Rickey Minor is a music director, composer, and music producer, now best known as musical director for American Idol. On April 13, 2010, NBC announced that Minor would replace Kevin Eubanks as the musical director of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno beginning June 7, 2010[1]. Minor was born in Louisiana and raised in South Central Los Angeles, CA. Much of his musical training was self-taught.

Minor has served as musical director for numerous superstar tours, including Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera, Ray Charles, Alicia Keys, and Beyonce, and for television productions including the Grammy Awards, the NAACP Image Awards and the Super Bowl.[2] In addition to his work on Idol, he served as bandleader on Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics!.

Minor resides in Southern California with wife Karen Denise and a son Sean Anthony. His book There's No Traffic on the Extra Mile, was released in January 2009.