Jeffrey Crawford "Lazlow" Jones is an American writer, producer, director, voice actor, and radio personality. He is best known for his work with Rockstar Games, for which he worked on the Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and Red Dead Redemption series, and for his radio shows Technofile and The Lazlow Show.
Career
Radio
Lazlow's Technofile show ran from February 1995 to July 2007. In 2005, Lazlow launched The Lazlow Show on Sundays on WXRK-FM in New York City Sundays. After 23 shows, the program ceased on terrestrial radio in December 2005. From April 2006, the show re-launced on a non-regular basis on The ViRus, an uncensored channel on XM Satellite Radio as part of its Saturday Night Virus line-up. All episodes and extras are available for purchase on Lazlow's website. His co-hosts were Reed Tucker and "Big" Wayne. As of January 2, 2010, The Lazlow Show no longer airs; Lazlow and his staff were reportedly dissatisfied by management after Sirius and XM merged. The program has streamed live on the Internet on an irregular schedule since then. In 2014, "Big" Wayne died of a heart attack; Lazlow and Tucker hosted a special show in Wayne's memory.
Rockstar Games
''Grand Theft Auto'' series
Lazlow has also been involved in writing, producing and doing voice-work as a fictionalized version of himself for the Grand Theft Auto series of video games. He had worked at an advertising agency as a writer and producer, along with writer Reed Tucker on advertisements for a variety of consumer-related products. Lazlow produced, scripted and hosted the popular Chatterbox FM radio station. He co-wrote the radio stations with Dan Houser and Sam Houser of Rockstar Games. Lazlow took a larger role in '. Rockstar Games hired his production company, to co-write and produce all the radio stations in Vice City and the pedestrian dialogue. In this game, which takes place in 1986, he is the host of the Vice City radio station. In ', Lazlow co-wrote and produced the in-game media and hosted Entertaining America on after the original host Billy Dexter was killed by fictional character Jack Howitzer on air. Lazlow "returned" as the host of in Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories, although in a minor role in the game's chronology that has Chatterbox as a show on a channel, not an entire channel of its own. During his show on the Public Access station, he hints that he will be getting his own channel during a call that frustrates him, when he says that "My buddy Donald and I have big plans for this station. C-box 24/7!" Lazlow "returned" in ', which is set in 1984, as an intern at V-Rock working for his real life friend, Couzin Ed. In their real-life radio careers, Lazlow was the sidekick of Couzin Ed, who he would almost always tease on the radio. Lazlow is the host of radio station Integrity 2.0 in Grand Theft Auto IV and '. Integrity's sole program consists of his on-site reporting from around Liberty City. The content of this show is more profane than previous installments, with the character's justification being that he's "fed up with the system." He provides the ZiT! service, where listeners can request the artist and title of the song currently playing on the radio. He is also credited among others for creating the conversations of pedestrians in Liberty City. He has an in-game criminal record, as can be seen in the Liberty City Police Department database. On 15 September 2013, Lazlow presented a special radio show alongside Pete Donaldson on Absolute Radio in the United Kingdom to celebrate the launch of Grand Theft Auto V. He confirmed that he had been working on the game for the last five years. He appears in the game as a co-host of the talk radio show called Chattersphere and as the host of the TV talent competitionFame or Shame. He makes his first on-screen appearance in the series in the mission "Fame or Shame" in which he is chased and threatened by protagonists Michael De Santa and Trevor Philips. He also appears in person in other missions, including one in which Michael physically assaults him. In 2018, he makes a brief appearance in some missions of the After Hours update in Grand Theft Auto Online. Afterwards, he is seen having fun or despair in the player's nightclub depending on the club's popularity. He has arranged voice cameos in the Grand Theft Auto series for several key figures from the magazine, including Emmanuel Goldstein, Bernie S. and Kevin Mitnick.
Other series
Lazlow has collaborated with Rockstar Games on Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3, co-writing and directing pedestrian dialogue and in-game media. He was also a writer and audio director on Red Dead Redemption 2.
Other projects
Lazlow has written articles for Playboy and the Long Island Press, and was an occasional guest on the Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez shows on SiriusXM. He is affiliated with , having appeared on their Off the Hook radio show, their film Freedom Downtime and as a panellist and staffer at several of the H.O.P.E. conferences.
