Michael Jackson

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  ‘Who is this?’ the surprised operator apparently asked.

  ‘Why, it's Miss Ross,’ Michael answered, trying to suppress a giggle. ‘Miss Diana Ross. Who do you think it is? How dare you even ask?’

  By the time the operator put him on hold, Michael was grinning from ear to ear. ‘She believes me,’ he whispered, excitedly. ‘She thinks I'm Diana Ross!’

  The operator came back on the line. ‘Diana Ross isn't staying here.’

  ‘Oh, she's not?’ Michael responded. ‘Sorry.’

  Then he quickly hung up, laughing so hysterically he could barely catch his breath.

  Most people who know Michael agree that there are two reasons why he has had so much plastic surgery. First of all, he strove for some ideal of physical perfection, or his version of it, anyway. He spent most of his life studying pictures of himself, not to mention the hours dancing in front of mirrors, looking at videos, deciding which are his best features and which are not. ‘I just want to look the best I can look,’ he told Frank Dileo.

  ‘But when do you stop?’ Frank asked.

  Michael shrugged. ‘I'm a work in progress,’ he said with a gentle smile.

  Publicly, Frank never had much patience for questions about Michael's plastic surgery, mostly because he could not explain it. ‘Okay, so he had his nose fixed, and the cleft – big deal. I got news for you,’ he said, ‘my nose has been broken five times. It's been fixed twice. Who gives a shit? Who cares? Elvis had his nose done. Marilyn Monroe had her nose done, had her breasts done. Everybody's had it done.’

  As well as improving his appearance, Michael also had another reason for the operations. All of the Jackson boys grew up to resemble their father, Joseph. Michael could not have imagined a worse fate for himself, and he did everything he could do to destroy the resemblance. Certainly, he has many of his father's characteristics, whether or not he recognizes them: Joseph's determination to the point of ruthlessness, his coldhearted business sense, and on the plus side, his love of family. Emotionally, Michael may be a lot like Joseph – though he would never emulate Joseph's coldhearted unfaithfulness in love – and, he has said, it frightens him. Outside, though, he isn't like Joseph at all.

  ‘He told me so himself,’ said a former girlfriend of Berry Gordy's who has known Michael for years. ‘He would do anything not to look like Joseph. Believe me, the last thing he wants to see when he looks at the man in the mirror is his father. With each operation, he distances himself not only from his father but from the whole family. I'm afraid that's the sad point of all the surgery.’

  ‘The tragedy is,’ concluded Joyce McCrae, a longtime intimate who worked in Joseph's office, ‘no matter how much Michael tries to scrub Joseph off his face, he's still there.’

  Or as Joseph Jackson so aptly put it, ‘It takes a father to make a son.’

  It was after Michael's operation to have a cleft in his chin that he first began being seen wearing a surgical mask with a black fedora and sunglasses. The press speculated that he was obsessed with catching germs, reminiscent of Howard Hughes' fixation with health issues. Michael said nothing publicly. ‘If you knew Michael well enough, you knew what was going on,’ Joyce McCrae said. ‘As soon as I saw him wearing the surgical mask, I said, “Oh, he's had the cleft done.” People told me, “What? That's ridiculous.” Well, sure enough, that's what was going on.’

  At this time, Michael appeared at a movie memorabilia showcase at the Continental Hyatt Hotel in Hollywood wearing a blue surgical mask and a black fedora. To say he looked conspicuous would be an understatement. When the vendors saw him coming their way, they would triple the prices of all of their goods just because they knew Michael represented a windfall for them. He was shopping for Disney memorabilia with a young boy and Bill Bray, his security man. Whenever he saw something he liked, he mumbled through his surgical mask for Bray to purchase the item. Bray would then pull out a wad of hundred-dollar bills, pay the vendor, and move on to the next display. The fact that the prices were raised especially for him did not escape Michael. ‘They see me coming, and they feel like I have a lot of money, so they take advantage of me,’ he told me. ‘That's not really fair, is it?’

  ‘No, it's not, Michael. But what's with the surgical mask?’ I asked.

  ‘I had my wisdom teeth taken out,’ he told me. ‘Oh, man, the misery. You can't believe what I have been going through.’

  ‘Sounds awful,’ I said.

  Michael shook his head, sadly. ‘It is awful.’

  When Michael did not cover his face with a surgical mask, he would venture forth in public wearing a hairy gorilla head mask with fur and beady eyes. ‘I love it when people stop and are scared,’ he said. ‘And I love it when they don't know that it's me inside the mask. I just love that.’ It's a great paradox about Michael that he is as much a public show-off as he is a recluse. Sometimes, though, his exploits can prove embarrassing. Once, while walking through an airport wearing the gorilla mask, he tripped over a sand-filled ashtray and fell to the floor in a heap in front of a host of paparazzi, all because his vision was obscured.

  When the bandages came off after the cleft operation, Michael concentrated more than ever on his appearance. The new cleft seemed oddly out of place on the bottom of his soft, ingénue-like face. After all of the procedures, Michael's nose was slimmer than ever. It also pointed upward, an odd touch. Tweezing his eyebrows gave him a softer, even more feminine look. His skin seemed to be getting lighter with each passing day. He had begun using an over-the-counter skin-bleaching cream called Porcelana to achieve that look. LaToya used it as well. They had crates of this cream stored at Hayvenhurst, hording it as the most valuable beauty product ever produced.

  Also, Michael existed on a strict macrobiotic diet that had left him quite thin and made his face look even more sculpted. ‘If I ate like him, I'd be dead,’ Frank DiLeo said succinctly.

  In truth, Michael Jackson had begun looking more than a little unusual. It was difficult to be in the same room with him and not stare in disbelief, especially if you had known him since he was a child. Comedian Eddie Murphy probably put it best when he said, ‘I love Michael, but the brother is strange.’

  Duets Gone ‘Bad’

  At twenty-seven years of age, Michael Jackson faced the challenge of recording an album that would top the tremendous success of Thriller. Could he do it? Could anyone? In the summer of 1986, when he began working on the follow-up album, which would be called Bad, Michael put himself under enormous pressure. Extremely competitive, even against himself and his own achievements, he felt that if he did not top Thriller's record sales of nearly 38.5 million, he would be perceived as a failure. Moreover, he needed to have success with the single releases. Once, he discussed the phenomenon of the four hit singles from the Off the Wall album, which had preceded Thriller in 1979. He told writer Gerri Hirshey, ‘Nobody broke my record yet, thank God. Hall and Oates tried, but they didn't.’ Eventually he matched his own record with the Thriller album, the final US tally being: ‘This Girl is Mine', number two; ‘Billie Jean’, number one; ‘Beat It’, number one; ‘Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'’, number five; ‘Human Nature’, number seven; ‘PYT (Pretty Young Thing)’, number ten, and ‘Thriller’, number four. He needed to do better than that with Bad.

  When he began working on the album, he taped a piece of paper that said ‘100 million’ to his bathroom mirror. He wanted Bad to be, as he put it, ‘as perfect as is humanly possible’. Before they started to record the album in August 1986, Michael and Quincy Jones chose from sixty-two songs Michael had written. ‘Fifty per cent of the battle is trying to figure out which songs to record,’ Quincy said. ‘It's total instinct. You have to go with the songs that touch you, that get the goose bumps going.’ In the end, eight of the ten songs on Bad would be written by Michael. Interestingly, Michael cannot read music. He writes his songs in his head, sings them on to a tape, and then hires musicians to put them down on paper. He is an incredibly musical person, however. The
notes he imagines, and the way he hears them composed in song, often astound the most trained of musicians.

  One song planned for the album was a rhythm-and-blues-tinged number intended as a duet, ‘I Just Can't Stop Loving You’. Michael had wanted Barbra Streisand to record the song with him, but she turned him down. ‘I can't believe she would turn me down,’ he said. ‘Doesn't she know that this is going to be the biggest album in history?’ Michael suggested that ‘my people’ get back in touch with ‘her people’ and ‘tell her she's about to make a big mistake’. Barbra explained she wasn't interested because she was worried that the age difference between them would make the lyrics seem unbelievable, plus she didn't like the song. Frank Dileo was unfazed. ‘I knew the song was a hit – with or without Barbra Streisand,’ he said.

  ‘Forget her,’ Michael reasoned. ‘Let's get Whitney Houston.’ However, Whitney wasn't interested either. ‘Believe me, I didn't lose any sleep over it,’ Frank Dileo said of Houston's decision. Someone suggested Diana Ross. ‘No way. Bad idea,’ Michael responded, straightaway.

  Michael didn't explain that Diana was angry with him for a recent misunderstanding. He had made plans to go to dinner with her at a Hollywood restaurant called Le Dome. However, Elizabeth Taylor telephoned and invited him to a meal that same evening. Wanting the best of both worlds, Michael asked her if she would like to join him and Diana. Elizabeth, who must be the centre of attention, accepted his offer, as long as Diana met them at the restaurant. In other words, Elizabeth did not want to join Diana's party. She wanted a party of her own. Michael didn't understand the ego game involved in her decision; he just thought she was being friendly. Anyway, the only thing on his mind was how ‘magical’ it would be to have Diana Ross and Elizabeth Taylor sitting at the same table with him.

  Once he and Elizabeth arrived at Le Dome, Michael telephoned Diana to ask her to join them there. Diana was not pleased. She had been under the impression that she was supposed to be his date that evening. ‘This is not the way to do things, Michael,’ she scolded. She told him that the two of them would have to dine some other time, and not with Elizabeth Taylor. She was angry, and Michael knew it; she wouldn't return his calls. It wasn't the right time to ask Diana to record a duet with him. Instead, Quincy recruited singer Siedah Garrett to do the song with Michael, and it would end up the first single release from Bad.

  (A few years later, in 1990, Michael did the same thing to Elizabeth Taylor that he had done to Diana Ross. He was scheduled to have dinner with Elizabeth at the Hotel Bel Air restaurant in Bel Air, California. However, he left her waiting for more than an hour. She ate Sevruga caviar, drank Cristal champagne, waited and became increasingly infuriated. When Michael finally showed up, he explained that he had been in the parking lot in his Rolls, talking on his cellular telephone to Jackie Kennedy Onassis. According to the maître d' who had escorted Michael to her table and was still standing beside him, Elizabeth said, ‘I will not play second fiddle to any woman, not even that woman. How dare you do this to me, Michael?’ Michael protested. ‘But, Elizabeth, I have a gift,’ he offered in his own defence. From his vest pocket, he pulled out a pair of earrings that appeared to be two ovals of turquoise embellished with diamonds. They weren't even in a box. Without a word, Elizabeth grabbed the earrings. She then donned her fur wrap and sunglasses (at night!) and flounced out of the restaurant, leaving Michael standing there with the maître d'. He couldn't help but break out into laughter; it had been one of the best exits he'd ever seen. ‘Oh my God! I can't believe she just did that,’ Michael exclaimed, his face lit with delight. ‘Did you see that? Wow.’)

  *

  For some reason, Michael had his heart set on recording duets for the Bad album, but the plans never seemed to work out for him. While writing the album's title track, he decided he wanted Prince to join him on the recording of it.

  A couple of years earlier, Warner Bros, had sponsored an afternoon screening of the Prince movie Purple Rain for company personnel and film critics. The word in Hollywood was that the film, a drama with music, was so riveting, it would make Prince a major movie star. Michael was deeply disappointed that he had not been able to make a strong impression in films. Being so competitive, he had to see Purple Rain before it was distributed to the public; he arranged to attend the Warner Bros, screening.

  When the house lights dimmed, Michael slipped into the small theatre on the Warner Bros. Burbank lot, wearing a sequined jacket and sunglasses. He looked as if he were about to go on stage to accept an award. He sat in the last row and watched the film, never once taking off his shades. About ten minutes before the movie was to end, he rose and walked out. Later, a member of his entourage asked Michael what he thought of the film. ‘The music's okay, I guess,’ Michael asked. ‘But I don't like Prince. He looks mean, and I don't like the way he treats women. He reminds me of my relatives. And not only that,’ Michael concluded, ‘that guy can't act. He's not good.’ Then, Michael let out a sigh of relief.

  Though he didn't seem to appreciate Prince's talent, Michael realized that singing a duet with him could generate interest not only in the title track, ‘Bad’, but in the entire album. His concept for himself and Prince was actually ingenious.

  The plan was that a month before the single release of ‘Bad’ was to be issued, Frank Dileo would plant stories in the tabloid press suggesting that Michael and Prince were bitter rivals. Michael's representatives would criticize Prince, and then Prince's friends, a few of whom would be let in on the hoax, would condemn Michael. To then confound the public, Frank would then tell a Rolling Stone reporter that the rivalry did not exist and that his client was disgusted with the rumours since he and Prince were great friends, ‘and who believes the tabloids, anyway?’

  In a month, rumours about him and Prince would be flying – are they friends or aren't they? – with the general consensus, hopefully, being that they were not. At the height of such controversy, the ‘Bad’ single and video would be released. In the video, as Michael planned it, he and Prince would square off against one another, taking turns vocalizing and dancing, in order to determine, once and for all, who was ‘bad’.

  Quincy arranged for Michael to meet him, feeling that the two were creative geniuses and should know one another, whether they ever sang together or not. According to writer Quincy Troupe, ‘It was a strange summit. They're so competitive with each other that neither would give anything up. They kind of sat there, checking each other out, but saying very little. It was a fascinating stalemate between two very powerful dudes.’

  However, when Michael telephoned Prince and told him about his idea, Prince was not enthusiastic. He said he wanted to hear a tape of the song. Michael sent him one. After hearing it, Prince decided that he didn't like the tune and wanted nothing to do with the hoax. That was the end of it. When word got back from Prince's representatives that he was not going to cooperate, Michael was disappointed, but not really angry. ‘What do you think about this guy turning you down?’ Frank Dileo asked him.

  ‘Figures,’ was all Michael would say, shaking his head in disgust.

  The Hyperbaric Chamber

  In September 1986, Michael Jackson's Captain EO was set to premiere both at Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida, and at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. It was probably the most expensive and most ballyhooed short subject (seventeen minutes) in film history, and it took over a year to complete it. Captain EO was directed by Francis Coppola. The executive producer was George Lucas. Estimates of the 3-D film's budget ran as high as twenty million dollars. Both parks had to build special theatres for the film with floors that tilted to coincide with the space-age action on the screen. It was also a light-and-sound show, with smoke emanating from the screen. Michael played a space commander with a crew of robots and fuzzy creatures battling a hideous queen (Anjelica Houston). Through song and dance, a planet's inhabitants are transformed into peace-loving creatures. Michael performed two songs, ‘We Are Here to Change the World’ and ‘An
other Part of Me’.

  Michael felt that he needed some kind of dazzling gimmick to promote the film. The publicity designed to create a buzz about Michael and his Captain EO is an excellent example of how he could manipulate the press to do his bidding.

  Earlier, in 1984, when Michael was burned while filming the Pepsi commercial, he saw an oxygen chamber at Brotman Memorial Hospital called a hyperbaric chamber, used to help heal burn victims. The machine is about the size and shape of a casket with a clear, plastic top. It encloses the patient in an atmosphere of one hundred per cent oxygen under increased barometric pressure up to several times the pressure at sea level, thereby flooding body tissue with oxygen. When administered by trained medical personnel, hyperbaric therapy is safe. However, in the hands of the untrained user, risks include oxygen toxicity, seizures and danger of an oxygen-fed fire. When Steven Hoefflin told him that he had a theory that sleeping in this machine could prolong life, Michael became fascinated by it and, immediately, wanted one for himself. The cost was about $200,000.

  Though Michael could well afford it, Frank Dileo talked him out of wasting his money on such a contraption. ‘Well, I'd at least like to have my picture taken in it,’ Michael decided. When Frank arranged for Michael to be photographed in the chamber, at the hospital, word began to spread that he was interested in the chamber and, eventually, the story found its way to the tabloid, National Enquirer. ‘ I had a phone-in from a source in Los Angeles who said that Michael was seen going to a hospital and taking pictures in this chamber,’ said reporter Charles Montgomery who worked for the Enquirer at the time. ‘It sounded like a sensational story. I wanted to be the one to break it.’