Michael Jackson’s Father: The Awful Truth

Sunday, July 12, 2009
Music / By Roger Friedman



No one can stop the avaricious, evil father of Michael Jackson.

In the 18 days since Michael’s tragic death, Joseph Jackson has made at least a half million dollars off his late, famous son.

This week, according to sources, “Good Morning America” paid Jackson around $200,000 for a series of interviews that commence tomorrow morning.

ABC says it’s done this as part of a deal for a one-hour documentary on the Jackson family.

At the same time, Jackson is said to be arriving in London tomorrow, the day that Michael was set to start his shows at the O2 Arena. Sources tell me that the British tabloids are paying Jackson at least $250,000 plus expenses to exploit Michael’s memory.

Meanwhile, Michael—remember him? – is lying in a borrowed vault in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, still not permanently buried or interred because the Jackson family hasn’t figured out which location would maximize their profits best.

The horror of Joseph Jackson is only more heightened by the fact that he’s told reporters this week that he somehow foresees exploiting Michael’s children as performers in a bid to regain his glory days of the Jackson 5.

If Michael had a grave, he’d be rolling in it.

Michael Jackson told interviewers many times how his father abused and beat him when he was a child. He said it through tears to Oprah Winfrey.

There is abundant evidence that Michael hated his father. One insider working on Jackson’s business affairs since his death, a person who hadn’t known Joseph Jackson previously, said to me last week, “He killed Michael. Everything he did to to him led up to this. I’ve never met a more awful person.”

Indeed, Joseph Jackson has never hesitated to try and cash in on Michael’s success after his superstar son finally broke free of him in the late 1970s with the “Off the Wall” album. Joseph is famous for coming up with schemes behind Michael’s back.

To wit: On the day of Michael’s famous 30th anniversary solo show, Joe Jackson called a news conference and invited select journalists. I was one of them. It was obvious Michael had no idea this was going on. Mr. Jackson told us he was going to start selling footage of the Jackson 5 for profit. He was eager to be a star himself, clearly.

I asked him about his parental philosophy. “You have to be strict with kids,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with punishment as long as you know how to punish.” What would be a typical punishment? “Beat his back,” Joe Jackson replied before I could even get the question out.

In 2004, before Michael’s child molestation trial began, I received a call from vulture journalist Daphne Barak. She said, “I have Joseph Jackson here and we want to talk to you about a project.” I hung up.

This year, on March 26th, Jackson himself called me to say he wanted to take over the just announced concerts at the O2 Arena because only he and his partner Leonard Rowe would know how to run them. Shortly after that, Jackson and Rowe threw in with another concert promoter. The latter man filed suit against Michael to get a cut of his AEG Live contract.

And still: three days after Michael died, Joseph Jackson turned up at the BET Awards in Los Angeles with a Michael Jackson impersonator in tow. He announced that he was starting a record company on national TV.

It’s not the first time that Joseph Jackson has tried to claw his way back into the music business. A few years ago he tried in vain to launch a young female singer out of Las Vegas. The project didn’t go anywhere.

Meantime, the judge in the custody hearing next Monday July 20th deciding the fate of Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson should be aware of some things in the Jackson family history. Joe Jackson has an illegitimate daughter named JohVonnie by a woman named Cheryl Terrell. Janet actually mentioned this in an interview with Parade Magazine in 2008.

He also had at least one other extramarital relationship, with a woman named Gina Sprague. All of this has been documented in various Jackson books, including one by LaToya.

Also, Katherine Jackson filed for divorce twice during her marriage, once in 1973 and again in 1979. In each case she was persuaded not to go through with it rather than hurt the family’s reputation.

midiscover said:

How about you do your own research?

midiscover said:

you can certainly read any number of tributes to him that have come out in the last few weeks, some of which that have been posted on this and the other mj threads, from people who have worked with him who've answered that question.

but the botton line is you don't really care about an answer to your so-called question, because all it is is another thinly veiled attack on mj. you've made it abundantly clear in the past that you don't like mj. fine, i don't expect you to change your opinion now that he's passed. but why come to this thread to be an a-hole? what are you, five?

DesireeNevermind said:

What!?!?! Are you suggesting Maurice White and Michael Jackson are on the same level musically? AHHHHH WTF!

kibbles said:

Why are you acting childish? I'm just asking a simple question! What is it about his work that is so "genius"!?!

Weird Al Remembers Michael Jackson

Legendary pop music parodist Weird Al Yankovic has written a touching remembrance for Rolling Stone about the passing of Michael Jackson.

Yankovic, who parodied both Beat It (Eat It) and Bad (Fat), reveals on the magazine's website that Michael was a gracious man who didn't mind being poked fun of and was an avid fan of Weird Al's movie UHF.

Writes Yankovic:

The first time around I pursued Michael Jackson about a song parody, it was a shot in the dark. We're talking about the most popular and famous person in the known universe, and here I was, this goofy comedy songwriter. He not only returned our phone calls, but he approved it. He thought it was a funny idea. Then when we did the second parody, "Fat," he was nice enough to let us use his subway set for the video, so he's always been very supportive.

The first time I met him in person was long after I had gotten permission to do "Eat It" back in 1984. There's a contract somewhere that has his signature next to mine, proving that we are the co-writers of "Eat It," which is surrealistic in and of itself. The first time I actually ran into him was backstage at one of his concerts, this was maybe four years later, when Even Worse came out with my second parody, "Fat." I went backstage, and he was seeing a lot of people, but I brought along a gold record of Even Worse to present to him, and he was very gracious and thanked me for it and said some nice things. After the fact, I thought, "That's probably the last thing Michael Jackson needs, another gold record for his storage locker." Seeing him in person was amazing, it was otherworldly. He was and continues to be so iconic, it's hard to even conceive of him as a human being. He always was bigger than life.

Our second meeting was a TV show taping. He was performing "Black or White," and I remember Slash was onstage and I talked to [Michael] briefly afterwards. He told me he would play my movie, UHF, for his friends at Neverland Ranch, and he was very soft-spoken, very quiet, but always very friendly to me.

I considered parodying "Black or White" around that time. Michael wasn't quite so into it, because he thought "Black or White" was more of a message song, and he didn't feel as comfortable with a parody of that one, which I completely understood, and in a way, he did me a huge favor, because I was already getting pegged as the guy who did Michael Jackson parodies, and because he wasn't so into it, I decided to go with Nirvana, which wound up revitalizing my career. I don?t know what kind of career I would have today if it hadn't been for Michael Jackson. In a very real sense, he jump-started my career. "Eat It" basically changed me from an unknown into a guy that got recognized at Burger King.

CalhounSq said:

Lawd I can hardly keep up with this thread. has this interview been posted? Mike has the interviewer ask his questions and then Janet repeats it before he answers.

O my effing lord...this mofo need to be dead instead of Michael.
Just listening to him talk about the children:

"Feed them like they supposed to be fed, make sure they get rest and gow up to be strong jacksons." shit he sounds like he's talking about raising dogs not children. And of course eh wants to make Paris a singer. Look at all the attention she got from talking about her daddy. yeah that's singer qualifications right there.

fuck Joe Jackson. he killed Michael long before the drugs did.

midiscover said:

here you go:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...cal_genius

Genius refers to a person, a body of work, or a singular achievement which stands apart in excellence. More than just originality, creativity, or intelligence, genius is associated with achievement of insight which has transformational power. A work of genius fundamentally alters expectations in some field or endeavour, with examples ranging from sports or statesmanship to science and art.

Although difficult to quantify, genius refers to a level of aptitude, capability or achievement which exceeds even that of most other exceptional contemporaries in the same field. The normal distribution suggests that the term might be applied to phenomena ranked in the top .1% (three standard deviations) among peers. In psychology, the inventor of the first IQ tests, Alfred Binet, applied the term, to the top .1% of those tested. This usage of the term is closely related to the general concept of intelligence.

The term may be also applied to someone who is considered gifted in many subjects or in one subject.


gosh, that wasn't hard at all.

babynoz said:

Such happier times... ...for ALL of us!

Timmy84 said:

Damn, MJ's body isn't even lukewarm yet, and all this has been going ON????

Adam Levine of Maroon 5 Remembers Michael Jackson

Here's Adam's tribute to Michael Jackson, taken from the latest issue of Rolling Stone:

"I never met him, but he was probably the single most important musical influence for me. I would say even before I got into the Beatles, I was into Michael Jackson. If you were living in 1984 and you were five years old, that was your world. Wearing the glove, dancing around the living room. That was your life. He was so all-consuming at the time. That was probably the biggest he ever was. His death has launched a lot of retrospectives and people are celebrating his music, but, I haven't stopped celebrating Michael Jackson since 1984. I've been blasting since the '80s. He was a very rhythmic kind of singer and writer, so his melodies were all very rhythm based. He played off of the drums a lot and I learned how to do that from Michael Jackson. There's no way it could have been from anyone else. He started that whole type of writing."

I'm watching VH1's Man In The Mirror biopic with Flex Alexander and the Papa Joe we always post. (Youtube)

Anyway, was MJ REALLY all like "I have a bad feeling about that Pepsi commercial" before he filmed it??

midiscover said:

Absolutely. You have to keep in mind that music is subjective. What one person considers genius another person may consider mediocre. Like you versus most people on this thread or in the wrold for that matter. For me music isn't just about the playing of instruments or writing and singing of songs. Its also about presentation of the whole package. I can't remember more than 10 persent of what Maurice White did but I can sure remember what MJ did. And while we are at it, put Rick James in the mix cuz I thought he was genius too.

midiscover said:

What difference does it make what we tell you? You've clearly made your mind up already.

purplesweat said:

And you know this....How?
If you don't want to answer the question that's fine but no need to make personal attacks

DesireeNevermind said:

for real I was thinking that too!!!

missfee said:

Look how he raised his eight children... (Rebbie was the only one who wasn't trying to get in Joe's shit, the other siblings didn't have a choice).

Breaking News:

Report: LaToya Jackson says Michael was murdered
16 hours ago

LONDON — Two British tabloids quote LaToya Jackson as saying she believes her brother Michael Jackson was murdered as part of a conspiracy to steal his fortune.

She reportedly says her brother's assets of more than 1 billion dollars made him a tempting target and that cash and jewelry worth roughly $2 million was taken from his home after his death.

Her comments were published Sunday. The News of the World quotes her as saying she knows who is to blame for her brother's death and is determined to see them brought to justice.

She also reportedly says her brother did not want to perform 50 shows in London but was pressured to do so.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

DesireeNevermind said:

Timmy84 said:

I remember them saying it was "inconclusive", meaning they couldn't determine one way or the other if the boys description was accurate. And if you think about it, how many dicks could match ANY given description? Unless the kid was a urologist or Michael had 3 testicles or something, I think the authorities just JUMPED at the opportunity to photograph Michael's penis. (...and sadly, I wonder how long before those pictues surface on the Internet).

trueiopian said:

omg i love Sister Act, i'm watching the first one now

midiscover said:

i'm childish? you're on a tribute thread purposely trying to start sh*t, and i'm childish? as i've stated, there are countless contemporaries who've already answered your 'simple' question. you don't have to agree with their opinions. you don't want an answer, you're merely a

DesireeNevermind said:

^ all the truth especially your first sentence !

missfee said:

Someone please lock away Joe and Latoya in a basement and throw the key away in a lake!
[Edited 7/12/09 21:06pm]

trueiopian said:

LaToy is going to get out her Nancy Drew Detective kit and show the Po Po how it's done.

midiscover said:

If you come into a thread about a recently deceased artist who has the immense respect of everyone who's anyone within the music industry, is one of the best selling artists of all time, broke down racial barriers with his music, practically pioneered music videos, asking "duhh what makes him a genius?" - then clearly you have a pre meditated opinion of him and you're sticking to it. The only reason you're in here is to wind people up, must be a slow day for you, huh?

Also telling you "your mind is made up" is not a personal attack.

I know Katherine, Rebbie, Jermaine, Marlon, Randy, Tito, Jackie and Janet ain't happy about this either.

I wanna know where that lawyer dude is, the one who was saying "I WILL NOT BE SILENCED!" every ten seconds.

lazycrockett said:

oh, god. i hope MJ's killers don't have a cat!