Why did Jermaine leave the Jackson 5? He was caught between two families
In the summer of 1975, the Jackson 5 announced they were leaving Motown — the label that had made them — for Epic Records. Four brothers went, and one stayed behind. Jermaine's decision split the group, changed its name, and came down to a wedding that had taken place two years earlier.
Why the brothers wanted out
The numbers explain most of it. The group were on a 2.7% royalty rate per record sold, and Motown's system didn't allow them to write or produce their own songs — everything came off the label's famous assembly line. As the brothers got older, especially Michael, that stopped being acceptable, and their father Joseph Jackson engineered the move to Epic. The announcement came in the summer of 1975, though their Motown contract ran until March 1976.
The wedding that decided it
Jermaine had married Hazel Gordy — daughter of Motown founder Berry Gordy — at a lavish Beverly Hills Hotel ceremony in 1973. When the split came, he was literally caught between two families: the one he'd grown up performing with, and the one he'd married into, whose patriarch owned the label his brothers were walking out on.
He stayed with Motown, citing loyalty to the company — and to his father-in-law. The cost was heavy:
"I felt like I had lost every limb," Jermaine said of the separation from his brothers, adding that the brotherhood was intrinsic to everything he knew.
What happened next
- The group lost its name — Gordy owned the "Jackson 5" trademark, so from 1976 the brothers recorded for Epic as The Jacksons.
- Randy stepped in — youngest brother Randy Jackson took Jermaine's place in the line-up.
- Jermaine went solo at Motown — building on his 1972 million-selling hit "Daddy's Home", he stayed with the label until 1983 and earned a Grammy nomination for 1980's Let's Get Serious.
Did he ever rejoin his brothers?
He did. The thaw came at the Motown 25 television special in 1983, when Jermaine performed with the group again for the first time since the split. He then rejoined properly for the Victory album and tour in 1984 — the biggest of their career — stuck around for 2300 Jackson Street in 1989, and has appeared in the various Jacksons reunions since.