While he did attend a prep school in Riverdale, NY, wear a blazer every day and take classes in the 9th grade that you probably didn’t take until you went to college, he didn’t fit in to a cookie cutter mold of the prep-school boy. “I pretty much knew since about 8th grade what I wanted to do. I wasn’t a good student; I just wanted to graduate so I could focus on my music. I couldn’t do my homework – it wasn’t that I didn’t understand what was being taught or being asked of me, it’s just that I would spend my time after school writing songs and learning to play music.” With a noticeable “ear” when he banged out tunes on a tiny toy piano at the age of three, to being moved out of the chorus to a solo spot in a lower school play, there was never any doubt to Jackson where his career would lie. However, this wasn’t what was expected from a student at one of the top schools in America. Instead of immersing himself in his studies, he immersed himself in music. First it was the James Taylor and Michael Jackson his mother played him, then the ‘N Sync and Backstreet Boys his sister made him listen to (“It gave me a good sense of pop, and melody and schooled me on what girls want to hear.”) and later, the Fallout Boy and My Chemical Romance his suburban friends would introduce him to.