In the artist's words:

Joe Jackson was born on August 11, 1954 in Burton-on-Trent, England, but grew up in the port city of Portsmouth on the south coast, which is best known as a naval base. At the age of 16, Joe played his first paid gig - as a pianist in a pub right next to a glue factory on the outskirts of Portsmouth. Further gigs in pubs followed (where he often tried to entertain an audience of drunken, bottle-throwing sailors) as well as engagements accompanying a bouzouki player in a Greek restaurant. At the age of 18, Joe was awarded a scholarship to study composition, piano and percussion at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Until 1978, Joe lived in London and tried to release an album-length demo tape - backed by his own band (Graham Maby on bass, Dave Houghton on drums and Gary Sanford on guitar). This demo, which already bore the title Look Sharp, ended up in the hands of American producer David Kershenbaum, who was in London at the time working as a talent scout for A&M Records. Joe was immediately signed to a recording contract and Look Sharp was professionally re-recorded in August 1978. The Joe Jackson Band finally began to perform regularly and the album was released in January 1979.

Joe Jackson's story up to this point is told in detail, fascinatingly and hilariously in his book A Cure for Gravity. From here on, however, it becomes more of a public chronicle.

Look Sharp was followed within a year by the very similar I'm the Man, and in 1980 the darker, more reggae-influenced Beat Crazy was released. At the end of 1980, drummer Houghton decided to leave the band and Joe decided to break up the group and try something new. In 1981, Jackson recorded Jumpin' Jive - a "musical time-out" dedicated to swing and jump blues artists like Louis Jordan and Cab Calloway. After this tribute, he returned to songwriting and spent much of 1982 in New York. The result was Night and Day, a more sophisticated and melodic album that relied more heavily on keyboards and Latin percussion than guitars. With a new, guitar-less band, Jackson went on tour for a whole year, and the album became his biggest success - reaching platinum status in the US. While on tour, Joe somehow found time to write his first movie score - for James Bridges' Mike's Murder. (Several more followed later, including the music for Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker in 1988).

Joe's next album, Body and Soul (1984), was musically in a similar tradition to Night and Day, but featured a horn section - which, along with the Blue Note-inspired cover, led many people to mistakenly believe it was a jazz album. For Big World (1986), Jackson stripped everything back to a four-piece ensemble and recorded the album live and straight to master tape. In 1989, he went in the opposite direction with the majestic, semi-autobiographical Blaze of Glory and toured with an eleven-piece band. Laughter and Lust (1991) was a more mainstream (if idiosyncratic) rock album, but the subsequent world tour left Jackson exhausted and creatively burnt out. From his perspective, this marked the end of his "workaholic phase" - which also included several film soundtracks, a live album(Live 1980-86), an instrumental album(Will Power, 1987), guest appearances with Suzanne Vega, Rubén Blades and Joan Armatrading, and endless touring. The 1990s produced some of his most challenging and eclectic work: the gentle, introspective Night Music (1994), the ambitious and original song cycle Heaven and Hell (1997) about the Seven Deadly Sins, and the album Joe himself considers his best (and most underrated): Night and Day II (2000). At the turn of the century, he experienced a new creative upswing: Jackson won his first Grammy (Best Pop Instrumental Album for his unconventional, non-orchestral Symphony No. 1) and published his book A Cure for Gravity. In 2003, Joe re-formed the original Joe Jackson Band and released an impressive new album, Volume 4, followed by a long tour. The reunion was intended to be a one-off project from the start, but resulted in another live album, Afterlife (2004).

At this time, Jackson was once again living mainly in London. He often performed solo - including an unusual tour with Todd Rundgren and the string quartet Ethel. He sang and played piano on Rickie Lee Jones' It's Like That and on William Shatner's Has Been (produced, arranged and co-written by Ben Folds). He also received an honorary membership of the Royal Academy of Music and an honorary doctorate from the University of Portsmouth. In 2006 Joe returned to songwriting and completed a short trio tour with Graham Maby and Dave Houghton. Not really feeling comfortable in London, he moved to Berlin where his next album Rainwas recordedin 2007. It consists of ten powerful, timeless songs and creates a surprisingly epic sound with just vocals, piano, bass and drums. The trio toured for three years, and the live album Live Music was released in 2011.

In 2012, Joe released a tribute to one of his greatest musical heroes: Duke Ellington. The Duke is an often radical reinterpretation of fifteen Ellington classics, arranged into ten tracks, and featuring a diverse ensemble of guest artists, including Iggy Pop, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and other members of The Roots, Sharon Jones, Steve Vai and jazz violinist Regina Carter, who also accompanied Joe on the subsequent tour. In 2015, Jackson announced on his official website the completion of the

follow-up album to The Duke on his official website. The title and song list of Fast Forward were confirmed, as were tour dates for North America. The title single was released via his official SoundCloud page and the album Fool was released on January 18, 2019. On his website, Jackson said:

"One of my inspirations for this album was the band I've been touring with on and off for the last three years. I've had a lot of different line-ups, but this one is special."

Jackson and his band performed Fabulously Absolute on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show on January 21, 2019. Fool entered the top 20 album charts in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. In the USA, it reached number 25 on the Billboard Top Album Sales Charts and number 13 on the Indie Albums Chart in the UK.

After a break due to Covid, Joe toured the USA and Europe in 2022 with the Sing, You Sinners! tour, which included songs from his repertoire and some selected cover versions. The band consisted of Graham Maby (bass), Teddy Kumpel (guitar) and Doug Yowell (drums).

On November 24, 2023, Mr Joe Jackson Presents released "What A Racket": The Music of Max Champion, a collection of songs by long-forgotten music hall artist Max Champion. In 2024, Joe toured the USA and Europe again - this time with a two-part program: the first part consisted of solo pieces from his own repertoire, the second of songs from the album What A Racket, performed with a nine-piece band.

A new album entitled Hope and Fury will be released in April 2026, accompanied by an extensive tour of the USA and Europe with a full band line-up.

Joe Jackson now commutes between New York, Portsmouth (UK) and Berlin.