Michael Jackson

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  However, taking the boys away from Motown and to Epic would not later be catalogued as one of Joseph's mistakes. If not for Joseph's decision, Michael would probably have ended up an obscure showbiz act, relegated to Las Vegas lounges – and not major showrooms, either. There is little doubt in the minds of most music historians that, after Moving Violation, The Jackson 5 would have stagnated at Motown in much the same way other groups who had stayed after their heyday did, such as The Supremes after Diana Ross left for happier trails.

  If Joseph hadn't had his way when he did, Michael would probably be performing on ‘oldies-but-goodies’ revues today with one authentic Temptation, a couple of Four Tops, and Mary Wilson of the original Supremes. He would have aged into his forties singing ‘I Want You Back’ and ‘ABC’, to make a buck, much like the great Martha Reeves, still out there singing ‘Love is like a Heatwave’, maybe not so much because she wants to as much as because she must. It's a tough life for Motown survivors like Martha, and not one for the faint of heart. It would have been Michael's life, too, had he never had the freedom to write and produce his own songs. No matter what some may think of Joseph Jackson as a personal manager, in the final analysis, that man saved Michael Jackson's career.

  Jackson Family Values

  It would be eight months before the Jacksons would be able to record for CBS. They had signed with the new label before their Motown agreement expired and would have to wait until the contract ran out before they could go into the studio. To fill the lag-time, Joseph signed them to CBS-TV for a summer variety series to begin airing in June 1976.

  At this time, Michael was often asked about Jermaine in interviews, and he tried to stress that ‘business is business and family is family. He still comes over.’ He went on to say, ‘We talk to one another. We go different places together. That's very important, because that's the basis of our whole organization: good friendship and a strong family. The show-business part is important, but even more important is that the family stick together at all times.’

  All of it was wishful thinking on Michael's part. The family members were drifting apart, even though Michael may have wished it was not the case. Jermaine did visit now and then, but only when Joseph was not around. ‘I just couldn't stand to be around him any more,’ Jermaine explained. ‘He had hurt me so deeply. Even my mother was asking me what was wrong with me and how could I betray the family as I did. It was tearing me apart.’

  The other brothers still harboured resentment against Jermaine for his decision. ‘They were hanging up on me. One of them told me I was no longer a brother. How could they hurt me like that? No matter what, I thought we were family. After all, that's what we were always preaching. But when it came time to act on it, I didn't see that happening. I was an outsider.’

  Jermaine may have at least found some shelter in the arms of his wife, but other members of the Jackson family seemed to be growing more antisocial, shunning exposure to people outside the gated Jackson estate (by Joseph's orders) and burying themselves in their Jehovah's Witness faith (by Katherine's). None of the siblings who were still living at home – LaToya, Marlon, Michael, Janet and Randy – seemed to have any strong relationships outside of their own family.

  ‘I don't date,’ LaToya told me at this time. ‘I don't trust people. To be honest with you, I have no friends. It doesn't bother me. When I get lonely, I read the Bible.’ I thought to myself, what a shame she has to be so leery of others. She also said that she rarely went out in public unless she was with other family members. She expressed no interest in marriage or raising a family of her own. ‘I would never bring a child into a society like this one.’

  It was as if the Jackson siblings were being raised to mistrust all outsiders. When Jackie started having marital problems, Joseph was able to point to such discord as evidence that outsiders can't be trusted. Enid Jackson filed for divorce in September 1975, nine months after she and Jackie married. ‘You see that?’ Joseph told his sons. ‘After just nine months, look at the problem Jackie's got on his hands.’ (The couple reconciled and would remain married for eleven more years.)

  Then Marlon dropped a bomb in January 1976: he had secretly run off and married someone – four months earlier! While the group appeared in Las Vegas, Marlon married an eighteen-year-old fan from New Orleans, Carol Parker. The ceremony took place on 16 August 1975. He hadn't trusted any of his brothers with the news because he was sure they would tell Joseph. He didn't want to go through what Rebbie, Tito and Jackie had gone through with parental opposition to marriages, and he also didn't want Joseph and Katherine to know that Carol did not sign a pre-nuptial agreement.

  Michael was hurt by Marlon's secret union; he thought he and his brother were closer than that. ‘We share all the bad times, but never the good ones,’ he complained. ‘I don't understand my family at all, and I don't like some of the things my brothers do to their wives. I'm never going to marry,’ Michael added. ‘Marriage is awful. I don't trust anyone enough to do it.’

  At a time when he should have had enthusiasm for his life and career, Michael Jackson was on the verge of hopelessness and despair. ‘People hurt each other over and over and over again,’ he said bleakly. ‘I spend a lot of time being sad. I feel like I'm in a well,’ he concluded. ‘And no one can reach me.’

  Losing to Motown

  Michael Jackson's vote was just one of six when it came to group decisions: the five brothers, plus Joseph. (When Jermaine left the group, young Randy took his place in the line-up, though he would rarely sing leads. Marlon took most of Jermaine's parts in the songs, and Jermaine's solo hits were, of course, never performed by the group.)

  Though it was obvious that Michael was probably the most important member of the group, the family did not want to allow him any special consideration. It was feared that if he was bolstered too much, Michael might one day have the confidence to separate himself from the group – which was the last thing they wanted to happen. Michael recognized their fear. ‘They don't listen to me because they're afraid to,’ he said to one associate. ‘I guess I can understand it. They don't want to lose me. They don't want me to have too much power. But it makes me mad.’

  When Joseph signed the boys to CBS-TV to do a television series in 1976, Michael made it clear that he did not want to participate. However, he was outvoted. The Jacksons was a thirty-minute programme that ran for four weeks featuring the family, with celebrity guest-stars. The first episode, aired 16 June 1976. As in the family's Las Vegas act, LaToya, Janet and Rebbie participated in the series, too.

  It was the first time a black family had ever starred in a television series, and if the show received decent ratings, there was a chance CBS might pick it up in January as a mid-season replacement. Michael was miserable. Because of a gruelling production schedule, there was no time for him to polish any of the routines and he loathed going on stage feeling unprepared. He hoped that the show would not be renewed. Unfortunately for him, the ratings were solid enough for CBS to order more episodes, to begin airing in January 1977. Michael cringed… and then he signed on the dotted line. Today, he refers to the venture as ‘that stupid TV series. It was a dumb move to agree to do it,’ he says, ‘and I hated every minute of it.’

  In the end, Michael's instincts about the programme were inadvertently on target; The Jacksons proved to be more trouble than it was worth. Apparently, someone at CBS-TV, probably a hapless assistant in the art department, accidentally used a picture of the old Jackson 5 with Jermaine in a TV Guide advertisement for The Jacksons series. As soon as Joseph alerted CBS to the mistake, the network pulled the ad and sent a letter to Motown apologizing for it and promising that it would never happen again. Too late. Motown used the goof as an opportunity to amend its original lawsuit against the group, raising the damages sought from five million to twenty million dollars. Michael Roshkind said the mistake ‘had a severely damaging effect on our credibility’ and ‘caused us real dollar damage’. The allegation was extreme. The ad was
one-half of a page, its artwork so blurry no one could even recognize Jermaine in the picture. It was obvious that Joseph was not the only one holding a grudge.

  Joseph tried to prove that he had been treated unfairly by Motown, even going so far as to forsake his pride. He admitted in his deposition that on that fateful day in Detroit (26 July 1968) when he sat with Berry's attorney, Ralph Seltzer, and was presented with the contract, he didn't read it before allowing his children to sign it. Ralph even backed Joseph up, admitting in his deposition: ‘I do not recall that any of them [The Jackson 5 or Joseph Jackson] read it through in its entirety prior to signing it.’

  Why not? Joseph explained, ‘Because the extent of my formal education is through the eleventh year of high school. The 1968 contract with Motown was the first recording contract that I was ever presented with or ever looked at.’ (Joseph's statement didn't seem likely since his sons were signed to Steeltown Records before they were signed to Motown… unless he hadn't read that contract, either.)

  Joseph had to admit that he also didn't read the ‘Parental Agreement’ before he signed it – which said that he would make certain his sons abided by the provisions of the Motown recording contract. In truth, Joseph hadn't read anything. He'd just signed the contract where instructed to sign it. He wanted his kids to make it. He would have done anything for them. Of course, he signed a contract.

  In the end, Berry would be awarded $600,000 in damages, including un-repaid advances and some compensation for the group having signed with CBS before the Motown contract had officially expired. He was also paid compensation for ‘damages’ suffered when Joseph would not allow the boys to record new songs for Motown (this, after he figured out that the group owed $500,000 for all the other ones they'd recorded that hadn't been released). In all, the Jacksons paid Gordy and company about two million to leave Motown.

  More importantly, and maybe surprisingly to some, the Jacksons agreed to surrender royalties due them on recordings they made before 1 December 1979 and on future releases of recordings made before 11 March 1976 – in other words, on all of their hits. In exchange, Motown agreed to accurately account for, and pay, royalties on any ‘new product’, which included pre-1976 recordings that had been recorded but not yet released and on any ‘best of’ albums they may put out in the future.

  It actually wasn't unusual for a Motown act to abandon their royalties in order to settle things with Motown. However, in retrospect, it often proved to be a bad decision for them – which may be one of the reasons there are so many former Supremes, Marvellettes, Vandellas, Temptations and Miracles who, today, find themselves in dire financial straits.

  When the judge ruled in Motown's favour, Motown's vice-president Michael Roshkind said, ‘This is a gratifying day, not because of our winning but because it was a matter of principle.’

  It was enough to make some observers sick to their stomachs.

  The first Jacksons album for CBS, The Jacksons, was released in the spring of 1977, on the Epic label. The album had a lot going for it. ‘Blues Away’, one of the first songs Michael had ever written, and ‘Style of Life’, written by the brothers, were both included. Those two songs were co-produced by The Jacksons, so they were actually doing that for which they had left Motown. For the rest of the album, executive producers Gamble and Huff recruited their staff producers (Dexter Wansel, Gene McFadden and John Whitehead) to assist them in compiling a strong, if not innovative, collection. Michael says he learned a great deal from working with Gamble, Huff and company, in terms of structuring a melody and what he calls ‘the anatomy of a song’.

  The Jachsons spawned one major hit for the group, ‘Enjoy Yourself’, their first single for Epic. A rollicking dance number, it went on to become their most successful record since ‘Dancing Machine’, three years earlier. The single went to number six on the pop charts, but because it was the only hit from the album, The Jacksons peaked at only number thirty-six on the American charts. Not great. In the UK, ‘Enjoy Yourself’ didn't even chart, when first released. Then it was reissued, but still didn't crack the Top 400. The international record-buying public seemed confused, maybe because Motown issued its own Jacksons album, Joyful Jukebox Music (compiled from some of those previously unreleased songs for which the group had been charged), in what seemed like a crass attempt to cash in on CBS's promotion of the group. The Motown album was the first Jackson 5 album not to enter the Top 200 in America, and did even worse in the UK. It also served to dilute the impact of the new CBS product. As Michael would put it, ‘Berry Gordy was playing hardball, of course.’

  The Jacksons' showing on the pop charts proved disappointing, but not as upsetting as the showing of Jermaine's record. After all the public and private angst about whether he should go with his father and brothers, or stay with Gordy, My Name Is Jermaine, peaked at just 164 on the Top 200. The single ‘Let's Be Young Tonight’ only went to number fifty-five. In the UK, Jermaine didn't matter at all to record-buying audiences. This was a terrible shame; Jermaine deserved better from Motown in terms of promotion. One now had to wonder what Motown's intentions were where Jermaine's career was concerned. (As it would turn out, he only had a few hits at the company, never really fulfilling his potential, there. He should have been a much bigger star for Motown; he had everything going for him.)

  The Jacksons continued to tour without Jermaine. It was business as usual. They performed in Memphis, Tennessee, in May 1977. During that engagement, Michael had to escape to the roof of a Woolco department store when ten thousand people caused a near riot as they waited in line for hours hoping to jam into the store's record department, where Michael had promised to autograph copies of The Jacksons.

  That same night, backstage before the show, John Seaver, who worked for the firm that promoted the Memphis engagement, later recalled, ‘I showed a Billboard article to Michael that said Jermaine's Motown album was a big bomb. It made unfair comparisons to The Jacksons' album, saying that that one was a smash. Michael didn't say anything at first. Then he commented, ‘Oh, he'll bounce back. I know it. Jermaine won't let this get to him.’ He seemed genuinely sorry for his brother.

  ‘The article was passed along to the other brothers, who scanned it. Marlon said something about “too bad”. Tito said that the album wasn't any good, but that Jermaine would probably come up with something stronger next time out. “No matter what, he's our brother,” Tito said, “and I don't like seeing him do anything that's not a success. Just proves, I think, that Berry doesn't know what he's doing.” They all agreed with Tito.’

  Then Joseph came into the dressing room.

  ‘What are you boys reading?’

  Jackie handed him the article. ‘Read this, about Jermaine,’ he said.

  Joseph read the feature quickly. ‘Well, you know, I think it serves Jermaine right,’ he said as he smacked the magazine on a table. He then walked away. The brothers looked at each other with raised eyebrows. There was silence. It must have been difficult for them to recognize Joseph's pain, the betrayal he felt – not to mention the way he felt taken advantage of by the Motown machinery. Of course, Joseph never revealed himself to his family in a way that might bring about any kind of understanding for him. Therefore, he never got it. As he walked out the door, Michael gave him a cool, appraising glance. ‘Some father,’ he muttered.

  PART FOUR

  Tatum

  By the time Michael Jackson turned nineteen in August 1977, he was one of the best-known entertainers of recent years, the idol of many young women. While his brothers often availed themselves of the sexual opportunities presented to them on the road, Michael never followed suit. Though much of Michael's music has had a sensual edge over the years, and his dancing has often been suggestive, he was not sexually adventurous as a young man.

  ‘I think it's fun that girls think I'm sexy,’ Michael told me in 1977. ‘But I don't think that about myself. It's all just fantasy, really. I like to make my fans happy so I might pose or dance in a way tha
t makes them think I'm romantic. But really I guess I'm not that way.’

  Most people who were close to Michael when he was a teenager agree that he never had a serious romantic life at that time. Michael did not trust anyone enough to allow them to penetrate the shell he had built around himself. Perhaps he felt he had been betrayed too often by people he had loved or admired – his father, his brothers, maybe even Berry Gordy – to permit himself to be vulnerable to a relationship. Still, Michael understood the value of public relations and show-business hype. Therefore, he did parade a few ‘relationships’ for public consumption.

  As recently as the Martin Bashir interview in 2003, Michael said that actress Tatum O'Neal, who was thirteen in the summer of 1977, was his first girlfriend. Michael and Tatum first met two years before at a party hosted by Paul McCartney aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. They had no contact with each other again until the spring of 1977, when Michael spotted Tatum with her father, Ryan O'Neal, at a club in Los Angeles. Michael was socializing with two publicists from Epic, Susan Blond and Steve Manning when, as he recalled it, ‘all of a sudden I felt this soft hand reach over and grab mine. It was Tatum.’ The fact that Tatum had deigned to hold Michael's hand was, for him, a colossal event. ‘It was serious stuff to me. She touched me,’ he said.

  The next day, Tatum invited Michael to a dinner party at Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner's rambling Holmby Hills estate. There they watched Roots, the highly rated Alex Haley television mini-series, on videotape. When Tatum became bored, she asked Michael to get into the hot tub with her. ‘But I don't have a bathing suit,’ he said.

  ‘Who needs bathing suits?’ Tatum responded.