When several surviving members of The Jacksons reunited for the “Unity” Tour exactly a decade ago, including an appearance at the now shuttered Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville, fans flocked from literally everywhere to catch a glimpse of the world’s most famous musical family.

While various line-ups kept up a considerable presence on the road, performing everything from The Jackson 5 to memories of Michael, the brothers haven’t technically returned home to Gary as a group, but that’s all about to change when Jackie, Tito and Marlon mount a Hard Rock Live homecoming on the grounds of the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana come Friday, February 18.

Though The Jacksons don’t have new collective music at the moment, Tito touched base with Chicago Concert Reviews surrounding the release of his bluesy solo project, “Under Your Spell,” and of course, reflected on sharing success with so many superstar siblings, from their earliest days with Motown to selling out stadiums.

Whenever you’re on your way back to town, what runs through your mind?

Tito Jackson: Just wanting to see some of the people that I grew up with, and going by and seeing some of the schools. [Last time], I was depressed to see how terrible Beckman Junior High looked that I went to prior to coming to California.

Beyond your involvement with the casino and concert hall, what are your goals for reviving the city of Gary?

Jackson: Basically, it’s trying to move bigger businesses into the region, such as your Microsofts or the Walmarts and people of that sort cause jobs are number one. You can rebuild a city, but you’ve gotta have the jobs that spin the economy and the pride in it. The main thing right now is trying to keep that involvement and interest going. Of course, we plan to do something with the house there on 2300 Jackson Street, museum-wise. I don’t know if it’s gonna be a museum at the house or another location.

I’ve had ideas of doing a Black music museum for some of the groups that are very much known, but don’t get the recognition that some of the bigger groups get, such as The Jacksons or Earth, Wind & Fire and some of the others, or The Beatles or The [Rolling] Stones. There are groups like Cameo and Kool & Gang. Things need to be displayed, some of their costumes, their history and their contributions to the R&B and pop music world. I would probably like to, maybe five or ten years from now, open up a [venue] there, maybe call it Tito’s Spot, and just display music and possibly some of these older entertainers. A lot of us are still working and still enjoying what we’re doing. It’s something we’ve been doing our entire life. You’ve been doing something that long and you love what you do, it’s hard to get off the wagon, you know? Those are some of the dreams that I have.

What’s going to be the tone of this Hard Rock homecoming show?

Jackson: It’s just a big celebration. We’re celebrating The Jackson 5. We’re celebrating Michael, The Jacksons and the family. We’re gonna be singing all the hits. We’re just gonna have a good time and have a party on stage.

When was the last time you performed in or around Gary?

Jackson: We performed in Merrillville at the Star Plaza [in 2012]. That’s the last time I remember The Jacksons being there, but I’ve been there on occasion for performing. There’s that [Michael Jackson Tribute] festival my mom, [Katherine], had started after Michael had passed, so I was there. That was about four years ago I think. It might even be five now. Time goes so quickly when you’re older!

What do you miss most about your brother Michael?

Jackson: I just miss his joy and his kidding, just the person he was. Nothing music-wise. I still hear his music every day. I just miss him as a brother, you know? Just calling him on the phone, talking to him or whatever.

You just appeared on Lifetime’s documentary about your sister Janet. What are you hoping viewers take away from it?

Jackson: Well, Janet is a star in her own. I’m just there as her big brother to let the world know it and shine some light on my baby sister. She deserves it. She’s a hard worker. She’s dedicated to the craft and that’s what it was about.

What has it been like having all of your siblings have success in their own individual lanes?

Jackson: I look at it as we’ve always loved music and wanted to do music, but everybody tells me that’s really unusual that everyone in your family is popular and have charted songs. I was the last one, actually, with my last album, “Tito Time.” “Get It Baby” was my first charted song. My sons had a career too, 3T. They had a song out called “Anything” back in the ‘90s, so I babysat them for a little while and I just was being a dad. I put my music on hold for a long time and I decided to start doing music consecutively, I would say in the last, ten to twelve years. I’ve been going out as a solo artist playing all over the globe: Europe, Asia, South America, Canada and America. I try to do what I do when the brothers may not want to entertain. I enjoy the crowds, the music, the guitar, the whole thing. B.B. King has always been one of my heroes. He did it until he couldn’t do it no more, so that would be nice to bring a joy to your life.

You also made new music with the album, “Under Your Spell.” Could you give us a rundown of that project?

Jackson: “Under Your Spell” was a fun project for me. It’s a project I had already knew I was gonna do many years back cause it’s got some different rhythms on it. My guests on that project are Stevie Wonder, Bobby Rush, my brother Marlon, Joe Bonamassa, Eddie Levert, my cousin Steven Powell and also B.B. King’s daughter Claudette. It was an album where I invited a lot of my friends to participate in. The first single was entitled, “Love One Another,” with Stevie Wonder, Marlon, Bobby Rush and Kenny Neal.

What made you gravitate more towards the blues in your solo career?

Jackson: Well man, I’m from the Chicago area. That’s where the blues is really hot. Just being from that area, my father [Joseph] used to play a lot of blues with my Uncle Milton prior to The Jackson 5. We wanted to be like him. I gravitated toward the guitar and I’ve always played blues. Even before “I Want You Back” and The Jackson 5 were famous, we had blues numbers in our show. Once those hits started coming, all the way up through “Dancing Machine” and even beyond, blues was the second thing on the brothers’ mind, as far as putting it as part of the show. I’ve always messed around on my guitar. Now that I have time, I’m doing my blues.

Some folks have credited you as being the first ever boy band or at least band of brothers. How do you feel about those descriptions?

Jackson: No, no, there were other acts that I can recall, such as The Five Stairsteps. They were from Chicago too and they were doing their thing sort of around the same time that we were. The only difference between us and them was that they were already professional. I believe they had a couple of records out at that time. We just wanted to be a part of that thing. we used to open up for them, Jackie Wilson, Bobby Taylor & The Vancouvers, Gladys Knight, Etta James and James Brown. Between the Regal Theater in Chicago, and the Apollo and the Uptown, it just kept us circulating all the time.

What do you remember most about being the biggest band in the world during the Motown days?

Jackson: Those were some interesting times because I recall sometime after we had auditioned for Motown, we went home and we sat dormant, I will say at least six months, maybe even longer, but we had told our friends we had signed with Motown. They were happy and then later on they whispered in the neighborhoods, “you’re in the same place doing the same things. I thought ya’ll said you signed with Motown.” We said “we did! We got a record coming out. We’re going in soon to record.” So it took a little time, but I remember hearing “I Want You Back” for the first time on the radio. We all heard it pretty much together and it was a friend of ours across the street [who told us it was on]. We had moved to California by this time and he came running in with his transistor. It sounded great on the radio for the first time and it still does today. “I Want You Back” is one of my favorites. It was exciting to get to perform for people like the Queen of England doing jubilees, and things of that nature, and seeing sights that you read about in school, like the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and the Great Wall of China. It was educational and the music was fun.

How about evolving as artists as The Jacksons in the later 70s?

Jackson: That was a time when music had taken a different lane and the brothers had moved away from Motown, being that we wanted to write our songs and play our instruments on our records. Of course, Motown has a great rhythm section already, they use the same arrangers and I guess they thought, “if it ain’t broke, why try to fix it?” We had moved off, for whatever reason, and we had to do things a little different. We incorporated [producers] Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and our deal with Epic Records was that we’d get to produce and write two or three songs on every album. That was enough, so we would write and they would write the rest of the album. Songs that we wrote became famous, and then by, I think the third album, we started doing the complete albums, starting from “Destiny.” From there, we had “Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground),” “Enjoy Yourself” and “Show You The Way To Go.” We had quite a few hit records in that time.

Any specific recollections of the Motown 25 event that came shortly thereafter?

Jackson: That was fun because we got a chance to see a lot of friends from Motown that we’ve known over the years. Everybody’s busy when you’re in show business. Sometimes you get lucky to run across them the road, but we got to see a lot of friends. We knew that we were gonna do our hit songs and [Michael’s] “Billie Jean” was new. It was for sure a hit song at the time, but it wasn’t as big as “Billie Jean” is today. So we did our regular hit songs: “ABC,” “I Want You Back,” “The Love You Save,” “I’ll Be There,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” “Dancing Machine,” whatever it was, then Michael came, and gave his little talk about that was him when he was young and, “this is me today.” He broke into “Billie Jean” and that just stole the whole show. That record took off like hotcakes the next day!

How about keeping the momentum going in the ‘80s surrounding the “Victory” era?

Jackson: We had written “Destiny, the “Triumph” album and the “Victory” album. Michael was hot as a firecracker and that’s when the “Victory” days went on in 1984, I believe it was, and we did a lot of stadiums. We would go into a city, set up and do at least three stadium dates in all the major cities in America. We wound up doing seven nights in Dodger Stadium. It was the first time for me playing in front of that many people consecutively, so I enjoyed that.

What about the time when all six brothers got together for a reunion at Madison Square Garden, which just so happened to be on September 10, 2001?

Jackson: That was Michael’s 30th anniversary as a solo artist. It was very unusual. I remember finishing that second show, cause we did two nights at the Garden, and I’m waking up [the next morning], looking out the window, seeing all the smoke and hearing sirens. One of my brothers, I can’t remember who, called me to say, “turn on the TV” and that’s when I learned about the whole tragedy. We were all stuck in the city. Janet sent out some of her tour buses to pick up the family. They wouldn’t let anybody in or anybody out after a certain time, so we had to walk to the city line and board the bus because there was F-15s flying through the sky.

On a happier note, how were the shows themselves?

Jackson: The shows were wonderful and not only [performing, but] we got to see [many other artists]. ‘N Sync was on that show and Whitney [Houston] was on it too. There were just a lot of artists [including Liza Minnelli, Destiny’s Child and Britney Spears]. I can’t remember the complete line-up, but it was a fun time.

What is your take on music at the moment?

Jackson: I like old school. I like the new stuff too. I’m an admirer of some stuff that Bruno Mars does and I’ve always liked Anderson .Paak because they have a new sound on their thing, [Silk Sonic], but they’re doing old school music, if you really listen to it. I hear a lot of Jackson 5 in their tunes sometimes.

Will we hear anything new from the group?

Jackson: Yeah, I think you will within a couple of years. This is probably gonna be the last one. I would bet my way on that, as far as from the brothers, but I think you’ll see one in the next year or two.

And what would be the flavor of The Jacksons in the 2020s?

Jackson: Man, we’re gonna do what we do, make some hit records!

Do you have anything else to add before “Goin’ Back To Indiana”?

Jackson: I just wanted to say “thank you” to all the millions of fans around the world for supporting myself, and my brothers and sisters. Without you, we wouldn’t be anything, so thank you so much for loving the music!

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The Jacksons perform at the Hard Rock Live Northern Indiana on Friday, February 18.
For additional details, visit TheJacksons.Live and HardRockCasinoNorthernIndiana.com.