Jackie Payne's experience as a professional entertainer spans over forty years. He began his singing career at age 13 with the Allen Swing Band in Atlanta, Georgia. At age 17, he moved to Houston, where he was privileged to work with many blues legends, including T-Bone Walker, Johnny Clyde Copeland, Albert Collins, Gatemouth Brown, Lowell Folsom, Freddy King, and Pee Wee Crayton, to name a just a few. He has also worked with Gladys Knight, Etta James, and Buddy Ace. Jackie's first recording was the 45 rpm single "Go-Go Train" released in 1965 on Jet Stream Records, and produced by Huey P. Meaux.

Since 1987, Jackie has completed three world tours as lead vocalist with The Johnny Otis Show, and has appeared on the Johnny Otis Saturday morning radio show broadcast live on KPFA-FM, Berkeley and KFCF, Fresno, California. The University of Indiana has entered 700 of these tapes into their musical library, making Johnny Otis and Jackie Payne a part of musical history forever. "Spirit of the Black Territory Bands," recorded by The Johnny Otis Orchestra, featured Jackie on vocals and was nominated for a 1993 Grammy Award. The band's earlier release, "Good Lovin' Blues," also had Jackie on vocals. Jackie's 1998 CD, “A Day In the Life of A Blues Man”, is available on Britain's JSP Records label, and in 1999 he appeared on Kirk "Eli" Fletcher's CD "I'm Here and I'm Gone," also on JSP. Jackie's CD "Ain't Nothin' But A Party!" came out in November 2000 on his own Shades of Blues label.

Jackie was nominated for Best Male Vocalist in the 2nd Annual South Bay Blues Awards (San Jose, California), and was voted Los Angeles Entertainer of the year five consecutive times. The Los Angeles Times calls him "a performer of classy presence and subtle physical movement [who's] got the raspy-voiced Wilson Pickett-Otis Redding thing nailed flat." California Jazz Now declares, "Jackie Payne leads the way." The San Diego Union says he is a "singing sensation" and a performer of "sultry suppleness."

Jackie Payne has headlined shows from Belgium to Tokyo. He headlined the 1989 San Francisco Blues Festival, the 1992 Sacramento Blues Festival, and collaborated with Rare Form for the Monterey Blues Festival in 1993, and again with the Johnny Otis Orchestra in 1994. For several years he was the lead singer with the veteran show band the Dynatones. These days he can be heard with The Jackie Payne – Steve Edmonson Band in venues around their home base, the San Francisco Bay Area, and on their highly acclaimed Delta Groove CD “Master Of The Game”.