Full Name: Jackson Walker
Nicknames: Jack
Age:  67
Age apparent: Mid-Twenties
Gender:  Male
Sexuality: Straight
Occupation: Musician
Languages: English
Species: Vampire
Powers: Standard, Mass Rolling, Empathic Voice

Overall Appearance: Jack is lean, with an angular face and bright blue eyes that are ringed with a dark outer iris, making them stand out even in dim light.  He never really learned how to hide his nature and enjoyed standing out, whether it was in the way he moved, snake like and lithe, or the way he spoke, with a mesmerizing tone that seemed to have a ‘feel’ to it.

After the incident it’s become even harder to seem like anything other than a vampire.  His pale skin is almost translucent, though when he’s well fed it turns to alabaster, shimmering and nearly flawless, except for the two angry scars on his chest.

Height: 5’11”
Weight: 160 lbs
Eye Color: Blue (light ringed by dark)
Hair color: Dark Brown/Black
Hair Style: Varies
Complexion: Pale
Body shape: Slender
Clothing:  Before the incident, Jack tended towards the comfort of jeans and loose fitting shirts, often worn slightly open.  After, he’s tended to button up the shirts more often, wear t-shirts instead and has begun to add coats and other additional layers, his body more cold than it used to be.

Basic Personality:  Despite constantly feeling tired and weak, Jack tries to be upbeat and cheerful, at least he tries in public.  In private, he struggles with the trauma of nearly ‘dying’.  In addition, he’s uncertain about his future, though he’s more uncertain about his artistic, creative future than his ‘living’ one.

Merits: Makes friends easily (at least mortal friends), musically talented, independently wealthy

Flaws: Uncomfortable around other vampires, emotionally unavailable (or so he’s been told), currently weak from major ‘injuries’

History:
From an episode of VH1’s “Whatever Happened To…” series

The story of Jackson Walker was one of the lesser known rock and roll mysteries.  Walker had only put out one album in the 60’s, shortly after contemporary pioneers Creedence Clearwater Revival put the idea of southern rock back into the consciousness of America’s youth.  Ironically, while other southern rock bands like CCR and The Band weren’t even from the south, Walker was.

Born in Thibodaux, Louisiana, about an hour outside New Orleans, Jackson grew up the only child of a single mother.  His musical talent developed early and he’d started his first band at the age of 15 and the band he’d be known for a few years later.  Peace and Order, a name in reference to the bloody massacre of sugar cane workers at the turn of the century, blended traditional southern blues and spirituals with rock and roll.  While they might not have become as popular as many of the groups coming out of California or other parts of the country, Peace and Order garnered enough attention to join the rolling tour circuit that crisscrossed the country and eventually a late night spot at Woodstock, going on in the brief break before Janis Joplin took the stage.

It’s there that the mystery began, for it was the last night anyone saw Jackson Walker again…

From a Rolling Stone interview:

Rolling Stone:  “So it happened that night?”

His gaze seemed to grow distant as he thought back and his voice dropped, as though we were whispering in the back pews of an old church.

Jackson:  “Yeah, that night.  I’d seen her the night before.  I think everyone had.  Ravi Shankar was doing his thing and it was raining.  I remember it seemed like she was moving between the crowd, or maybe they were moving around her, like they were all drawn to her, but were too afraid to touch.

Before that, I’d been just taking it all in and waiting for Arlo Guthrie to play a little later, but once I saw her it was all I could think about.  The way she’d moved…”

RS:  He trailed off then and seemed to have forgotten the question that had brought the memory to the surface.

“What happened next?”

He shrugged and debated whether he wanted to drink from the cup we’d brought out for him.

JW:  “Arlo Guthrie played, then Joan Baez, then we all found somewhere to sleep and someone to sleep with.”

RS:  “The next night?”

He nodded and was silent for a moment, but his gaze was fixed and focused, not off in a dream like when he’d started.

JW:  “Yeah.  The next night.

We were set to go on after Creedence.  We were pretty excited.  We were still pretty young, most of us there were, but we knew it was one of those nights you’d remember your entire life.”

He paused again there and smiled at the unintended joke.

“I saw her again, only backstage this time, talking with Janis Joplin and Pete Townsend.  I remember wanting to go up to talk to her, but we had to go on.

We sucked.  I forgot chords, words, even skipped a whole verse on The Line You’re From.”

RS:  He shook his head and laughed, but seemed to get distracted again.

“Is it true ‘More’ is about her?”

JW:  “Of course.”

He didn’t hesitate at all in answering and it seemed to unleash the rest of the story.

“She found me afterwards.  She was nice, told me she liked our set, but all I could think about was how she moved.  Up close it was even more mesmerizing.  Every little turn of her head, flick of her hair, brush of her hand seemed to flow and shimmer and steal my breath.  And her eyes, it was like they sang and just being near her, the whole festival faded away.

We wound up at a farm a mile or so from the stage.  You could still hear the music in the distance, Piece of My Heart, so it must have been about an hour later since Joplin was finishing her set.”

RS:  He stopped there and smiled again, unwilling to share more of how he was turned that night, though one only need turn to his music for more…

‘You move, like I want to.
To see, like your eyes do.
We are downstairs,
where no one can see, your life break away.
Tonight, I feel like more.  Tonight, I…

You make, the water warm,
you taste foreign and I know
you can see, the cord break away.
Cause tonight, I feel like more.
Tonight, I feel like more.

You breathed, then you stopped
I breathed and dried you off.
And tonight, I feel like more.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd_461ZrJb8

From the London News Tribune:

It’s unclear how he spent his time the next few years after disappearing in 1969.  He’s admitted to having found his way overseas, staying off and on in Wales at Rockfield Studios.  It was there he claims he learned to blend in with humanity despite his pale skin and unearthly manner.

“It was easy enough,” Walker said, going on to explain pale skin wasn’t that out of the ordinary in Wales and that he’d never gotten famous enough in the States to be recognized overseas, even amongst the other recording artists he worked with, helping to produce some of the seminal recordings of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.

“I cut my hair and wore whatever the latest trendy fashion craze was and most of them wrote me off as just another guy into the whole gothic rock thing,” he’s quoted as saying in an interview with Spin magazine after the release of his new album.

“A few people suspected, but the ones who actually learned the truth thought it was cool and wanted in, though I want to be very clear, I’ve never turned anyone,” he added, not explaining what he did do instead.

With the revelation that vampires exist, Walker was quick to resurface and his first album was released within months of the news.

From Spin’s review of Unfinished, the second album from Jackson Walker:

It can't be said Walker burst onto the scene, after all, his first album came out in the 60's, but he was certainly one of the first openly supernatural performers to hit the stage after vampires and the like came out of the closet.  His first album was what you'd expect, dark, suggestive and everything you would want from a vampire rock star.  Not surprisingly, it put him on magazine covers, talk shows and a sold out tour.

The same can't quite be said of his sophomore outing.  Unfinished is like a nostalgic walk through the last three decades of musical history.  That’s both good and bad.  At its best it’s continues the tone of his last album with the same dark touches, suggestive lyrics and a voice that seems to put the singer at your ear and oh so close to your neck.  At its worst, it’s a dated collection of b-sides that belong to the post-punk, gothic rock of the 80’s and 90’s.

Where it really shines is on the tracks that seem to step out of what we expected, that hinted at a more musical direction, more complex instrumentation, softer lyrics and more thematic, more suited for an album than a single mp3.

So while we can't say we fell in love with Unfinished, we hope it's true and we're looking forward to what comes next.

From Variety:

Fresh off a tour to support his second album, Jackson Walker has signed on to the lead in a new revival of Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway at the Hirschfeld Theater.

From the New York Times:

Protesters were arrested outside the Hirschfeld Theater after a riot broke out.  The riot began when an unidentified protester threw a Molotov cocktail at the stage door.  Police began arresting those in attendance when they refused to disperse to allow fire fighters in to extinguish the blaze.

From Entertainment Tonight:

Vampire singer Jackson Walker was shot leaving the Hirschfeld Theater last night.  His condition is unknown, but authorities say he was expected to survive the attack.  The producers of the production Jesus Christ Superstar, set to open next week were unavailable for interview, but issued a statement saying their thoughts were with Mister Walker and they planned to open on schedule with an understudy stepping in to fill the role until Mister Walker was able to return.

From NYPD Records:

Four rounds were fired from a .38 caliber revolver.  The first two rounds struck victim #1.  The third round struck a wall.  The fourth and final round struck victim #2.  The bullets were made of silver and carved with crosses.  The assailant was then tackled by security officers on-scene.  Victim #1 was treated by a bystander.  Victim #2 was treated by paramedics that arrived on scene a few minutes later and was transported to the hospital.  Victim #1 was transported to the Preternatural Treatment Center at Mt. Sinai.

Background:  Even had he been older he likely wouldn’t have survived the attack if there hadn’t been a witch passing by at the time of the shooting.  It was that quick action that kept the inscrolled silver from eating away at his insides and turning him to ash.  As it was, it had left him weak, so weak he’d been barely able to wake, let alone move those first few nights.  Even so, had he been in a city without a Preternatural Treatment Center, he might not have lasted long after that.

He’d had both, the help of a good Samaritan and the follow-on care of people as interested in saving Preternaturals as studying them.  Still, it would be years, if not decades before he’d recover fully, if he’d ever fully recover at all, one bit of the silver still burning away inside his chest, too close to his heart to risk removing by any external means.  There were other methods, ways they could dissolve it and let it expel itself through his blood and skin.  Unfortunately, he’d need to be stronger before they would risk it and that meant time.  Fortunately, as a vampire, he had plenty of time and enough money he didn’t have to worry about anything except for boredom and the unwanted attention the whole ordeal had brought.  And so, he cut his hair and shut his doors, disappearing from view while he recovered, going out only for treatment and when the walls closed in too tightly for him to breathe.