they don't care about history.

They just care about, I'm here now, this is what I like. I don't care what you like, mom, dad, whomever, great, you love all of that. Civics, history, no, I'm here now, and I don't like what I'm seeing. I want to change it. Is college radio sponsored? By the college only. Only, so it's not advertising. So it's not the same as, because here on the radio you hear the same songs again and again and again and again.

Well, I did A&R for 20 years at Columbia Records and MCA, right? Radio here, so the A&R people, right, the labels, they want you to hear it every hour. The phrase that we would always say in A&R that we love hearing, God, you know, when that song came out, I hated it. Now I can't get it out of my head. Well, the repeated listening over and over and over is kind of what does it. And when you think about even on the TV side, that's where the Netflix and the Hulus and the High End and those cables got the idea. Let me let you watch the whole series because the first episode may get you,

but if you could sit and just junk binge watch it for like 10 hours of Orange is the New Black, maybe you'd be like, wow, you know what I mean? So the impressions, you know, because once you hear stuff a lot of times, I'm like that. Yeah, but as somebody who's a music lover, but also you've been in the business side, do you not find it so frustrating

that you kind of get sucked into that hole too? Because we all do. I find it frustrating, but I'll take you back to the simpleness of it, right? So my writers, producers, we have song, you know, today we had, you know, listening Fridays. So list all the new songs they're writing this week. And I beat the shit out of the songs. I go crazy.

What does this lyric mean? This is not even a real chorus. And I hate the word. This is an anti-chorus. I turn myself into the sheep or as you guys say, the punters. What part am I going to be singing along with? What part should I remember? I'm not going to remember the drum beat, the guitar thing.

I play bass. I won't remember the bass line. Nobody calls out on research to radio and says, hey, man, you know, this song goes boom, boom, ba-boom, boom, boom. They don't do that. They sing the lyrics. Boom, boom, ba-boom, boom, boom. They don't do that.

They sing the lyrics. So I'll take you back to where pop music really started to really take off. A period of music called really the 60s. Now, there was music before it, but in the 60s were born two traditions that to this day, I don't care who you are, where you're from. These are the best songwriting traditions I believe ever in music. And they both garnered hundreds of top tens, hundreds of number ones. And each of those catalogs alone have got to be worth five, $10 billion. I don't even know if there's a number. The Beatles and Motown. Let It Be is just one of the greatest songs ever written.

The arrangement. You know what the chorus does? Because we're beating up a song today. You know what the chorus does? And I love this chorus. You love Let It Be? Yeah, I mean, you can't not. One of the greatest songs ever written.

Do you know how the chorus goes? Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be. Words of wisdom, let it be, let it be. They say the same lyric seven times. So, let it be. What a concept. So, who is doing anything near to Motown and Beatles at the moment for you, lyrically? Max Martin is the greatest pop songwriter of the last 30 years.

Guess what he likes the most? Motown and Beatles. It's so funny. And it's so simple. There was a song just out. I mean, most of his songs there's always a chorus. And it's always easily definable

and very simple so if you're making music and you want people to love it you gotta understand for me I came from the jazz fusion space playing with Herbie Jean-Luc Ponte Billy Cobham my Vishnu Orchestra I mean like crazy jazz not like this cool funk jazz like a billion notes a second. Like, oh my God. Like, John Coltrane was my mentor. John and Miles. Like, oh my God.

These are the people that I grew up on that I love. He could circular breathe on the saxophone, basically play a solo for like 30 minutes without stopping. Motally. So this is the highest level of degree of Olympics in music ever. This is not like classical, because classical you're reinterpreting somebody else's writing. This is you're improv because you're playing a lot of notes and music. I think I want to make some money. I don't know if I want jazz chicks. I want better chicks.

What's this audience? What are we doing? So remember, you're in control. You can dial up or dial down whatever you want as an artist. You can say, I want to play Wembley five times a year by myself in the headline. That's going to require you to have a hit. So if you want a hit when I was doing it. I love that my mom looks at me and goes, yep.

No, I don't mean yep like that. But that's the game they want you to play all the time. The pressure to have the hit is almost disgusting because then you feel like you're not making it for yourself. But Let It Be was a ginormous hit and it's a copyright most artists in their career don't have copyrights they will never have one copyright is a song they'll be playing somewhere until the earth burns jesse i think the key to this is get a new manager with a martin on the end of his name george martin and max mart. There's something about Martin,

I'm telling you. Something about Martins. And Jacksons. I love Jesse. I love, you're right. Can I just ask you, you know so much about music. Didn't it drive you mad on American Idol when people came

on just to be famous? I mean, obviously some were fantastically hugely talented but they weren't musicians there were people that just wanted to they would say things like I want to do this for my son because they've worked in a supermarket all their lives no you know because the genius of Simon Cowell who really was unbelievably instrumental in creating this whole format of shows. He's a brilliant guy. He's been successful all of his life. The thing that you can look at is the people that are continuously successful, they know something that the other people that

are not don't know, and the one-offs don't know. So the real thing is, is if we here in L.A. went out on Sunset Boulevard and we went out for the BBC or ITV or Fox or NBC, ABC, whatever we did with a microphone like this with a thing around it. And we said, is anybody out here got any talent? Our feeling was, and this is funny because both Kyle and I were A&R guys at the time we started the show. He was at RCA. I was at MCA at the time. So you want everyone to come up because like I laugh about people talking about privatizing social media. Is it called social media? Why would you get private? The reason it's huge is because it's social. People feel like they can reach out and DM Hannah and she's going to actually answer them. And they can.

Right, but that feeling that you can reach out to the star is social media. Yeah. Right. So why would we want to cut off somebody's dream? So you want a cross-section of everybody. I always say this about these shows. If everyone's good, it would be like watching paint dry.

Who wants to watch good? I'm only looking for greatness. Good's not going to do me any good. So I can find good every day. And Idol, the story of Idol was really, the backdrop was music. It's like film and TV. It's like, what is the, I had this talk with Spielberg once, many years ago. What's the feeling I'm trying to give the viewer?

What is the message I'm trying to subliminally put through? So Idol is really the Rocky story set to music. Music was the backdrop. We use that, but it's a thing in perseverance. It's a thing in, can the butcher beat the champ on Rocky? This guy's a champ. And the butcher, do you box? No, but I'm going to train. So the city's the champ on Rocky? This guy's a champ. And the butcher, do you box? No, but I'm going to train.

So the city's cheering him on. So this is about the kids that didn't have a chance, that didn't have the voice, that no one was looking at. They got the thick Coke bottle glasses. They're the nerd kids. I was too fat, too skinny, too whatever to make it. That's the story of a Susan Boyle. skinny to whatever to make it that's the story of a Susan Boyle but so you see that the public goes hey it's really kind of the Adele story if you will nobody was going to sign that because that

wasn't the cool thing to sign but the thing about her here's the thing about her and here's the thing about every artist that I say I love stars I'm always looking for stars what makes me care about you oh I can sing great okay I can dance great okay I'm hot great okay great this is not different everyone's that what makes you special and unique right the thing that you did the other night the thing that she's got the thing that all these people have they could be from completely I mean Liam Noel Gallagher, The Stones. I mean, all these superstars. Prince, Michael, whatever.

Let's go down the list. Bowie. They, what you see, you see exactly who they are and they're giving you the best that they got. So you believe them. Like, you believe all of her stories and her lyrics. You side with her. You sympathize with her. You empathize.

You, now, that's what the people were doing with you you start these songs and they've lived through these songs they know all the words they're singing all the words because it actually touched them so my days of like being in rock bands and touring when I was in Journey and I 100,000 people on stage and in the audience and I'm just like people are singing the lyric to every song at the top of their lungs like it meant life's breath to them that they learned every word that is the real connection that's the connection with artists and fan and if you can do that in a hit way what I'm always searching for with every artist I work with, I call it the holy grail. I want art that has massive commerce. U2's done it. Coldplay's done it.

A lot of people have done it. I think everybody talented can do it. I think that you just have to take a deep breath and give in to the wisdom that you've learned that you know and say, okay, it's time for the next phase. Because I don't know anybody wants to just stay where they are. We want to keep evolving and growing, don't we, as people. Own each step with Peloton. From their pop runs to walk and talks, you define what it means to be a runner.

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Who, just to kind of talk a little bit more about American Idol, and then we'll talk about food, because that's what we brought you here for. Who is your best idol? You did seven years, is it? I did 13 years. 13, shit! Shit, that's long.

Well, Kelly was probably one of my most favorites because she was the first. And she's funny, too. She's funny, she's long. Well, Kelly was probably one of my most favorites because she was the first. And she's funny, too. She's funny. She's hilarious. She's a great singer. I'm sure she loves you. I don't know her, but I love her.

She loves talented people. And, I mean, she's just an honest, guttural, just genuine person. But, okay, so I've got so many questions. You seem like a real Anglophile. Do you like British food? Do you ever like, have you ever had a roast? Yes. Do you like it?

I like shepherd's pie. Yeah, I like some. You don't get shepherd's pie here, do you? No, well, there's some places you can get shepherd's pie, but I don't know if they're any good. I mean, all my friends come here and they just go, they make it or whatever. But okay, so you manage,, so you manage seven chefs.

So how did you go from being this muso, amazing bass player, media mogul? Like, what made you go into chefs? 25 years ago, I was working on a record. I was playing bass on some record. I forget the artist. The artist was managed by a guy named Shep Gordon. Shep Gordon was managing Luther Vandross, Alice Cooper, and a bunch of other people at the time. He was a music manager and he said, you know what, chefs are going to be the next rock stars. Because why? People will never not eat. You

always have to eat. There will always be a job, you can sell this, because chefs can sell products like merch for rock stars they've asked us to do a cookery book because do it yeah let me just tell you normally we cook this is not let me just tell you how this all started jesse loves to come around to my house and we do we're jewish friday night dinner and she brings like a Shabbat? Yes, Shabbat dinner. She'd bring 14 friends and say, Mum will cook. Brisket? Brisket we do.

Chicken soup with matzo balls. We do the whole shebang. By the end of the evening, everyone's drunk and we're all singing, dancing, talking about politics. So yeah, back to the chefs. You know, fashion, music, food, entertainment's all one to me. Whether you're acting, whether you're doing music, whether you're selling shoes, whether you're selling clothing and you're a designer for Saint Laurent or Gucci or Prada or whatever, Louis Vuitton,

it's all sort of the same soup. So your chefs, are they all different types of chefs? And do you pick it, do you like, when you go, I want to meet the chef and do you do pick it do you like when you go i want to meet the chef do you like make them cook you a meal i mean it's not only that we put them on tv so they have a little gravitas so they can sell products so but like how did you choose your chefs did you were they already established uh the greatness of them are talking to them seeing who really has what trajectory in life because you know the big thing is like look it's management 101 whether you're managing an actor a model a singer a dancer

a chef a footballer whatever it is what do you want to achieve what's your career plan what's the path what are we going to build together? You're already where you are. Jesse, where? Where do you want to be in three to five years? So we got to build a roadmap to get you there because it really is a business. This is what I don't like about the creative community. They don't realize that it's a business and it's hellishly competitive. There's 80 million of everything. Nobody needs another singer.

They don't care. nobody needs another singer they don't care nobody needs another anything so that's why i go back to why don't why do i care so you got to make the public care so if you said okay i'm jesse where two years from now i want to win five grammys i want to play wembley 17 times i want to headline uh glastonbury on a day i want to like you know i want to be making a million dollars a show uh i want my name in lights i want my merch and suffrages uh i mean you know i say that to people because i want to know how we're going to like scale this what are we going to try and do because just to make some songs and put some stuff out and just be cool, you don't need my help to do that. You can do that by yourself.

I mean, we could talk about music all day, but I do think I need to. I need to ask more about these chefs. Which chefs do you manage? They all were on, two were on Top Chef Masters over here. One was on Chopped and Screwed. here one was on chopped and screwed the other was on america's next great restaurant you found them through reality and we found them and we put them on some of the competitions because as i said you need social media if you're selling something because people need to know who you are so your jamie oliver was on all of these shows so

people know who he is julia child back in the day was on TV so you know who she was. So the TV gives you the chance to sell products. Yeah. To sell products. So if I'm going to sell products, I would much rather do that from a trusted name, Wolfgang Puck, than somebody that I've never heard of. You could say they're great, but I don't know they're great. somebody that I've never heard of you could say they're great but I don't know they're great because remember in selling and in music and in acting and in all these facets before you have to prove it perception is everything it is reality this is what most artists don't like

but it's the truth but um food a few more food let's eat let's eat some bits and bobs with our tea it is not the best representation of what we can deliver it's about the sharing but it's sharing and it's a little bit of nosh like food to

eat and chat about and we shall ask some more questions in a second eat and chat about and and we shall ask some more questions in a second okay so what we have here randy is we've gone quite quintessentially afternoon tea it's not particularly my favorite kind of food however it's just something to kind of eat um so we've got we've got cucumber sandwiches with cream cheese. Which are my favourite. Okay, fine, good. But the bread in America is not as good as the bread in

UK, so I'm very sad. It's a bit sweet. Why? Tell me why. Tell me why they put so much sugar in their bread. Because it's meant to have a long shelf life. It's meant to substitute to palate. What is this one?

This is lemon drizzle that my brother made. Your brother made it? Alex has become the pastry chef for our podcast. He does all the puddings. But I'm really good at inviting. So I reel them in, the guest. My mum does most of the cooking and my brother no my brother does the pud so we've got scones with scone scones potato potato with uh some

currants or without we have clotted cream i'm so surprised we found clotted cream here we've got squirrel what do you think of squirrel the restaurant amazing now really i think it's a little bit emperor's new clothes i like it i think their sorrel rice thing is very nice but i can't stand the queues so just get a bigger bloody place it drives me mad remember something jesse you come from the music side so if we're going to book jesse we're going to do an underplay so there's a line around the block and people are driving by going what's going on there?

who's this Jesse where it must be? remember perception this is Earl Grey isn't it? do you like Earl Grey? of course Earl Grey is a difficult one though because you shouldn't put too much milk with it and I thought it was not Earl Grey so so I put a little bit of milk. Look, this is upsetting me a little bit but whatever.

You mum hates Earl Grey. This is sort of traditional. It is. You've got a spoon for the... No, I'm doing it with my bloody knife. In LA they would be having green tea. Yeah, I can't do the green tea too much. So you don't cook but you do eat out.

Where do you eat out in Los Angeles? I love Bestia. I love OTM. I love Republic. I love OTM, as I said, and Bestia. I love, God, I mean, it depends on the kind of food, you know. I love David Chang's place downtown. Oh, David Chang, who created the Impossible Burger.

Yes. The vegan Impossible Burger. You had it? The other day. At where? At Amami or you had it at Crossroads? No, at Press Brothers, which is just in Los Feliz. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I see they're all getting it now, yeah. So I've been really excited about this. Are you vegan? No, but like my husband is very much. Do you want a cucumber sandwich? I will try a cucumber sandwich. You know, the thing about afternoon tea, it's got to feel a little bit stale around the edges just because to like, you know, really do it. This is not showing our finesse.

do it this is not showing our our finesse um anyway we had the impossible burger it did not bleed like it was supposed to i was very upset about that however i will forgive david chan because he does mama fuku doesn't he do you like it the impossible burger i didn't love it and it made me feel like shit actually speaking of there's another thing that made me feel like shit, but I shout out to them because I love them. The Yeasty Boys food truck. I love the Yeasty Boys. I was just talking about them yesterday with one of my other chefs, Eric Greenspan.

Those guys are the bomb. Yeasty Boys, mum. Amazing bagel food truck. The guy accosted me outside Alfred's three years ago and was like, yo, you're Jessie Ware here's a free bagel and when somebody gives me a free bagel, they're my friend so that's it, so I saw them, I was doing a photo shoot yesterday, I saw

them downtown, outside Stumptown Coffee, which actually those guys in there were so sweet, they gave me a free espresso, so I love them really cool, the guy comes out we've ordered two locks, specials, whatever and he was really cool and he's out we've ordered two locks specials whatever and he was really cool and he's kind of collaborated with med men because he's a big smoker right so big day for him today 4 20 happy 4 20 yeasty boy and uh i'm not gonna lie it was the most delicious bagel but we ate it

we felt stoned for the rest of the day so i don't know whether he laced it with something but mate like honestly it was she could we couldn't speak randy are all your family musical no my brother's a drummer he is he teaches down at a college down it was like more of a jazz drummer um but no the rest rest of the family, no. Just really us. I got cousins that play and stuff. But it's just really us. But yeah, food is king in the South. Food and music and just life.

It's like being in Italy. People care more about you before they want to know what you do. It's a very different thing than most places. You don't meet people down there and they just go, well, what do you do? First of all, I want to know that I want to know you first before I'm going to ask what you do. And my grandma would always say, she'd see me hanging out with all these guys,

all these weird guys, she'd be like, are those your friends, your real friends? Because I'm 14, I'm going like, what do you mean? Yeah, but would you bring them home to eat green beans with the family? No, I might bring him, but I wouldn't bring these two freaks over here. You know what I mean? So she knew. That's how she would decide, would you bring them to eat with the family at the family meal? And when did you leave?

You left here to college? I left at like 22 and moved to new york well spent more time in new york and in europe traveling because i started touring with this guy billy cobham this jazz fusion drummer that used to be in the maha vishnu orchestra so and he also played with miles too i think sir alex has saved the day with these scones they're bloody good they are good let me have the one without the... The one on top is without. Without? With or without you.

I would like to know what was a typical meal around the table. Green beans? Everything. Macaroni and cheese, gumbo. I mean, my mom is a master cook. And I mean, you know, you think about the South and the food. The French influence in New Orleans is definitely big. Because you've got sauces.

Everything's very rich. But the soul food, if you will, is really more about simplicity. It's like it is in Italy. You've got the pasta and that sauce. The right pasta and the sauce would just murder you just like oh my god what is this so same thing down there whether you're making red beans and rice with an andouille sausage or like fried chicken even just fried chicken the batter how it tastes how it's I mean you know what is there any particular ingredient

they put in the batter that we're missing out no but you know what I love down there is they don't, there's a thing, I say this to my chefs all the time, they don't trust a skinny chef. But the reason being is because that chef is supposed to taste the food, not see it, before it comes out to you to eat. So that chef's obviously not tasting all this food. Because if the food comes out and it has to have 19 condiments on the table, leave that restaurant. I hate when I go somewhere and it needs more salt. Listen, I mean, I understand. But, you know, L.A. is different.

It's a weirder town. Yeah, I mean, it's just a different, it's allegedly a healthier town. Allegedly, yeah. I swear I put on weight every time I'm in LA, but I'm on green juices and bloody bowls. Hey, this is damn good. Yeah, so Randy just tried the lemon drizzle.

It's the first time he's made it. Brother, wherever you are, this is good, bro. Have you tried it? No, I haven't. I will try some. Would you like some clotted cream with your scone? I'm going to have a little clotted cream next. Thank you for being a good sport for this. Because, you know, you live in LA. We didn't know whether there'd be lots of allergies,

dairy-free, whatnot. You know, we thought maybe... Listen, I lost a bunch of weight many years ago, so... You look very slim. I'm a health food freak. So how do you eat now? I mean, this is not an example. I call myself now the morsel. It's the morsel diet. So you eat now i mean this is not an example i call myself i call myself now the

morsel it's the morsel diet so you need a little i ate a little bit of everything i want because you know i'm a little weird sort of an oddball because i was a psych major music major in college so psychology behavioral psychology is interesting that's where the saying comes from baby don't put your hand in the fire you'll get burned you look this way and go this is the reason you can tell people hey you might want to avoid this or that but they go like no i need to live through it okay go right ahead may kill you but at least i told you right So you have to change the way you think about something. And I always say, all as humans, if we say, I'm not going to eat sugar again ever, there's going to be a day we're going to binge out and have a thousand donuts. So better than saying that to yourself, knowing that that's not realistic.

And who's got the time, especially people trying to be artists and shit shit who's got the time to be policing themselves like mad i wanted to know what else oh table manners the podcast is called table manners are there any table manners that you don't particularly like in other people or that you have a bad habit of yourself i don't have a bad habit but sometimes I'm in a restaurant and if you need to blow your nose go to the bathroom. I mean blowing your nose at the table is a little weird. If I eat curry though I have to blow my nose throughout the meal because it makes me. No I was showing you what I would do if I curry, my nose runs constantly. I think a lot of people. You like curry? Love curry.

Good curry in England. Yeah, the best. Yeah, really good. Do you like curry? I love curry. You can't get it in LA, can you? You can. That's not curry.

You can, but it's not. It's not proper English. There's a couple of places that, you know, there's like three places that, there's one in sort of West LA over by UCLA that everybody goes to. It's a strip mall. It's really good. There's another one on Wilshire. There's one on La Cienega. Those three are probably the better if you're going to go for the Indian, the curry.

I mean, there are places everywhere, but I don't know. I don't know. I'm wondering what your desert island meal would be. A death row meal, desert island meal. I like desert island better. Yeah. Yeah, we don't mind. I hate the death row meal.

What would it consist of? It'll either be Thai or gumbo. You can have everything. I love a Thai something curry and gumbo. What's in gumbo? Gumbo is sort of a potpourri of a soup of sorts. It's almost like a pasta fagioli, but it doesn't have pasta in other beans. It's made with okra vegetables there's a roux

there's crawfish there's shrimp there's sausage very spicy it's so good it's very filling with rice it's so good though is it kind of like a paella yes but it's more soupy than the paella but it is just i like a crawfish etouffee which is very rich crawfish etouffee which is like almost um i don't know like a casserole if you will but made with crawfish and a lot of heavy cream and butter and it's just really crazy good. When you go around for a dinner party, what do you bring? Do you ever bring a dish? If it's bring a dish, what would the dish be that you'd bring?

I don't bring a dish. It depends on what the theme of the party was. Okay. Like, say if they were going to do, I don't know, if it was a barbecue. I'd bring some barbecue-related items that I would think that not everyone knows about or thinks about because being from the south I'm very adept on Austin we got barbecue guys that we work with like there's a Frito pie

that's big in Austin it's almost like Fritos that replace the on the Mexican side that replace the tortilla chips but it's done with Fritos that replaced the, on the Mexican side, that replaced the tortilla chips. But it's done with Fritos. It's the same stuff. A good, I don't know, banana pudding is amazing.

What, like a banoffee? Yeah, but it's with vanilla wafers. There's bananas. It's a pudding. It's a whole thing. It's like crazy in itself. With a little meringue on top it's it's crazy and it's so simple to make like the praline thing that she had one of the big things in the south

i wanted to ask you you mentioned that you used to manage mariah carey yeah played with her became the in our guy became the manager was her musical director for a long time. You know, we met her when she first got signed because that's when we all started working at Sony. So which albums were you involved in? All of the ones. The first albums up until maybe the last couple. It was really her and at the time her husband and the ceo of sony tommy

matola um you know it's hard to write a christmas classic it is near impossible and she did it she too never gets her props oh my god dude she is like she's at 20 number ones around the world and she's co-written 18 of them. She's a really amazing songwriter. I and I say that a lot of other people heard George Michael and other people because I feel like when you're a great singer and you sold over 200 million albums and become this big worldwide superstar, you don't get your props as being a real writer I mean like and I don't know maybe because at that time coming up because she was a woman I don't know but hell of a songwriter my god um thank you so much for being on our podcast this is cool I like this I love that

it's all around and over food and there's all this great food on the table and we're talking about all the culinary secrets of la um but thank you so much for being such an interesting wonderful guest and actually also taking a chance on us because we only met a few days ago dude i'm a fan i love jesse where and her mom and her sister now and her brother and her brother but she wasn't pitchy she wasn't pitchy well she's an she's an amazing singer this one jesse i didn't think you were ever going to come back i thought you're going to run away with him um mom what randy jackson gosh he was fantastic A lot of good analogies. It's the juice worth the squeeze. Very good, Jess.

He was fabulous. He was everything and more. Lovely man. Really, really much. Wise, kind. Not a, exactly actually as he is. He was really generous. I do think that, I don't think we're going to get signed up to be one of his chefs.

I don't think we're going to make it to being chef number eight. He did like the lemon drizzle. Yeah, we didn't make that. What? We didn't make anything. I'm more the curator. Yeah. Mum, this is the end of our LA adventure with podcast guests. He had so many stories.

He's got so many interests, and he's actually a proper musician, so he knows stuff. Absolute pleasure having Randy Jackson on Table Manners. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed that as much as we did. Thank you to Hannah Ware for the beautiful setting and being the hostess with

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