Michael Jackson

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  ‘So, how do you like my home?’ It was Michael, walking into the room, flashing a smile of genuine pride and satisfaction, and holding a tray with four soft-drink bottles. ‘I was going to put them in glasses,’ he said of the refreshments. ‘But I couldn’t find any in the kitchen,’ he joked. ‘I’ve been gone so long, I was lucky to even find the kitchen.’ He was funny, June later recalled, funnier than she imagined he would be.

  For the rest of the day, June, Jordie and Lily played games, swam, zipped about in the master’s $7,000 black-and-lavender golf cart, and then watched first-run films (loaned to Michael by major Hollywood studios) late into the evening in his private screening room. The next day, Michael took them all to a toy store an hour away, which had been closed by the managers for a few hours to allow the Jackson party private shopping time. ‘You can have anything you want,’ Michael told Jordie and Lily. As June watched, the two children ran through the store, pulling more than ten thousand dollars’ worth of toys from the shelves and piling them into three shopping carts.

  Saturday night was spent enjoying Michael’s amusement park under a full and magical moon, first on the rollercoaster and then the Ferris wheel. When the cart carrying Michael, Jordie, June and Lily got to the top of the Ferris wheel, the operator stopped the rotation, just as Michael had earlier instructed. The four of them then sat high above the ground – June, Michael and Jordie shoulder-to-shoulder, and Lily on her mother’s lap – surveying all that was Michael’s pride-and-joy. A slight breeze rustled the leaves of old trees. There seemed to be twinkling lights as far as the eye could see. ‘I don’t know where there are more lights,’ June said, breathlessly, ‘in the sky or on the ground.’ All four were lost in their own thoughts as they sat in silence, the moon bathing them with silvery radiance. However, Michael looked glum in the dim light.

  ‘Do you know how much time I spend up here alone,’ Michael said, softly, ‘just sitting up here by myself? I have all of this,’ he declared, motioning to the acres below, ‘yet I have… nothing. The things I really want in my life are the things I don’t have.’

  ‘You have us, now,’ Jordie said, putting his arm around Michael’s shoulder.

  Michael smiled. ‘My new little family,’ he concluded. ‘The only thing that matters in life is having someone who understands you, who trusts you and who will be with you when you grow old, no matter what.’

  On Sunday morning, June, Jordie and Lily departed for Los Angeles after their unforgettable weekend. Another visit was planned.

  The following Saturday night, Michael showed up at June’s home in a limousine ready to whisk them back to Neverland. However, when June, Jordie and Lily got into the stretch automobile and greeted Michael, they discovered another boy sitting on the singer’s lap, eleven-year-old Brett Barnes, who Michael introduced as his ‘cousin’. (They’re not related even though the youngster did introduce himself as ‘Brett Jackson’.) Apparently, Jordie would not be the sole focus of Michael’s attention during the weekend ahead.

  As June tried to keep the conversation going, Brett and Michael appeared to be in their own world with an easy rapport between them, one that made what Michael had with Jordie seem, perhaps, not so unique. It was a tense drive to Santa Barbara.

  When Michael and his guests finally arrived at Neverland, they were immediately surrounded by uniformed guards, maids, butlers and other functionaries, all gathering and grinning to one another excitedly. Michael nodded and smiled and shook hands. He then instructed two of the guards to take June’s suitcases to one of the guest cottages. ‘Oh, and Brett’s belongings go in my room,’ he added nonchalantly as Brett ran off with one of the maids. Michael then embraced and kissed his remaining guests. ‘You have Neverland at your disposal,’ he told June, ‘so have a ball. I love you all,’ he said with genuine warmth. ‘And just wait,’ he added, ‘tomorrow will be another great day.’

  ‘Never do that again, Jordie’

  Like many celebrated people, at his core, Michael Jackson was conscious of a certain emptiness. He admitted it, and often; it didn’t take much prodding for him to describe himself as ‘the loneliest person on the planet’. Over the years, especially as he got older, bleakness crept into his soul. When he was on stage, he came to life and was without peer; offstage, he felt… joyless. However, when he met Jordie Chandler, all of that seemed to change.

  ‘Michael is a sad person,’ confirmed someone who has been associated with him for twenty years. ‘He has had a difficult life, always been a loner, a misfit. If he hadn’t become a star, he would be the guy living in Gary, Indiana, alone in a one-bedroom apartment with no friends and a job developing film at a photolab. What really attracted Michael to Jordie, was the youngster’s humour. Whenever a person can make him laugh, that’s someone he will want in his life. Jordie made him laugh. He would make fun of Michael, of the way he dressed, of his clumsiness, his driving. Michael was amused by Jordie’s irreverent manner. He felt he could be himself around him.

  ‘They used to dance together, Michael showing Jordie choreography steps and Jordie catching on remarkably fast. Jordie was intelligent; Michael loves smart kids and Jordie was tremendously creative. Michael said that Jordie could one day be an amazing film director. “He has a vision,” he told me. “I think he could do wonderful things.”’

  They probably would have been a perfect couple of buddies – if not for the fact that Jordie was thirteen and Michael was thirty-four.

  ‘I truly don’t think there’s a devious bone in his body,’ June said of Michael. If she thought anything was unusual about Michael and Brett at Neverland, she didn’t indicate as much after she and her family returned to Los Angeles.

  It wasn’t long before Michael invited them all to his ‘hide-out’ on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood, about ten minutes from June and Dave Schwartz’s home. ‘Do you have an amusement park there, too?’ Jordie asked him. Michael laughed, ‘No, silly. It’s just my place to go where no one can find me.’ Then, lowering his voice as if to share an important confidence, he added, ‘As soon as someone finds out about it – whoosh! – I move to another hide-out. Once,’ he continued, ‘a person knocked on my door that I didn’t know and – whoosh! – I moved to another hide-out, the next day.’

  Why?’

  ‘Because if one stranger knows where I live,’ Michael answered, ‘then millions more will follow.’

  ‘So how many hide-outs have you had?’ Jordie asked.

  ‘Hundreds,’ Michael said, grinning. ‘Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds.’

  Jordie, Lily and June had fun at Michael’s hide-out, as expected, and, as the days passed, became privy to more of his secrets. For instance, on 9 March, Michael was honoured with a Soul Train award for Best Album (Dangerous) and Best Song (‘Remember the Time’). At the show, he sat in a wheelchair on the stage and performed ‘Remember the Time’ while surrounded by a host of dancers. He explained that he had hurt himself during rehearsals.

  However, the next day at Neverland, he threw the crutches aside. ‘It’s a miracle! I can walk! I can walk!’ Michael exclaimed, the jokester in him coming forth. Michael had never been injured; it appeared he had used the wheelchair and crutches as a publicity gimmick.

  A couple of days later, Michael took Jordie, Lily and their mother to Las Vegas where they all stayed at Jackson’s private, $3,000-a-night suite in the Mirage Hotel. Michael and Jordie stayed in separate rooms, while June and Lily shared another suite.

  The night after their arrival, June and Lily turned in early, exhausted by their fun time in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Michael and Jordie watched The Exorcist. Jordie was so frightened by the film, he asked – or Michael suggested, depending on which of them tells the story – that he be allowed to stay with Michael in his room. In whatever manner the circumstances evolved, the two ended up sleeping together, Michael in silk pyjamas, Jordie in a T-shirt and sweat pants.

  The next morning, when June went to Jordie’s bedroom she found that he had not slept in his
bed. As she stood in the doorway trying to figure out what had happened, she caught Jordie slipping out of Michael’s room. ‘What is going on?’ she asked. ‘Where were you?’

  ‘Oh, I slept with Michael,’ answered the boy, casually, according to a later recollection.

  ‘What?’ June exclaimed. ‘What are you talking about? You don’t do that,’ she said, now scolding him. ‘Never do that again, Jordie.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because it’s not right,’ June said, upset. ‘Promise me you will never do that again, ever, Jordie.’

  ‘But, Mom – ’

  ‘But, nothing,’ she cut him off. ‘Promise me!’

  ‘I promise,’ said Jordie, sounding defeated.

  The next day, Jordie told Michael about June’s concern. Now, Michael was the one who was upset. He didn’t understand why June would so object to his sleeping with her son. Did she not trust him? With Dave Schwartz not around the house, it seemed right that Jordie have a male influence, Michael reasoned. He decided to take up the matter with June. According to what June later recalled, Michael pulled her aside and, fixing her with an earnest look, said, ‘Jordie and I share a special and innocent friendship. Why did you tell him he can’t sleep with me?’

  ‘Because it’s completely inappropriate, Michael,’ June said, holding her ground. ‘And I don’t want Jordie to be hurt.’

  ‘But I’m not like that,’ Michael said. ‘How could you think I would hurt Jordie?’ he asked. ‘We have a friendly, honest, true and loving relationship.’ Michael then told June his theory about ‘conditioning’. That children are innocent until conditioned by the world to be otherwise, at which point they become cynical, judgemental adults who lie, cheat, gossip and treat each other poorly. It would be his desire, he said, that Jordie remain pure and untouched by the adult world, unconditioned. Michael began to cry.

  June didn’t know how to respond to Michael’s heart-felt monologue. His theory, while idealistic and naive, was probably harmless. However, there was still something disconcerting about the proposition that Jordie never be permitted to grow into a well-adjusted adult. After all, it couldn’t always be moonbeams and lollipops for her son. Did she really want him to end up like the thirty-four-year-old man standing before her, sobbing? Or, was she now just being ‘cynical and judgemental’, thereby proving Michael’s point? At a loss, she apologized to Michael for hurting his feelings. The two embraced. ‘You must trust me,’ Michael said.

  ‘I do,’ June assured him. ‘I do trust you.’

  The next day, Michael gave June a $12,000 ruby-and-diamond bracelet from Carrier’s. June stared at him as he presented the gift, dumbfounded. ‘A token,’ Michael told her. ‘It’s nothing. I just love you.’

  Afterwards, Michael continued telephoning and visiting Jordie, with June’s approval and much to the astonishment of many in the Chandler and Schwartz families. Why would a wealthy, world-famous and busy superstar work so diligently to forge a deep and meaningful bond with one of his teenage fans? No one seemed to have the answer to that question. However, the scenario wasn’t quite as odd to those witnessing it from Michael’s camp. Many of them had seen young friends of Michael’s come and go over the years and had long ago learned not to question their employer about it. Though clearly obsessed with certain boys along the way, no one ever saw him do anything inappropriate with them, no one ever accused him of anything improper… and, so, that was the end of it. The explanation always had something to do with Michael’s ‘lost childhood’ and his having young friends because they were innocent and trusting… a bit of a tiresome excuse. Therapy might have been a better way to go but, as one of his long-time associates put it, ‘Don’t even go there with Michael.’

  On Friday, 2 April Jordie Chandler and his mother and sister again went to Neverland to visit Michael. While there, they noticed that a pair of mannequins, both dressed as fierce-looking Sikh Indian guards, had been positioned in front of the heavy, mahogany double-doors leading to Michael’s bedroom. Michael said he had them placed there in order to keep ghosts away from the room.

  Inside his bedroom, Michael had a giant, gold throne placed directly in front of the fireplace. It was very strange.

  That night, June and Lily stayed in the guest quarters. Jordie stayed with Michael in a room fit for a king.

  Either Jordie’s Mom Trusts Michael… or She Doesn’t

  June Chandler spent much of the next five days at Neverland walking alone and mulling over the odd goings-on. On one hand, she trusted Michael and didn’t believe that anything inappropriate was going on between him and Jordie. But the fact that Michael and Jordie were now sleeping in the same bed was troubling. However, it was Michael Jackson with whom Jodie was sharing a bed. Michael Jackson. June and her children were staying at Neverland, receiving expensive presents and being treated like royalty. She was swept away by it. Today, a parent might conclude that precisely because it is Michael Jackson with whom he or she is dealing, she might have had good reason to err on the side of caution if only because of his controversial reputation with children – deserved or undeserved. However, ten years ago, June simply did not know what to make of the situation. Therefore, she allowed it to continue, especially since her husband was not living with her and the children and, she reasoned, a strong male influence on Jordie might not be a bad thing.

  Michael accompanied June, Jordie and Lily in the limousine back to Los Angeles. However, he did not then return to Santa Barbara, deciding instead to retreat to his Westwood hideaway. He had a medical problem, and needed to be close to his dermatologist.

  In fact, a week or so earlier, Michael had decided to bleach his scrotum with Benoquin, a bleaching cream prescribed to him many times over the years by his dermatologist, Dr Arnie Klein. Michael had been using the cream for years to bleach his skin. However apparently, he had never tried it on his scrotum. As it happened, the cream burned and stung, causing a great deal of discomfort. Debbie Rowe, the assistant to Michael’s dermatologist attended to him. To show his gratitude, Michael gave Debbie a white GMC truck.

  No sooner was Michael settled in at his home that he began to long for Jordie. He had to speak to him; he called him.

  June didn’t like the way the conversation unfolded as she listened to her son’s end of it. He responded to questions with what sounded like a code of simple answers, ‘yes,’ ‘no’ and ‘maybe’. When he hung up, June asked him what he and Michael had discussed. He was evasive.

  Five minutes later, Michael’s telephone rang. It was June calling to tell him that, again, she was concerned about his relationship with Jordie. Michael was bewildered. Hadn’t they already covered this territory? Either she trusted him, or she didn’t… however, she had to make a choice, as Michael told her.

  Michael suggested that she come to his hide-out so that they could discuss the matter personally. When June arrived, she found Michael in his pyjamas. Once again he pleaded with June to give him a chance.

  He had often been misunderstood in the past, he told her, and he truly did care about her and her children. Hadn’t he proved as much? It seemed unfair, Michael pointed out, that after all he had done for her and her family she would now doubt his motives. He had only been kind and generous to them, he reminded her. June had to agree.

  Michael then told June that he was lonely at his hide-out and asked if she would take him back to her home. She complied. Without changing from his pyjamas, Michael got into the car with her. It’s no wonder, as she later told it, that she felt as if she was dealing not with an adult, but with a child.

  Once at the Schwartz home, June suggested that Michael retire to one of the guest rooms. However, perhaps testing her to see if she really did trust him, Michael asked that he be allowed to sleep in Jordie’s bed… with Jordie.

  The next weekend, June, Jordie and Lily were again guests of Michael’s at Neverland. The weekend after that one, Michael had to leave Los Angeles on a business trip. He didn’t want to go, telling his associates t
hat he had become so attached to Jordie and his family that he couldn’t bear to leave them. At the Burbank airport Michael sobbed as he hugged Jordie, telling him that he would ‘do anything’ to not have to go to Philadelphia. ‘I’m going to miss you so much,’ he told the youngster, as June and Lily looked on.

  ‘But you’ll be back soon,’ the little girl offered.

  ‘I know,’ Michael said, still hugging Jordie tightly and crying. ‘But it’s just that I love you guys so much. You’re my true, true family.’ He sighed as he buried his face in Jordie’s hair. Then, he embraced Lily. Then, June. ‘I’ll be back,’ he told them, ‘and we’ll have more fun. I promise.’ He then turned to Jordie and said, ‘Don’t forget the wishes. Always say the wishes.’ He winked at him, conspiratorially.

  ‘I won’t forget,’ Jordie promised. He winked back.

  By the time Michael left Burbank, Jordie, June and Lily were so emotional they couldn’t stop crying. It was as if they had all been swept away by some surreal melodrama. After all, Michael would only be gone for a little more than a week. They really didn’t know Michael that well, and he didn’t know them, either – not really. Yet, the relationship had become so intense, June couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable about it. ‘What wishes?’ she wanted to know when she and Jordie were alone.

  ‘Nothin’ he said. ‘It’s between me and Michael.’

  ‘I don’t like that, Jordie,’ June said. ‘You know I don’t like you keeping secrets.’

  Jordie didn’t respond.

  In truth, the ‘wishes’ were six rules that Michael and Jordie had come up with, mostly as a joke between them. However, the wishes seemed to have real significance to Michael, and he often reminded Jordie of them. He said that if they repeated these wishes three times a day, perhaps they would actually come true for them: