Teen with North Fork Roots Comes Home After Winning Music Competition

SOUTHOLD, NY - Music heals.

Those are the words that Jackson Gillies, 16, uses to sign his posts; they're displayed prominently on his website, a mantra for a young man who's seen tremendous success in the musical stratosphere despite facing daunting physical challenges.

North Fork Taps & Corks in Southold came alive last week with music when Jackson, who just won a major music competition, took the stage to share his talent with an enthusiastic crowd.

Jackson, who was known previously as Jackson Gillies Cocciolone, is soaring toward stardom. The teen was one of 10 finalists in the Santa Barbara Teen Star USA competition — and won.

But it's not only in the musical arena that Jackson is winning.

Jackson was diagnosed at three years old with Type 1 diabetes and he has also battled Hidradenitis Suppurativa; HS is related to leaky gut. Toxins leaking out of the gut try to escape the body via lymph glands creating painful cysts, he said.

He's always faced his challenges head-on, putting a face on Type 1 diabetes, and showing young people everywhere that the diagnosis does not have to keep them from reaching for their dreams.

Jackson opened for American Idol's Crystal Bowersox at SOHO in Santa Barbara, California. Jackson and Crystal, both Type 1 diabetics, also worked together in New York on a TV ad for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation with Mary Tyler Moore and Nick Jonas, both Type 1.

Talent runs in the family: Jackson's cousin is actress Liz Gillies, known widely for her role as Jade West on the television series Victorious.

During the Santa Barbara Teen Star USA competition, Jackson performed "The Sky is Crying" by Elmore James and Nessun Dorma by Puccini for the win.

"When I was a child I was surrounded by music and my parents had an eclectic range of tastes. I chose 'The Sky Is Crying' by Elmore James when it was covered by The Allman Brothers and I loved it. I chose Nessun Dorma because when I was baby with colic, opera was one of the few things that could soothe me," he said.

Jackson strives to become a successful songwriter and performer and to share his gift with the world. "I want to make music until the day I die," he said.

In performing, Jackson has found the wings to soar above his physical challenges. "It is freeing to be able to perform and not feel constrained by my conditions. My physical struggles are out aside once I step on the stage," he said.

Looking ahead, Jackson said he's been interviewed on TV and radio; he has opened and will open for headline acts.

In addition, he is also working on material for a CD; free recording engineering was one of his Teen Star prizes.

Performing on the North Fork was especially meaningful to Jackson and his girlfriend Hana Loggins, Kenny Loggins' daughter. "I love performing with Hana," he said. "She is an incredibly talented musician and writer and gifted singer. She is an amazing girlfriend and means so much to me. We love playing music together."

North Fork Taps & Corks, he said, "was a fun and intimate setting and hosted by our great friend the wonderful GP Lane."

His grandparents, Jackson said, always summered on, and retired to, the North Fork; he's got cousins, aunts and uncles in the area.

Jackson lived on the North Fork from sixth to ninth grade, and the memories run deep.

"I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world now. Santa Barbara, California is gorgeous but there is no place like the North Fork. There are stretches of beaches on Nassau Point that will always mean home to me," he said.

For Connie Gillies, a talented local photographer and pianist, watching her son succeed is a gift beyond measure.

"Jackson is a special person and I love it when others pick up on it," she said.

From the days when casting directors who chose him for public service announcements relating to Type 1 diabetes for the JDRF, to directors of plays and most recently, the Teen Star judges and an audience of 2,000 people at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara "who fell in love with his spirit and talent in less than an hour of the Teen Star contest," her son has made a mark at a very young age.

The Teen Star contest was judged by text voting. "We had just moved to Santa Barbara so to think all of those people who voted for him never saw or heard him before, it pretty neat," she said.

"Music is healing for Jackson," Gillies said. "Living with Type 1 since age three is not easy. Once diagnosed you must inject insulin for as long as you live. Being diagnosed with Hidradenitis Suppurativa has been an additional challenge, far more difficult than Type 1, yet related."

Her son, he said, had five surgeries in the last two years before meeting his girlfriend's mom, Julia Loggins, who coincidentally, suffers from leaky gut and wrote a book about the subject, 'It Takes Guts to Be Happy'.

"Julia has connected us to the best treatments possible and Jackson is on the road to remission," Gillies said. "HS is an extremely painful chronic condition and for that reason, I think Jackson connected to the Blues. He is an old soul who has experienced more pain in his 16 years than one would suffer in a lifetime. I guess he connects to it on a level most of us can't fathom."

Her son, she said, "is a great spirit. A comedian. An actor. A guitarist and singer and a wonderful friend and son. I hope whoever might read this gets a chance to meet him. Once you do, you won't forget him."

Gillies herself has imbued her son with her own deep love for the North Fork, which she captures with piano music and photography, which can be seen on YouTube.

"I shoot every sunrise and spend countless hours in nature from Nassau Point to Orient Point. Words can't adequately express my love for the North Fork," she said.

And for Jackson, the future is bright with promise: He just released his first single, 'Santa Barbara Blues' by Miller/Gilles (c) 2016, ASCAP; the song is available on iTunes. For a full taste of his extraordinary talent, check out his YouTube channel.

Photos courtesy of Gillies family.