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00:11I think every child is born to do a certain thing.
00:19I knew I wanted to be a star.
00:27Just being on the stage, just looking out over a sea of faces when they're chanting and screaming.
00:44And I've wanted it because I wanted to be loved.
00:50That's the real truth. I wanted people to truly love me.
00:57A lot of people ask, who was Michael Jackson, really?
01:04I mean, he was a child star who became the most famous man on the planet.
01:16This is a man who changed the music industry.
01:20I mean, he is a musical genius.
01:25But he was also accused of abusing children.
01:30And died without a cent to his name.
01:36I mean, this is the ultimate story of power, celebrity and money.
01:47And now the battle is raging for the truth and Michael Jackson's legacy.
02:19That level of mega stardom is not healthy.
02:23People are not gods.
02:33Tonight, Jackson is wanted by police of multiple felony counts of child molestation.
02:41The Jackson machine just keeps right on rolling.
03:11The์ of the people I think the whole faith is not healthy.
03:14And if they know what to do and find that's not good, and they will be very fortunate to have
03:14the heart of the heart.
03:15However, these righteous men who chose to be her and the prince of pride will assassinate oliver.
03:15Are you guys ready for me?
03:22Whenever you're ready.
03:26People don't know my brother.
03:28They never did.
03:29They thought they did.
03:31And I think it's important for the public,
03:35the world to see, I don't want to say the truth,
03:40but from a family member's perspective.
03:42And that's important to me,
03:45so you get it right and you understand,
03:48as opposed to reading nonsensical things in the media.
03:56What do you do mostly?
03:58I mean, you know, in your spare time?
04:01Sports. Messing around.
04:03I go swimming all the time.
04:06Like swimming.
04:07Play basketball.
04:09Catching little different things.
04:15My memory of Mike is basically a child
04:22that was far older than his age.
04:26Mike was always just feisty.
04:31No, sit down.
04:37As young kids, we would have a photo shoot.
04:41He would stand there and then he would get out the picture
04:43and say, no, put Jermaine here, Jackie here,
04:45and I will be in the middle.
04:47And this is a little kid talking to his siblings.
04:54Northwestern Indiana is not like any other part of the state,
04:57because it is solely industrial.
04:59One factory next to another for miles.
05:02The Negro population of Gary, Indiana is 45.8%,
05:06the highest percentage in any city north of the Mason-Dixon line.
05:11Growing up in Indiana, it was humble beginnings.
05:16My father, Joseph, worked in the steel mills,
05:20and we were a large family from a small home.
05:25It was two bedrooms.
05:26In one of the rooms, the brothers slept,
05:29and there were six bunk beds.
05:31And my sisters and I, we slept on a let-out sofa in the living room.
05:39We were a family that loved music.
05:45And when Mike was around eight or nine,
05:48he would do riffs constantly.
05:51And no matter what you would sing to him,
05:54he would do it even better.
05:58My father, he saw them performing together,
06:02and he says, geez.
06:05He became their manager
06:08because he saw a bigger and brighter future.
06:15They used to do shows.
06:17What they called back then was the Chitlin Circuit.
06:20It was famous black artists,
06:22but they were performing for black audience.
06:26Don't be afraid.
06:27Don't be ashamed.
06:28We want black power.
06:30We want black power.
06:32We want black power.
06:35We want black power.
06:40Superformed during that period of time was very challenging
06:43based on the fact that we were kind of relegated
06:46to certain areas of our country
06:48and not very welcome in some parts.
06:54that we learned how to deal with it
06:57and how to break down the barrier
06:59that they thought they'd put in front of us.
07:24I met Michael when they were coming into addition to Beyond Motown.
07:30I had to kind of just look at him and shake my head.
07:35I said, my God, this kid is amazing.
07:38It was an exciting time.
07:41They wanted it so badly.
07:43And then finally, there they are, signed Motown.
07:57Michael, he had something that nobody else had.
08:02And his performances were meticulously done.
08:06And then, watching their growth over their years was sensational.
08:13We've got some great guests.
08:15The incredible Jackson 5.
08:21One of the hottest recording groups today is the Jackson 5.
08:25The only American group to have four consecutive number one records.
08:30Kids nowadays don't know how big the Jackson 5 were.
08:36They were our Beatles.
08:38Our black royalty.
08:40You had Beatlemania.
08:42You had Jacksonmania.
08:45Since the heyday of the Beatles,
08:47has the music world seen anything like the Jackson 5?
08:50About to receive yet another platinum record.
08:53But you have to give a lot of the credit to the original Jackson 2,
08:57Mr. and Mrs. Joe Jackson.
08:59I decided to deal with the boys as much as I possibly can
09:03and getting them prepared to be in show business.
09:06They come to us originally from Gary, Indiana,
09:09the Jackson 5.
09:14It was just amazing to see this black family post-segregation
09:22who were so famous
09:25and that you could identify with
09:28showed black people that we can make it in America.
09:43It's called Los Angeles, the city of the angels.
09:48People from all over the world,
09:50drawn by a city of limitless boundaries
09:53and one that offers unlimited opportunity.
10:03Growing up in Indiana,
10:04Mike would have this little projector thing
10:06that you put over your eyes
10:08and you would click it
10:09and it would show a different slide of L.A.
10:13He would say,
10:13Oh, this is so beautiful.
10:15I would love to live there one day.
10:18So moving to Los Angeles was simply amazing.
10:24We were so elated and excited just to see the beauty of the city.
10:31And it was such a different life.
10:36We moved to this huge mansion.
10:39And my father just said,
10:41I think this will be a perfect place.
10:46And, you know, what my father said, it goes.
10:50Let's introduce Mr. Joe Jackson, the father.
11:03Okay.
11:04We're going to find out who's boss around here.
11:07Do you have to ever discipline this lively group you've got here?
11:12I have a way, you know, like when Randy don't do right,
11:15we make him take out all the garbage or something.
11:18Oh, that's fair.
11:20Yeah, but what about Michael?
11:21Michael always does right?
11:24Is he always?
11:24No, not all the time.
11:26The way we discipline Michael is sort of like,
11:29you know, we don't give him as much money to spend.
11:32That's it.
11:34You think it's a good profession for them?
11:37Yes, I'd like for them to...
11:39I moved to Los Angeles
11:42to work for the family
11:45out of Joseph's office.
11:48When Joseph spoke to me about coming to work for the boys,
11:52he presented himself as a really concerned, loving father.
11:59Joseph grew up dirt poor
12:02before civil rights
12:05and to take from nothing and build that act
12:09was huge.
12:11And all of a sudden,
12:12now he's living in a wealthy house in Encino.
12:15He's got a Rolls Royce.
12:17He really was chasing the American dream.
12:24At that point, they were portrayed as this happy, loving family.
12:30But my experience,
12:32can't speak for anybody else's,
12:34but my experience of what I saw,
12:35that was the farthest thing from the truth.
12:40I went to high school with Michael's baby sister, Janet.
12:44And Michael was also a very close friend.
12:47When I would be there and Joseph would pull in,
12:51you know, the speaker or the phone would ring,
12:53and it would be like, Joseph's here.
12:54And everyone's like, oh God, Joseph's here.
12:56We weren't that, you know, savvy back then about this stuff.
13:00But knowing that there was just weirdness.
13:06Our career was very important.
13:10My father made sure that we rehearsed every day.
13:14Lock all the doors.
13:16It's time to rehearse.
13:18If you went out of step, you'd get it real bad.
13:24He would oil you down.
13:25Your whole ritual, he would oil you down.
13:29So when the foot of the iron cord hit you,
13:34it would just, you know,
13:35and your foot's all in the face, your back, everywhere.
13:40He said, if you guys ever stop sinking,
13:42I'll drop you like a hot potato.
13:47I found out later,
13:51Joseph had done some really awful stuff.
13:54Joseph would put Michael in the closet.
13:57In the dressing room.
13:59In the dark.
14:00And lock it.
14:01So that he was,
14:03he would do what Joseph would tell him to do.
14:09And nobody figured out what was going on.
14:18He wasn't as cruel as people think.
14:21But Mike had a fear.
14:23My father, we all did.
14:24He was angry.
14:25Because we felt, okay, what did we do wrong?
14:30He's going to discipline us.
14:31And you were kind of afraid of that.
14:33It just put something in your belly.
14:36And you would say to yourself,
14:40oh no.
14:40His eyebrows would go up,
14:43and his eyes would turn a deeper green,
14:48a deeper green than they were.
14:50And you knew he was angry.
14:53Everybody would say,
14:54I don't want to get in trouble,
14:55because Joseph's going to strangle us.
15:07We're right almost in the middle of a recording session with the Jacksons.
15:11And we're going to bring the boys in right now.
15:14All five of them.
15:16Here they are.
15:17Here they are.
15:26Now, I don't have to give any introduction to these gentlemen, do I?
15:29You knew them originally as the Jackson Five.
15:32They're the Jacksons now.
15:34They record on Epic.
15:38This is really a special picture to me.
15:42Both of our hair was kind of big.
15:44See, his face looks completely different.
15:46So this was earlier, I guess.
15:48He still looks like a great looking kid, you know?
15:52When the Jackson Five came to Epic,
15:54they were a good pop group.
15:58But Michael was so much the center of it,
16:02the star.
16:05He just wanted to be perfect in a way.
16:08He wanted to be the best dancer ever,
16:11best singer, best entertainer.
16:14He wanted to be a great.
16:16You guys are really riding a big high now
16:18as far as producing records and so on.
16:21Do you think this is the peak of your career now?
16:23Or have you gone down a little bit?
16:25Are you expecting bigger and better things?
16:26Well, we're looking forward to doing other things
16:28like producing other people
16:30and producing ourselves in the future
16:33and going into acting and that type of thing.
16:46New York is the most exciting city in the world.
16:48But New York has never seen anything like The Wiz,
16:52a new musical motion picture being made here
16:54that stars Diana Ross.
16:58The Wiz was the black version of The Wizard of Oz.
17:03And Michael really wanted to be in that movie.
17:10My father didn't want him to venture off into movies
17:15because he felt it would break up the group
17:18and he would go in a different direction.
17:19And he wanted to keep the brothers together.
17:23As he always said, I want to keep my boys together.
17:25But this is something that Mike saw.
17:28He loved opportunity.
17:30And he went for it.
17:42How did you feel when you heard you got the part in The Wiz?
17:45And especially playing with Diana Ross?
17:47I was very happy.
17:50I would talk to Diana on the phone.
17:51I'd say, you're going to film The Wiz next week, huh?
17:54Or next month.
17:55She would say, yeah, next thing I noticed, I was in it.
18:01Mike and I were extremely close.
18:05So we moved to New York together.
18:11And going to the set every day,
18:14he just embraced it with great joy.
18:18But most of all, what he would always say,
18:21I'm learning so much, LaToya.
18:22You have no idea.
18:24Hey, fellas.
18:24Is today today you going to help me get down from here?
18:27Help you down!
18:29Hey, what is going down in that hayloft you call a head?
18:35Living in New York,
18:38we were so used to being with family,
18:42being controlled by my father,
18:46but yet you could do what you wanted.
18:50It was so wonderful.
19:18It's been a long day for you, and you're unwinding here.
19:21You mean today?
19:23No, we're all finished with the movie.
19:25But I'm just relaxing.
19:26Michael Jackson now.
19:28Just hanging out in New York?
19:29Yes, Studio 54.
19:31When you hear the name Studio 54, what does that do?
19:35Does your pulse quicken and your beats start moving?
19:37Yeah, I'm ready to have a good time.
19:39It's where you come when you want to escape.
19:42It's really escapism.
19:44Sure, Michael Jackson, you don't have it so bad.
19:46What are you escaping from?
19:48You know?
19:48I'm not escaping from anything.
19:49It's just a change of pace.
19:51Right, it is.
19:52It's a change of pace.
19:53He doesn't escape from anything.
19:54If anything, he's one of those people who are very recognized.
19:56Doing The Wiz, and all the work that he had done, and the growth that came with it, took him
20:10mentally in a different direction, saying, I want to do a solo album.
20:23By Michael doing The Wiz, he had a chance to meet great composer, arranger Quincy Jones.
20:34And Quincy, I work with Sinatra, I mean, greatest music people ever.
20:44I called Quincy up one day, I said, Quincy, I'm ready to do an album, a solo album, but I
20:51want a real good producer to work with me.
20:54I said, can you recommend somebody?
20:57And he said, why don't you let me do it?
21:15I remember getting a copy of Off The Wall, and when I heard Don't Stop Forget Enough, I was just
21:22astonished to hear, oh my gosh.
21:26I said, Michael, this is going to be, it's going to be phenomenal.
21:32This is the album that's caused the storm right around the world.
21:36It's Michael's Off The Wall album, and hopefully, we've got Michael in LA on the phone now.
21:41Let's have a say. Oh, here we go. Hello, Michael.
21:44Hello. How are you?
21:49He's the first artist to have four top ten singles with his Off The Wall album.
21:54He keeps breaking records. It's just amazing.
22:04It had to happen.
22:07I feel like I love a rock.
22:09He had earned the right to be Michael.
22:18He felt that it's now my time.
22:35He did it all.
22:36All the time.
22:36Yeah. It was out there.
22:40Mayer?
22:41Okay, there you go.
22:42Just get the mayor back there.
22:45Hey, guys, what'd you think of this? Were you ever afraid when you saw that big crowd?
22:50Never afraid, never afraid.
22:52It's a lot of excitement, and it's nice to see the fans all come out to greet us at the
22:57airport.
22:58I think it's wonderful.
23:01What do you have to say for Atlanta?
23:03I'll start here.
23:05Love it. I can't wait. Tomorrow night.
23:08I love it.
23:09We love you, Atlanta.
23:11We love you very much. Tomorrow night, everybody be out there.
23:14We're going to do our best. Have a good time.
23:26At this point, Michael really is kind of the mainstay of the Jacksons.
23:29Has it always been that way?
23:33Yes, yes.
23:35Michael has always been sort of the star.
23:37Yeah, he's been a highlight the most because he's a lead singer, and he's up front.
23:41As a little kid, we put him up front because he danced so much and had so much energy.
23:50I think my brothers, some of them felt that once he do this, he's never coming back.
23:59He's going to abandon us.
24:04And that was kind of disturbing to some of them.
24:07And then the others were just, well, let's see where it goes. Let's see where it leads.
24:19I remember the boys being in the office, and one of them distinctly said,
24:24if it wasn't for them, Michael wouldn't be who he was because they were the ones,
24:30and Joseph was the one who made Michael who he is,
24:33and he basically wouldn't be shit without them.
24:36And it was them that built him.
24:39And Michael's just sitting there listening to this.
24:42And he sat there, and he took it.
24:45I just remember thinking, how mean? Why are you guys being so mean to him?
24:50I just, I wanted to go in and, like, hurt them because they were being mean to Mike.
25:00I think Michael had grown up feeling, under Joseph, that he wasn't anything more than a commodity.
25:07And I think in that moment, it crystallized for Michael that he was nothing more than a commodity to his
25:13brothers.
25:13And I think it broke his heart.
25:26So nice, dear, how are you, too?
25:29Fine. How are you?
25:41If things got difficult for Mike,
25:44he always had a very loving relationship with my mother.
25:49It was a very trusted relationship.
25:55If something upset him,
25:57she would always make sense out of everything.
26:16My mother was a very religious person.
26:22She was a Jehovah Witness.
26:26And she always thought,
26:28if you had a personal relationship with God,
26:31then he would show you away.
26:45It's strange being back here.
26:46I haven't looked here for many years.
26:50Yeah, it was such a strange time, you know,
26:52with Michael being suddenly so famous,
26:55and we're just going door to door trying to save souls.
27:00Michael would say,
27:02Hi, my name is Joe.
27:03That was his middle name, so he wasn't lying.
27:06This is my friend Christian.
27:06We're here to talk to you about the wonderful hope of God's kingdom.
27:10And the people would kind of stare.
27:12They would think,
27:14that guy really looks like Michael Jackson.
27:16You can kind of see it in their eyes.
27:21The Jehovah's Witnesses are millennialists,
27:24so they believe that Armageddon is coming any day now,
27:27when God's going to cleanse the earth of all the evil people.
27:31And so our job as Jehovah's Witnesses was to go door to door,
27:35and try to recruit people to save them,
27:37so that they could join our religion,
27:38and then, you know, hopefully make it into the paradise that was going to come.
27:44Michael had a tough upbringing,
27:46and I think that he had a, you know,
27:48fantastical view of what he wanted the world to be.
27:52And I think this idea of God bringing a paradise just was very appealing.
27:58And I think that was a big part of his enthusiasm for going door to door.
28:01He genuinely wanted to tell people.
28:05We did missionary work door to door.
28:09You do 90 hours a month.
28:11It was just a wonderful time for me,
28:13because it allowed me to get out into society and to see people.
28:17I was totally deprived of seeing people open their doors.
28:20I don't go to other people's houses.
28:22I don't know what they live like.
28:23So when they would open the door and say,
28:25come in, I would come in.
28:30I was 15 when we started hanging out together.
28:35I think he felt safe with us,
28:37because he had no other space where he didn't have something,
28:41some place where people wanted something from him because of his fame.
28:44We just liked him because of who he was,
28:47and that he was part of this joint community where we were all working to do God's will.
28:55But at the same time, I think he was conflicted about who he was.
29:00Because even though he was very devout,
29:03I think Michael had a lot of ambition around being perceived as very successful, very talented.
29:13He was raised in this paradigm where success is how you get validation, right?
29:17And from the time he was a little kid, so I don't think he ever lost that.
29:20Michael sometimes would stand in front of a mirror and say,
29:23a hundred million, a hundred million,
29:25because he wanted to sell a hundred million albums on his next album.
29:30And I think that really fed him.
29:54Michael's ambition, I believe, was to make the greatest album ever heard.
30:02But he also knew the power of motion pictures.
30:10He wanted to use video to drive sales.
30:13I mean, rock bands have been doing that for years.
30:20I'm not like the other girls.
30:23I mean, I'm different.
30:29I'm a monster.
30:39Michael, I think this is going to be the Citizen Kane of the videos.
30:42I really do.
30:42It's going to be the most revolutionary thing in the history of the videos, you know.
30:50I mean, it's a new art form now, but I think this is leading the way.
30:53Beat it, and this one is leading the way.
30:58What a great looking kid.
31:03Filmmakers, they usually know when they have something.
31:07And I knew we had something.
31:11Music video was new at that time.
31:14And this is pre-internet.
31:17And Michael's videos were special.
31:20You could tell.
31:26Some prominent black musicians are complaining
31:28that they are being left out of the video market,
31:31specifically the music television cable operation.
31:34We are looking for a certain sound and a certain point of view.
31:37Bob Pittman is the 29-year-old whiz kid who created MTV
31:41after a successful career as a radio station program director.
31:45We are not all things to all people.
31:47We are cable television.
31:48And what cable television does best is specialize.
31:51One thing per channel.
31:52So you know exactly what you're getting when you turn on the channel.
31:56It was almost impossible for a black artist to get on the cover
32:00of any of the major magazines or TV shows.
32:04Over Christmas, I watched MTV.
32:06I saw no black star.
32:08Plenty of black stars, but only black stars who do rock and roll.
32:13And MTV refused to play Michael's video.
32:16Yeah, you don't see R&B.
32:18He was outraged.
32:20It was pure, blatant racism, plain and simple.
32:24Prejudice is ignorance.
32:27Music has no color.
32:28I don't believe in that.
32:29What I do, I don't want it labeled black or white.
32:33I want it labeled as music.
32:35A few of us at Epic and the president of CBS records.
32:39We all went up there and explained why they had to play those videos.
32:44They said you can't continue with a program like this without honoring some of the best music
32:50music that America has to offer and some of the best music America has to offer is made and
32:56performed by black artists.
32:58Period.
32:59End of discussion.
33:00They only could look at the bottom line and say, you can't ignore these tracks.
33:04And once they played Michael, it took off.
33:15Michael Jackson's album Thriller has been topping various record charts, so it should come as
33:20no surprise that Thriller is number one on Billboard's chart of most successful pop albums.
33:26Well, the title song from that blockbuster album, now the subject of the most talked about music
33:30video to come along.
33:31Take a look at this.
33:35Thriller was an amazing piece of work.
33:39Like, everybody loved it.
33:41And it just got bigger and bigger.
33:44We love you!
33:46We love you, Michael!
33:48Michael Jackson was partying in New York.
33:51The occasion for selling 23 million albums.
33:54He exploded.
33:57Everybody wanted a piece of him.
33:59Everyone wanted to see him.
34:02Michael Jackson's Thriller is now the highest selling solo album in the history
34:08of recorded music.
34:09The number one artist in the world!
34:14He is simply put, probably the most exciting and intense performer of the decade.
34:21You have something within your records that everybody just loves.
34:27Boy, I couldn't say.
34:29I just created it.
34:31Where do you think the gift came from?
34:34God.
34:40The name is Michael Jackson.
34:41The name is Michael Jackson.
34:43The name is Michael Jackson.
34:45The name is Michael Jackson.
34:48The name is Michael Jackson.
34:51The name is Michael Jackson.
34:52The name is Michael Jackson.
34:52The name is Michael Jackson.
34:53The name is Michael Jackson.
34:53The name is Michael Jackson.
34:53The name is Michael Jackson.
34:53The name is Michael Jackson.
34:54The name is Michael Jackson.
34:55The name is Michael Jackson.
34:56The name is Michael Jackson.
34:58The name is Michael Jackson.
35:00The name is Michael Jackson.
35:03The name is Michael Jackson.
35:04Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention. I have your attention right now. I am saying for the last
35:14time, as chairman of the Walk of Fame, if you do not back up, this ceremony will be cancelled.
35:26Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson. And now, welcome back to the Walk of Fame.
35:39The Thriller album was fantastic. It was far exceeding anyone's expectations about how big it was going to be. And
35:46Michael was becoming sort of transcendent as a pop star.
35:52But he was still very idealistic, very devout.
36:00I mean, nobody had been that famous in the Jehovah's Witnesses yet.
36:07It was very much at odds for the church, for someone to be famous, because any kind of notoriety could
36:12be considered controversial, potentially.
36:15Even his deciding to do the Thriller video.
36:19The church was very paranoid about any demon influence and anything with demonology. And so, zombies rising from the dead
36:25or anything related to the occult.
36:28Suddenly, the hammer came down from the headquarters of the church. And so, when he realized that this was going
36:35to be a problem for him, he panicked.
36:37He wrote, due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a
36:43belief in the occult.
36:44And he had to put that at the beginning of the video in order to get the church to go,
36:49okay, you can release it.
36:52It really created some tension. On the one hand, fame brought him all this opportunity. And I think he liked
37:00the adulation. It was very validating.
37:02But I think he started to feel handicapped by the fact that he couldn't pursue all his creative stuff, that
37:07the church was constantly tightening the screws and saying, no, you can't do this. No, you can't do that.
37:13And later on, he just made a decision. He disassociated himself, which basically meant he was leaving the church.
37:23You know, I left the church in 1990. And when you leave, you know, the church completely cuts you off.
37:29You know, you lose your whole foundation. You lose your family, all of your friends. You're really adrift in so
37:36many ways.
37:37And when he left, he lost the thing that had grounded him for so long.
37:48How long have you had this beautiful beast?
37:51Gosh.
37:53A little bit before Thriller, I had him. Sorry about.
37:56Almost a year. Almost a year now.
37:58And this type of snake is not dangerous?
38:01Well, I don't think so. Some people wouldn't.
38:04Could it be dangerous?
38:05Yeah, they squeeze. They can really squeeze.
38:10I think it's great.
38:12What other animals do you have?
38:15After Thriller, I saw a completely different Michael Jackson.
38:23I was his personal cinematographer from 1981 to 1987.
38:32And when I first met him, Michael was really humble.
38:39He was a true cool dude.
38:43But after the Thriller album, his personality started to get a little bit different, more eccentric.
39:05I could see he enjoyed being around kids.
39:10It's a long time.
39:17I could see him.
39:17Who are you?
39:17I could see him.
39:18Okay, I could see you.
39:19We're gonna do our interview here.
39:22Okay, this is Michael Jackson interview show, okay?
39:24So, how old are you, young man?
39:26There you go.
39:27No, not Howard, you are.
39:28What show are you on?
39:33Out of nowhere, Michael's good friend was Emanuel Lewis.
39:40Emanuel Lewis was a star of the TV show Webster.
39:47And then one day, Michael calls me up, he goes, I need you to come over.
39:53So I get there, and he has Emanuel with him.
39:57They're dancing to one of his new songs that never ever was released,
40:04and he's holding him like a baby.
40:15And I could see Michael had a connection with children.
40:21When a child steps in the room, I'm totally changed.
40:26I feel their energy, and I feel their spirit.
40:31When I look in their eyes, I feel healed.
40:43What I saw, Michael liked kids because of the fact that they weren't domineering, they weren't asking for something.
41:00You know, because you had too many of these producer bigwigs coming over what I called and what he called
41:07suits.
41:08And when the suits would come over, it was a different atmosphere because they wanted something.
41:14By then, Michael got so big, now it's just a business.
41:24Jackson's image has been pressed into plastic.
41:27In a short six months since they first came on the market,
41:30Michael Jackson toys, dolls, and other products have been selling with a fury.
41:35Jackson has become a mini conglomerate.
41:37He is setting up five separate companies to handle his business interests.
41:41Albums, video cassettes, concert tours, merchandising tie-ins.
41:45This year, Michael Jackson is expected to earn more than $50 million.
41:50Michael Jackson made recording business history today by closing the deal on the Beatles catalog.
41:56From now on, all those royalties go to Jackson.
41:59Michael Jackson has a new manager.
42:02Jackson has hired the vice president of promotion for Epic Records, Frank DiLeo, to manage his booming career.
42:08Formerly, Jackson was managed by his father, Joseph Jackson.
42:15Mike decided to end the relationship with my father.
42:20And his thinking and his thoughts were,
42:23I need a manager who's much bigger and better,
42:26and someone who really knows what they're doing in this big industry.
42:32But I think the part that became difficult was the people that entered into his life.
42:41Because this business can be very overwhelming, cutthroat.
42:47And people will say and do anything to get into your circle and to manage you.
42:53And that part of it destroyed him.
43:02Michael Jackson has not a song on his lips, but a bottle of Pepsi-Cola.
43:07This week, he signed up for $5 million or more to promote Pepsi in concerts and commercials.
43:14A lot of people are asking, why would Michael Jackson do commercials?
43:18Well, the reason is that these commercials are going to be just extraordinary.
43:22They're using state-of-the-art technology.
43:25They're going to be creative masterpieces.
43:27No expenses spared.
43:29They asked me to direct them because I had success and a relationship with Michael.
43:38We were going to shoot two promotional commercials,
43:42even though Michael confessed to me that he never drank Pepsi in his life.
43:47We went down there and started shooting.
43:50And the plan was there was an explosion.
43:53Michael would come down and dance.
43:56The pyrotechnics added too much and all hell broke loose.
44:15a real laser.
44:19The pyrotechnics added too much and all the people.
44:19The pyrotechnics added too much.
44:20It is a lovely movie.
44:20I've been a little creative because we have a beautiful movie.
44:23We can take more.
44:27A little bit of the video.
44:28A little bit of the video.
44:41The scene was wild as hundreds of fans tried to see Michael Jackson
44:44as he was carried into a Los Angeles area hospital
44:47with second and third degree burns on his scouter.
45:09I'll never forget the image of Michael being taken away in a stretcher, but smart enough
45:14to take his glove, the famous glove, and wave it.
45:20But it was the beginning of a dark time.
45:46I remember in the early years, Michael would just come out and hang out.
45:50It was just, it was casual. It was normal.
45:55But at that point, Michael started going out a lot less.
46:05Everybody was, like, worried.
46:08He would call all the time.
46:11He would constantly reflect back on things from his childhood.
46:20I was always trying to be perfect.
46:25Trying to impress my father.
46:30And I wanted him to be proud of me, but he would never say it.
46:37He used to make fun of me.
46:41You are so black.
46:42You don't look like my child.
46:47He looked at you.
46:47This is poor.
46:48You got a big nose.
46:53You don't realize how much it hurt.
46:57I wanted to just die.
47:08When I went to the house after the Pepsi burn with Michael, there were some times where we
47:16would talk and he would come a little close.
47:19And then I would say to myself, what is on his nose?
47:24And those were stitches, physically or visually, that you could see that it had been, you know,
47:31worked on.
47:32I have a shot of Michael when he's leaving the Havenhurst house.
47:36And that was what I saw the change, you know, the transition from the Negro look to look like something
47:45different.
47:52It was heartbreaking.
47:55Michael was trying to erase something off of his face.
47:59And it was all the nastiness and all the things that Joseph said about him.
48:03But I think that set Michael on a very unhealthy pattern and path for the rest of his life when
48:09it came to, uh, facial reconstruction and his skin color.
48:15But I don't think anybody was prepared for how extreme it would get.
48:22Michael.
48:24Please turn.
48:30Michael.
48:31Michael.
48:35Michael.
48:45Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
49:07Not since Thriller five years ago has the record industry been so focused on a single album.
49:13It's called Bad.
49:15It's Michael Jackson and Bad right here on Kiss FM.
49:23They were queuing all over America, snapping up the first copies of Michael Jackson's latest offering.
49:29But after five years of comparative seclusion, he's changed his image.
49:34It's a lot of talk, a lot of people are talking about it and how foolish he looks.
49:39The look, well, the new look is not too hot, but the album is great and he's a great entertainer.
49:48I was a fan of Michael Jackson since I was a kid.
49:52From, you know, the Jacksons, you know, I loved Off The Wall.
49:59I was a talent manager at the firm that managed Michael Jackson.
50:04And it was our job to manage his career and public image.
50:08I remember when I met him, like, up close and personal and I was just surprised at, like, how white
50:14he was.
50:15I mean, and just almost like, almost like translucent.
50:19That was good. It's beautiful.
50:21What happened?
50:22You know, we were wondering if he was bleaching his skin or maybe it was makeup.
50:27Come back.
50:27Oh, he's making your face.
50:28I can remember one instance and we had made this video.
50:32It was like multi-million dollar video.
50:34We had David Fincher, you know, directed.
50:36I remember at one point, he literally kind of broke down in tears and he was kind of ranting like,
50:41I look like a monkey. I look like a monkey.
50:44And I was like thinking, what?
50:45I mean, he looked great in the video, but in his own mind, he, you know, he hated the way
50:51that he looked.
50:52And some people mentioned, I think it's called baking, where they, you know, could lighten him up throughout the video.
51:00I mean, that word, I look like a monkey.
51:03First, it was kind of shocking from him.
51:08I'm thinking, here's this huge, amazing artist.
51:12His own issues with self-image actually became a form of like self-sabotage with his career.
51:25I remember a lot of the black community felt like he had deserted them.
51:33And thought that he didn't want to be black.
51:38And it was really difficult because he was in the tabloids every week.
51:45He sort of became a joke.
51:48First problem is the sex problem.
51:51The problem being, we don't know what sex he is.
51:58The latest of the Michael Jackson rumors.
52:01Are Michael Jackson and his sister, Latoya Jackson, actually the same person?
52:06I'm here with Lars Bunquist of the IOFC IRA, the Institute of Facial Changes in Recording Artists.
52:13And I understand you had a grant for the last six years to study the facial changes in Michael Jackson.
52:18That's correct, Dave.
52:19And it's been, it's been a full-time job.
52:23To most of us, he's just wacko jacko.
52:26And if some of the press are to be believed, he sleeps in an oxygen tent.
52:31Often with a chimp, a snake, and an alien.
52:35When you think of Michael Jackson, you don't first think, what a great artist.
52:39What a definitive performer.
52:41You think, what a weird guy.
52:43Record stores have been reporting disappointing sales for the new album.
52:47Some have already begun taking down the bad promotional posters.
52:52The Bad album had been released in the late 80s, but it hadn't been as successful as Thriller.
52:57We had to get him back to basics as an artist, as a singer, and get away from the wacky
53:04personas and the trappings and everything else and stuff.
53:15We had to make him more relatable to the public, to answer the questions that people had about him, about
53:23his skin, about bubbles, about everything.
53:28Because up to that point, Michael hadn't done a major interview.
53:32People hadn't heard him talk. People didn't know anything about him.
53:39And then Michael's managers had this idea that he should do an Oprah Winfrey interview.
53:58And the whole objective for that interview was to humanize him to the world.
54:06Oprah was calling every day, like five or six times a day. Nothing was left to chance.
54:11His whole career, his reputation, were dependent on this interview going well.
54:23Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson.
54:26Hey.
54:27Oh, hey, hey.
54:29Well, how nervous are you right now?
54:33How what?
54:34How nervous are you right now?
54:36I'm not nervous at all, actually.
54:38You really aren't. No, I never get nervous.
54:41You don't?
54:42No. No.
54:43Not even for your first interview and it's live around the world?
54:46I thought you'd be a little nervous, but that's great.
54:49Because if you're not nervous, I won't be nervous.
54:51I just wanted to let the world know that.
54:54We were all watching it on TV and it was pretty eye-opening.
54:58I think it really was the first time that I can recall where he ever sat down for a length
55:04of time, answered the questions that we all wanted to know.
55:08And was really pretty candid.
55:10I was actually surprised how candid he was.
55:13The main thing in that Oprah interview that was talked about was his answer to his skin color changing.
55:21The color of your skin is obviously different than it was when you were younger.
55:26Yeah.
55:26And so I think it has caused a great deal of speculation and controversy as to what you have done
55:35or are doing.
55:36Are you bleaching your skin and is your skin lighter because you don't like being black?
55:41The number one, this is the situation.
55:43I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin.
55:48It's something that I cannot help.
55:50Okay?
55:50But when people make up stories that I don't want to be who I am, it hurts me.
55:55So it is, it's a problem for me, okay?
56:00I can't control it.
56:01I'm a black American.
56:03I'm proud to be a black American.
56:08The black community was really relieved to hear that.
56:11You know, I remember people saying, oh, well, that's why it was.
56:15Of course.
56:16Of course, Michael wouldn't desert us.
56:18He has a disease.
56:20Makes me feel some of the pain that he's feeling because I can look in his eyes and I can
56:24see the hurt in his eyes.
56:26You know, he looks like he's so lonely and so hurt, you know, and it makes me want to just
56:30reach out to him.
56:33And it worked.
56:35And it really changed a lot of people's perceptions of him.
56:42It felt like Michael was back on top.
56:47Wow, isn't that terrific?
57:01My name is Rosabelle Smith.
57:05In 1993, I was working the Sexually Exploited Child Unit.
57:09A case had come in involving a young boy who was 13 years of age and that the perpetrator was
57:17Michael Jackson.
57:26We knew that it was going to be a huge case.
57:39That was going to be a huge case of America.
57:40I would say him would be a huge case and that the perpetrator was able to increase their influence of
57:42freedom flight with someone having faith,
57:42and this is what he intended for was the imminent threat for niinmen's life.
57:42Or something like God lending can lead to the attack.
57:53There's no way he loves to know przyj๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ izzen him.
58:08Transcription by CastingWords