Tito Jackson, a founding member of the Jackson 5 who, along with his brothers Jackie, Jermaine, Randy, Marlon and Michael, became a teen heartthrob in the 1970s with a string of hits that included “ABC” and “I’ll Be There,” died on Sunday. He was 70.
A spokesman for his youngest sister, the singer Janet Jackson, said in a statement on Monday that Mr. Jackson died of a heart attack while driving to Oklahoma from New Mexico. The statement did not say where he died. Mr. Jackson told The Tulsa World in Junethat he had recently moved to a ranch in Claremore, Okla., about 25 miles northeast of Tulsa.
The Jackson 5, one of the most popular musical acts of their era, were responsible for launching the solo career of Michael Jackson, who earned the title “King of Pop” and became one of the most emulated musicians of all time. Michael Jackson died in 2009 at 50.
The Jackson 5 in an undated photo. Clockwise from top left: Tito Jackson, Jackie Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Michael Jackson and Marlon Jackson.Credit…Associated Press
The story of the Jackson 5, from their humble beginnings in Gary, Ind., to their various levels of success, has been well documented and was the subject of a five-hour ABC mini-series in 1992 called “The Jacksons: An American Dream.”
Toriano Adaryll Jackson was born on Oct. 15, 1953, in Gary to Joe and Katherine (Scruse) Jackson. Tito is largely remembered for being the guitarist in the group, a skill he picked up by watching his father. The elder Mr. Jackson died in 2018.
In a 2019 interview with Vlad TV, Tito Jackson said that as a child he would play his father’s guitar behind his back.
“One day I broke the string and I didn’t know what to do about it,” he said. “He came home and saw the string broke and was really upset about it.”
After punishing him, Mr. Jackson said, his father asked him to demonstrate what he knew. His father then gave him the guitar with the instructions to learn every song on the radio.
The family soon formed the Jackson Brothers, a group that included young Michael, who was given a spot after impressing the family with a performance of “Climb Every Mountain” at a talent show. The band’s name was later changed to the Jackson 5 after someone suggested it after a performance at a wedding.
The Jackson 5 was a household name in the 1970s, regularly appearing on television, sometimes next to Cher or Diana Ross. Their music, through more than a dozen albums, provided a soundtrack for a young generation and incited a level of fandom that is perhaps now reserved only for elite pop stars like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.
“I remember the very first time we went to the U.K. and we had something like 10,000 screaming fans to greet us at the airport,” Mr. Jackson told Sister Circle TV in 2019. “I got lost in the airport and 1,000 fans chasing me, pulling everywhere. It was crazy.”
Three of the Jackson 5’s biggest songs — “ABC,” “I Want You Back” and “I’ll Be There”—were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 alongside the Bee Gees.
Mr. Jackson continued to work in the music business over the years, releasing a solo album, “Tito Time,” in 2016, and touring alongside some of his brothers. The group, now called The Jacksons, was scheduled to perform in Atlantic City, N.J., in October and in Cincinnati in November.
“We’ve always said that it’s the fans that make the artist,” Mr. Jackson told Sister Circle TV. “We go to work, we make music and we do all these other things, but it’s actually the fans who love it and buy it.”
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