‘It was business as usual,’ Frank recalled. ‘Everything was hunky-dory.’
Michael and Frank were inseparable. He was prominently featured on the Bad record jacket, a picture of him and Michael which was captioned ‘another great team’. Michael also devoted a full page to photos of him and Frank in his lavish concert tour booklet. In fact, Frank had often said that he thought of Michael as a son, ‘and he referred to me as a second dad.’
‘I was with the kid every day,’ he recalled. ‘Some days you could have a decent conversation with him. Some days he was on another planet. But I got closer to him than anybody else in his life,’ Frank had even advised Michael about the taboo subject of plastic surgery, telling him that when he was a youngster he, too, had wanted a cleft in his chin like Kirk Douglas. ‘But that’s enough,’ he told Michael. ‘No more surgery.’
After five years of working for him, Frank Dileo may have thought he was in good standing with Michael Jackson, that their relationship was, as he put it, ‘hunky-dory’. He would have been wrong.
Michael Fires Frank Dileo
Three days after the brief telephone conversation about the Jackson – Moonie Project, Frank Dileo was fired. Michael’s publicist, Lee Solters, issued a terse statement: ‘Michael Jackson and Frank Dileo have announced an amicable parting. Jackson said, “I thank Frank for his contribution on my behalf during the past several years.”’
Perhaps Michael felt he had valid reasons for firing Frank, but he did it in a cowardly way: he had John Branca do it.
‘Look, man, I hate to have to be the one to tell you this,’ John said, ‘but Michael doesn’t want to work with you any more.’
‘What? No shit? You’re kiddin’ me, right?’
‘Sorry, Frank,’ John told him. ‘It’s no joke.’
After some more discussion about the matter, Frank said, ‘Okay, fine with me, then. I just want to get paid whatever is owed me, and then I’ll be on my way.’
‘Are you pissed off, Frank?’ John asked. He felt badly about it. He liked Frank and knew that Frank truly cared about Michael.
‘Hell no,’ Frank said, trying to be the tough guy. ‘Look, Johnny, if the kid doesn’t want me, I don’t want to be around. See you later.’ With that, Frank hung up. He then left the weight-reduction centre, ‘because I had to get to work,’ he recalled. ‘I was out of a job.’
The next day, Frank telephoned Kenneth Choi, who was in San Francisco. ‘I just wanted to tell you that Michael and I broke up,’ he said.
‘What? What’s that mean, “broke up”?’ Kenneth asked. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘The kid fired me, I’m tellin’ ya. I’m finished. Ka-put.’
‘Oh,’ Kenneth said. ‘That I understand.’
Immediately, word circulated within Michael Jackson’s camp that Frank had taken the million-dollar reward money, that Michael found out about it, that this was why he fired him. Of course, this was not true. Kenneth Choi later recalled, ‘That impressed me a great deal. Frank said that if Michael did end up going to Korea, then he might take some money as a bonus, but not before.’
‘Frank could have had one million bucks that day, but he didn’t take it,’ Jerome Howard confirmed. ‘He could have accepted the money, never gotten Michael’s signature, and it would have taken a lifetime in court before he’d ever have to return it, if ever. But he’s an honourable man. Later, Frank told me that he very gently talked to Michael about the Korea plan. He said, “You can’t just ask Michael straight out to do something, like Joseph did on the phone. Michael has to be stroked. His ego has to be massaged thoroughly before he will agree to do anything.” I wondered if he had massaged it maybe one time too many…’
Actually, Michael was upset with Frank for a number of reasons.
First of all, Michael felt that Frank had taken too much credit for his success. He was tired of other people taking credit for what he felt was his own destiny. Because Michael refused to be interviewed, Frank had developed a high media profile as his spokesman. Many celebrities – and Michael is one of them – do not like it when their representatives also become celebrities. Michael’s ego is fragile. Frank was becoming too well known for Michael’s taste, giving interviews to the press touting his accomplishments for Michael. Every time he did so, Michael cringed.
‘Frank isn’t even creative,’ Michael told an associate. ‘Let’s face it. I come up with all of the ideas.’
Michael felt that Frank had also become too dictatorial. For instance, when the Bad tour played Pittsburgh, Frank’s hometown, he arranged a gathering so that he could introduce Michael to his close friends and relatives. ‘Michael, I expect you to be there at eight sharp,’ he said. ‘Do you understand?’ He knew Michael well enough to know that he might show up, or he might not. He hoped not to be embarrassed in front of people who mattered to him. ‘So I will expect you there, right?’
Michael didn’t say anything. Later, he complained, ‘Who is he to tell me what to do? Screw that, I tell him what to do.’
Michael showed up, but an hour late, no doubt on purpose. Afterwards, Frank let him have it. ‘You embarrassed me,’ he screamed at him. ‘What’s wrong with you? How could you do that to me?’
Michael seethed as Frank laid into him. Finally, Bill Bray began shouting at Frank to leave Michael alone. ‘Fuck you, man,’ Bill said. ‘He don’t work for you. You work for him. You better check yourself.’ It was an unpleasant scene.
Another matter had to do with a deal that some thought Frank had bungled on Michael’s behalf: a multimillion-dollar contract for domestic theatrical release of Michael’s ninety-minute video Moonwalker (which is part clip compilation and part musical autobiography).
The film features Michael’s innovative video of ‘Leave Me Alone’, in which he spoofed his image by showing a shrine to Elizabeth Taylor, a newspaper headline that read ‘Michael Confides in Chimp’ and a discomforting segment in which he dances with the Elephant Man’s skeleton. In the video, Michael moves through a surreal world of floating chairs, huge chomping teeth and amusement park rides. It took twenty-five people six months to make the four-minute-and-forty-five-second video.
The project cost Michael Jackson about twenty-seven million dollars. Moonwalker was released theatrically in Japan, but not in the United States because of numerous disagreements. It had been reported that Frank was behind the decision not to release Moonwalker domestically, angering international distributors who had bought the film for theatrical releases. When the announcement was made that there would be no domestic deal, many overseas theatres pulled the film, or scaled down its promotion and publicity. This decision cost Michael many millions of dollars in lost box office revenue.
Frank eventually did come up with a multimillion-dollar offer to distribute the film domestically, but someone else in Michael’s organization talked him out of it. Therefore, while Michael may have been angry at the way distribution of Moonwalker was handled, he didn’t blame Frank for it – not entirely, anyway.
Most of Michael’s associates felt that Michael should have been angry at Frank, however, for allowing him to spend twenty-seven million on Moonwalker, a video project whose budget should not have exceeded five million dollars. In the end, the video made approximately thirty million dollars in over-the-counter sales and other deals, another tribute to John Branca’s negotiating savvy and Walter Yetnikoff’s persistence (CBS Music Video Enterprises distributed the tape). No home music video had ever come close to generating that much money for its artist. Still, after Moonwalker, Michael would say that he felt ‘poor’ and didn’t want to spend any more money on major projects ‘for a long, long time’.
Another problem with Frank was that Michael had become disgusted with the tabloid image of himself that he believed Frank was continuing to propagate. But the hyperbaric chamber and Elephant Man’s bones stories were Michael’s ideas – not Frank’s.
One story that appeared in the Star (on 2 August 1988), was particularly distur
bing to Michael: MICHAEL JACKSON BANS 4 PALS FROM TOUR AFTER THEY FLUNK AIDS TEST. The article said that Michael fired four employees because they had tested positive for HIV. ‘I’m really afraid of AIDS,’ Michael was quoted as having said. ‘I think about having lunch with these guys and shaking hands and spending so much time together.’ The article also said that Michael was spending a fortune having his own frozen blood moved around with him wherever he goes. ‘You never know when you may need blood, and the only blood I can be sure of is my own,’ Michael supposedly said.
Apparently, Michael was paying the price for the idea he had had years ago to have a Plexiglas shield constructed between him and his audiences to protect him from germs during the 1984 Victory tour. He realized at the time that the plan was absurd, and dropped it. Someone on his team remembered it, though, and after embellishing it with an HIV twist, then sold it to the tabloid.
The peculiar idea came to Michael during the time, after his burn accident, when he had become fascinated with medicine. He’d become a ravenous reader of medical books and enjoyed reading and hearing about dreadful diseases. For a while, he also became obsessed with learning about different surgeries, going so far as to witness operations at UCLA Medical Center.
‘Michael’s curious about surgery,’ said one former associate. ‘He gets off on it. He can watch for hours. He especially likes to watch plastic surgeries – tummy tucks, liposuctions, he’s into all of that. He has even witnessed brain surgeries.’
While he was interested in medicine, he was not obsessed with catching AIDS and had only empathetic feelings about the disease. ‘When Michael read that report, he became upset,’ said Michael Tucker, a friend of the Jackson family (not the actor). ‘Of all diseases, AIDS is one that Michael is most sensitive about. “Why would they write this about me?” he said. “That isn’t me at all. What if people believe this of me? What are they going to think of me?”
‘He became furious and wanted to know where the report originated. “If I find out that anyone in my organization planted these hurtful stories, that person will be fired. I mean it,” he said.’
It’s not known if Michael fired Frank Dileo because he wanted to end his wacky image in the tabloids. After Frank was gone, though, the stories continued. It wasn’t necessary for anyone on Michael’s staff to plant them; writers just made them up as they went along…
The primary reason Michael dismissed Frank was because he was disappointed that Bad was not as successful as Thriller. It had ‘only’ sold about twenty million copies worldwide, roughly one-fifth of what Michael had hoped for it. Thriller sold twenty-four million in the United States; Bad sold six million.
‘Michael was pissed off,’ said one friend of Frank Dileo’s. ‘He had his heart set on another huge album. When he didn’t get what he wanted, he acted like a spoiled, little kid. He threw temper tantrums. He cried. He can be very dramatic. Frank had his hands full. He had a lot to deal with.’
‘But we did the best we could,’ Frank said of Bad. ‘We made the best album and the best videos we could. We don’t have anything to be ashamed of.’ While that may be true, some were whispering in Michael’s ear that Frank should have done a better job. Doubt began to creep into Michael’s mind. He had to blame someone for what he thought was a weak showing for Bad. Therefore, he blamed Frank Dileo.
About a year later, Frank would say there was ‘No warning. Did it anger me? Yes. The way it was done was an insult. He took away my faith in people. For a long time, I’ve not been as trusting.’
Frank felt that the least Michael could have done was fire him personally. However, Michael is not a sentimental person, and never has been one. To Michael, Frank was not ‘a second father’. Rather, he was a capable businessman who had, in Michael’s view, exhausted his usefulness.
Michael’s Mother Gets the Reward Money
After Frank Dileo’s firing, Katherine Jackson’s campaign to get Michael Jackson to go to Korea with his brothers continued, but Michael could not be swayed.
Now that Frank was out of the picture, Jerome Howard telephoned Michael’s accountant, Marshall Gelfand, to ask for help in getting Michael to commit to the Korean venture. ‘By all means,’ Marshall told Jerome. ‘We’re always looking for ways to make extra money for Michael. Call John Branca, tell him I told you to call, and he’ll convince Michael. Michael loves to work, so sure, he’ll go.’
‘At this time, the Koreans said, “But what if he won’t go?” They were panicking,’ Jerome recalled. ‘“Fine, then offer him ten million to come,” they said. That’s ten million above the seven point five million the brothers would get and split among themselves. And they said they were going to give him an airplane from Korean Airlines to travel in, and another plane for the brothers. This way, Michael wouldn’t have to even see his brothers, except onstage. I faxed all of this to John Branca, who got back to me right away and said, “No, Michael doesn’t want to go.” So, then the Koreans sent a gold bust statue of Michael over to him to try to convince him. Still, Michael wouldn’t budge. He didn’t want to go, but no one was listening to the guy.
‘Then the Koreans offered me a gift, a car, because they thought I might have some influence on Michael, which I did not have,’ Jerome continued. ‘I already had three cars; I didn’t need another. But they wanted to buy me a seventy-thousand-dollar Mercedes. I told Katherine and Joseph, and Joseph said, “They’re not gonna buy you no car.” Well, the Jacksons weren’t paying me any more, so I accepted the Mercedes. When I drove that Mercedes on to the Jacksons’ property, Katherine was happy for me. I told her I was going to sell the car and use the money to cover my expenses until she and Joseph could pay me again. She said, “No, you need that car for business. They gave you that car. You keep it and don’t you ever sell it.” But Joseph was pissed off, because they gave me a car but didn’t give him one. “Those are our kids, Katherine. Why should Jerome get a car, but we get no car?” he wanted to know. From that time on, Joseph’s attitude about me began to change. I began to feel I was about to get cut out of the deal.’
The Koreans still felt that if anyone could talk Michael into going on this tour, Katherine could. Therefore, they upped the ante and actually gave her the million-dollar bounty – on condition that she get her son’s signature on the contract within fourteen days. Jerome Howard handed Katherine the two $500,000 cashier’s cheques.
‘I don’t want that money, Jerome,’ Katherine insisted. ‘Don’t give it to me.’
‘If I don’t give it to you, then I have to give it to Joseph,’ Jerome warned her. Katherine took the money.
‘Do you think you can convince Michael?’ he asked.
‘Well, I can only try,’ Katherine said. ‘Michael has a mind of his own, you know.’ She shook her head in disbelief. ‘A million dollars, I guess we have come a long way.’
Joseph never imagined that Katherine had a million dollars stashed away somewhere in Hayvenhurst. Jerome Howard feared that if Joseph knew about it, he would have cashed the cheques immediately, signature or no signature from his son. Katherine apparently agreed, because she did not tell him she was in possession of the reward money. If she got Michael’s signature on the contract, she said, she fully intended to give Joseph half of the reward.
In the last year, Michael had made over sixty-five million dollars. According to Forbes magazine, he had been one the highest-paid entertainers in the world in 1988. He could be generous when he wanted to be, but when it came to his family, he had reservations. However, his family needed his help and believed that Michael should come to their rescue.
It’s true that the brothers did feel that Michael owed them. ‘Michael is very popular right now,’ Jermaine said at the time, ‘and I feel I’ve contributed a major part to it. Not just me, but my brothers too. What’s happened to Michael has a lot to do with what we all did as The Jackson 5.’
In March 1989, Jerome Howard and Kenneth Choi were at the Jacksons’ estate in Encino with Katherine, Joseph and Jerma
ine, discussing the problem at hand. ‘I think the best thing would be for him to get closer to his family,’ Jermaine said. ‘Once you make so much money, it’s just another dollar. At some point, you have to start looking at the important things, like love, family and health.’
As they were talking, the phone rang. Katherine took the call upstairs. Joseph followed.
A few minutes later, Katherine came running down the stairs, huffing and puffing and saying, ‘Michael’s on the phone. Michael’s on the phone! Joseph’s talking to him right now.’ Jerome Howard recalled, ‘She was very worked up about it.’
Jermaine ran to the staircase where Katherine was standing and, in a very excited tone, said to her, ‘Mother, let Kenneth talk to Michael. Let Kenneth try to convince him. After all, he convinced you and Joseph in the first place. He should talk to Michael.’
Katherine was sceptical. ‘I don’t know if that’s a good idea,’ she said as she ran back up the stairs. It was all so… frantic. ‘But pick up the phone and try,’ she hollered back at them. ‘It can’t hurt.’
According to Jerome, Jermaine ran back over to Kenneth. ‘Look, man, you gotta persuade Michael.’
‘But… how?’ Kenneth asked, helplessly. ‘How do I do this?’ He looked bewildered.
‘Man, I don’t know,’ Jermaine answered. His brow was furrowed; it looked like he was trying to think of something, quickly. ‘But you gotta do it. Cry on the phone to him if you have to,’ he said, facetiously. ‘Whatever. Just do it, man. Do it.’
Kenneth Choi picked up the telephone.
‘Michael, please, my country wants you to come and perform,’ he said in broken English.
There was a pause. Apparently, Michael was explaining why he didn’t want to do the tour.
‘But, please, Michael, I beg of you…’
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