Randy Jackson was in town today, on his way to St. Petersburg, Florida to premiere his line of watches on HSN this Friday at 10pm. The watches are beautifully designed by Randy, with Swiss movements and elegant boxes. He’s even made some automatic ones as well as quartz. I’ll tell you right now what he said about “American Idol”– he doesn’t know anything. He’s seven tracks into a new album with Mariah Carey, and saw her this week at her rented home in the Hamptons. We had lunch with a bunch of pretty fashion editors (and one other guy, from People). We talked music, mostly. He was horrified that I liked “Call Me Maybe.”
Randy’s favorite group right now is the Alabama Shakes, from Athena, Alabama. We talked about Adele. I asked him if she could have won “American Idol” had she been on his show. “Absolutely,” he said. “There’s no one else like her.” We talked about “Idol” and all the famous past winners and contestants. Randy is very proud of the show.
“Is there any other show where you can name so many of the winners and people who were on it?” he asked rhetorically, as the ten people at Hakkasan (yes, the London Hakkasan has opened on West 43rd St–I will be there a lot!) rattled off Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson–she didn’t win!, Fantasia, Chris Daughtry, and so on.
Randy’s sending a watch to “Soul Man” Sam Moore, whose album, “Overnight Sensational,” he produced. And he’s waiting to see if he and Mariah are going to be “AI” judges, and what the future holds in store. But as I pointed out, he’s the heart of “Idol.” He’s the anchor. People will come and go, but he’s got to be there. The audience expects it. I think Fox gets that, too.
