Jeff Coopwood was born on June 29, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois to Louise Riley and Jesse Coopwood. His mother was a former gospel radio broadcaster, and talk show hostess in markets from Chicago and Texas, to Miami, Florida. She had also been an actress, who understudied Eartha Kitt in "Mrs. Patterson" on Broadway and a model, charm school owner, and successful newspaper and magazine editor and publisher. For decades, his father, Jesse Coopwood, was a legendary jazz and talk radio broadcaster in Gary, Indiana.