What happened to OG ‘American Idol’ judge Randy Jackson?

Randy Jackson was immortalized as one of the original American Idol judges. Before this he was a successful A&R for MCA Records, but it wasn’t until 2022 when he joined up with Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell on the singing competition that he became globally famous.

Jackson was the longest-tenured judge on American Idol, holding down the position from 2002 to 2013 (he returned, briefly, to be an in-house mentor in 2014). He was so famous during this period that he was even referenced in the classic comedy Step Brothers in 2008 (“You’re not gonna not get Randy Jackson’s autograph…).

Randy Jackson’s appearance has undergone some major changes in recent years, however, leading fans to question his health and speculate as to whether he’s battling illnesses behind closed doors. There’s some truth to this, but it’s not as grave as it may seem from the onset.

What caused Randy Jackson’s weight loss?

Randy Jackson had health complications during the peak of his fame, but he did not divulge them until he released his memoir, Body with Soul, in 2008. He told readers that he diagnosed with type 2 diabetes the same year American Idol premiered, and he subsequently underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2003. Jackson weighed 350 pounds at the time of his diagnosis, and the surgery is meant to encourage weight loss. It reduces the size of the stomach and reroutes digestion, so less food is ultimately absorbed.

Jackson admitted that the diagnosis and surgery served as dual wake-up calls. He detailed his feelings in his memoir:

After that day in the ER, when my doctor burst the bubble I’d been living in, I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. Right then and there, I began my journey toward better health.

Jackson’s appearance didn’t change too drastically during the 2000s and 2010s, but he debuted a much leaner build in the 2020s. This delay led fans to speculate that the music executive had fallen ill or been diagnosed with another condition, but he claimed that it was merely him getting better at maintaining his eating habits. “Weight loss is 80% diet,” he said during a 2022 appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show. “Everything forms in the gut. The mouth is a bad place for bacteria — gotta brush, floss…”

Is Randy Jackson returning to American Idol?

Randy Jackson recalled being insulted for his weight while on American Idol. He told Yahoo Entertainment that contestants who were shown the door would try to insult the judges, but he had no problem firing back. “Cowell and I took one oath,” he revealed. “If you dish it, you gotta be able to get it back.” Despite these squabbles, Jackson looks back fondly on his time with the reality show.

Jackson and Paula Abdul returned to American Idol for a special 2022 episode. Their involvement was meant to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the show, and they sat alongside the current roster of judges. Given his legacy as one of the original trio, however, Jackson has been hounded by questions of whether he would ever return in a full-time capacity. He gave a definitive answer during a 2021 interview with Entertainment Tonight:

I’d want to do a show like that if Simon and myself and Paula would put the band back together. Try and give one more heave-ho.

These are the only circumstances in which Jackson would return, however. In the aforementioned Yahoo discussion, the music executive criticized the current iteration of American Idol, as well as The Voice, for being too nice to contestants. He blames this shift on the fact that it’s pop stars, rather than executives, who have been made the judges. “I say all the time in interviews, the thing that helped me the most [when I was starting out] was the no’s,” he asserted. “The people that didn’t like me, didn’t like my playing.”

Randy Jackson may not be judging anytime soon, but fans can rest assured that he’s healthy and thriving. He’s currently the bandleader on the FOX game show Name That Tune.