American Idol (season 13) runner-up. There were a number of other major changes in the season, from the judges to the format of the show itself including the opening intro, which used the "Gyroscope 2.0". On May 9, 2013, Randy Jackson announced that he would no longer serve as a judge. On May 30, 2013, Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj also announced they would not return to the judging panel. On August 1, 2013, it was confirmed that Keith Urban would return as a judge for another season. Executive producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick were succeeded by Per Blankens, previously of "Idol", the
Judge Jackson book door-to-door and via singing conventions and educational programs. Judge Jackson Judge J. Jackson (March 12, 1883, Montgomery County, Alabama - April 7, 1958, Ozark, Alabama) was an American sacred harp composer, songwriter, and educator. His 1934 publication "The Colored Sacred Harp" was later recognized by scholars such as Doris Dyen and "New Grove" writer Joe Dan Boyd as an important document of early twentieth-century shape note singing practice. Jackson was raised in a family of sharecroppers and obtained little formal education as a child. When he was sixteen years old, he left home and took work as a farmhand