Jesco White

Jesco White, also known as "The Dancing Outlaw," is an entertainer and mountain tapdancer whose voice and likeness are found both in Grand Theft Auto V's free-roam world and as the host of Rebel Radio.

Biography
Hailing from the heart of Appalachia's coalfields, Boone County, West Virginia, Jesco White represents one of a few remaining mountain tap-dancers in America. His father, Donald Ray "D. Ray" White, was famous for his own skill as a Mountain Dancer, and was posthumously featured in a 1987 PBS documentary about the dance style titled "Talking Feet: Solo Southern Dance - Flatfoot, Buck, and Tap."

Following his father's sudden death in a July 1985 shootout at the family home, Jesco's already-wild ways were only amplified; notorious throughout the county as a party animal who consumed copious amounts of drugs and alcohol (including his favorite "choice of buzz" which is also mentioned and featured in GTA V, huffing gasoline and lighter fluid) while also frequently robbing local stores and fighting with other locals.

While not originally the heir to his father's tapdancing throne, the tragic and early slayings of Jesco's brothers drove him to "take up his father's shoes," as he says. Since then, he has become a cult figure throughout America for his antics and preservation of a disappearing art of dance. He has been featured in numerous documentaries and films, the first being a 1991 PBS documentary on his life titled "The Dancing Outlaw." A follow-up titled "Jesco Goes to Hollywood" was released eight years later and featured White dancing for tips in the streets of Los Angeles before making a guest appearance on Tom Arnold's popular TV show "Roseanne."

Jesco's popularity soared once again with the 2009 release of "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia," a documentary on Jesco and his entire family produced by the creators of the "Jackass" series of films and television shows. Rather than focusing only on Jesco's antics and mystique, the film took a more encompassing look at the central Appalachian lifestyle, where communties frought with poverty, crime, and addiction are responsible for the cyclical production of "outlaw" families like the Whites, who subsist in a near-frontier niche of America through collecting faked disability checks and hustling drugs on the streets. "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia" was most likely the reason for Rockstar noticing Jesco White's potential as a character in Grand Theft Auto V.

Trivia

 * The song "Get Outta My Car" on Jesco's station, Rebel Radio, was written and performed by another Boone County, WV native and a friend of Jesco, Hasil Adkins.
 * Adkins may have been the very reason for Jesco's rise to popularity in the 90's: while in Boone County working on a biographical documentary titled "The Wild World of Hasil Adkins,"  director Julien Nitzberg met Jesco and his family (including his sister, Mamie, who is featured in the Adkins documentary-- according to Nitzberg, her first words to him were, "shhh... come here, closer... [he moves very close to her] I'M ON ACID, WOOO!" Seeing another great film opportunity, Nitzberg returned to Boone County a few years later to begin work on "The Dancing Outlaw"-- at which point Mamie's greeting for Nitzberg was "Come here, listen ...  I'M ON ACID AGAIN, WOOO!" Nitzberg would return again a decade later to direct "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia," which became his most critically acclaimed work to date.
 * While he can be heard at any time on Rebel Radio, an easter egg featuring Jesco tapdancing to the song "If You Wanna Get To Heaven" can be found across the Alamo Sea from Sandy Shores. After passing Stab City and driving around the sea clockwise, he spawns in front of a house directly behind the first boat dock one passes. This occurrence only happens in single player. White will dance for the duration of the song; however, the soundtrack song also features small overdubs of Jesco singing along to the song, just as he does in real-world performances.
 * Jesco was reportedly one of few (if any) of the radio hosts on GTA V to personally compile the songs he wished to see on Rebel Radio. This is most likely why cult songs like "Get Outta My Car" were selected.