Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Brooks.
Jason, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up just outside Washington DC, in Herndon Virginia. From since I can remember music was always playing in the house. Early on, The Beatles, The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, The Traveling Wilburys, Mark Knoffler were all on repeat. This instilled an appreciation for music that’s stuck with me my whole life and fine tuned my musical tastes.
From an early age like any kid from the suburbs I took piano lessons on a little 5 octave Casio keyboard, playing condensed versions of Fur Elise, New World Symphony and other classics of level 1 elementary school piano.
I started to get pretty good at piano, after a few years my parents enrolled me in a more serious piano studio which came with long hours of practice and reading sheet music. These years were extremely beneficial, especially when it came to learning to perform when the pressure was on in front of tens of students and parents during our end of year recital. This experience would serve me well when later in life I would have to perform live in front of tens of millions of people on live TV.
Despite all of this, I was growing a bit tired of the long hours of practice and the measured performances of set pieces was growing tedious. My interest began to shift to a new instrument, guitar which I had recently picked up. I was in high school by then and began jamming with local kids in whatever parent’s garage would allow us to make a racket.
I also started playing for services at my parent’s local church. It was here I unknowingly had my first encounter with the music industry. By chance, we had two musicians in the church band, one having toured in the country sphere with a renowned country swing act and the other having received a Grammy for his work with a CCM vocal group, as well as someone who had worked in promo at a record label in Nashville
While such resumes are common in churches around Nashville, this is rarity in the suburbs of DC and enormous luck for me. It let me know there was a set music industry out there, that is was possible to “break in” and to participate in and make a living playing the music I had been listen to my whole life.
At this point it was time to think about college. All the industry people I knew had worked in Nashville, so I set my sights there.
At this point I was playing piano at a college level, I was taking private lessons and classes in piano at the local community college. The long hours in practice rooms only started to nudge me towards something different. My guitar playing had really begun to take off so I began to contemplate a change to my primary instrument.
I somehow convinced my parents that Belmont University was the path to my scheme to work in the music industry. I toured the campus as a piano major and guitar major before ultimately deciding I should focus on guitar seeing as Nashville seemed to have more guitar jobs.
College was a bit of a blur, terrified I would graduate without a job in the music industry I used time between classes (and sometimes during) to work/network as much as possible in music. I played for artists, toured, played downtown on Broadway until 2am before having to be at class at 8a for music law classes.
It was tiring but some of the most fun I’ve ever had. All the long hours paid off, after year after graduating I landed my first touring gig.
I joined the opening act of an amphitheater tour opening for Jason Aldean, Eric Church and playing for thousands of fans every night thru the winter and spring. The summer was highlighted by my
first stadium show opening for Taylor Swift at Nissan Stadium for CMAFest.
We were busy through the summer, joining Brad Paisley’s summer tour before the act decided to go on hiatus at the end of the year.
By then I was hooked, I toured with several other major label acts for several years while working my way up the ladder.
I turned a corner when in a calendar year I performed on The Today Show’s live segment for tens of millions of people, David Letterman’s Late Show, a special memory as it was on Sept 11th in NYC, and Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night Show.
Over the next few years I added another Today Show performance and Kelly Clarkson’s daytime show to my resume.
A cherished memory/detour was joining the ABC show Nashville for 4 seasons as a member of Hayden Panettiere’s band on the show. I would hover in the background as the stars would shoot their scenes as Hayden or others would interact with guest stars like Christina Aguilera and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.
Throughout this very busy touring phase I was able to tour internationally and see parts of the world I had only seen on TV, Switzerland, Quatar, Mexico, Japan, Germany, Greece, Australia.
More recently I have been more diverse in my touring, touring in the pop punk and pop rock sphere in an opener slot with Cassadee Pope supporting Mariana’s Trench on the Force of Nature tour and Maren Morris on the GIRL world tour as well as playing at When We Were Youngfest with Hey Monday.
As time has gone on my interests have also evolved. After the 2020 Covid pandemic I began to diversity teaching myself Logic Pro and the art of producing music, sitting in my apartment every day teaching myself how to produce as the world was shut down.
My intention was to create another career pathway for when I wasn’t cool enough to tour anymore (haha) and music production/composition/session playing has been that goal for me.
Recently in that arena, my music as a composer has been featured on Discovery Channel and TLC.
As a session guitarist my roster of clients have been expanding with 2026 being my busiest year for session bookings.
It’s been quite a ride so far, from some kid growing up in the suburbs to being a married full time session/touring musician with endorsement deals from Gibson guitars and Daddario strings. The ups and the downs such as two separate trips to the emergency room for touring related injury’s for broken bones both live in my mind. But I look forward to all the future has to offer.
Relevant links:
Full resume:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-brooks-66895911?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios
Instagram (most active:
https://www.instagram.com/jsonbrooks?igsh=MWJuZzJ2NGJjd3poMw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
Airgigs studio session booking:
https://www.airgigs.com/session-guitarists/83228/Full-Service-Professional-Electric-Guitar-and-Acoustic-Guitar-Mixed-and-Edited
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Trying to excel in a career that is attractive to a wide range of people like the music industry is always difficult. What I learned early on is that you have to be willing to outwork your peers if you want to succeed. This means missing fun with friends, family events, and being tired often.
Also consistent lack of sleep is a constant struggle haha.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I have had my feet firmly planted in National and international touring for over a decade. I think I’m most known for my electric guitar playing but people also know me for my acoustic guitar playing and my versatility on other stringed instruments (banjo, mandolin) as well as my keyboard and piano playing and more recently my music production/composition works.
I’m most proud of my deeply rooted musical tastes which informs virtually everything I do. This assists me greatly on sessions and in the producer chair for composing as well as making decisions while playing live. I’m also proud of my absolute obsession with the technical aspects of music and music theory, While I don’t think music theory should be the basis for your every day playing, if I’m learning as song that has a fun perfect cadence or parallel motion I get really excited about that haha.
I suppose my obsession and knowledge with such technical aspects of music theory, as well as my long listenership to nearly everything decade of modern American music makes my take on music unique. This coupled with my versatility on instruments along with a sometimes obsessive personality with getting whatever I’m working on close to perfection
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The hot topic right now is AI. It’s a new technology and the music industry can be especially sensitive to leaps in innovation. Vinyl to tapes, tapes to CD, CD to streaming, with every jump the music industry has had its contortions. AI is no different and everyone is trying to figure it out.
When I attended Belmont University we were just post-Napster and other downloading platforms. Many of my music business teachers simply would say they didn’t know where the future was going and would try and prepare us for an open ended future. I don’t think any of them saw the rise of Spotify, I don’t think anyone did. What they did teach me was to learn the new technology, understand it, apply it to your career so you can evolve with it.
It’s hard to predict where the industry is going, the hardest innovation to account for is the one you don’t see coming. When you look back at the music industry in the 60s and compare it to today, it’s very different in a lot of ways. I think the thing you can predict is that things will evolve and change so don’t stay too rooted to one thing in particular.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jsonbrooks
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-brooks-66895911
- Twitter: https://x.com/guitarsaurus
- Other: https://linktr.ee/jsonbrooks
