Ben Jackson shares on his love of home, addiction, recovery and COVID
Photo by L. M. Land
Written by L. M. Land with James Bryant
Ben Jackson started playing drums when he was small, but when he found out about Jimi Hendrix, he switched to guitar. His aunt gave him a month of guitar lessons when he was in 9th grade.
“That gift, it lasted a lifetime,” said Jackson.
Jackson is an international musician, guitarist, producer, recording artist, writer and engineer, based in the Jackson Park neighborhood on Flint’s north end.
Love of Flint’s north end
Jackson was raised in Detroit, but he came to visit his grandparents in Flint’s north-side Jackson Park Neighborhood home regularly. Since 1976, he has lived in and across from their house when all the houses had families living in them. Today, his beautiful, well-maintained property is surrounded by three abandoned homes.
Jackson’s grandparents bought the house in 1961. When they passed, his mother inherited it. He could not imagine anyone else living there. So he bought it from his mother.
“It was a bad mistake, too many memories,” stated Jackson. “But you live through it, get through it. I’m glad I did now, and I’ve lived around the world. Had family members staying in the house [when he lived in Europe]. But I always keep coming back. Once you outgrow all the old memories, then you get to the good memories. “
Now, Jackson has “no complaints.” I used to know all the neighbors. But as with any neighborhood, we have more renters than buyers. Things changed.”
“It really matters when I’m out walking in the yard or around the corner. Family comes to visit. There is a family history here. It’s appreciated more when you tell people my family’s been on this corner since the early ’60s, and now it’s 2023 and you’re still here. You got young kids whose parents weren’t even born at that point of time. When you come home you have a sense of confidence, a sense of self. When you talk about consistency, that’s consistent. When I go to sleep at night, I’ve slept in this house for years. It doesn’t feel strange. When I was coming in off the road, I looked forward to coming home. It felt like home.”
Battle with COVID
Jackson really appreciated coming home after his first bout with COVID. He felt sick from November through December in 2020, not realizing he had COVID. On Christmas Day 2020, his friend made him go to McLaren Medical Center, where he remained until New Year’s Day 2021. He was sick enough to have a near-death experience, but he was able to avoid being on a vent.
Jackson shared how it was weird “to be sitting in the hospital for seven to eight days.”
“You got oxygen on. You’re lying in the bed, and everyone who comes in to see you is in full gear. It’s hard to wake up to that. Hard to go to sleep with that.”
Long COVID has affected Jackson’s lungs.
“I still do have trouble with my breathing. I smoked for a long time. So, I have COPD and high blood pressure…COVID has grabbed onto my lungs. So sometimes I have coughing fits.”
Unfortunately, Jackson is suffering with COVID for the third time as this article goes to press. His preexisting conditions and long COVID have left him susceptible to reinfection.
Jackson’s on sobriety
Jackson recently celebrated 34 years of clean time.
“Hard to be a playing musician and not into drugs in the 70s and 80s,” he explained.
“You know it’s not that easy” to quit drugs and/or alcohol,” Jackson explained.
“That book Alcoholics Anonymous was written in 1935, and the American family life was a lot different than it was in the 60s, 70s 80s. But they still have in the book that just like the alcoholic has to recover. You’ve done damage to the family structure, and that’s part of recovery. Of course, they call it sobriety from the drink or the drug, but you have to learn how to live sober. And that means bringing the family along.
“A lot of people are just happy not to be drinking and making stupid mistakes again. They forget there is more to this than just not drinking or not drugging.
“I gave up drinking and drugging, but I smoked a pack of cigarettes every day. I tried all the electronic cigarettes, the acupuncture; I tried all the different things that were suggested that would help me quit smoking. But until the doctors cracked open my chest, they performed triple bypass heart surgery on me. It was the fear of the pain from coughing that kept me from smoking for a while. After that significant amount of time, I just never went back to it.”
Jackson on family
Jackson had been warned he needed the surgery in September 2015, but stubbornly wanted to fulfill his contracts through to January 2, 2016 and asked “if they could wait until his contracts were completed.” He finished all his gigs, and on January 4, 2016, he had surgery.
Jackson got his work ethic from his stepfather, Hindal Butts.
“If you sign the contract, you fulfill the contract,” stated Jackson. “If you can’t do it, don’t sign it. Then get your money.”
Butts was Aretha Franklin’s drummer and musical director for 10 years, and also played for Sara Vaughn and Billie Holiday.
Being brought up in a family that is close is something Jackson treasures.
“I had two dads. My stepdad was in my life for 63 years. He just passed last year. My biological father is still alive. He just celebrated his 90th birthday in South Carolina. I was blessed in that respect.”
Jackson was raised in a family atmosphere.
“My father’s family was close, and I’ve never been apart from them. And my mother’s family was close, and I’ve never been apart from them. And my stepfather’s family was close. I really do appreciate it now, seeing the turmoil a lot of kids are going through now. When I was younger, I expected it would always last.”
Music technology
The Courier also talked with Jackson about how music technology has changed over the years.
On your own, at home, you can now professionally produce music.
Jackson records a lot of material on his own through the midnight hour at home.
“It’s not like we’re sitting in Paisley Park, but the same effect they can get out of Paisley Park, you can pretty much get it here,” explained James Bryant, who still plays bass with Jackson sometimes.
Jackson explained further.
“With that Apple [software] I can pretty much get everything out of there that you get in the big studios. Software has come that far.”
Jackson’s recovery
Computers helped aid Jackson’s recovery.
“When it got to the point that I knew my drug consumption was a problem, I couldn’t stay sober and keep playing, ’cause I’d be playing in bars at night, and somewhere during the night I’d take a drink. If I take a drink, I ‘m gonna smoke cocaine. Well, I had to quit playing for almost 10 years. But that was 1988-89 when computers started becoming vogue for songwriting and music production. So that’s how I got into computers. I was staying sober, and with my first love of music, I could read and write, and poof! Here we are some 30-odd years later. I just kept following along with the technology.”
During Jackson’s 10-year recovery, he rarely left Flint and did few gigs.
“In order to quit, so that I could make some AA meetings and start learning what it’s like to live sober, I wasn’t playing in bars…It took getting sober and not playing music to learn how to use a computer.“
The digital revolution helps Jackson stay in touch with persons in addiction recovery. Throughout the COVID shutdown, Jackson stayed in touch via Zoom meetings with those needing support. Today, he is in touch with between 50 to 100 people a week who need support in their journey to sobriety.
Ten years after his recovery began, Jackson moved to Atlanta, sober, and started a whole new career. He eventually came home to his house on the north end again.
More on Jackson’s career in music
Jackson had been playing guitar with Southern Soul Artist and Writer James Smith and Company, before Jackson moved to Atlanta. Other band members were Bryant, Phil Young, Ed Mason and Ulysses Bailey. All their music was recorded in Jackson’s studio, Dozjak Productions. James Smith’s material was recorded here as well. After Jackson went to Atlanta, the band name was changed to the S Band; Herb McGowan then played guitar.
The S Band backed many artists who came to play in the Flint/Saginaw area, such as Third World, Terry Wright, Maurice Davis, Andre Lee, Vernon Garrett, Robert Tillman, Fletcher Deezie from LA, Queen of the Blues Denise LaSalle, Karen Wolf and Bill Coday of Coday Records-out of Memphis Tenn.
By this point in our interview, Jackson and Bryant could not resist playing some music they worked on. Working with Deezie in Los Angeles, California is now possible digitally. Zoom meetings are used to make plans. Music recorded in LA is sent to Jackson in Flint to add vocals, then are returned to LA for post-production work. The music they created was then released in Europe without getting on an airplane.
Prior to the digital age, everyone had to be in the same building physically to record music.
Jackson makes a difference in the lives of many people in addiction recovery daily, enriches our lives with music, and loves the north side of Flint and his home with all his heart.
Ben Jackson: the whole man
Ben Jackson is an international musician, producer, recording star, writer and engineer living in the north side of Flint. He is also active in supporting persons in addiction recovery.
