In a television landscape populated by The Voice, America’s Got Talent, Sing On! and more, one would think that the competition out there has become even more cutthroat than when there were only a handful of singing competitions on air. But one of the first judges of the OG contest, American Idol, begs to differ. He thinks things have become all too easy. And no, it isn’t the first guy you thought about.
Original Idol judge Randy Jackson — the longest-serving judge in the show’s history — didn’t try to spare anyone’s feelings in his recent Yahoo! interview when asked about the current crop of competition programs.
“I think they’re all too nice. This is a tough, hard, mean, give-zero-Fs business. Being honest with someone — if you’re terrible, you’re terrible. Wouldn’t you want to know that? Maybe me saying you’re terrible is going to help you get your thing together. Maybe you’re gonna go back to the drawing board, like, ‘No, I’m gonna defeat the Dawg! I’m coming back. I’m coming back to get you, Dawg!”
Jackson brings a perspective not only of a premiere judge for Idol, arguably the 800-pound gorilla of singing competitions, but also decades of experience as a musician and Artist and Repertoire agent. One of Jackson’s main problems with the current crop of competitions? The celebs judging them. Idol itself is solely judged by singers Lionel Ritchie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan, and competitors like The Voice follow suit — even going so far as to use celebs as coaches.
“The problem with that is, no pop star wants to be mean or wants to be that honest with any contestant… because they don’t probably want to get it back. They don’t want to get it back. And they want to be liked,” Jackson says. Idol potentials didn’t encounter any such soft pedal from Jackson in the show’s early days, nor from fellow judge Simon Cowell, who, like Jackson, began his career in A&R. “I’m remembering the time Simon called someone a name — I’m not gonna use it — and I was like, ‘Bro, you can’t do that! This has gone too far now!’” Jackson recalled.
“I say all the time in interviews, the thing that helped me the most [when I was starting out] was the no’s — the people that didn’t like me, didn’t like my playing, didn’t like my songwriting, didn’t like my producing. That’s what made me work and try harder. … The competition and the challenge helps us get better — not the yeses, not the ‘You’re lovely, but not today.’ That doesn’t do anything for anyone.”
Jackson, whose current gig is bandleader of Fox game show Name That Tune‘s second season, seems in no rush to return to his former duties, saying, “The whole judging thing, I felt like I’ve been there, done it, loved it,” but he obviously still feels pride in his work during the Idol’s beginning days. “Our life’s work was to try and sign, develop, find, and discover new artists and make great records. So… that was exactly what we did.”