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Early life
La Toya Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana, the fifth of nine children born to Joseph and Katherine Jackson. After her mother became a devout Jehovah's Witness in 1966, Jackson, alongside her siblings, were indoctrinated into the religion. Jackson would spend most of her time alongside her mother practicing door-to-door evangelization. By 1974, Jackson was brought into the spotlight with her family after her father got the family to perform shows in Las Vegas and in other cities. By 1979, Jackson and her other sisters Rebbie and Janet formed a short-lived sister group, though they never sang live together and eventually broke away due to arguments over the direction of the group. The next year, La Toya Jackson began work on her first solo album.
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Music career
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In 1980, Jackson released her self-titled debut. Besides the top 40 R&B and dance placings of her first single, "If You Feel the Funk", the album failed to generate an audience. Her three subsequent albums afterwards also showcased limited success, although she scored a moderate Billboard Hot 100 hit with 1984's "Heart Don't Lie" single, which peaked at
In 1988, Jackson released the album La Toya, which featured the single, "You're Gonna Get Rocked!". The La Toya album also included a track called "Just Say No", which was written for the "Just Say No" campaign. Neither the album nor the singles managed to make an impact, despite the fact that it was Jackson's first album without the leadership of her father, who had been her manager until that year. It was at this time she began to be managed by the abusive Jack Gordon, who later tricked Jackson into a marriage that ended in a fiery divorce.
In 1989, the Bad Girl album was released. To this day, the Bad Girl album is one of the few albums in her catalog that is still in print, and can be found under various titles and covers.
Jackson struggled to make a dent musically releasing cover albums of country music and Motown standards in the mid-1990s. She plans to release her first album in over a decade with Startin' Over. The album had been pushed back several times; Jackson's record label, Ja-Tail Records, distributed through Universal Music Group has issued various excuses but the release date has been moved several times and there has yet to be a firm release date. The last official release date has been stated as Summer 2006. *
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Playboy and the Jackson family estrangement
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In 1989, Jackson ventured into nude modeling after her manager Jack Gordon coaxed her into posing nude for Playboy magazine. Her first cover and nude layout was one of the most successful issues in Playboys history and generated controversy. She showed up again on Playboy in 1991 to promote her autobiography and later in a video for the magazine in 1994 becoming one of the first celebrities to have a ''Playboy'' video aired.
After marrying Jack Gordon in September of 1989, Jackson estranged herself from certain members of the family, though she still spoke to some of her siblings on rare occasions. In 1991, she was further estranged from the family after the book La Toya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family was released, which went into scathing details of the family, including one of Joseph reportedly committing sexual abuse among the female members of the family, notably herself and sister Rebbie. Rebbie defended her father denying the rumors, while other members of the family claimed that Gordon had written that in the book.
In 1993, Jackson went to a press conference overseas and announced that she believed rumors that brother Michael had sexually abused children. His initial accusations of child molestation came out that year, prompting members of the family to refute the charges, claiming that Jackson was "controlled and used" by Gordon; Jackson's father Joseph wrote about Gordon's control in his book The Jacksons. Two years later, she made headlines again for announcing the so-called "Jackson Family Secret Phone Number Line". By 1996, however, Jackson ran out on her abusive manager after he forced her to dance at a strip joint in Cleveland. The former Jehovah's Witness (she was shunned in 1987) refused to do so and in return, was booed and heckled by the predominantly male crowd.
In 1997, she ended her estrangement with the entire Jackson family and returned home to Hayvenhurst. That year, she divorced from Jack Gordon. Jackson has no children and currently lives in Los Angeles and keeps close contact with her mother and siblings, including Michael and Janet.
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Cultural Reference
In the South Park episode It Hits the Fan, the character Chef refers to La Toya Jackson as the "Black Death"
In the Family Guy episode Petoria, La Toya Jackson is invited as guest speaker since she was the next best Jackson after Jesse Jackson.
In A Different World, La Toya Jackson is mentioned several times, as the subject of Dwayne Wayne's fantasies.
In the Alf Tales episode Cinderella, when Cinderella's father introduces the wicked stepmother, he also introduces the wicked stepsisters by calling for them: "Oh, Janet! La Toya!"
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Albums
La Toya (1988) (also called You're Gonna Get Rocked)
Bad Girl (1989) (also called Sexual Feeling, He's My Brother, Playboy, Be My Lover, et al)
Formidable (1992) (a live album in French, performed at the Moulin Rouge)
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Singles
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1991 "Sexbox" (only in the Netherlands)
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