Jackie Jackson was there at the very start.
Born Sigmund Esco Jackson on May 4, 1951, he’s Michael Jackson’s oldest brother and one of the original members of the Jackson 5. He turned 75 this past May. And he still hasn’t hung up his dancing shoes.
Tomorrow, Friday, November 13, Jackie and his brother Marlon are billed to play The Jacksons’ show at the Eventim Apollo in London at 7 PM UK time. It’s the last of four UK dates this month, after Manchester, Cardiff and Wolverhampton. Mitchell Zhangazha, who played Michael in “MJ The Musical,” sings Michael’s parts.
If you haven’t seen Jackie on stage lately, this festival film from the summer of 2025 in England shows him and Marlon still singing the Jackson 5 hits.
Jackie and Marlon on stage at Englefield in England in 2025
Most fans picture Jackie’s family as grown-ups by now. He does have two grown children. There’s his son Sigmund Esco Jr., known as Siggy, plus his daughter Brandi.
But that’s only half the story.
Jackie has four children in all. His two youngest are twin boys, River and Jaylen, with his wife Emily. They were born on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2013. That makes them 12 right now, and they’ll turn 13 this coming New Year’s Eve.
Their dad is more than 60 years older than they are.
Jackie has called the boys his “biggest New Year’s blessing.” On their 10th birthday, he wrote that they gave him the “greatest gift” of all: “a purpose.”
So what are a couple of Jackson kids into? You might guess music, and you’d be partly right. The twins share their dad’s love of singing and dancing. They sometimes even join him on stage, including at a show in the south of France.
“But mostly they play a lot of basketball,” Jackie told HELLO! magazine in July 2025.
And this is serious ball. “They play AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball,” he said. That’s the big US youth basketball league.
Jackie knows exactly what that means. “Most of the players who play pro basketball today started in AAU,” he said.
That’s a proud dad talking, and any parent who has spent a weekend in a gym bleacher will recognize the tone.
He hasn’t left the family music out of their lives, either. Jackie has taken the twins to Cirque du Soleil’s “Michael Jackson ONE” and to “MJ The Musical” on Broadway, so they could get to know their uncle’s songs.
Jackie and Marlon also sat down with the TV station KRON 4 to talk about bringing their show to Modesto, and it’s a nice chance to hear the two brothers in their own words.
Jackie and Marlon talk about bringing The Jacksons to Modesto
London is next on the calendar, with the Eventim Apollo show set for tomorrow night. Back home, Jackie’s youngest fans are a pair of 12-year-olds who would probably rather be on a basketball court than in a concert hall. Their dad sounds just fine with that.