Michael Jackson

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  ‘They came back with a contract that was so wild I couldn't believe it,’ Jerome said. ‘They wanted Michael to begin the show by singing the Korean national anthem and then perform three Korean numbers in Korean costumes. I looked at that contract and thought, Oh, man, this is ridiculous. Michael is not going to learn any Korean songs, and he is certainly not about to wear any Korean wardrobe onstage! When I showed the deal to Joseph and Katherine, they busted up laughing and were almost rolling on the floor. “I want to see Michael sing in Korean,” Joseph said. “Now, that is too much! It's gonna be hard enough to convince him to go along with this, but wait'll we tell him he has to learn Korean.”’

  Jerome negotiated an outstanding deal. The Jacksons would perform for four nights, one two-hour show each night, at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, for which they would be paid $7.5 million. There would also be a $1.5 million production budget; whatever was not spent of that budget would go to the Jacksons. One hundred per cent of the profits from broadcasting rights outside of Korea and 50 per cent of the merchandising profits would also belong to the family. However, the Moonies would hold broadcasting and video rights in Korea, as well as 100 per cent of the ticket sales. The clauses about the Korean songs and costumes were deleted from the contract. There was further talk that the Moonies hoped to send Michael and his brothers to Russia and China, and would offer them up to thirty million dollars in advance for those tours. Joseph, Jerome and Kwak signed the contract. Katherine didn't sign; she doesn't sign anything, which is why she is the one with good credit, and not Joseph.

  ‘The Jackson – Moonie Project,’ which is what it became known as among the family members, had become a major, multimillion-dollar proposition for the family. As it happened, most of them needed the money.

  Janet and LaToya were not approached because the Koreans only wanted the brothers, plus Janet was immersed in the recording of a new album for A&M and would never have toured with the family at this stage of her life. Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Randy would not be a problem, or at least that's what Joseph and Katherine speculated. Rebbie had consented to appear but, again, this tour was only for the brothers. Of course, the entire deal was contingent upon getting Michael, who was in Europe on the Bad tour at the time, to agree to it.

  ‘How will we get Michael to do this?’ Jerome asked Joseph.

  Joseph turned to Katherine with a smile. ‘The question,’ he said, ‘is how will she get Michael to do this?’

  ‘But what about Michael?’

  In September 1988, Michael telephoned Katherine and Joseph from Liverpool. He was lonely, and missed his family. His tone was weary. ‘I need a break. I've been thinking about all of us. The family is falling apart, do you know that?’

  Katherine told Michael she agreed with him. ‘What can I do, Michael?’ she asked.

  Michael let out a long sigh. ‘I'll talk to you and Joseph when I get back,’ he offered.

  He asked to speak to Joseph. Michael then apologized to his father for some of the material written in his autobiography, Moonwalk, which had eventually been published by Doubleday. He explained that he hadn't written the book himself, and that the critical portions were written by ‘someone else’. Whenever Michael is publicly critical of Joseph, he feels badly.

  Joseph wanted to know if Michael was planning to rejoin his brothers after the Bad tour. Why, one might wonder, would he try to push that sensitive issue when Michael was clearly reaching out to him? Michael was firm about it; he told him he didn't want to rejoin the brothers, ‘and please don't push me about it.’ Joseph then told Michael that anything he had ever heard about him wanting to exploit him or profit from his success was simply not true. ‘I don't want to be involved in your business, Michael,’ Joseph said, according to Katherine's memory. ‘I have money problems, yeah. But all I want is for us to be a family again. Don't you want that?’

  ‘I do want that,’ Michael said. ‘I really do, Joseph.’

  The conversation ended on a hopeful note. Katherine and Joseph felt optimistic that they would soon have their son back. For Joseph, the timing couldn't have been better. He was in serious financial trouble after having lost $700,000 in bad oil well investments, and over $250,000 in his JoCola beverage company. Plus, a judgement had been entered against him. Three years earlier he had entered into an agreement with real estate developer and entrepreneur Gary Berwin to purchase the Berwin Entertainment Center complex in Hollywood for $7.1 million. ‘Joseph indicated that money was not a problem,’ said Gary. ‘I had no reason to doubt him. Michael had just bought The Beatles' catalogue for forty-seven million dollars, so I believed that the family had access to money. In fact, Joseph laughed when I brought up the question of finances. “With the kind of family I've got, money's no object,” he said.’

  Gary and Joseph entered into a deal by which Gary would own 15 per cent of the real estate, Joseph the other 85 per cent. The two would be equal partners in a recording studio, nightclub and private club in the building. Joseph shamelessly bandied about the notion that Michael would somehow be involved. ‘He told me that Michael would come and visit the club often, and that his presence alone would make the place a success,’ Gary said. ‘He said that Michael could come in through the guard gates, take the private elevator, and no one would know when he was coming or going, which Michael would like. He said that access to the recording studio would be secretive, which was also good for Michael.’

  ‘What makes you so sure that Michael is going to want to be involved in this?’ Gary asked.

  ‘Look, if I'm involved, then it's a known fact Michael Jackson will be involved,’ Joe answered, confidentially. ‘You can bank on it. If I'm here and Katherine's here, Michael's here.’

  Joseph decided to pay for the building in cash, rather than attempt to secure a mortgage with his poor credit. He wrote a cheque for the full $7.1 million and gave it to Gary, telling him not to deposit it ‘until Friday’. On Friday, he called and told him to ‘wait until Monday’. On Monday, he called and said ‘wait until Friday’. This went on for a few weeks until, finally, Gary deposited the cheque – which was promptly returned for lack of funds.

  A year later, the matter was resolved in court; it was ruled that Joseph had to either buy the property or be responsible for damages incurred by his having stalled the sale to another buyer. He could not afford to buy it. Gary said, ‘We finally got Michael served to find out if and how he had led his father into thinking he would help out. He was in a limousine at the time, and somebody walked up to him and handed him a paper. He went to sign it, thinking the person wanted an autograph. It was a summons.’ One can only imagine Michael's annoyance, to be served a summons in a bad business deal involving his father. It certainly wasn't the first time, nor was it the last. He ignored the demand to appear for a deposition.

  In October 1988, damages to Gary Berwin had been assessed at three million dollars. Since Joseph did not have the money, Gary obtained a judgement against him. To this day, he has not collected on it. ‘It was a debacle,’ he said, ‘and all because I got myself into this Jackson family mess. It was the sorriest thing I'd ever done in my life.

  ‘I couldn't imagine that Michael Jackson, who earns all of these millions, could not give his father the money. I couldn't believe that he would let his father go down like that. This building would have put Joseph on his feet once and for all, and independently of the family. He would never have had to deal with the kids any more, professionally. I tried to appeal not only to Michael but also to the other kids, all of whom are isolated by hard-nosed lawyers. Not one of them cared about Joseph's security. As much as I grew to dislike Joseph, I also felt sorry for him.’

  In fact, Michael never misled his father into thinking he would assist him in the investment. Joseph had telephoned Michael before he attempted to buy the complex to ask for assistance. Michael made it clear to him that he wanted nothing to do with it and warned Joseph not to get involved in it. Still, Joseph wrote the cheque out… and
then hoped to find a way to cover it. When he couldn't, he called Michael, again. ‘It's only a few million bucks,’ Joseph said. ‘Help me out, Michael.’

  Michael said no, absolutely not. He was not going to bail his father out, and he could not be convinced to do so, even by Katherine. ‘He has to learn,’ Michael told one of his associates. ‘If I give him the money, he'll be back for more, and more, and more. Damn it, I'm just not going to do it. I'm not doing it.’

  Joseph also asked some of his other children for help, including Janet, all of whom told him they could not, or would not, assist him. Perhaps they didn't think the investment was a good one, considering Joseph's track record. Larry Anderson, a friend of Joseph's for fifteen years, explained, ‘Joseph loves his kids. He hoped they would help out. It seems like a lot of money, but really it isn't when you think of all that was made in that family.’

  By December 1988, the proposed Jackson reunion shows in Korea had to come to pass, or Joseph Jackson would forever have the large Berwin judgement hanging over his head. ‘I met with Jerome Howard,’ Gary Berwin said. ‘We started comparing notes on how this wacky family was being run. In the final analysis, it didn't look good for either one of us.’

  At this time, Michael was in Japan on his Bad tour. Joseph thought if he could obtain his brothers' cooperation, he may have some leverage with which to obtain Michael's. Therefore, a Jackson family meeting was set up at Hayvenhurst, in the family's movie theatre.

  First, Joseph and Katherine spoke to Jackie, Tito, Marlon, Randy, Jermaine and Jermaine's fiancée, Margaret Maldonado. (Jermaine and Hazel divorced in July 1988. He and Margaret would eventually have a second child.) The brothers had to be approached carefully, on the chance they might not agree to go to Korea. For Joseph, it was as if he was going into the lion's den, that's how suspicious the brothers were of him and of anyone who would have anything to do with him – like Jerome Howard. After about two hours, a relieved Joseph came out of the theatre. He was sweating, as if he'd just run a triathlon.

  ‘So, now, look,’ he told Jerome, who had been waiting for him in the living room. ‘You go in there and do what you can. But don't talk to them about nothing but contracts. Don't mention the Moonies and all that stuff, 'cause then they're not gonna want to do it. Just talk to them about all the money they're gonna make. That's it.’

  When Jerome went into the thirty-two-seat theatre, he found Jackson family members scattered all about it. ‘I thought, Damn! These people don't eyen want to sit near each other,’ Jerome recalled.

  Jerome stood in front of the screen and delivered a speech about the proposed concerts. He talked about the millions that could be made, and how much publicity could be generated. He didn't mention the Moonies, or much about the financial backing other than Kenneth Choi's involvement. Immediately afterwards, Marlon rose from his chair. ‘No way,’ he said. ‘Forget it. No more family tours for me. I don't care how many millions are involved, I learned my lesson the last time. Count me out.’

  Marlon was finished with The Jacksons, and he had ambivalent feelings about Michael. The brothers had hoped to go with Michael on the Bad tour, if not in a full-reunion capacity, maybe just as part of the act, singing a medley of old hits. Michael was elusive about the possibility, and never actually said that he wouldn't be using them on the show. He's the one who had mentioned it to them but, given the family dynamic, who knows – or remembers – why. In the end, though, he decided against the idea. ‘I'd hear from friends what was going on,’ Marlon complained later, in an interview. ‘If he didn't want to tell me the truth, he shouldn't have said anything. But instead, he lies. The last time I got a straight answer from Michael was back in 1984.’ No doubt, Marlon was still stung from the most recent fib Michael had told him, which was that he was not moving out of Hayvenhurst and into Neverland.

  Still, Marlon had a warm spot in his heart for his brother. When he had trouble extricating himself from his mediocre CBS recording contract, Michael called the company's president Walter Yetnikoff and secured his brother's release. ‘I just don't want anything to further ruin the way I feel about Mike,’ he said. ‘I don't think we should work together. It's better when we don't.’

  ‘Well, too bad for you,’ Jackie said to Marlon. ‘Because I'm in.’

  ‘Me too,’ said Randy.

  Jermaine conferred with Margaret; the two whispered back and forth to each other, urgently. ‘Okay,’ he said, finally. ‘I'm in, too.’

  ‘Count me in too,’ Tito piped up.

  ‘But what about Michael?’ Randy wanted to know. ‘What are we gonna do about Michael?’

  ‘We don't need him,’ Jackie said. ‘We can do it ourselves, without him.’

  Katherine agreed. ‘Oh, let's not bring Michael into this,’ she said. ‘Please. Isn't there some way to do this without him?’

  Jerome shook his head. He had to be careful how he put it, but the fact was that the Olympic Stadium in Seoul seats sixty thousand people, and the brothers would not be able to fill it on their own. They'd never performed without Michael, and this was no time to start. Besides, the Koreans wanted Michael Jackson a lot more than they wanted the rest of them. ‘I think it would be best if we approached Michael,’ Jerome said cautiously. ‘We should at least give him the opportunity we have to make this much money.’

  ‘Look, just leave him to Mother and me,’ Jermaine offered, impatiently. ‘We'll talk him into it.’

  ‘How?’ Randy wanted to know.

  Jermaine turned to Katherine. She took a deep breath and sighed wearily. ‘I'll see what I can do,’ she said. ‘I'm just afraid that if we push too hard, we'll lose Michael forever. And then, what will we do?’

  ‘Attack him – with love’

  The final date of Michael Jackson's Bad tour was at the end of January in 1989 at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor, Dionne Warwick, and many other celebrities attended the concerts, as well as Katherine and Janet Jackson. Michael dedicated his Motown hits medley to Berry Gordy, who was sitting with Diahann Carroll and Suzanne dePasse. 4.5 million people had paid to see Michael perform since the tour began in September 1987. Over the last year and a half, he had performed 123 concerts in fifteen countries on four continents. The show's weekly expenses were between $500,000 and $650,000. The tour grossed over $125 million at the box office.

  It hadn’t been all work, however. ‘He would always take time to see the sights,’ recalled Seth Riggs. ‘When we were rehearsing in Liverpool, he stopped the practice session so that we could look at some beautiful clouds that had wafted in. That’s Michael. They closed down the Louvre in Paris for a whole day while Michael and the rest of us went through. In Rome, Franco Zeffirelli gave him a big party. All of the crème de la crème were there, and suddenly Zeffirelli couldn’t find Michael. He looked all over and found Michael in a room with a bunch of little kids in their pyjamas, playing. He’s the most natural, loving person I’ve ever known, a very good person, as corny as that sounds,’ continued Riggs, who still works with Michael on a regular basis.

  ‘He’ll see a picture of a baby, and if it’s a cute kid, he will go gaga over the picture. During the tour, on his nights off, he would go into a toy store and buy ten of this and ten of that and then stay up all night long putting batteries into toys, making certain each one worked so that he could have them ready to give to kids backstage the next day. As if he didn’t have enough to worry about.’

  On one leg of the tour, Michael brought along his ten-year-old friend, Jimmy Safechuck. Michael had a copy of one of his stage uniforms made for Jimmy so that they could dress alike. Most people found the relationship strange, especially when Michael would take him on shopping sprees. He spent thousands of dollars on toys for Jimmy in London. At one point, Michael had to cancel two shows because he caught a cold from the kid.

  Another young friend of Michael’s, Jonathan Spence, said, ‘When we hang out. He’s just like any other guy. He never talks about himself, only about what is going
on with others. We never talk about show business. Sometimes he’ll put on a disguise when we’re in public. When we go to Disneyland, we’ll go through the back and take all the alleys and back ways and get in front of the lines. He can’t wait in the line, no way. He would cause a riot. We move fast through Disneyland; if people get a good look at him, that’ll be it for that outing.

  ‘He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever known. He’s smart. He knows a lot about everything. He’s a kid. He never really had a childhood, and he’s having it now. The stuff I read in the papers about him, I know it’s all a bunch of B.S. I just ignore it. A couple of times I’ve asked him about girlfriends and stuff, but we never really get into that. We don’t talk about the plastic surgery either, because it’s none of my business. He never brings it up. It’s not like he says, “Well, how do you like my new chin?” It’s hard to get in touch with him, though. I usually have to call his secretary, and then a couple of days later, he’ll call me.’

  After Michael gave Jimmy Safechuck’s parents a hundred-thousand-dollar Rolls-Royce, Frank Dileo became concerned about the way it looked. It seemed inappropriate. He suggested that Michael break off his friendship with Jimmy. Michael was hurt, then angry. ‘No way,’ he told Frank. ‘Forget it.’

  ‘But I don’t like it, Michael,’ Frank insisted. ‘It looks bad, you and all these kids.’

  ‘Mind your own business then,’ Michael snapped back, ‘and maybe it won’t look so bad. How’s that sound?’

  With the tour finished, Michael and Jimmy holed up at Neverland, recharging their batteries, so to speak. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Michael, someone named Kenneth Choi wanted his signature on the contract for the Jackson – Moonies Project. ‘I was getting faxes left and right,’ Jerome Howard recalled. ‘The heat was on. We had to get Michael. But the timing was wrong. It was a bad time to approach him.’