Zebra at 50: The Rock Band That Never Left

Fifty years is a long time to keep a band together. For Randy Jackson of Zebra, the math is straightforward, if a little morbid.

“We’re all in our 70s now, so statistically one of us should have bit the dust by now,” he says with a laugh. “But fortunately we’re all still alive, and we’ve always all got along since the beginning.”

Zebra, the hard rock trio Jackson formed with Felix Hanemann and Guy Gelso, built its following on the New Orleans bar circuit in the 1970s. The band is now marking its 50th anniversary with a tour stop at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on March 28.

Humble Beginnings

The band’s early momentum came in small steps. Jackson points to a price increase as an unlikely turning point.

“The turning point was when we went from charging $1 at the door to $2,” he said. “We doubled our price and nobody complained. That was back in 1975, 76. By the end of the year we were charging $3.”

Crowds were growing. Venues were getting bigger. But Jackson was also watching what happened to older bands that stayed in the region — and drawing conclusions.

“We watched them decline,” he said. “It was just because they were there too much. They were too available.”

The band decided to leave New Orleans for New York, where record labels could find them. They knew people in New York and made the move.

The Break That Changed Everything

Before Zebra had a record deal, a program director at Long Island radio station WBXK — already a fan of the band — asked for demos of their original material. The songs soon entered heavy rotation.

“We didn’t have a record out,” Jackson said. “And it was amazing.”

Atlantic Records, which had previously turned the band down, took notice and signed them. The debut album became Atlantic’s fastest-selling first release at the time and went gold. “Who’s Behind the Door” became a rock radio staple, climbing to number two on the FM airplay charts.

“I think we were number two at one point to ‘Every Breath You Take’ on the FM charts,” Jackson said. “So we’re pretty proud of that.”

Staying Together

Jackson credits a few factors for keeping the band intact over five decades — humor, mutual respect and, perhaps unexpectedly, shared political views.

“We like to laugh a lot,” he said. “I don’t think we ever took any of it too seriously.”

He added that the band’s political alignment has quietly been an asset. “I’ve seen other bands with different political ideologies, and sometimes that breaks a band up — especially today, the way things are. We never had to deal with that.”

The fans have also played a role. Many first saw the band as underage patrons sneaking into New Orleans and New York bars in the late 1970s, and have remained loyal ever since.

“They had been getting into the bars when they were not even old enough to be in the bars,” Jackson said. “That was a big part of their lives.”

The Album Question

No conversation with Jackson about Zebra’s future avoids the subject of a long-delayed studio album. He addresses it himself.

“I have defeated the boy who cried wolf,” he said. “I am the boy who cried wolf at this point.”

Still, Jackson says nine of a planned 11 tracks are finished and the album could be released by June. With a month off before the Bethel Woods show and no other gigs scheduled, he says he has no excuse for further delays.

Why It Still Matters

After 50 years, Jackson says the motivation to keep playing comes from the audience.

“A lot of times people tell me the music has gotten them through hard times — through health crises, different things,” he said. “I think that’s the biggest compliment you can get as a musician.”

He says today’s crowds include longtime fans reliving memories alongside younger listeners discovering the band for the first time.

“The music has lasted this long and is still relevant,” he said. “That’s pretty amazing to me.”

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts is a financial supporter of Radio Catskill.

Image: (Left to right) Felix Hanemann, Randy Jackson, and Guy Gelso of the rock band Zebra. (ZebraBand.com)