Soon Joseph was driving his children to Chicago to compete in talent contests there. Chicago was a city bustling with sensational sixties' soul music and teeming with talent like Curtis Mayfield, The Impressions, Jerry Butler and Major Lance. Joseph may not have been a showman, but he certainly knew about performing. He taught his boys everything he knew – by experience, observation and instinct – about how to handle and win over an audience. ‘It's incredible how he could have been so right about things. He was the best teacher we ever had,’ Michael would say.
‘He wouldn't make it fun, though,’ Michael said. ‘“You're doing it wrong; you gotta do it like this,” he'd say. Then he would hit me. He made it hard for me. He would say, “Do it like Michael,” and make me the example. I hated that.
‘I didn't want to be the example, I didn't want to be singled out. My brothers would look at me with resentment because they couldn't do it like me. It was awful that Joseph did that to me. But he was brilliant, too. He told me how to work the stage and work the mike and make gestures and everything. I was always torn. On one hand he was this horrible man, then on the other he was this amazing manager.’
When the group played its first paying performance at a Gary nightclub called Mr Lucky's, they made roughly seven dollars for the engagement. The boys then began playing in other clubs and the patrons would throw coins and bills on to the stage. ‘My pockets would just be bustin' with money,’ Michael once told me. ‘My pants couldn't even stay up. Then I would go and buy candy, loads and loads of candy for me and for everyone.’
Many neighbourhood boys would accompany the Jacksons as musicians from time to time, and by 1966, Johnny Porter Jackson (no relation) was added to the group as a permanent drummer. Johnny's family was friendly with the Jacksons, who, in time, would consider Johnny a ‘cousin’. Ronny Rancifer, a keyboardist, was also added to the band. The boys played clubs in Gary and as far away as Chicago; Michael was eight years old and singing lead. Tito was on guitar, Jermaine on bass guitar; Jackie played shakers and Johnny Jackson was on drums. Marlon sang harmony and danced, though he wasn't a very good dancer. (He worked at it, though, and was so persistent at wanting to be good at it he, eventually, would rival Michael!)
The Jacksons would pull up in their Volkswagen bus to 2300 Jackson Street at five in the morning on Monday, after an exhausting weekend of performing. Joseph would kiss Katherine on the nose upon their arrival, giving her a boyish grin. ‘How ya' doing, Katie?’ he would ask. For Katherine, there was nothing better than the expression on her husband's face when everything had gone well for the boys on the road. It was one of sheer joy. Each of her sons would embrace her. Then, they would all sleep for a couple of hours while Katherine unpacked their bags, and cooked a tremendous breakfast for them before Joseph went off to work, and the boys and their siblings to school.
Though thrilled about her sons' growing success, Katherine was uneasy about the family's shifting priorities. Suddenly, the emphasis was not only on making music for fun, but also to make a living. It was as if earning money made it all right to want more money. However, as a Jehovah's Witness Katherine valued good works over money. Therefore, she was concerned about how jubilant the boys were when they'd come home from a concert date with their pockets full of change. ‘Remember, that's not the important thing,’ she would tell them. But what kid would believe her, especially when she herself was encouraging them to win more talent shows – and, as a consequence, make more money?
It was in the inauspicious surroundings of a shopping mall in Gary, Indiana, that The Jackson Five got their name. ‘I got to talking with a lady, a model named Evelyn Leahy,’ Joseph once told me. ‘The boys were performing in a department store, and she said to me after the show, “Joseph, I think The Jackson Brothers sounds old-fashioned, like The Mills Brothers. Why don't you just call them The Jackson Five?” Well, that sounded like a good name to me, The Jackson Five. So that's what we called them from then on. The Jackson Five.’
The group soon found themselves doing more club dates out of town on weekends. Joseph put a luggage rack on top of the family's Volkswagen bus for their equipment before hitting the so-called ‘chitlin’ (as in chitterling) circuit: two-thousand-seat theatres in downtown, inner-city areas like Cleveland, Ohio; Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC. There would always be many other acts on the bill, all diligently vying for the audience's favour. Sometimes these entertainers would be established artists – like The Four Tops – but often they would be unknowns, like The Jackson Five. This arrangement gave the upstarts an opportunity to learn from the experienced players. After their act, Michael's brothers would go off on their own, but Michael would stay behind and observe the other performers on the bill. Whenever anyone wanted to find eight-year-old Michael, they always knew where to look: he'd be in the wings, watching, studying and, as he remembered, ‘really taking note of every step, every move, every twist, every turn, every grind, every emotion. It was the best education for me.’
It wasn't long began Michael began to appropriate routines and shtick from the best of the acts on the same bill with the brothers, like James Brown, whom Michael would watch, repeatedly. (Diana Ross used to do the same thing before The Supremes were famous. She stole from everyone on the Motown Revue!)
‘James Brown taught me a few things he does on stage,’ Michael remembered back in 1970. ‘It was a couple years ago. He taught me how to drop the mike and then catch it before it hits the stage floor. It only took me about thirty minutes to learn. It looks hard, but it's easy. All I want now is a pair of patent leather shoes like James Brown's. But they don't make them in kids' sizes.’
The Jackson Five won the amateur talent show at the Regal, a theatre in Chicago, for three consecutive weeks, a major coup for the family. The Jackson boys were becoming more experienced and polished, their lead singer, Michael, more poised and professional. They played St Louis, Kansas City, Boston, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Not only did they open for The Temptations, The Emotions, The O'Jays, Jackie Wilson, Sam and Dave, and Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers, but they formed friendships with these artists and learned first-hand from many of them what to expect of the entertainment world.
Before one talent show, one performer remarked to another that they'd better watch out for The Jackson Five, ‘because they got this midget they're using as a lead singer’. Jackie overheard and couldn't stop laughing.
When Michael heard about it, he was hurt. ‘I can't help it if I'm the smallest,’ he said, crying.
Joseph pulled his young son aside. ‘Listen here, Michael,’ he said, kneeling down to eye-to-eye level with him. ‘You need to be proud that you're being talked about by the competition,’ he said, his tone gentle. ‘That means you're on your way. This is a good thing.’
‘Well, I don't like it,’ Michael recalls saying. ‘They're talking bad about me.’
Joseph kissed his son on the top of the head, a rare moment of gentleness from him. ‘This is only the beginning, Mike,’ he said, smiling, ‘so, get used to it.’
In August 1967, The Jackson Five performed at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, as contestants in its world-renowned amateur show. Working at the Apollo was the dream of most young black entertainers at the time. In his book Showtime at the Apollo, writer Ted Fox observed, ‘[The Apollo was] not just the greatest black theatre but a special place to come of age emotionally, professionally, socially and politically.’ Joseph and Jack Richardson, a close friend of his, drove the boys to New York in the family's Volkswagen. At this time, Jackie was sixteen; Tito, thirteen; Jermaine, twelve; Marlon, ten; and Michael had just turned nine. The brothers entered the so-called Superdog Contest, the winning of which was the most prestigious achievement in any of the categories.
Michael once told me, ‘The Apollo was the toughest place of all to play. If they liked you there, they really liked you. And if they hated you, they'd throw things at you, food and stuff. But, you know what? We weren't scared. We knew we were good. We had so mu
ch self-confidence at that time. At the other gigs we'd played, we had 'em in the palms of our hands. I'd be on stage singing and I'd look over at Jermaine and we'd wink at one another because we always knew we had it. I mean, you have to feel that way just to get up on that stage and take the chance, you know? Plus, Joseph would not have had it any other way. We wanted to please him. I mean, that was as important as winning any contest.’
Backstage at the Apollo, The Jackson Five found a small log that had been mounted on a pedestal, which supposedly came from the fabled Tree of Hope.
According to legend, The Tree of Hope had stood in front of Connie's; Inn, where Louis Armstrong performed in the famous Harlem version of Fats Waller's Hot Chocolates. Over the years, hundreds of performers would stand under that tree and touch it for good luck. It became tradition. When Seventh Avenue was widened during New York City road construction, the tree was uprooted. However, Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson arranged for the Tree of Hope – he was the one who named it – to be moved to a street island, at Seventh Avenue, south of 132nd Street. Eventually, the tree was cut down; no one remembers the reason, and a plaque is all that remains at its final location. However, a small log from the Tree of Hope was mounted on a pedestal backstage at the Apollo. It then became tradition that the first-timer who touched the tree before he went out on to the stage would be destined for good luck: he would join the ranks of those black performers who had struggled to make their dreams a reality, who had fought for respect, who had paid their dues and eventually triumphed, shaping American popular culture in the image of their race and heritage.
The pedestal was placed off to the side of the stage so that the crowd could watch as the performers touched it. It was a Wednesday night and The Jackson Five were on the bill with The Impressions, one of the most popular vocal groups of the day. One of its founding members, Fred Cash, once told me that he went to nine-year-old Michael before the brothers hit the stage and told him the legend about the tree. ‘No kiddin'?’ Michael asked Fred, his eyes wide as saucers. ‘Wow. That is so great. I love that. I'll bet it works, too.’
‘Hey, guys, did you know 'bout this tree thing?’ Michael then asked his brothers. ‘Touch this tree and we'll have good luck.’
‘Nah. I don't believe in luck,’ Tito deadpanned.
‘Well, I sure do,’ Michael countered. ‘Wish I could take that log home with me. Then I'd always have good luck.’
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ the announcer said as the boys pulled themselves together backstage, ‘here they are, The Jackson Five.’
The lights went up. It was time for The Jackson Five to take their rightful place in history. Joseph watched proudly as each of his sons touched the plaque of the Tree of Hope: First, Jackie; then Tito; Jermaine; Marlon; Michael; then, ‘cousin’ Johnny. The group ran out on to the stage as the audience offered its applause. Michael, though, was the last one at the footlights. He ran back to touch the Tree of Hope one more time… just to be on the safe side. It must have worked; the boys won the contest, an enthusiastic audience response sealing their victory.
‘My poor, poor family’
Ever since Michael Jackson was a teenager, the public has speculated about his personal life. Straight, gay or even asexual, it is fascinating that the sexual proclivity of a performer with as much on-stage sexual appeal as Michael has always been such a mystery.
At an early age, Michael received mixed signals about sex. The message from Katherine was loud and clear; with her strong faith as a Jehovah's Witness, lust in thought or in deed was considered sinful. According to 1 Corinthians 6:9, none of the unrighteous – ‘neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate men, nor abusers of themselves with mankind’ – would inherit the Kingdom of God. Therefore, physical intimacy was reserved for marriage.
However, from Joseph, who shunned the religion Katherine had embraced, the boys received a message that came more from his actions than from his words. In the group's early days, Joseph booked the boys into dives and strip joints. Ordinarily strict, he apparently gave his sons free rein at those times, allowing nine-year-old Michael to stand in the wings and watch as the male audience leered and whistled at voluptuous women who stripped until naked on stage. Once, Michael watched in fascination as a well-endowed stripper took off everything but her underwear. Then, at just the ‘right’ moment, she pulled two large oranges from her bra and took off a wig to reveal that ‘she’ was actually a he.
When the boys played the Peppermint Lounge in Chicago, there was a peephole in their dressing room through which they had a clear view into the ladies' bathroom. They would each take turns peering into it. ‘We learned everything there was to know about ladies,’ Marlon recalled. (Some years later, the group was performing in London when Michael, thirteen, and Marlon, fourteen, discovered a peephole that looked directly into an adjoining dressing room occupied by theatre star Carol Channing. ‘Look, she's naked!’ Marlon said excitedly as he peered through the hole. ‘I can't look,’ Michael protested. ‘But she's naked,’ Marlon enthused. ‘Carol Channing is naked.’ Michael took a quick look. ‘Ugh,’ he groaned. ‘She is naked.’)
It's safe to say that these kinds of experiences would impact on Michael for the rest of his life. At nine, Michael was not psychologically equipped to fully understand any sexual stimulation he may have received from what he had witnessed, such as the strip teases. He must have been conflicted: he had an overly rigid view of the world from his mother and an overly promiscuous view of the world from his father.
One of The Jackson Five's early performance numbers was their rendition of soul singer Joe Tex's raucous ‘Skinny Legs and All’. As part of the act, Joseph encouraged young Michael to go into the audience, crawl under tables, lift up women's skirts, and peek at their panties. No matter how embarrassed Michael was by this gimmick, he embellished each performance by rolling his eyes and smiling wickedly. He knew that the audience members loved the bit enough to throw money on to the stage afterwards. The boys would then scramble for the loose change. After a show like this one, the boys would go home to their religious mother, who would then tuck them into bed and remind them of the virtues of being a good Jehovah's Witness. She truly never knew anything about the nightclub act until many years later.
Of course, when the Jackson boys were on the road, Katherine remained at home with the younger children. Her absence gave Joseph carte blanche to date other women – mostly groupies. The boys were well aware that he was exploiting their talent for the purposes of having sex. Marlon has recalled his father coming into his sons' hotel rooms with shapely beauties on both of his arms. ‘G'night, fellows,’ he would say. The boys, in bed in their pyjamas, would watch silently as their father and his lady friends closed the door behind them. They could then hear laughter and other sounds from Joseph's room, next door. It was as if he wanted them to know what he was doing behind Katherine's back. What was he thinking? Who knew? He'd become an enigma, just as much a mystery then, in his thirties, as his son, Michael, would be at the same age.
However, a few things about Joseph seemed clear: he was an insecure man with crippled judgement. Also, he never felt fully appreciated by his family. No matter how successful and popular Joseph would make his sons, or how much he gave to his wife and daughters, he always felt a lack of gratitude and respect from them. They rarely showed him affection. Tender moments between any of them were uncommon. Perhaps it was because he had stopped being a demonstrative person once his focus in life completely shifted to the success of his sons (and he had never been that effusive, anyway). His family did not know how to relate to him, and he couldn't understand them either. Therefore, Joseph wandered outside the household for appreciation, for validation.
‘He used to do the meanest things to us,’ Michael once told me of his father. He said he was revolted by the thought of whatever was occurring in Joseph's room with his girlfriends. (The lyrics to his song ‘Scream’, come to mind: ‘Oh, father, please, have mercy 'cause I j
ust can't take it/Stop fucking with me!’.) At such a young age, Michael was forced to wonder how Joseph could repeatedly betray Katherine and, apparently, not be the least bit ashamed of his actions. Decades later, he is still conflicted by his father's actions. ‘I loved Joseph,’ he said during a break from his 2003 interview with Martin Bashir. Unexpectedly, tears welled in his eyes. ‘At the same time, I hated him for what he did to my mother.’ He swallowed hard, trying to push back the emotion. ‘My poor mother,’ he said. ‘My poor family,’ he added, sadly. ‘My poor, poor family.’
None of her sons would ever hurt Katherine by revealing to her what her husband was doing while they were on the road, and they certainly didn't dare betray Joseph in that way, either. Having to lie to their mother was an additional burden. ‘Katherine, of course, has never had a lover. She's always been faithful to Joseph,’ recalled Susie Jackson, who was married to Johnny Jackson, the group's drummer. ‘This only made them love their mother even more. The kids just had to learn to lie to heir mother, be hypocritical, and be very good at it. She would ask, “Well, what does Joseph do while you guys are out there working?” And they would say, “Nothing. He just lays around.” It was true, but not by himself.’
Dr Carole Lieberman, a Los Angeles-based psychologist, who has not treated Michael, speculated, ‘The father's infidelity would certainly have hit the youngest child exposed to it the hardest. [In this case, that would have been Michael, since he was the youngest member of the group privy to Joseph's indiscretions. It would be years before his younger brother and sister, Randy and Janet, would know about their father's philandering.] He would have thought that by not telling the mother he had betrayed her the most. Of course, this would have impacted him in many ways, and lying about it at such an early age obviously just taught him, simply, that it was okay to lie.’
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