The One Fact That Will Make You Look at Jax Taylor in a Whole New Way
There's a lot you don't know about the #PumpRules bartender.
We've gotten a front-row seat to the highs and lows of Jax Taylor's life for four seasons on Vanderpump Rules. While Jax's days may be filled with booze, girls, and drama now, a recent Complex profile on the bartender reveals that he had much more humble beginnings. And once you hear about Jax's origins, you may never look at him the same way again.
Back when Jax went by the name Jason, he grew up in suburban Detroit. After attending and then dropping out of Michigan State University and community college, Jax joined the Navy "because he had nothing else," according to Complex, and trained at a base in Virginia before being stationed in Kosovo. "He doesn’t really like to say much about it, only that it happened," Complex reports.
Well, that's certainly a different setting than we're used to seeing Jax in, so you may be wondering how he ended up in Los Angeles and on Vanderpump Rules. After being in the Navy for three years, Jax returned home to Michigan and was discovered in K-Mart by a scout looking for models for the weekend coupon catalogues. Jax's photos got some attention, and he soon found himself in Chicago booking jobs for Target, Kohl's, and Old Navy. His modeling then took him all over the world to Milan, Paris, Australia, Miami, and then L.A.
It was in the City of Angels that he decided to call himself Jax because "there are many Jasons, he thought, and so few Jaxes," according to Complex. After doing the kinds of things we see him still doing on Vandepump Rules (modeling, bartending, partying, hooking up, fighting) and having an overdrawn checking account and a failed relationship, Jax was ready to move on. He actually planned on leaving L.A. for Florida where his parents had relocated and become a firefighter.
But then Lisa Vanderpump told him to wait and stick it out in L.A. for a little bit longer because she had something in the works. And we all know what happened next.
Even though we haven't really seen this side of Jax on Vanderpump Rules, he doesn't shy away from putting his true self out there on the show. In fact, he told Complex that one of the things that makes Vanderpump Rules so great is how genuine it is. "It's authentic," Jax said.
However, Jax doesn't think all of his fellow SURvers keep it as real as he does. “Look, I love Tom [Sandoval],” Jax told Complex. “We’re best friends, he’s a brilliant guy, really talented, but I tell him all the time, to stop trying to act on the show. Stop trying to portray yourself in a certain way. It doesn’t work.”
Oh, and that hatred you see for James Kennedy and Lala Kent on Vanderpump Rules is how Jax still really feels about the newbies. "He hates anyone outside the core group, the core cast. Lala, James, these people are trying, he says," Complex reports. "That’s what’s so off-putting—how obvious it is that they’re trying to jump on the train by any means necessary."
That just means we're all going to have a really good time watching the Vanderpump Rules reunion.
But in the meantime, be sure to watch always-exciting, new developments in Jax's life on Vanderpump Rules on Mondays at 9/8c.
