Idol Chatter & Voice Views

And among the singers we’ll meet is Jackson Gillies, a 19-year-old from the Santa Barbara area of California.

Here’s more about Jackson.

* He was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 3 and started wearing an insulin pump at age 4.

* He has also battled Hidradenitis Supprative, a disease causing abscesses to form on the skin, since 2013.

* He says he stated playing guitar while bedridden by that condition. “I use my experience and the hardship I’ve gone through to fuel my music,” he writes on his website.

* In 2016, he was one of 10 finalists selected for the Teen Star USA competition at the Arlington Theatre. He sang “The Sky Is Crying” and “Nessun Dorma” by Puccini and wound up winning

* After a fire ravaged southern California in the winter of 2017 and a mudslide killed 23 people near Santa Barbara, he and four other teens organized Teens Sing for Santa Barbara. The event raised more than $70,000. Jackson served as musical co-director and co-producer with Kenny Loggins.

* He released his debut single, “Miss Me Too,” last month, and you can check it out below. Jackson told The Patch he wrote the song after a breakup where there was no chance of reconciliation. “So the song is sort of a question of ‘Do you still miss me? I know we can’t be together, but I want to know if the love is still there.'”

* A student at Santa Barbara City College, Jackson told The Channels he draws inspiration from the Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix. He describes the goal for his own music this way: ““I want to do pop music, but with the genuineness of folk lyricism. Of words that hit you in the chest and suck you in at the first line.”

On social media:
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Twitter: @Jackson_Gillies
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