HE was credited with overseeing the early careers of his children, eventually turning them into singing superstars.

But the allegedly abusive way Joe Jackson groomed The Jackson 5 and Janet Jackson is the stuff of legend and, according to some of his offspring, of nightmares.

It was a matter of time before they cut all professional ties with the notoriously draconian authoritarian, who admitted in an interview with the BBC in 2003 to whipping son Michael Jackson.

Ask the patriarch of America's first family of pop if he would ever want to manage his children again, and he replied candidly: 'No way. Not unless they listen.

'When they get to a certain age, they get these big ideas, and they don't know the people that surround them are not the friends they thought they were until five years down the road.

'That's the lesson you pay for and you're learning, and that's a very, very, very expensive lesson,' Jackson said, alluding to the countless public lawsuits and private settlements that have plagued his troubled clan.

Father knows best, it seems.

The surprisingly soft-spoken and genial 77-year-old was speaking to The New Paper last Friday from his Hyatt Hotel suite, looking exhausted from not getting enough shut-eye since arriving in Singapore from Las Vegas the day before.

He is here to launch Joe Jackson's Hip-Hop Boot Camp, a singing competition-cum-reality TV series which aims to unearth the world's next hip-hop wunderkind.

Yet, Jackson didn't lose his cool when we brought up Michael's 2005 child molestation charges, of which he was acquitted in a US court.

'I spoke to him a month ago. He's okay, he's strong like me,' Jackson said. But are the effects of last year's controversial scandal still being felt by the family?

Jackson offered: 'It was a little bit bothersome to see Michael up there being accused of something that he didn't do, and knowing he didn't do it because as parents, we believed in him and knew it.
'When you're successful, people come along and try to take advantage of that, use some type of scheme to get money. It put him at a standstill for a reason - to regroup.

'Now that he has found what he wants to do from now on and the countries he wants to work in, I think he's turning himself around to do what he knows best.'

The reclusive 'king of pop' left the US in the wake of his harrassment by the media during his trial, spent time in Bahrain, and is currently setting up temporary residence in Ireland.

Jackson said: 'He doesn't want to go back (to the US) too quickly. He gets more recognition from other countries all over the world than America.

'People try to bring a superstar down, but he has too many loyal fans all over the world, and I appreciate them for sticking by him through all these hard times.'

After a five-year hiatus from recording, Michael recently announced that he's collaborating with Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am for his comeback album, which is due for release next year.

And what are Jackson's thoughts on his son branching out into hip-hop, the multi-billion-dollar industry that he himself is trying to cash in on?

'I don't have any problem with it - as long as he can take it to the bank!' he said laughingly.



DISAPPOINTING SALES

However, Jackson wasn't as pleased about the disappointing sales of daughter Janet's latest album 20 Y.O.

He said: 'Well, what I would've liked to have seen, is that when you're working with great star producers and doing great things with those producers, you don't change up.

'She did change up and you see what's happening now. I'm thinking her album would've been better if she had stuck with those producers.'

But right now, Jackson is saving his tips for his new proteges from the Hip-Hop Boot Camp project, which is scheduled to start in the US in March.

The show will also have an Asian spin-off, as hip-hop talents from Singapore and Malaysia can audition from January onwards for a chance to train under hip-hop experts in New York City.

It has been mooted that the top 12 contestants from both countries return to Singapore and compete on TV, Singapore Idol-style, for a recording contract.

Jackson and his business associates are currently promoting the concept to MediaCorp.

But a boot camp presided over by Jackson, who has a reputation for dishing out tough love, sounds scary.

'Now, why do they give that (label) to me? I don't know why they put me in that character,' he protested. 'No, it's not scary. It's like a learning process you have to go through to make it big in the entertainment field.'

So is he a slave-driver?

'No, I'm no slave-driver - I'm a driver,' he said, chuckling at his own joke. 'Anyway, we call that 'grooming' now.'
http://newpaper.asia1.com...03,00.html
[Edited 11/8/06 11:30am]

I really really really thought this was about the Steppin' Out Tonight Joe Jackson and wondered what could he have to say about Michael and Janet.

JackieBlue said:

me too!!


http://youtube.com/watch?v=ITS0cBVE3q4

fuck that abusive skum.

i can't believe janet forgives him for the sexual and physical abuse.

oh i forgot that was just latoya lying; YEAH RIGHT!

mikek1 said:

What the fuck was that?

let's turn this into a real Joe Jackson thread.....you know....the good one.....i have several of his albums and have seen him live and he is great.....(esp. love "19 Forever")

Huh? There's never been anything about Joe abusing Janet. From what I've read, he was real close to her.

Joe Said it perfectly.. Keepin it Real... She should have stuck to her Org Super Producers- Jam and Lewis

twistedeargasm said:

i'm odd because I've always liked Papa Joe, for some reason.

It seems he still understands the business on some levels.

Rhondab said:

Yeah, you must be odd to like that racist, homophobic, wife-beating, child-abusing monster.

dag said:

JD bout to catch an ass whoopin'

Cloudbuster said:

that sums me up

Rhondab said:

You ain't no wife-beater.

Cloudbuster said:

but I'll help ya beat ya....uh...well...anyway.....

Rhondab said:

Behave yourself!




Oh, ok.

Cloudbuster said:

c'mon Joe made a good move to get them off motown

lilgish said:

I'm sure even Hitler had one redeeming feature.

Cloudbuster said:

Trustworthy wingman.

He also loved trains, sometimes taking the wheel himself if they were full of Jews, cripples and homosexuals.

Shit.

so the org has more love for Joe Jackson than Joe Jackson.....?

interesting but also disturbing

Cloudbuster said:

Cloudbuster said:

i'd knew you'd agree.

He said it better when he said that when you are doing great things with producers, don't change up. Janet, Jam, and Lewis should have listened to that advice in the early 1990s and continued on with some more funk like "Rhythm Nation" rather than doing a shit hop sounding song like "That's The Way Love Goes". During that time period, instead of helping shit hop to grow and completely take over, they might have been able to snuff it out by having a huge funk hit and influencing others to do the same. Instead, they sold out and influenced people for the worse, just like all the other up and coming artists during that transitional period. Things are so bad now, nothing's going to change it.

Number23 said:

Rhondab said:

I didn't know that Papa Joe was sexually abusive?

I remember when Latoya was pissed with the family and went on a lot of talk shows such as Donahue, Geraldo, Sally, etc. She said Joe's sexual abuse was the reason Rebbie left home so early. Everyone thought Latoya was lying but she also said that Janet was secretly married, and that turned out to be true.

vainandy said:

I can't really take what Looney Toya says to the bank

That woman has a RICH history of cunnings and lies(then again, she's an evil gemini ). I wonder what the others take on this.

And speaking of Rebbie, ain't she the MOST grounded Jackson memeber? I gotta give that woman some credit for maintaining a sane and dignified living for herself and her family,,,,she seems like the MOST level-headed person in that whole chitlen circus reject show.

The rest got the Kennedys curse