A life spent telling stories — in the studio, on stage, and on the page.

Jason Halbert (born June 3, 1974) is an American music director, record producer, songwriter and author — Kelly Clarkson's music director since 2003, music director of The Kelly Clarkson Show for all seven seasons (2019–2026), a Grammy®-winning producer of Stronger, and, with his wife Rhonda, co-author of The Goodpasture Chronicles as R.J. Halbert. He is based in Nashville and New York.

As a GRAMMY® Award-winning and EMMY® Award-nominated music director, producer, songwriter, and musician, Jason Halbert harbors a keen ability to attune and adapt to any musical style and environment.

He has collaborated or performed with everyone from Reba McEntire, Dan + Shay, and Chris Stapleton to Paulina Rubio and Academy® Award winner Lady Gaga, and he has carried the music in the highest-stakes live rooms there are — Super Bowl XLVI, a presidential inauguration, and the opening ceremony of the US Open. He is also Executive Music Producer of the animated feature David.

My signature is that I really serve the artist. I want to help tell their stories with the music I'm crafting.Jason

Texas

Born in Port Arthur and raised in Beaumont, Texas, Jason gravitated to music at five. His mother worked in home healthcare, and one of her clients taught him piano. In sixth grade he studied with a producer who explained the theory behind pop songs — “I'd bring in Bon Jovi and he'd explain why the song came about, which essentially prepared me for my future.” Thriller and the analog synthesizers of the eighties did the rest; he spent countless hours behind a Roland D-50.

He married his high school sweetheart, Rhonda, and the couple moved to Nashville when he was eighteen. In 1994 he auditioned for the multi-platinum group DC Talk and spent six years with them, and built an early career as a producer, keyboardist and engineer in the studios of Nashville.

Kelly

Along the way he toured as a keyboardist for Paulina Rubio and landed a gig in Nick Carter's band. At a Los Angeles date with Carter he met Randy Jackson, who suggested him as music director for American Idol runner-up Justin Guarini. In 2003, Kelly Clarkson duetted with Guarini, connected with Jason, and recruited him as her music director and trusted sonic confidant. She once told Billboard, “My career would not be what it is without Jason Halbert.”

Continuing that longstanding partnership, he is credited across her catalogue from Breakaway [2004] and My December [2007] through All I Ever Wanted [2009] — and on the platinum-certified Stronger [2011], garnering a GRAMMY® Award in the category of “Best Pop Vocal Album.” Their collaborations have spanned the Top 10 smash “Catch My Breath” and the popular “Piece By Piece (Idol Version),” seven tracks from the gold-selling Piece By Piece [2015], and eight songs from When Christmas Comes Around… [2021], which saw Jason produce “Santa Can't You Hear Me” [feat. Ariana Grande] and produce and pen “Glow” [feat. Chris Stapleton]. Plus, he co-wrote “Cry,” which Lea Michele famously covered on an episode of Glee.

The partnership carried straight into Chemistry [2023], which Jason produced alongside Jesse Shatkin — co-writing “Skip This Part,” “Red Flag Collector,” and “Goodbye,” and producing “High Road” and “Me.” He was vocal producer on the 2025 single “Where Have You Been,” and in 2026 co-wrote and co-produced “I'd Be Lyin'.”

On stage he has curated, produced and joined her for the national anthem at Super Bowl XLVI, President Obama's inauguration, the U.S. Open opening ceremony, four Saturday Night Live appearances, the Billboard Music Awards openers he arranged and produced for each of Kelly's three years as host, the Kennedy Center Honors, the sold-out Two Worlds, Two Voices tour with Reba McEntire, and three Las Vegas residencies.

Television

In 2019, he became Music Director for The Kelly Clarkson Show, spearheading the fan-favorite Kellyoke segment and leading the house band across all seven seasons and 1,260 episodes through the show's final broadcast in August 2026. Over that run he arranged and performed with 170 guest artists — among them Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Chicago, Brian Wilson, Amy Grant, P!nk, Patti LaBelle, The Temptations, Sheila E., Josh Groban, Cynthia Erivo, Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, Seal, and Sarah McLachlan — building a new arrangement with a new artist, on air, five days a week, for seven years.

Paul Shaffer was one of my heroes growing up. I watched him, and here I am — the bald guy playing on TV.Jason

The show won four consecutive Daytime EMMY® Awards for Outstanding Daytime Talk Series (2021–2024), with Jason credited as a producer, and the work has earned him three EMMY® Award nominations in the category of “Outstanding Music Direction and Composition.” Thus far, he has also earned multiple SESAC Awards, while Vulture, E!, Texas Monthly, and more have featured him.

Film & the page

In 2022 he and Rhonda took on the animated feature David as a team — Jason as Executive Music Producer, Rhonda as Music Supervisor — a project he calls one of the most beautiful pieces of art he has been part of.

Away from the stage, he writes with his wife of 33 years, Rhonda Halbert, under the name R.J. Halbert. Together they authored the award-winning Goodpasture Chronicles — Caretaker, Servant, and Architect — published by Novus Press Works, along with a full-cast Caretaker audiobook featuring Erick Avari, Michael Shanks, Hayley Orrantia, Brandon Engman, Charles Esten and Kelly Clarkson, narrated by Henry Ian Cusick.

If you don't even notice me, I've done my job and made an imprint on the sound. That's all I want to do as a producer and music director.Jason