Long before anyone outside Gary, Indiana, knew the name Michael Jackson, there was a guitar in the Jackson house that the kids were told to leave alone. It belonged to their father, Joe Jackson.
Tito Jackson, one of Michael’s older brothers, just couldn’t stay away from it.
Fred Bronson co-wrote the family’s own book, “The Jacksons: Legacy,” so he knows this story well. He told NPR, “Tito had been fooling around with his father’s guitar.” Then he explained the catch: “And he wasn’t supposed to touch the guitar, but when his dad would be at work, he would.”
So while Joe was off at his job, Tito would sneak that guitar out and teach himself to play. Michael was still a small boy at the time, and nobody in the house had any idea what was coming.
Then one day a string snapped.
There was no hiding a broken string, and Tito knew it. He told the story himself years later, in a 2019 interview with VladTV. “He came home, saw the string broke and was really upset about it,” Tito remembered. If you’ve ever broken something that belonged to your dad, you know the feeling he had in his stomach right then. In this interview Tito talks about how the family band came together, and hearing it from him beats reading it secondhand.
Tito tells VladTV how the Jackson family band got started
Here’s the part that changed everything for the family.
Joe didn’t put the guitar away for good. Tito said, “And then he sat me down and put the guitar in my lap and said, ‘Show me what you know'”.
So Tito played for his father. Joe listened.
When Tito finished, Joe gave his verdict, as Tito retold it: “Dang, you playing just as good as me.”
And Joe didn’t stop there. According to the Daytona Times, Joe went and woke up the rest of the kids so they could hear Tito play that same guitar. It must have been quite a scene, a houseful of kids gathered around to hear their brother play the guitar he wasn’t supposed to touch.
NPR summed it up in one line. The moment “helped Joe Jackson see his children’s artistic potential.”
From there, things moved quickly. Joe bought the boys better instruments and a van to get around in. Their first paid show was at a club in Gary called Mister Lucky’s Lounge. That little family band, born from a broken string, grew into the Jackson 5. If you want to see how far it went, watch the brothers on national TV, all grown into a real act after Tito’s secret guitar lessons.
The Jackson 5 perform “I Want You Back” on The Ed Sullivan Show
Tito passed away in September 2024, and Joe has passed away as well. Tito was happy to share this memory, though, and it’s easy to see why. It’s the kind of family story that never gets old.
Joe could have stayed angry about that string. He handed the guitar back to his son instead and asked to hear what he could do. Then he woke up the whole house so everybody else could hear it too.