Jonathan Jackson Interview

via i52.photobucket.com

CGG: How did you get involved with Just Yell Fire?

Jonathan Jackson: It’s an interesting connection. My father owns a business up here in Washington State and he met Dallas Jessup’s parents. So we got in touch with them and learned about everything that Dallas is up to and were just really impressed with everything that she’s done. It’s just remarkable. We really appreciated the subject matter and everything, so we were excited when they asked if we would be interested in coming on board to some degree.

CGG: Why was it so important for you to get involved with them? Do you know anyone personally who’s ever been assaulted, or had to defend themselves besides Dallas? What about this organization really touched you?

JJ: Yeah, yeah. No I have known a few people close in my life that have tragically gone through different forms of assault and attack. I have young children, and as a father that touched me. I thought it would be really important for young girls to be educated and just informed about how to protect themselves and how to defend themselves. It is a helpless feeling as a parent because you’re not able to constantly be there, and there are many situations where your kids are either in other peoples’ hands or with their friends or things like that. In an increasingly dangerous world, I think it’s extremely important.

CGG: So can you tell us a little bit about the song? What’s its main message, and what does it talk about?

JJ: The song is called “Permission to Dream,” and I wrote it quite a while ago before we had ever met the Jessups. It’s a song, for me in a spiritual way, about really getting permission to be who you are, permission to dream, not living in resignation or fear towards what’s before you in your life. One of the first lyrics in the chorus is “I don’t want to hear silence when I’ve called you to scream.” Things like that. One of the other ones is “I don’t want you to play the victim when I’ve given you a sword.” Really it blew Dallas away because when she heard the song, she had thought that I had written it specifically after looking into everything that she was doing. And we were completely blown away by it because she even has the term “permission to dream” in some of her speeches. And we’ve never heard of what she was up to until just recently, so it was kind of exciting to know that the song just fit so perfectly.

CGG: How did you get involved with your band Enation and how did it start?

JJ: My brother, Richard Lee Jackson, he’s an actor and he plays drums in the band. We’ve been playing music in the band since I was probably 12 or 13. We played at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go and places on the Sunset Strip at 14 years old. And actually we started playing with our dad and our uncle’s band when we were so young. And then just over the years when we grew up, we met a couple friends—Daniel Sweatt plays bass and Michael Galeotti plays keyboards—and really it was just the band grew out of friendship, not really through musicians trying to form a band. Our families are really close to each other. And Michael, incidentally enough, didn’t even play an instrument when we asked him to be a part of the band. So it was just really just friends wanting to do it, which is great because it’s really difficult to keep a band together. And we’ve been around for about six years now and the relationships are really tight.

CGG: So then what was your first passion—acting or music?

JJ: To be honest, they both grew simultaneously. I started acting professionally when I was 11 on General Hospital and Camp Nowhere and stuff like that. All the time through those years I was writing songs, playing guitar, dreaming about being in a band and being able to do it in a viable way as I got older. So even though I haven’t really been out there doing it publicly in a real strong way over the last 15 years, as soon as things came together in terms of being old enough and finding the right people, it’s always just been a dream of mine. So it’s hard; people ask me to choose—would you choose acting or would you choose music—and I honestly can’t really separate it. It just feels like they both help each other in terms of the creative process for me.

CGG: So are you the guitarist and the singer of the band?

JJ: Yeah, I’m the guitar player, the singer, and I write most of it. So that’s kind of my main role.

CGG: What was that transition like from being an actor to being a musician? It seems like music has always been innate to you, but was that transition hard?

JJ: No, not really. My dad is a songwriter; he recorded an album in Nashville years ago—he’s a country music singer. So I’ve always grown up around it. I grew up around Elvis and kind of being connected to music history and stuff like that. So it really was always this thing on the horizon that I just kind of instinctively knew I was going to be doing at some point. And the cool thing about music for me is when you’re acting, most of the time you’re a part in someone’s story or someone else’s vision, and that can be really cool; but at the same time, creatively, there are times when you want to be able to express something that’s coming from your own heart. Music is fantastic because we get to say exactly what we want to say, and express it exactly how we want to express it, and tell the stories. But that’s what I love about music.

CGG: Can you tell me how young people can use music to inspire them to make change the same way that you did?

JJ: I’m a huge believer that music is more than just entertainment. That’s something that I think has increasingly been lost in our pop culture. The almighty dollar and the reach for money have really dampened the depth that a lot of artists had to offer. It’s harder for those kinds of artists to really get out there and make a big difference, because the industry and a lot of the record companies are rehashing more of the surface-entertainment that really doesn’t inspire people in a deep way and change their lives. My favorite band since I was 12 years old has been U2, and one of the reasons for that is there’s a real depth in the music; a real consistent pressing through to something to inspire people, to challenge their perspectives, or dream bigger—all of those kinds of things. So I would encourage people out there to search for those kinds of artists. Natasha Bedingfield I think is one of those artists in the pop world; India Arie I think is one of those artists. And just look for those people. Switchfoot is a band that’s like that. So look for those people that really have something to say and just enjoy soaking in it and going deeper in it.

CGG: So on a lighter note; tell me what is it like to be named one of People’s Sexiest Men Alive?

JJ: It’s hilarious! It’s kind of a two-edged sword for me. One, it’s really cool and it’s a fun honor. And on the other hand you know that in many regards it’s kind of silly because you can’t possible narrow something like that to 50 people. There are probably millions of people that are more beautiful and things like that. But again you’re in the entertainment industry, so I don’t want to diss it because it’s fun and it’s an opportunity to reach people. You have to smile at it and not take it too seriously.

CGG: Can you give me one piece of advice that you can give young people who want to go out there and make a difference? What’s one thing that you would say to them?

JJ: Wow. I would say to never give up, to dream big, and just keep a close relationship with God through it all.

CGG: Where will the song be available?

JJ: Well we’re releasing an album too. That’s going to be available—along with Permission to Dream—on iTunes and also an online distributing company called CD Baby. They’re also going to have it available to download, I’m pretty sure, on the Just Yell Fire website.