Man in the Music

by Joseph Vogel

  WHATEVER HAPPENS

  Fans, however, would have to be a lot more patient. In the summer of 2000, recording engineer Bruce Swedien was brought onboard, presumably to help Jackson wrap up the project. Some work was done at Marvin’s Room in Los Angeles. Then, in September, production moved back to New York. But the album had lost focus and momentum. As winter arrived, sensing the project had a ways to go, Swedien headed back home.

  Unsatisfied with how things were progressing, Jackson decided to reach out to another old collaborator, Teddy Riley. Riley had managed to make his own comeback with his new group, Blackstreet, scoring a #1 hit with the 1996 single “No Diggity.” Jackson still admired his abilities and wanted to see if they could come up with a few great tracks together. Knowing Sony wouldn’t be happy about it, however—given the delays and already-bloated lineup of collaborators—he kept their work a secret. Instead of working at the Hit Factory or Sony Studio, he created a space for Riley to work near his hotel suite. “Michael built this studio for me on the top floor of a building,” recalled Riley. “He had Criteria Studios build me a studio in a penthouse in two weeks.”

  Here, outside the purview of record executives, they began working on a handful of tracks, including “Heaven Can Wait,” “On My Anger,” “Don’t Walk Away,” and “Whatever Happens.” For “Whatever Happens,” they assembled a forty-piece orchestra to record the strings and reached out to legend Carlos Santana to play guitar. It became one of Jackson’s favorite songs on the album. It was also comforting to be working alongside Riley again, although after about a month in Manhattan, Riley went back to his home studio at Virginia Beach.

  That March Jackson also recorded “Butterflies,” a beautiful piece of jazzy soul written by A Touch of Jazz alumnus Andre Harris and Floetry member Marsha Ambrosius. Jackson was introduced to the song by manager John McClain and fell in love with it. He nailed his vocal in one session.

  By this time, Jackson had recorded over fifty songs—and was being offered more by some of the biggest names in the industry. Perhaps the most tantalizing offer came from the Neptunes. A songwriting-production duo composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, the Neptunes were all over popular music in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Their list of hits included Noreaga’s “Superthug,” Britney Spears’s “I’m a Slave 4 U,” and Nelly’s “Hot in Herre.” But their big dream was to work with Michael Jackson.

  Having heard that the pop star was on the lookout for hot rhythm tracks, they came up with a batch of songs tailor-made for him. As it turned out, Jackson was crazy about the beat for “Superthug” and was intrigued at the prospect of working with the Neptunes. However, his management and Sony quashed the idea before it gained any traction. The record was unfocused enough as it was, they felt. The last thing it needed was more cooks.

  Those Neptunes songs ultimately ended up going to Justin Timberlake for his solo debut, Justified, and included four major hits: “Like I Love You,” “Cry Me a River,” “Señorita,” and “Rock Your Body.” Timberlake was a huge fan of Jackson’s, openly acknowledging having modeled his singing style, sound, and many of his dance moves after those of the King of Pop. To help Timberlake prepare for the album, the Neptunes drove the singer around, playing Off the Wall and Thriller, allowing the vibe they were after to further sink in. Years later, when Pharrell finally got to meet Jackson in person, Jackson sang every one of the songs to him and said, jokingly, “Those songs should have been for me.”

  It was an intriguing what-might-have-been. Incidentally, Justin Timberlake also submitted a song for Jackson to consider around this time, a soulful ballad called “Gone.” That track, which ended up being featured on *NSYNC’s 2001 album, Celebrity, was a hit as well, earning the group a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance.

  As 2001 dawned, tension really began to mount between Jackson and Sony. An album that seemed so promising two years before now seemed muddled, with no end in sight. Jackson, meanwhile, seemed to have lost interest, preoccupied instead with other projects. That February, he announced the launch of a new organization—Heal the Kids—at Carnegie Hall with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. The following month, he delivered a speech on the subject of child welfare at Oxford University. This, he said, is what he was most passionate about and how he wanted to spend his time and energy.

  What this meant for his music career was unclear. Part of Jackson’s reluctance to finish the album seemed to have been prompted by the early stages of a protracted stalemate between himself and Sony head Tommy Mottola. Mottola was irate at the artist for taking so long and spending so much money—an estimated $30 million—on an album that should have been finished back in 1999. Jackson, meanwhile, felt Sony was infringing on his creative process too much and still hadn’t shown him a marketing plan.

  Friends and collaborators alike remember hearing many shouting matches, mostly over the phone, in these months. The dispute was becoming personal. Teddy Riley remembers Tommy Mottola also threatening him, saying, “ ‘This will be the end of your career if you don’t turn over those masters!’ I had no idea that Michael had told him I had the masters [laughs]. I called him up and said, ‘My God, Michael…you put me in trouble with Tommy Mottola. Do you know who Tommy Mottola is?’ But I ended up helping Michael. I took the masters and I held them for him.”

  Finally, at the behest of those who had worked so hard on the album, Jackson decided, ready or not, it was time to finish Invincible.

  THE TOUGHEST ALBUM

  That May, Jackson, Bruce Swedien, Brad Buxer, Rodney Jerkins, Teddy Riley, and a handful of engineers flew down to Florida with the intent of completing the album. They set up at the Hit Factory Criteria in North Miami. Jackson stayed at the nearby Sheraton Bal Harbour hotel. In adjacent rooms were Brad Buxer and Bruce Swedien. “It was glorious,” recalled Buxer. “A gorgeous hotel right on the water and one of the rooms was full of keyboards and recording gear. Bruce had a room that was right next door….Generally the studio day started at noon. Bruce would go to Criteria Studios [about five miles away] and I would either go with him or stay and work on music with Michael from my hotel suite.”

  Away from the stress and noise in New York, here, finally, was a united creative team—for the most part, all in one place with one goal, instead of being isolated in various cities and studios. Yet for those who had worked on previous Michael Jackson albums, it felt different. The artist just wasn’t as engaged as he normally was; at times he felt detached. “With Invincible,” said Buxer, “he just was not as hands on anymore. We would come up with ideas and we would hang out….But what was not happening was that he was not coming into the studio each day and working like he normally did….It seemed like he was in a darker space and while he kept an overview of everything and was very businesslike in keeping with deadlines and expecting everyone to perform on the project, the innocence and the joy of the actual building of the tracks seems to have been lost.”

  The final month, when Jackson was in, they often worked sixteen to eighteen hours a day, not only polishing the twenty or so tracks in the running for the final track list, but also generating a handful of late additions, including “Unbreakable” and “Threatened,” two of Jackson’s favorites on the album.

  With nearly seventy tracks recorded in total, there was enough solid material to make Invincible a double-disc record. In essence, there was a 1999 album and a 2001 album. According to collaborators, Jackson might have gone with a double album but Sony would not consider it because they believed the higher cost would prohibit people from buying it. “There were some songs that we loved, loved, loved [that were left off],” said recording engineer Harvey Mason Jr.

  Much more than with previous albums, Tommy Mottola insisted that Sony not only have a say in concept and packaging, but also in the final track lineup. That June, around sixty Sony and Epic executives and high-level employees flew down to Miami to hear the record. The respon
se was mixed. By all accounts, the label did not want “The Lost Children” on the album, but Jackson insisted and won that battle. There was also a last-minute switch, with Babyface’s “You Are My Life” replacing “Shout.”

  In the end, the album was a sprawling sixteen tracks—the longest in Jackson’s career—with more than six collaborators. Dozens of other great songs were eliminated, including much of the early material from 1998 and 1999. “Of all my albums,” Jackson said in 2001, “I would say this one was the toughest. I was hardest on myself. I wrote so many songs…just to get to the sixteen that I think are acceptable. And, um, it’s the album where…I didn’t have children before other albums, so I caught a lot of colds; I was sick a lot….So we had to stop and start again and stop and start.” There were, of course, a host of other reasons for the delays.

  But in June 2001—after more than three years of recording in California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Florida—the album was done. After some last-minute revisions, the tapes were finally submitted to Bernie Grundman for mastering in July.

  MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

  Michael Jackson did more interviews in anticipation of—and just after—the release of Invincible than during any other period in his adult career. He spoke with TV Guide, Vibe, USA Today, and Rolling Stone. He even did an online audio chat, responding to fan questions, and appeared on MTV’s popular show Total Request Live. It was unprecedented for the pop star. It also reflected how much he wanted Invincible to succeed.

  In those interviews he discussed many things, including the new music. He acknowledged that the album took a long time because of his perfectionism: “In my head, it is completed, but I have to transplant that to tape. It’s like [Alfred] Hitchcock said, ‘The movie’s finished.’ But he still has to start directing it. The song is the same. You see it in its entirety and then you execute it.” The artist confessed that with Invincible, in particular, it was difficult to reach that point of realization. “I’m never happy with the songs. I’ll write a bunch of songs, throw them out, write some more. People say, ‘Are you crazy? That’s got to go on the album.’ But I’ll say, ‘Is it better than this other one?’ You only get seventy-five minutes on a CD, and we push it to the limit.”

  Invincible, he said, was not approached with any overarching concept. “I never think about themes. I let the music create itself. I like it to be a potpourri of all kinds of sounds, all kinds of colors, something for everybody, from the farmer in Ireland to the lady who scrubs toilets in Harlem.” Asked for his personal assessment of the album, Jackson responded: “Invincible is just as good or better than Thriller, in my true, humble opinion. It has more to offer.”

  That summer, buzz surrounding the album—which had faded due to recurring delays—began to build back up. “All I can tell you,” Rodney Jerkins told the press, “is that it’s a sound you have never heard before in your life. Definitively different from everything else….Definitively something no one has heard before. It’s gonna be the best album that he’s ever made.”

  Even label executives were gushing about it. “It’s wonderful and amazing,” Epic Records head David Glew told FOX News. “Michael is singing better than ever. The ballads! The ballads are beautiful, and they’re all there. The dance songs are full of melodies. We’re going to get a single out by mid-July, at least eight weeks before the album hits stores. Michael’s done his work, now we have to do ours. It’s all about how it’s marketed.”

  The album’s first single, “You Rock My World,” was released in late August. It debuted at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, but behind the scenes things were not going well. Jackson was angry that Sony had chosen “You Rock My World” over his choice, “Unbreakable.” The music video, starring Chris Tucker and Marlon Brando, was fraught with problems from the outset and seemed to recycle old concepts. And Jackson still believed Sony had no real marketing plan in place.

  There was truth to that. “You Rock My World” wasn’t even given a commercial release—there was no physical or digital single. The rationale was that the single would compete with album sales. It reached #10 on airplay alone. “Certainly, if a commercial single had been available, it would have peaked higher,” said Billboard’s Fred Bronson in 2002, “perhaps even at #1. I thought it was a huge mistake.”

  Still, that September, Jackson had a big opportunity with two major concerts at Madison Square Garden celebrating his thirtieth anniversary as a solo artist (the thirty-year marker was a bit contrived, marking the release of Jackson’s debut solo album with Motown, Got to Be There, in 1972). The shows, which featured an impressive list of guest performers—including Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Alicia Keys, and Britney Spears—sold out within hours. The concerts were scheduled for September 7 and 10, and an edited two-hour special from the shows was also planned for broadcast on CBS in November.

  In the days leading up to the concerts, the excitement surrounding Jackson’s comeback in New York City—and the music industry—was palpable. “I think that it just shows how hungry everybody is for Michael,” said Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland. “The nearest we have [in America] to royalty is Michael Jackson,” said hip-hop star Sisqo.

  Unfortunately, behind the scenes, Jackson was not doing well. The day of the show, he was so overmedicated he slept through his makeup appointment. Longtime friend Frank Cascio, who was organizing the concerts along with David Gest, had to break into the artist’s hotel room and revive him with gallons of Gatorade. Jackson ultimately performed that night, but the effects of the drugs were still obvious. His eyes looked glassy, his face gaunt. In his performance of “You Rock My World,” he hunched over in exhaustion, barely managing to sing. Even Jackson himself later described this first show as “horrible.” He was disappointed in himself.

  The second show went much better. Jackson was in better condition and the long speeches and delays that had marred the first show were tightened up. For moments at least, the magic was back. When Jackson appeared with his brothers, the crowd roared. And when Jackson performed “Billie Jean,” the atmosphere was electric.

  The next morning, however, was September 11, 2001. In the wake of the tragedy, pop music—among many other things—suddenly seemed superfluous and took a backseat as people tried to reorient themselves and recover from the trauma.

  BATTLE WITH TOMMY MOTTOLA

  Invincible was released a month and a half later, on October 30. The cover art, featuring a half-digital, half-human face of Jackson and produced in five different colors, certainly had the look of something compelling and relevant to the new millennium. Upon release, the album shot to #1 in the United States and most of the rest of the world. Within the first week, the album had sold an estimated three million copies globally.

  But Jackson still felt Sony was not doing enough to promote the record. How, the artist fumed, could they not even run a commercial for the album during the Thirtieth Anniversary Special at Madison Square Garden, which was watched by more than twenty-five million people?

  Promotion, however, clearly wasn’t the only problem. The music industry as a whole was in major decline in the wake of 9/11, file sharing, and slow adaptation to the digital era. According to Wired, CD sales dipped 11 percent in the first six months of 2002. Had Jackson released Invincible in 1999 (as originally intended) he would have caught the music market at its peak. The early 2000s, by contrast, saw perhaps the most rapid decline in sales in the history of the industry, with sales plummeting from $14.6 billion in 1999 to $6.3 billion in 2009.

  Moreover, Jackson seemed to have missed a window in which the cultural climate was ripe for his comeback. By the end of 2001, the national mood was very different than it had been in the late 1990s. Sony tried to respond to the moment, releasing “Cry” as the album’s second single, but it failed to gain traction. Meanwhile, by the beginning of 2002, Invincible had dropped out of the Top 10, and the media was already la
beling it a disappointment.

  By February, the feud between Jackson and Sony head Tommy Mottola was boiling. Mottola felt Jackson’s expectations were totally unreasonable, particularly since the artist refused to tour or make lower-budget music videos; Jackson felt Sony had given up on the album and informed Mottola that he intended to leave the record company after his next album; Mottola, in turn, told Jackson that his career was finished.

  Within just a couple of months of its release, Sony stopped promoting the album entirely. When “Butterflies” caught fire on radio in February 2002, the single was still not given a commercial release. It reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B chart on airplay alone. It was the final single from the album. After the music video for “Cry,” in which Jackson did not appear, there were also no subsequent short films. Fans were bewildered and angry. Was Sony giving up on the album already? Was Michael Jackson done with music?

  Answers gradually began to surface over the ensuing months. When Jackson threatened to leave Sony, Mottola—probably the most powerful music executive of the 1990s—retaliated forcefully, not only by refusing to spend money to promote the album, but also by spreading disparaging stories about the artist to the press. According to one source, Mottola’s threats to Jackson became vicious. “Not physical threats,” the source told FOX News, “but certainly the threat that Michael would be destroyed and his career would be over if he didn’t agree to Tommy’s terms.”