Adelaide radio host takes out Jackson 5 brothers Tito and Marlon for Nando’s on Hindley St
An Adelaide community radio host has told how he took legendary Jackson brothers Tito and Marlon out for lunch at Nandos on Hindley St before their show at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
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An Adelaide community radio host has told how he took legendary Jackson brothers Tito and Marlon out for lunch at Nando’s on Hindley St before their show at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
Jordan McKenna, 23, and his friend Samuel James, were waiting to catch a glimpse of the US pop group outside their CBD hotel on Friday when a chance encounter with Tito, 65, led to an impromptu walk to the popular fast food chain store.
“Tito was sitting by himself outside and I saw he was staring at his Google maps on his phone and I asked him what he was doing. He just said he wanted to go to Nando’s and he asked me if I could take him,” said Mr McKenna, who hosts his own music show on Triple B FM in the Barossa Valley.
“So we walked across to Nando’s, he was wearing his iconic bowler hat and shades, no one stopped us, nobody noticed who he was.
“We go in and he offered to buy us food, I said, ‘No, but I’m not going to turn down a drink from a Jackson’, so he bought us a coke instead. Half way through, I get a tap on the shoulder and it was Marlon. He said, ‘G’day mate’ and he pulled up a chair.”
The unlikely quartet stayed at Nandos for about 90 minutes with the famous duo — brothers of the late King of Pop Michael Jackson — regaling the starstruck Mr McKenna and his friend with stories from the past as they tucked into their chicken meal with mild sauce.
“We talked about everything from his life in the Jackson 5 group to his high school sweetheart... they also told us they used to play cricket back in (their hometown) Indiana all the time when they weren’t performing, some baseball too,” said Mr McKenna.
“We told them all about Adelaide and they said they liked the city, they said it was ‘calm and nice’.
“It was so much fun, to be honest, we felt like we were one of the brothers.”
After lunch, Mr McKenna walked the brothers back to their hotel, and later bumped into The Jackson 5’s manager in the hotel lobby, who helped him get backstage after their Summer Series concert that night. Following the show, he was able to get a photo with Tito, Marlon and Jackie.
“Looking back, the whole day was just insane. These guys are just music royalty, we’ve idolised them for so long,” he said.
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