Man in the Music

by Joseph Vogel

  Jackson could have ended Dangerous on the high, transcendent note of “Will You Be There” or “Keep the Faith.” Instead, he chose to return to the hard-hitting, ominous uncertainty and ambiguity of the record’s early tracks. The implication seems to be that while life might contain glimpses of relief, even ecstasy, the “danger” is never far removed. It is always encroaching, threatening his peace. The title track represents this danger in the form of a femme fatale, but for Jackson it seems more about navigating the fraught world outside his Neverland gates.

  5

  HISTORY

  (1995)

  I’m not planning to write another book anytime soon. If you want to know how I feel, check out HIStory. It’s a musical book.

  —MICHAEL JACKSON, SimulChat, 1995

  HIStory is Michael Jackson’s most personal album. From the impassioned outrage of “Scream” to the quiet endurance of “Smile,” the record was, in Jackson’s words, “a musical book.” It encompassed all the turbulent emotions and struggles of the previous few years. It was his excorcism, his confession, his rebuttal.

  The result, for some, was a bit jarring. They wanted the “old Michael Jackson”: the warm, breezy melodies and lyrics that beckoned people to the dance floor. HIStory openly defied these expectations. It was challenging. It was often angry. Even its lighter moments (“You Are Not Alone,” “Smile”) contained a residue of pain and sadness. Sonically, it continued to experiment with new sounds, while traversing a variety of genres, including hip-hop, R&B, rock, electric funk, and orchestral pop. Thematically, it confronted rather than evaded Jackson’s tempestuous emotional state—though it looked outward more than critics noticed, often tying the artist’s personal experiences to more universal experiences of vulnerability (“Childhood”), alienation (“Stranger in Moscow”), or indignation (“They Don’t Care About Us”).

  While this approach produced some raw moments (and songs without the commercial viability of past albums), it also seemed to liberate Jackson, resulting in some of the most politically potent, emotionally honest, and artistically powerful tracks he had ever made.

  THE INFORMATION AGE

  By 1995, while Michael Jackson remained enormously popular throughout most of the world, his appeal in the United States was waning. That year, the Los Angeles Times polled twenty-five major music executives to determine the hottest commercial acts in the industry. The list included rock bands like Pearl Jam, R.E.M., and U2. Also on the list were pop stars like Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Janet Jackson. Michael Jackson didn’t crack the Top 20.

  Asked their anonymous assessment of the artist’s viability, the replies were brutal: “He’s wounded as a commercial property.” “More trouble than he’s worth.” “I think it is over.” “Over.”

  One executive at least offered a glimmer of hope: “I would never say never about anyone with that kind of talent, but it is a tremendously difficult time for him. The same is true of Prince. Nothing seems to work for them. They can still sell records, no question about it. But they are not the dominant figures they once were—or even close to it.”

  This was the headwind Jackson was up against going into his fifth solo studio album. There were a number of reasons for this fall from grace. Years of bad press had taken their toll. The 1993 allegations of sexual misconduct were particularly damaging. It was one thing to be perceived as eccentric (as he had been for much of the previous decade); it was another thing altogether to be perceived as a predator.

  But it also had to do with a changing cultural zeitgeist and musical landscape. Grunge and hip-hop remained major forces in the culture, especially for young people. The sensibility that pervaded the mid-1990s was irony, cynicism, and “realness.” It was the era of Tupac’s Me Against the World, Biggie’s Ready to Die, Nas’s Illmatic, Green Day’s Dookie, Radiohead’s The Bends, Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral, and Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. In this context, Jackson’s Old Hollywood mystique, theatricality, softness, and utopianism were increasingly viewed as relics of the past.

  The mid-’90s did see an R&B renaissance—led by acts like Boyz II Men, TLC, Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, and Janet. But these were artists with more natural appeal to young people. Their songs were mostly about sex and relationships. Michael Jackson, meanwhile, was now thirty-seven years old and mostly known to a new generation of music listeners as the subject of endless tabloid controversy.

  Broader cultural shifts were taking place as well. Three years into the Clinton era, the information age was underway. When Dangerous was released in 1991, the public was still largely unfamiliar with terms like the World Wide Web, search engines, chat rooms, and email. By 1995 they were embedded in the culture, transforming the way people communicated, learned, spent leisure time, dated, and shopped. Computer sales exploded in the mid-’90s, led by Microsoft and, eventually, a resurgent Apple.

  As the economy rode the dot-com boom, the media landscape was changing. The ’90s saw the rise of infotainment and reality TV. Not only did this include shows like the MTV sensation The Real World, which premiered in 1992 and forever changed the network’s content, it also included real-life spectacles and scandals that the public could consume as they happened. The ’90s witnessed a merger between twenty-four-hour cable news, celebrity news, and tabloid news, all fueled by a highly competitive chase for ratings, readers, and advertising dollars.

  Perhaps the best example of this was the O. J. Simpson murder case. A former NFL football star, actor, and broadcaster, Simpson was indicted for murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman in June 1994. When Simpson fled, rather than turning himself in, the situation suddenly became a thrilling TV drama, far more riveting because it was “real.” The footage of Simpson’s white Ford Bronco driving down the Los Angeles freeway, pursued by a fleet of police cars, was broadcast live by just about every news station in America. It was viewed by an estimated audience of more than ninety-five million people (Michael Jackson, reportedly, was one of these people, watching the chase unfold from the Hit Factory studio in New York City).

  The ensuing trial was likewise broadcast live on TV. It had every element the media could ask for: drama, race, sex, violence, family dysfunction, celebrity. For nearly a year, it dominated news coverage and riveted the nation’s attention, spawning countless stories from every angle imaginable. It was described as the “trial of the century.”

  The O. J. trial wasn’t an anomaly; the mid-’90s also saw saturation news coverage of the Tonya Harding–Nancy Kerrigan incident, the paparazzi car chase that led to the death of Princess Diana, and, eventually, the President Clinton–Monica Lewinsky sex scandal that led to impeachment and set off a two-year national obsession. It was a new era of coverage in which scandals were the biggest media prize.

  THE ALLEGATIONS

  In this context came the 1993 allegations against Michael Jackson, which elicited a nearly two-year media feeding frenzy.

  News of an investigation against Jackson first surfaced in late August, just days before the third leg of his Dangerous World Tour. The pop star was accused of sexual misconduct with a thirteen-year-old boy named Jordan Chandler. Jackson had become friends with Jordan and his family in the summer of 1992 after the pop star’s car broke down on Wilshire Boulevard. Dave Schwartz, Jordan’s stepfather, owned a rental car business and provided the artist with a car that day. Several months later, in early 1993, Jackson invited the family to come visit Neverland Ranch. Jordan’s parents—Evan Chandler and June Schwartz—were in the midst of a custody dispute at the time (for the previous seven years, June had had full custody of Jordan). However, both parents grew close to Jackson over the next several months, viewing him as a big brother figure for Jordan.

  That gradually changed, however, when Jordan’s father, Evan, became increasingly upset that he was being cut out of the picture. Given how much time Jordan was
spending with Jackson, Evan also became concerned that Jackson might be engaging in inappropriate behavior with his son. “I had a good communication with Michael,” he vented to Dave Schwartz in a phone conversation taped by Schwartz in early July 1993 (just over a month before the allegations broke). “We were friends. I liked him and respected him and everything else for what he is. There was no reason why he had to stop calling me. I sat in the room one day and talked to Michael and told him exactly what I want out of this whole relationship. What I want.”

  What he wanted, it turned out, in addition to not being left out, was funding for a series of screenplays. Evan was a dentist—known in the Los Angeles area as “dentist to the stars.” But he also had aspirations of being a Hollywood screenwriter.

  When Evan told his ex-wife about his concerns, she thought the “whole thing was baloney.” She had never seen anything inappropriate, she said, and planned to join Jackson and her son on the artist’s Dangerous World Tour that summer.

  Evan was furious about this plan, and after negotiating a one-week visitation period with his estranged son in July, repeatedly interrogated Jordan about his relationship with Jackson. Jordan said that nothing sexual had taken place. After one week turned into three and Jordan still hadn’t been returned to his mother, she became deeply concerned about her son’s welfare.

  That July, Evan arranged a meeting with Jackson and the artist’s private investigator, Anthony Pellicano, at a Los Angeles hotel suite, bringing Jordan along with him. In the meeting, Evan produced a letter from a Beverly Hills psychiatrist, Dr. Mathis Abrams, which expressed concern about potential sexual misconduct by Jackson with Jordan. The letter, however, was not based on anything Jordan had said; it was based on a hypothetical scenario described by Evan’s attorney, Barry Rothman, to Abrams over the phone.

  In the hotel meeting, Jackson said he would never do anything to hurt Jordan and that the accusations of sexual misconduct were preposterous. Jordan, likewise, maintained throughout that conversation that no sexual contact had ever occurred between them. Jackson insisted Evan was simply jealous of their close relationship since Evan had never been close to Jordan and was using his son as a pawn in an extortion scheme. Evan, however, was increasingly convinced there was something untoward about Jackson’s interest in his son. Shortly after the hotel meeting, Evan arranged a second meeting, this time just with Pellicano (Jackson refused to meet with Evan again). Evan wanted $20 million, he said, and the allegations would be dropped. Pellicano took the demand to Jackson. Jackson reportedly rejected it. Next Evan asked for $15 million, but that offer was also swiftly rejected. Eventually, on August 13, Pellicano countered with a deal for three screenplays worth $350,000 each, but Evan rejected it.

  With the negotiations going nowhere, Evan brought his son to his Beverly Hills clinic for a tooth extraction. Evan gave Jordan amytal sodium—a powerful psychiatric sedative—intravenously before pressing him again about his relationship with Michael. This time Jordan said Michael had indeed touched him inappropriately. Shortly afterward, Evan took Jordan to Beverly Hills psychiatrist Dr. Mathis Abrams to get Jordan’s confession on record. With that confession, Abrams was required by law to report to authorities. He contacted a social worker at the Department of Children and Family Services, who in turn contacted the police.

  Evan, meanwhile, was ready for the allegations to go public. “It’s already set,” he said in the taped phone conversation with Dave Schwartz. “There are other people involved that are waiting for my phone call that are in certain positions. I’ve paid them to do it. Everything’s going according to a certain plan that isn’t just mine. Once I make that phone call, [attorney Barry Rothman] is going to destroy everybody in sight in any devious, nasty, cruel way that he can do it. And I’ve given him full authority to do that.”

  Evan continued: “And if I go through with this, I win big-time. There’s no way I lose. I’ve checked that inside out. I will get everything I want, and they will be destroyed forever. June will lose Jordie…and Michael’s career will be over….This man is going to be humiliated beyond belief. He will not believe what is going to happen to him—beyond his worst nightmares….He won’t sell one more record.”

  “Does that help Jordie?” Evan was asked by Schwartz. “That’s irrelevant to me,” Evan replied. “It’s going to be bigger than all of us put together. The whole thing is going to crash down on everybody and destroy everybody in sight. It will be a massacre if I don’t get what I want.”

  SWIFT AND SUDDEN FALL FROM GRACE

  Just a few weeks later, that’s exactly what happened. The Sun was the first to run the story based on leaked information from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. Within days, other British tabloids ran front-page articles, with headlines labeling the artist “Sex Beast” and “Sicko Jacko.”

  Hard Copy correspondent Diane Dimond was the first to report the story in the United States. Within hours, leaked police documents were being sold to other media outlets and began to spread like wildfire. Among the unfortunate consequences of these leaks was that Jordan’s name and photo were not protected.

  After local Los Angeles news station KNBC Channel 4 ran the story on the evening of August 23, the floodgates were officially open. By the next day, August 24, it was front-page news all over the world. PETER PAN OR PERVERT? screamed a headline for The New York Post. SCANDAL OF THE DECADE, declared the lede for A Current Affair. While some newspapers—notably the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times—were more careful and restrained in their reporting, most were not. Established television networks began turning to tabloid journalists and talking heads as experts. “I turned on CBS This Morning,” recalled Los Angeles Times critic Howard Rosenberg, “and saw Diane Dimond being interviewed by Paula Zahn. And I remember thinking, ‘This is a seminal moment in the regression of TV journalism.’ ”

  In response, Jackson issued a statement through his attorney, Howard Weitzman, saying that he was confident that the Los Angeles Police Department would “conduct a fair and thorough investigation and its results will demonstrate that there was no wrongdoing on my part.” Pellicano also issued a statement, asserting that the allegations were part of a failed $20 million extortion attempt.

  These statements, however, did little to stop the deluge. “Competition among news organizations became so fierce that stories weren’t being checked out,” acknowledged KNBC-TV reporter Conan Nolan. “It was very unfortunate.” Moreover, in the ensuing weeks and months, several former employees of the pop star began selling stories to tabloids for enormous sums of money, some in the six-figure range. For example, Phillip and Stella LeMarque, who worked at Neverland Ranch for ten months from 1990 to 1991, claimed they caught Jackson with his hands down child actor Macaulay Culkin’s shorts. Rather than take their story to authorities, they went to the National Enquirer, seeking a $500,000 payout.

  Interviewed by investigators in 1993, Culkin himself asserted that nothing inappropriate ever happened. Over a decade later, in 2005, he maintained this assertion while testifying under oath. “You heard about some of the allegations about whether or not Mr. Jackson improperly ever touched you, right?” he was asked in court.

  CULKIN: Yes.

  INVESTIGATOR: Did Mr. Jackson ever molest you?

  CULKIN: Never.

  INVESTIGATOR: Did Mr. Jackson ever improperly touch you?

  CULKIN: Absolutely not.

  INVESTIGATOR: Has Mr. Jackson ever touched you in any sexual type of way?

  CULKIN: No.

  INVESTIGATOR: Has he ever touched you in any offensive way?

  CULKIN: No.

  INVESTIGATOR: What do you think of these allegations?

  CULKIN: I think they’re absolutely ridiculous.

  In 1993, actor Alfonso Ribeiro said he and his father were offered $100,000 by a tabloid to say anyth
ing sexually suggestive about Michael Jackson, an offer they declined. Ron Newt, a cousin of Joseph Jackson, claims the National Enquirer offered him $200,000 to say Jackson touched his kids inappropriately, which he rejected. Sean Lennon, son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, was also contacted by the media but consistently asserted that nothing inappropriate happened with him. “It’s funny,” he said. “People who think Michael’s a diddler always assume that he bought the families of the kids he molested. You hear it all the time….But look at me, I was one of those kids that he befriended at a young age. I may have spent more time with him than anybody else. I’ve seen all kinds of people publicly speculate that he abused me. But I think my family is actually richer than he is, so it would be quite the trick to buy me and my mother off. It’s ridiculous, no way is Mike a child abuser. Take it from me. I knew the kids he knew. I would have known if anything funny was going on.”

  Yet others were skeptical. In a series of articles for Vanity Fair, journalist Maureen Orth painted a damning portrait against Jackson, drawing from Chandler’s attorney, Larry Feldman, the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s office, and a host of other sources. Orth documented Jackson’s history of “special friends”—typically boys between the ages of eight and thirteen—and found it inexplicable that sexual misconduct hadn’t taken place.