Mike Smallcombe's Blog

Announcement: Making Michael volume two coming soon

Over the past six months I've thought long and hard about my next project, and I've come to the decision that I have unfinished business with Michael.Firstly, the feedback from fans who have read 'Making Michael' has been overwhelming. So I feel this work needs to reach a wider audience.Secondly, I know there is so much more to uncover when it comes to the life and work of Michael Jackson.As a result, I've decided that I am going to fully revise and update 'Making Michael', with lots of new information and extra chapters. I am targeting a release date of late August 2018, to coincide with what would have been Michael's 60th birthday.I will shortly begin the process of reaching out to more people who worked with Michael, so I can get the answers to the many questions I have.In the meantime, those who have read 'Making Michael' can leave their feedback, and let me know which parts of Michael's career they want me to research for the second volume. I better get to work.Mike Smallcombe info@makingmichael.co.ukMike is the author of Making Michael, a book on the career of Michael Jackson. Find out more . 

The story behind Michael Jackson's Ghosts

Written by Mike Smallcombe the author of Making Michael, a book on the career of Michael Jackson. Find out more here. Michael loved songs with a spooky theme, including his most famous one of all, ‘Thriller'. But in 1996 he also created another scary music video, the lesser known Ghosts, featuring the hits ‘Ghosts’ and ‘Is It Scary’. Here is the story behind the project.  It was early 1996. Although the campaign to promote the HIStory album was in full swing, Michael was still thinking about the scary themed short-film he began shooting in mid-1993 to promote the Addams Family Values movie. He had invested a large amount of money in the project, which was shelved in the wake of the child molestation allegations. Michael’s love of film and directing meant he adopted the project for himself, and at 12–15 minutes it became an extension of the original idea. Initially titled Is This Scary, Michael renamed it Michael Jackson’s Ghosts (shortened to Ghosts).None of the original footage was retained when filming resumed in the spring of 1996 in a hangar at Van Nuys airport in Los Angeles. Michael had now lost his original director, Mick Garris, who was about to begin shooting the TV mini-series The Shining. Garris recommended Stan Winston, who did the special effects for the 1993 production, to take over the reins. Apart from some minor details, the new concept barely changed from the original. “That theme of the outcast stranger that he and [Stephen] King created was important, and stayed the focus,” Garris said. “I was not there when the production continued in 1996, [but] I’d get midnight calls from Michael, who was so passionate about finishing it, making it special.”In the light of the events of 1993, which stopped production of the original in the first place, finishing Ghosts became even more important to Michael. The most significant script change saw the introduction of a town mayor, likely based on the figure of Santa Barbara district attorney Tom Sneddon. Originally a regular resident – played by actor Ken Jenkins – led the townspeople to the mansion of the maestro, but the mayor took over the role. Michael Jackson and director Stan Winston on set“There’s some pathos in this and I insisted on it,” Michael said. “Well here’s a guy, he doesn’t really like to hurt anyone or offend anyone, but they find him to be strange and eccentric and weird, the older people do, the grownups because they’re kind of bigoted.” The film ends with the maestro scaring the mayor out of the mansion and winning over the people of the town. “When they start to challenge me, they make me territorial, and I start to challenge them back,” Michael explained.The dance choreography was the biggest change from the original. For Ghosts, Michael chose ‘2 Bad’ from HIStory for a dance routine his character performs with his family of ghouls. Although the song was already finished and recorded in 1995, it still had to be edited to fit into the film in the way Michael wanted, so a version that he could dance to was chopped up by Brad Buxer and engineer Eddie Delena. Buxer said Ghosts wasn’t designed to promote ‘2 Bad’, which was never released as a single. “Michael just always envisioned all of the dance scenes in the short-film to be centred around the groove in that song,” Buxer said.Michael, Buxer, Delena and fellow engineers Andrew Scheps, Matt Forger and Rob Hoffman camped out at Record One studio in Los Angeles to develop the film music; Michael split his time between the studio and the Ghosts set. “I worked on Ghosts for quite a while,” Hoffman said. “Michael would have ideas, much the way he makes a record, and he would dictate to one of the crew what he wanted – singing, and beatboxing. As the film progressed those ideas would be refined, often while filming was taking place. We would get video from the set and need to edit and make changes, sometimes with Michael there, sometimes without.”A special video featuring rare footage of the making of Ghosts:Michael also resumed work on ‘Ghosts’, a track which developed from the Addams Family Values sessions in 1993 and was pulled up briefly during the HIStory sessions. Unlike ‘2 Bad’, there were no plans to incorporate the song into the actual Ghosts dance routines. Instead, it would be played in its entirety over the end credits in a promotional format. “The song ‘Ghosts’ was never meant for the Ghosts short-film, Michael wanted to develop the song for future album release,” Buxer said.Ghosts was completed in the summer of 1996 after six weeks of production. Originally it was only supposed to run for 12–15 minutes, but in true Michael style it grew and grew during filming and ended up being over 39 minutes long. Although Michael saw it more as a film, in 2002 the Guinness Book of World Records honoured it as the longest music video ever, a record that was broken by Pharrell Williams in 2013. The entire project cost Michael a reported $15 million, but he wouldn’t see much of a financial return. Television stations were offered the film as part of an hour-long special, but were put off by the high price.Given the issues raised in the film it was very important to Michael, but for his record label, it was an idea that didn’t serve a purpose. “It wasn’t connected to the HIStory album, and it wasn’t a film, and it wasn’t a music video, it was kind of in the middle,” Dan Beck said. “Sometimes we needed to ask him, ‘Why are we doing this’, and sometimes it allowed him to refocus, but this was a situation where Michael rolled on with something and we couldn’t stop him, it was happening.”Ghosts premiered at the Motion Picture Academy of Arts in Beverly Hills in October 1996, alongside Stephen King’s horror movie Thinner, although Michael didn’t attend as he was away touring. His new track ‘Ghosts’, which was completed in studios in Amsterdam and London during the tour, debuted during the end credits.By the time Michael attended a screening of Ghosts at the Cannes Film Festival on May 9, 1997, the film had changed from the one released in the fall of 1996. Michael revealed that director Stan Winston thought the dance sequences should contain more music. As a result a short segment of ‘Ghosts’, originally played only over the end credits, was edited into one of the sequences. A portion of ‘Is It Scary’, a song with a similar theme which was mostly recorded during the HIStory sessions with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis producing, was also used.“We needed more music and neither me, Stan Winston or anyone else could understand why we were not using ‘Ghosts’ or ‘Is It Scary’ in the short-film,” Brad Buxer said. “We talked Michael into what seemed an obvious choice – why not use ‘Is It Scary’ and ‘Ghosts’ in a film about… ghosts?”Michael Jackson and director Stan Winston on setBut as the dance scenes had already been filmed, incorporating the songs wouldn’t be an easy task. “No dance scenes were ever shot to the music of ‘Ghosts’ or ‘Is It Scary’ during the entire course of making the film,” Buxer said. “The work we did was before all the plugs were available that make work like this easier these days.”At the last minute, over a course of three days – a Friday through to a Sunday – Buxer, Matt Forger and programmer Matt Carpenter had to change the tempo of ‘Ghosts’ and ‘Is It Scary’ to fit the pre-shot dance segments. “We made new music work with pre-existing Michael Jackson choreography that was much slower than the original music, and it worked beautifully,” Buxer said. “We did all the work at my house and when Stan Winston came over to view and listen to the work we had done, he loved it.”Michael, however, was satisfied with the original version, which featured only ‘2 Bad’. “Stan thought we should put more songs in the film, so we did, but I thought that the first version was good, I was satisfied,” he said. Making Michael also includes the story behind the shelved Addams Family Values project from 1993, which became Ghosts three years later. Find out more about the book here. 

Bad at 30: Inside the album sessions and Michael Jackson's split with Quincy Jones

Written by Mike Smallcombe the author of Making Michael, a book on the career of Michael Jackson. Find out more here.In the summer of 1985, Michael began working on demos and ideas in earnest for his next album, which became Bad. He was joined at his Hayvenhurst home studio by the four-man crew of Matt Forger, Bill Bottrell, John Barnes and Christopher Currell, who became known as the ‘B-Team’. Together they worked without the influence of the ‘A-Team’, people such as producer Quincy Jones, engineer Bruce Swedien and songwriter Rod Temperton. Over the course of the second half of 1985 and most of 1986, Michael and the B-Team created many demos that would later be brought to Quincy’s attention at the main Westlake studio sessions, including 'Bad', 'The Way You Make Me Feel', 'Dirty Diana' and 'Smooth Criminal'. Although Michael began the project without Quincy, the plan was to team up with him at Westlake at a later stage for the main production. Michael was simply at the stage of his creative life where he was ready to write most of the tracks for his next album himself, and experimenting and recording away from Westlake and Quincy would enable him to have more of a say in the overall production. Read a chapter: The making of Michael Jackson's Dangerous album“Michael was beginning to develop a real creative growth and gaining skills, not only in writing, but also in the production area and just taking more control over his music,” Forger explained. “It was something Quincy actually encouraged, he felt Michael should make his next album more his own.” Bottrell described it like ‘a teenager leaving the nest’. “Michael was growing and wanted to experiment free of the restrictions of the Westlake scene,” he said. “This is how he started to express his creative independence.”In August 1986, after more than two years of on-off work, Michael was ready to join forces with the A-Team again, as he felt he had enough material to present to Quincy. It was essentially the A-Team taking over from the B-Team, although Michael would continue to work at his home studio. Michael during the Bad sessions at Westlake Studio, 1987The day before work began Michael had his huge Synclavier system, which was used to record the demos at Hayvenhurst, transported to Westlake. The state-of-the-art digital synthesiser, sampler and workstation could imitate most instruments and would change the way Michael’s music was recorded. The Synclavier was new to Quincy, who planned to re-record the demo tracks with his A-Team session musicians. But Michael said he preferred the Synclavier versions. “This happened all the time, so soon, Quincy changed his way of working and we began to use the Synclavier for everything,” Chris Currell said.But by early 1987, Michael was still concerned that the tracks were not sounding the same as when they were originally recorded into the Synclavier at Hayvenhurst. “He had discussed this with Bruce [Swedien], but he did not seem to understand Michael’s concern,” Christopher Currell said. Michael, Quincy and Chris Currell (behind) during the Bad sessions at Westlake Studio, 1987“Michael was concerned that the punch of the music was being lost somehow. Michael called a meeting with me and his manager, Frank DiLeo, to listen to the original tracks at Michael’s studio on the Synclavier. Frank agreed that there was a difference. Michael especially noticed this on the song ‘Smooth Criminal’.”Although Michael and Quincy were producing the album together, they had conflicting ideas about the sounds. Michael was so unhappy with what was happening at Westlake that he even dared to make his own changes behind Quincy’s back.“Something major happened during these sessions,” one musician said. “When you wanted someone to work on a song for you away from the studio, you would make them ‘slave tapes’, and one day Michael took home slave tapes to work on at Hayvenhurst, away from Westlake and away from Quincy. Quincy couldn’t believe it. No one took tapes away from a Quincy Jones production and made changes behind his back!”Michael and Quincy with engineer Bruce Swedien during the Bad sessions at Westlake Studio, 1987With Michael wanting more of a say in the production of the album, there was inevitable friction between him and Quincy. “There was definite friction there,” musician Larry Williams said. “Michael was very eager to prove he could produce, as well as sing and dance.”Michael Boddicker shares this view. “Michael and Quincy began bumping heads a little on this album,” he said. “Quincy had his way and Michael had his way. Michael wanted a big say on production and things were starting to get a little fractured. Michael felt that Quincy had made him the star, and realised he needed to write and produce more. But with two producers on an album, problems are going to arise.”Michael admitted there was tension, especially when it came to sound. “We fight,” he said. “We disagreed on some things. If we struggle at all, it’s about new stuff, the latest technology. I’ll say, ‘Quincy, you know, music changes all the time’. I want the latest drums sounds that people are doing. I want to go beyond the latest things.” Michael recording 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You' during the Bad sessions at Westlake Studio, 1987Quincy was also trying to push Michael in the direction of rap, so he set up a meeting between Michael and hip-hop group Run DMC, who were at the height of their popularity. They were supposed to collaborate on an antidrug track, ‘Crack Kills’, but the plan fell through.Some members of the A-Team became so disconcerted about Michael’s idea of also recording the album after hours with the B-Team at Hayvenhurst, that they demanded the likes of Bill Bottrell and John Barnes stop working on it. Barnes left the project, while Bottrell was fired by Frank DiLeo with the promise that he would be re-hired for the next album, which became Dangerous. For this project, Michael made the decision to dispense with the services of Quincy, even though the three albums the pair recorded together had sold over 70 million copies in a decade. One of the reasons Michael no longer wanted to work with Quincy was because he felt the producer was taking too much credit for his work. Record label chief Walter Yetnikoff recalls Michael telling him he didn’t want Quincy to win any awards at the Grammys in 1984 for his role in producing Thriller. “People will think he’s the one who did it, not me,” Michael told Yetnikoff. Quincy believes that key members of Michael’s entourage were whispering in his ear telling him that he had been getting too much credit.Quincy also felt Michael had lost faith in him and his knowledge of the market. “I remember when we were doing Bad I had [Run] DMC in the studio because I could see what was coming with hip-hop,” he said. “And [Michael] was telling Frank DiLeo, ‘I think Quincy’s losing it and doesn’t understand the market anymore. He doesn’t know that rap is dead’.” Michael was also said to be unhappy after Quincy gave him a tough time over the inclusion of ‘Smooth Criminal’ on Bad.Most significantly, Michael wanted complete production freedom for his next project. On Bad Michael wasn’t always able to produce the way he wanted to, especially when it came to working with the Synclavier, because co-producer Quincy had his own methods. Future producer Brad Buxer said Michael wasn’t angry with his one-time mentor. “He has always had an admiration for him and an immense respect,” Buxer said. “But Michael wanted to control the creative process from A to Z. Simply put, he wanted to be his own boss. Michael was always very independent, and he also wanted to show that his success was not because of one man, namely Quincy.”The content in this article is from the chapter on Bad in Making Michael, a book on the career of Michael Jackson by Mike Smallcombe. Find out more here.

20 years ago today, August 29, 1997: Michael Jackson is surprised with a birthday cake on stage

On August 29, 1997, Michael Jackson celebrated his 39th birthday.That evening, he performed in front of 60,000 fans at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark.Michael was coming to the end of a 35-date tour around Europe to promote his HIStory and Blood on the Dance Floor albums.Read next: Charlottesville and the resurrection of Michael Jackson's 'They Don't Care About Us' prison videoAfter singing the fifth number of the show, ‘You Are Not Alone’, Michael was presented with a surprise birthday cake, marching band and fireworks on stage.He spoke about the moment on his 2003 programme Michael Jackson’s Private Home Movies."One of the best moments is right here," he says, as the tape runs. "It’s right in the middle of the show and it’s my birthday and I’m thousands of miles away from my family."When they surprised me with the full marching band and then they brought out this huge, beautiful birthday cake..."I realized that I’ve got family all over the world everywhere I go, because my fans really show me the love and I love them just as much.”Today, Michael would have turned 59. Happy birthday, MJJ.Mike Smallcombe is the author of Making Michael, a book on the career of Michael Jackson. Find out more about the book here. 

Charlottesville and the resurrection of Michael Jackson's 'They Don't Care About Us' prison video

Written by Mike Smallcombe the author of Making Michael, a book on the career of Michael Jackson. Find out more here. “The song is about the pain of prejudice and hate and is a way to draw attention to social and political problems. It is about the injustices to young people and how the system can wrongfully accuse them.”Those are the words of Michael Jackson, the late King of Pop. He’s talking about arguably the most controversial song that he recorded in his entire career, ‘They Don’t Care About Us’.Initially written for the Dangerous album, the track ended up on HIStory, which was released in June 1995 and includes several songs with heavily personal themes.Read next: Donald Trump and Michael Jackson: The full story behind a mysterious acquaintanceAnd now, more than 22 years later, a video for the song which was deemed so controversial that it was banned from television, is at the forefront of public attention once more. It’s all because of the recent events in Charlottesville, which have sparked a heated debate on US race relations.People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in CharlottesvilleViolent clashes in Virginia culminated with a woman's death and nearly 20 wounded, after a car ploughed into a crowd at the far-right rally.And on Wednesday the country’s own President, Donald Trump, caused outrage when he appeared to defend the organisers and equated the white supremacists on the right to the “alt-left.”Read next: The making of Michael Jackson's Dangerous PART ONEThis isn’t, of course, the first time that ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ has become a theme for those protesting against racial hatred. In 2014 and 2015, during the Black Lives Matter movement, ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ was sung by thousands of people marching through the streets of cities across America, and also London.Back then it was all about the lyrics, protesting against racial discrimination, but now it’s one of the song’s two videos which is gaining renewed attention and relevance.Michael in a scene from the prison version Aside from the video for ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ which was filmed in the Dona Marta shantytown in Rio de Janeiro - the version those who are familiar with the song are more likely to have seen - there’s also a ‘prison’ version.Both versions, directed by Spike Lee, were initially going to be edited together into a single video.Read next: Michael Jackson and This Is It: The storyMichael was unhappy elements of the Brazil version, so he had Lee put together a full prison version, which was shot in a studio in New York.But then the prison version was banned by many music channels due to its contents, which were deemed to be too violent, so Michael replaced it with a full Brazil version.Watch the prison version:Confusing, but the main point here is that since the events in Charlottesville, the shocking, true-to-life images in the video such as the Rodney King beating, genocide and execution and Ku Klux Klan gatherings have really struck a chord.References to the prison version have appeared all over social media in recent days, and violent and heated debates have erupted in the video’s comments section on Michael’s official VEVO YouTube account.A tweet claiming that we now “know why” it was banned from television has also been retweeted more than 120,000 times. The song might be popular now, but commercially and critically, it was a completely different story 20 years ago.In March 1996, the track was released as the fourth commercial single from the HIStory album. But radio stations in the United States were reluctant to play it due to - yes, seriously - a controversy over those now iconic lyrics.Critics who obtained pre-release copies of the album in June 1995 highlighted that the lyrics in question, ‘Jew me, sue me, everybody do me, kick me, kike me, don’t you black or white me’, could be interpreted as anti-Semitic.Some Jewish groups condemned the lyrics and considered them offensive, although Michael’s manager Sandy Gallin, himself a Jew, said it was ‘the most ridiculously misconstrued interpretation’ of a song he had ever heard. Naturally, Michael said he was ‘angry and outraged’ that he could be so misinterpreted. “My intention was for this song to say ‘No’ to racism, anti-Semitism and stereotyping,” he explained. “Unfortunately, my choice of words may have unintentionally hurt the very people I wanted to stand in solidarity with.” To quell the controversy, Michael made the decision to modify the lyrics slightly and re-record that part of the song. And then, nine months later, came the prison video saga. The damage was done. As a result of the misconception over both the lyrics and the video, ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ only peaked at number 30 on the Billboard 100. It was also panned by several critics, mainly white, including writers for The New York Times and The Seattle Times.But while it may not have been appreciated in all quarters in 1995 and 1996, over the past three years ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ has finally reached the levels of significance Michael would have hoped it would. Maybe not on the music charts, but certainly in the streets across the world. If only Michael was still with us, as we see yet another of his momentous and defining musical messages hit home.Written by Mike Smallcombe the author of Making Michael, a book on the career of Michael Jackson. Find out more about the book here. 

Michael Jackson and This Is It: The story

The following is an excerpt from the book MAKING MICHAEL.This is not the full chapter.By early 2008, despite a recent restructuring of his financial empire, Michael Jackson had reached the peak of his cash flow crisis. He hadn't toured in 12 years and his last album of new material was released in 2001. He defaulted on repayments for a loan on his Neverland Ranch loan, and was told to pay off the entire $24.5 million balance by March 19, 2008 to prevent a foreclosure, which would have had disastrous financial consequences. Lenders were now refusing to loan Michael more money, but he was about to be tapped out for the final time.Michael’s brother Jermaine had just met a Lebanese-American businessman by the name of Dr Tohme Tohme (Tohme for short), who lived in Los Angeles. As Tohme was in real estate, Jermaine thought he may be able to help. His instincts were correct; Tohme was able to connect Michael to an associate, Tom Barrack, who made billions buying and selling distressed properties through his investment firm Colony Capital.Barrack arrived for a meeting at Michael’s rented Las Vegas mansion and told him he was interested in a deal, but only if he agreed to return to work to increase his income. By 2008 Michael was earning $26 million a year, most of which came from his music catalogues, but his outgoings amounted to $42 million, with $25–30 million of that going on debt interest alone. Michael had been spending an average of $15–20 million more a year than he was earning for the past decade, a lifestyle sustained through borrowing, which was no longer an option. Either Michael had to sell his assets, or make some money.“Where you are is an insolvable puzzle unless you’re willing to go back to work,” Barrack told Michael. “If you’re willing to do that, then we can help, but if you’re not willing to do that, it’s just presiding over a funeral.” But Michael was reluctant to tour again; all he wanted to do was make movies. “He really had a hard time with that [the idea of touring], and he struggled for about three days,” Barrack recalls. “Finally, he calls back and says, ‘You’re right, I’ll do it’.”After Michael agreed to return to the stage, Tom Barrack wrote a cheque and saved Neverland from being auctioned to the highest bidder on the steps of the Santa Barbara County courthouse. Under the terms of the agreement, if the property were to be sold, Colony would recoup its investment in the note plus accrued interest, its management and upkeep expenses, and around 12% of everything above that as a success fee. Michael would keep the rest. Barrack estimated that if marketed properly, the ranch could be worth as much as $60–70 million.In early June 2008 Michael dined with Barrack at the Las Vegas Hilton, and the two discussed the options for a comeback. Barrack initially entertained the idea of having Michael do a residency at the Hilton, which Colony owned. As well as other concert promoters, Barrack reached out to his friend Phil Anschutz, who owns AEG Live, and informed him Michael was ready to return to the stage. AEG had already been in discussions with Michael a year earlier, but to no avail. Anschutz put Barrack in touch with AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips, who was introduced to Michael’s latest primary advisor, the mysterious financier Dr Tohme.Tohme claimed to have strong connections to wealthy figures in the Arab world, as well as being a medical doctor and a special envoy to the African country of Senegal. Tohme conceded that he is not a licensed physician, although he does possess a passport signed by the former president of Senegal, describing him the country’s ‘Ambassador at Large’. According to Tohme, Michael was so happy with his role in helping to save Neverland that he signed over two separate powers of attorney, giving him control over both his financial and his business affairs. He also became Michael’s new manager, despite his lack of experience in the entertainment industry. It was another example of Michael giving total control to a person he barely knew. MICHAEL AND TOHME IN 2009Tohme and Phillips met in mid-June at a bar in the Hotel Bel-Air, which Tohme treated as his office. They discussed loose terms which included a multi-year touring plan, starting with a residency at the O2 Arena in London, as discussed in 2007. Phillips noted that it takes a ‘very special artist’ to be able to do a major residency show. He recommended London because it was the hottest concert market in the world, bigger than New York and Toronto combined, and Michael’s popularity was also less diminished in the United Kingdom. Phillips told Tohme he would do ‘anything’ to have Michael sign with AEG.Following further conversations between Michael’s representatives and AEG, Michael travelled to Los Angeles and met directly with Phillips at the Hotel Bel-Air in September 2008. To Phillips, it was apparent that Michael was now ready to get back on stage. For the first time, Michael spoke primarily about performing live rather than his film and music plans. “It was really then, looking him straight in the eye, that I actually realised this was not a wild goose chase,” Phillips recalls.Later that September, Michael and his representatives had a formal meeting with AEG executives at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where AEG chief Phil Anschutz has a villa. Phillips recalls Michael being ‘laser focused’ during the meeting. It was agreed in principle that Michael would perform a series of concerts at the O2 Arena in 2009, and his plans to release new music around the shows were also discussed. Michael also talked once more about his ambitions to write, produce, direct and star in films, and Anschutz, who has two film production companies, said he would help.While negotiations with AEG continued, Michael and the children moved to Los Angeles in late October, where they checked into a huge first floor suite at the Hotel Bel-Air. Michael returned to California at the behest of Tohme, who felt he should be closer to the centre of the concert industry. All musical equipment was brought over from Las Vegas, and Michael continued to work on music in the hotel with engineer Michael Durham Prince. Here, vocals were recorded for the pre-existing tracks ‘I Am a Loser’, which became ‘I Was the Loser’, and ‘Best of Joy’. They were the final vocals Michael recorded in his lifetime. “Although we continued to work on music for a few more months, that was the last time that he truly sang,” Prince said.On Halloween Michael met again with Randy Phillips in his suite, and revealed the real motives behind his decision to tour again. In an emotional meeting, Michael told Phillips his children were now at an age where they could appreciate his talents, and he was still young enough to perform. Michael also admitted that he wanted his family to stop living like ‘vagabonds’. He was tired of living in other people’s houses since leaving Neverland in 2005, and finally wanted to settle down and find a permanent home for himself and his children. “We both broke down,” Phillips recalls. “He got emotional. He teared up about his family and having a good life with them and a place to live and a residence they could call their own. I felt incredibly bad that this incredible star was at the point where he just couldn’t buy a house with all this money he made. It just didn’t make sense.”Michael had already identified his dream home, a palatial mansion at 99 Spanish Gate Drive in west Las Vegas. The 92-room walled compound, owned by the Sultan of Brunei’s brother, is spread over 16 acres and was valued at around $60 million. In addition to the nine-bedroom main house, there are several guest villas and a sports house which contains an Olympic-sized swimming pool and squash courts. Bodyguard Bill Whitfield said Michael would visit the property at least once a week while he lived in Las Vegas. “He wanted a property so huge that he could go outside and feel like he was free,” Whitfield said. “He could go and climb a tree, do whatever. He said he was going to buy it and call it Wonderland.”With negotiations with AEG progressing, Michael moved out of the Hotel Bel-Air to a huge seven-bedroom château on North Carolwood Drive in the plush Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles. The neighbourhood borders Beverly Hills and Bel Air, forming part of Los Angeles’ illustrious ‘platinum triangle’. Elvis Presley’s old house, which he owned between 1970 and 1975, is situated about 200 feet away across the road at 144 Monovale Drive, and Walt Disney, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Clark Gable and Gregory Peck all used to live about half a mile up the road. The Carolwood property, valued at $38 million in 2008, was owned by Ed Hardy clothing line executive Hubert Guez, and had previously been rented by James Bond star Sir Sean Connery. AEG was footing the $100,000 a month rent cost as part of any prospective contract with Michael, and signed a 12-month lease with Guez. Remarkably, the rent was cheaper than living at the Hotel Bel-Air full-time. 100 NORTH CAROLWOOD DRIVEMichael finally signed a contract with AEG in the living room of the Carolwood home on January 28, 2009. The agreement outlined that Michael would perform a minimum of 18 shows, and a maximum of 31, starting in July and finishing in September at the O2 Arena in London. The number 31 was very significant – Michael wanted to do ten more shows than Prince had done in 2007, which would also break the record for number of shows performed at the O2 in the process. The meeting ended with a champagne toast and all parties high-fiving.Phase one would see the announcement of an initial ten shows, which would most likely increase to anything between 18 and 31 shows, depending on public demand. If the demand for tickets was greater than 31 shows, the agreement could be amended for further shows to be added beyond the initial maximum of 31, based on Michael’s approval.Michael received a number of advances, including an initial $5 million artist advance, $3 million of which went straight to Sheikh Abdullah as a part of the court settlement. AEG also paid $1.2 million to lease the Carolwood mansion for a year, and agreed to advance $15 million for the down payment on Michael’s dream Las Vegas home on Spanish Gate Drive.For security, AEG had Michael sign a promissory note, with collateral being everything he owned. If Michael were to renege on the concert agreement in any way, AEG would take control of Michael’s company and use the income from his assets, such as his music catalogues and royalties, to recoup its money. It couldn’t, however, take an actual interest in any of those assets.Although Michael would receive 90% of the tour profits (AEG 10%) once all the advances were deducted, he had to pay for 95% of the production costs. The production advance Michael would receive from AEG was capped at $7.5 million, but could be increased.In handwritten notes later found in his Carolwood home, Michael revealed he would not have signed a deal with AEG unless it put up money for the development of films. After finishing the touring plan, Michael intended to retire from live performances permanently in order to finally pursue his movie dream. He felt if he didn’t crack the film industry, he would have failed to achieve true immortality. ‘If I don’t concentrate [on] film, no immortalisation,’ one note read. Michael also revealed that he wanted to be the ‘first multibillionaire entertainer actor and director’, and to be ‘better than [Gene] Kelly and [Fred] Astaire’ and ‘the greatest ever, in the likes of [Charlie] Chaplin, Michelangelo and [Walt] Disney’. MICHAEL'S NOTESAs part of the contract, AEG contemplated entering into a separate agreement to develop three films. If a third party was interested in developing films with Michael, AEG would advance $1 million towards the development of a script. Michael’s first ideas were to make two full-length 3D feature films based around his ‘Thriller’ and ‘Smooth Criminal’ videos; the latter would have been based around the 1960 movie The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond. Michael felt the storylines of both videos had enough potential for the big screen, and wanted writers to work with him on these ideas during his time in London.In his notes, Michael revealed that he wanted to make ‘a movie a year for [the] next five years’. He loved movie classics from the forties, fifties and sixties and wrote a list of films he wanted to develop, including ‘Jack the Giant Killer’, ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’, ‘Aladdin’, ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’, ‘20,000 Leagues under the Sea’ and ‘Mysterious Island’. He was also desperate to play King Tutankhamun in a ‘King Tut’ movie or mini-series, a desire he had had for many years. ‘AEG demand development of these movies’, he wrote. MICHAEL'S NOTESOn February 21, after months of speculation, London’s Daily Mail became the first media outlet to confirm Michael’s return to the stage. “Michael Jackson is to launch a spectacular 30-date comeback at London’s O2 arena this summer,” it said. “The 50-year-old star has been in secret talks with organisers for months in a desperate bid to revive his career after recent personal problems.With the contract signed, Michael began putting his tour team together. Towards the end of February he asked old friend Kenny Ortega, the director of his two previous world tours, to come on board as show director. “He was very excited,” Ortega recalls, “and he used the expression ‘this is it’ a number of times during the phone conversation. I remember saying to him, ‘You should just call it ‘This Is It’ you’ve said it so many times!’ He was just very excited, [he said] ‘this is it, this is the time, there is great reason to do this now and I want you to be a part of this with me’.” Ortega was involved in other projects at the time, but after clearing his diary he accepted the offer on a $1 million salary.It was decided the tour would indeed be called ‘This Is It’; Michael chose the title because of its double meaning. “This is the last time I’m going to do this, and when I’m on stage, this is the place in the world to be,” he explained to Randy Phillips.A press conference to officially announce the shows to the world was scheduled for March 5 at the O2 Arena in London. But Michael was reluctant to attend. “He doesn’t want to do these kind of things, but it was important to show Michael Jackson to the world if he wanted to do a Michael Jackson show,” AEG executive Paul Gongaware said. To make matters worse, Randy Phillips was unable to reach Michael in the week before the conference. The only way Phillips was able to contact him directly was through Dr Tohme, but Michael wasn’t taking his manager’s calls.Michael was angry with Tohme because of the way he handled an auction of over 2,000 of his personal possessions, which was scheduled to start on April 21. The items, most of which were stored at Neverland, were estimated to raise at least $12 million at a time when Michael needed it. Michael claimed he agreed to the auction on the basis that he would be able to view photographs of the items before deciding which ones to sell. But he soon learned that many ‘priceless and irreplaceable’ items of ‘extraordinary sentimental value’ were included in the auction, before he had a chance to review them. The auctioneer, Julien’s Auctions, claimed the contract entitled it to auction anything it wanted. Michael blamed Tohme for the saga, as it was he who signed the deal on his behalf in August 2008. According to Tohme’s attorney Dennis Hawk, Michael agreed for ‘everything’ to be auctioned when the agreement was made, but only changed his mind months later when he realised he would no longer need the cash due to the AEG deal. Yet Michael was also furious with Tohme for his general PR handling of the affair.In the end Michael put his differences with Tohme to one side and agreed to attend the conference. On March 3 he flew into Luton Airport near London aboard a private jet with his three children, a bodyguard and a hair/make-up artist in tow. A limo then whisked them away to one of Michael’s favourite London hotels, the lavish Lanesborough. Two days later Michael was due at the O2 Arena for his press call, but nerves began to creep in in the hours beforehand. When Randy Phillips arrived at the Lanesborough that afternoon he headed straight to Tohme’s suite, where he waited alone. Eventually, Tohme returned from Michael’s room. “We have a little issue, Michael got drunk,” Tohme told Phillips, who began to panic as they were now running late. MICHAEL ARRIVES AT LUTON AIRPORTPhillips decided to try and get into Michael’s suite himself, but first he had to talk his way past Michael’s bodyguard, Alberto Alvarez. “Alberto, you’ve got to let me in,” Phillips told him. “This is a crisis situation.” “He could see by my face it was not a time to stop me.” Michael was still in his pants and robe, and an empty bottle of liquor lay on the floor next to the couch. “To me, he looked hungover,” Phillips recalls. “I said, ‘Michael are you OK?’ He said to me that he was really concerned that there wouldn’t be anyone there and maybe this would be a bust.” Phillips informed Michael that he was quite wrong – there were thousands of fans and news organisations awaiting his arrival. The 2005 trial and accompanying media coverage had clearly damaged his confidence. “He was so nervous and really concerned as to how people would react to him after so many years,” Phillips said.Michael then went to the bathroom and changed into black boots, black trousers and a white V-neck t-shirt. Out of a choice of three different coloured shirts – black, red and blue – Phillips chose black because the background at the O2 Arena was red. But then Michael had trouble attaching the sequined armband to his black jacket. “He wouldn’t leave unless he had the armband on,” Phillips said. “That was more than I could take. I raised my voice and said, ‘Guys, that’s enough’!”Soon after, Phillips sent an e-mail to his boss, AEG president Tim Leiweke:I screamed at him so loud the walls are shaking. Tohme and I have dressed him and they are finishing his hair. Then we are rushing to the O2. This is the scariest thing I have ever seen. He’s an emotionally paralyzed mess, filled with self-loathing and doubt now that it is show time. He is scared to death. Right now I just want to get through this press conference.Phillips admitted he might have overreacted. “I was so nervous,” he said. “I created so much tension in the room, you could cut the tension with a knife.” Once the party climbed into the SUV and bus transporting them to the O2 Arena, the mood lightened. Phillips said he went into ‘jester mode’, and Michael was also laughing and joking. As news helicopters circled above, the anticipation began to build.Michael finally made it to the O2, albeit 90 minutes late. Phillips, who now calls the event ‘The Miracle of March 5th’, said the delay actually created more anticipation, as people doubted whether it would even happen. To the delight of over 3,000 hysterical fans and 350 reporters, Michael took to the microphone to announce he would be performing in London for the final time. “I just want to say that these will be my final show performances in London,” he said. “This will be it, and when I say this is it, it means This Is It.” Michael then broke off, touching his chest – clearly elated at the huge reception he was receiving. “They [the fans] were telling him that they still loved him and I think that was really really important to him,” Phillips said. “It underscored the point that he is just a human being.”AN ELATED MICHAEL ON STAGE AT THE O2 “I’ll be performing the songs my fans wanna hear,” Michael continued. “This is the final curtain call. I’ll see you in July. I love you. I really do, you have to know that I love you so much. Really, from the bottom of my heart. This is it, and see you in July.”Although Michael was contracted to perform between 18 and 31 shows – if the demand was great enough – only ten were initially announced. Phillips explained that in the concert business, promoters roll into the other shows and never put them all on sale at the same time. AEG executives were confident there would be enough interest for 20 to 25 shows; they were clearly not prepared for what was about to unfold.The morning after the press conference, fans were invited to pre-register for tickets on a newly created website called michaeljacksonlive.com, to gauge the demand. But the site struggled to cope as 1.6 million people registered – enough to fill the O2 Arena more than 100 times – so AEG quickly added 20 more shows, for a total of 30. Only fans who registered were able to buy tickets – priced between £50 and £75 – when the pre-sale began. They sold out within minutes, causing ticket site Ticketmaster to crash due to the high traffic.Phillips estimated Michael could have sold out as many as 150 shows, as people would want to see him more than once. So he called Michael and asked him if he would play more than 30 shows. Michael agreed, but only for a total of 50; he didn’t want to spend an entire year in London. He also gave Phillips two conditions – first, he wanted the Guinness Book of World Records to attend the final show, as he knew 50 shows in one venue and one city was a feat no other artist or band was ever likely to beat. He also wanted AEG to rent him a country estate outside London so he and his children weren’t trapped in a hotel suite for months on end. Michael chose the 28-bedroom Grade II listed Foxbury Manor, located about 19 miles away from the O2 Arena near Chislehurst in Kent. FOXBURY MANORReports claimed Michael didn’t actually agree to do 50 shows, and that Tohme went ahead and approved the extra dates behind his back. “I’m really angry with them [AEG] booking me up to do 50 shows,” British tabloid The Sun quoted Michael later telling fans. “I only wanted to do 10, and take the tour around the world to other cities, not 50 in one place. I went to bed knowing I sold 10 dates, and woke up to the news I was booked to do 50.” Yet a source close to the negotiations denied Michael was angry. “We couldn’t have gone ahead with adding more shows, for a total of 50, without his direct approval,” the source said. “And he wasn’t pissed; there was no happier human being in the world, because to him, it showed the people still loved him.”Either way, all 750,000 tickets for the 50 shows were snapped up within hours, making This Is It the fastest selling concert series in history. Randy Phillips described it as a ‘cultural phenomenon’. “Not only are these concerts unparalleled, these records will never be broken,” he said. The phenomenal public response was mirrored by the media, which gave Michael favourable coverage for the first time in many years. On March 13, the London Evening Standard wrote, ‘Jackson-mania is gripping London, and the world, transforming the figure of fun, never to be let near children, to the biggest draw on the planet once again’.Michael would now be staying in London until the end of February 2010. But it was only the first phase; he still had the rest of the world hungry and waiting. There were plans to take This Is It around the globe as part of a three-year, 186-show international touring plan, with stops in Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, South Africa, Dubai, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Australia, New Zealand and South America. Finally, Michael would make a triumphant return to Canada and the United States.AEG estimated Michael could walk away with over $30 million from the 50 London shows alone once all advances, expenses and production costs had been deducted. If he completed the full international tour he could net more than $130 million. This figure did not include income from potential commercial sponsorship deals, which would have been Michael’s first since the 1993 allegations. There were plans to make a live 3D concert movie from the London shows, and AEG was also in talks to open a Michael Jackson merchandising store at the O2 Arena and to rent an empty store on Oxford Street, Europe’s busiest shopping street, offering nothing but MJ merchandise. Michael seemed determined to be more careful with his money, vowing to sign all cheques over $5,000 himself and hire an accountant that he trusted.Back in Los Angeles, Michael and Kenny Ortega began to assemble the This Is It team. Ortega set out to hire people he admired in lighting, production design, choreography and music. Travis Payne was hired as lead choreographer, Michael Bearden as musical director and Michael Cotten as the production and stage designer. Payne and Cotten had already worked with Michael on previous tours but it was the first time for Bearden, who took the position usually occupied by Greg Phillinganes or Brad Buxer. Other ‘Team MJ’ veterans brought back into the fold included costume designers Michael Bush and Dennis Tompkins, Michael’s long-time friend and hair/make-up artist Karen Faye and former assistant Miko Brando.Rehearsals began in late March 2009 at Center Staging in Burbank, a small venue where the initial production, music and staging ideas were laid out. Here, Michael was building the show conceptually with Ortega and Michael Cotten. They would spend several hours having creative conversations, going through Michael’s vast archive of photos, videos and records. At one of the first meetings Michael revealed his grand plans for the concerts. “I want to push it to its limit, all the way,” he said. MICHAEL AND KENNY ORTEGA PLAN THIS IS IT AT CENTER STAGINGEach afternoon Michael was also rehearsing with Travis Payne in the basement studio of the Carolwood mansion. The choreography was based mostly on the previous tours, although Michael and Payne worked together to make it more dynamic and age appropriate. “When you’re 30 [years old] you can do more than when you’re 50,” Payne explained. Michael’s goal was to sing all of his vocals live in London, even the ones accompanying the big dance numbers, something he hadn’t achieved since the first leg of the Bad Tour 22 years previously. Three or four times a week, Michael also worked out at home with actor and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno, who played the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk TV series. Michael wanted to stay away from the weights and work mostly on flexibility and endurance.In mid-April, 500 dancers from all over the world were flown to California for auditions at the Nokia Theater in Downtown Los Angeles. Michael was present on the final day of the three day process, when twelve dancers were selected to perform at both national and international venues on a two-year contract.After the initial conceptual building of the show Michael didn’t need to attend rehearsals as often, as the dancers were still getting up to speed. But he still visited Center Staging to attend production meetings and sing and rehearse with the band. MICHAEL MEETS THE DANCERS AT CENTER STAGINGThere was plenty of upheaval in Michael’s camp in March and April 2009, as several figures tried to manoeuvre themselves into key positions ahead of a comeback tour potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Michael was also sued by numerous individuals who claimed they were owed money. “You have the same thousand parasites that start to float back in and take advantage of the situation and that has happened a little at the edges,” Tom Barrack noted at the time.After returning from London in March, Michael cut off all contact with Tohme, the main reason being his role in the Neverland auction affair. At the same time Tohme was on his way out, Michael made the surprise decision to bring Frank DiLeo back into his camp. DiLeo, whom Michael had dismissed 20 years earlier, was appointed as a ‘representative’ and ‘tour manager’.  MICHAEL AND FRANK DILEO IN THE 1980sMeanwhile, in early May, AEG gave in to Michael’s demands for a personal physician to accompany him for both the rehearsal period in Los Angeles and the shows in London. Initially, AEG tried to convince Michael that he did not need a costly full-time doctor simply to ‘make protein shakes’. “I didn’t want to spend $150,000 a month on a doctor, since we were playing in London, which has phenomenal medical resources,” Randy Phillips admitted. “He admonished me that he needed a doctor 24/7, the same way Barack Obama did, because his body is what fuels this whole business. Michael prevailed on that.” The chosen physician, Grenadian-born cardiologist Conrad Murray, was hired at a rate of $150,000 a month. Michael first met Murray in December 2006, when he treated one of his children shortly after their arrival in Las Vegas.On May 20, AEG announced it had to push back the beginning of This Is It by five days, meaning three shows had to be moved from July 2009 to March 2010. Director Kenny Ortega explained he needed an extra week to get the show ready because it had ‘got so big’, and they also required more rehearsal time in London. But the media chose to ignore the explanations and instead speculated that the delay was due to Michael’s health.The British tabloids were the main culprits when it came to outlandish Michael Jackson stories that circulated in the build-up to the shows. One story claimed Michael was secretly fighting skin cancer. Others detailed Michael’s demands for elephants, monkeys and parrots to accompany him on stage in London, and that he planned to sing a duet with his twelve-year-old son Prince. The most outrageous one of all claimed it was a body double who had showed up to the press conference at the O2 Arena on March 5. Readers were also reminded that Michael had been using a wheelchair to go shopping as recently as the previous summer. The tabloid circus fuelled scepticism over whether Michael would turn up on the opening night, let alone perform 50 shows.By June, the show had really begun to take shape. Although overall production costs were supposed to be capped at $7.5 million, the final costs ran closer to $25 million. This Is It was described as the most technologically advanced and most expensive arena show ever mounted. The $5 million ‘Dome Project’, consisting of a series of 2D and 3D films, was a major factor in the budget increase. The films were to be projected onto a huge LED screen behind the stage at different moments during the London shows, creating the first 3D concert experience in history.Michael told Ortega the show’s opening had to be something no artist had ever done before. The concept they chose was an LED video experience; Michael would float onto the stage in a body suit made of screens flashing with historical television images, before emerging and starting the show with ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’’. For his grand stage exit, Michael came up with ‘MJ Air’. The plan was to depart through a hole in the screen, to give the impression that he had boarded a jet and flown away. MJ AIR‘Smooth Criminal’ was set to start with a short 2D film, which was made to look like Michael was appearing with Humphrey Bogart and Rita Hayworth in a stylish old film noir. Michael filmed his scenes against a green screen at Culver Studios in early June, which were then digitally inserted into sequences from several classic black-and-white Hollywood movies, including Gilda, Dead Reckoning, In a Lonely Place and The Big Sleep. The film was interactive; at one point Michael would have jumped out of the film before emerging on the stage. Ortega said it was one of the projects Michael was most excited about. “I said [to Michael], ‘What if all the badass gangsters from all the old Hollywood movies were chasing you,’ and Michael loved that,” Ortega recalls. MICHAEL IN THE 2009 SMOOTH CRIMINALThe spectacular ‘Thriller’ performance was also interactive, and would have started with a 3D film including the recreation of the famous zombie scene from the 1983 video. The film was designed to act as a backdrop while Michael danced on stage. Towards the end Michael would emerge from underneath a black widow spider prop which had transferred from the screen, before performing the ‘Thriller’ dance with the zombies. Michael wanted ghost puppets to drop from the ceiling and fly over the audience and through the walkways, which he called the ‘4D’ experience. MICHAEL REHEARSES THRILLERBut ‘Earth Song’ was the video that was most important to Michael. The money and performing for his children weren’t his only motivations for doing the tour; he also felt he had an important message to give. “He felt now more than ever that his music applied to our world situation,” Ortega explained. “He wanted to use the stage as a platform to remind people the importance of us doing whatever we can to take care of this planet and each other.”His performance of ‘Earth Song’ would serve that purpose. “The planet is sick, like a fever,” Michael said in 2009. “If we don’t fix it now, it’s at the point of no return. This is our last chance to fix this problem that we have, where it’s like a runway train. And the time has come, This Is It.” At the beginning of ‘Earth Song’, Michael wanted to show a video featuring a little girl playing with nature in a rainforest, complete with stunning colour and imagery. Towards the end, when Michael begins his raging ad-libs atop a cherry picker, the girl wakes up in a destructed wasteland on the screen behind. Finally, she meets a heavy digger which transfers onto the stage and stops in front of Michael.A SCENE FROM THE EARTH SONG FILM Some of the numbers, including ‘Human Nature’, ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Man in the Mirror’, were totally free of special effects so the audience could be alone with Michael, his voice, his dancing and the music. This Is It had become a huge multi-million dollar production, which required Michael’s full focus and attention.In the first week of June 2009, Michael spent most mornings on set at Culver Studios to film pieces for the Dome Project. At the same time, rehearsals moved from Center Staging to one of Los Angeles’ major sports and concert arenas, the Forum in Inglewood. Preparations had advanced to the point where it was time to put the show on its feet and begin the staging phase at a larger venue. Michael was now expected to step it up and show more regularly for rehearsal, but he failed to attend as often as the production team would have liked. When he did show, rehearsals would usually begin in the late afternoon after his home session with Travis Payne, lasting up to seven hours. MICHAEL AND KENNY ORTEGA AT CULVER STUDIOS Michael missed several rehearsals in the first two weeks of June, much to the frustration of Kenny Ortega and the production team. By the third week of June, Michael was absent from the Forum almost on a daily basis. On June 16, a meeting was held at the Carolwood mansion so Ortega and AEG executives Paul Gongaware and Randy Phillips could discuss with Michael his lack of focus and poor attendance at rehearsals.Gongaware, who had previously acted as a tour manager on both the Dangerous and HIStory tours, says he was never alarmed by Michael’s absences. “Michael didn’t like to rehearse, it didn’t surprise me,” he said. Michael barely rehearsed for the HIStory Tour but still nailed it, Gongaware noted. “I knew that when the house lights went up, he was going to be there,” he added. “When it was game time, he would show up.”What caused the most alarm was Michael’s sudden weight loss – he weighed 136 pounds – and strange behaviour. Choreographer Travis Payne recalls questioning Michael about his sudden weight loss, but was told not to worry. “He said, ‘I’m getting down to my fighting weight,’ which I took to mean that he was preparing for the performances,” Payne said. One thing Michael managed to hide from just about everyone, apart from Dr Murray, was his nightly struggle with insomnia. Michael had trouble sleeping during tour phases in the past, and this was no different.On Friday, June 19, Michael showed up for what was scheduled to be the last rehearsal at the Forum. But he was in no fit state to even step onto the stage. Kenny Ortega said the Michael he saw that night frightened him. “I thought there was something emotionally going on, deeply emotional, something physical going on,” he admitted. “He was cold. I observed Michael like I had never seen him before. It troubled me deeply; he appeared lost, cold, afraid. I felt Michael was in trouble and needed help.” Michael asked to sit out the rehearsal and watch while Travis Payne took his place, before Ortega suggested that he return home early. Following the incident another summit was called, which took place the next afternoon at Carolwood. Ortega and Phillips began sharing their concerns with Michael and Dr Murray, but the doctor became angry with Ortega, telling him had no right to send Michael home. “[Murray said] Michael was physically and emotionally capable of handling all of his responsibilities for the show,” Ortega recalls. “I was shocked because Michael didn’t appear to me to be physically or emotionally stable at that moment.” Murray then told Ortega to stick to his job and leave Michael’s health matters to him.Michael reassured both Ortega and Phillips that he was physically and mentally fit to continue, and that he would improve from this point onwards. “Michael told me that he was ready to take the reins,” Ortega said, “that I should not be afraid, [and] that he was perfectly capable of handling the responsibilities. He wanted to do it [the tour], [he] wanted me to stay at his side, [and he] told me to believe in him. I told him I loved him, [that] I was concerned for his health and safety, and I said, ‘That’s the only reason why I brought these things up, because I care about you and I don’t want any ill harm to fall upon you,’ and he said, ‘I’m fine Kenny I promise you,’ and he gave me a hug.”It was also related to Michael once again that he needed to attend rehearsals at such an important stage of the production. Michael responded by explaining that he hadn’t been as engaged as Ortega would have liked as he had been working with Travis Payne at home, and that he knew his routines. “I mean Michael was very clear that he was ready,” Phillips said. “What he said to Kenny, is, ‘You build the house, and I’ll put on the door and paint it’.” Michael said he understood his presence was needed for such a complex production, and promised Ortega he would now come to rehearsals. The director then told Michael to take the next two days off and spend some time with his children.On Tuesday, June 23 rehearsals moved from the Forum to the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles, which was a closer example of the O2 Arena in London. Eight rehearsals were scheduled to take place at Staples; the crew would then fly to London on July 5, allowing for five days of rehearsal at the O2 Arena before the opening show on July 13.When Michael showed up at the Staples Center that Tuesday night, he kept his promise – he was invigorated. Kenny Ortega could scarcely believe what was unfolding on the stage in front of him. “He entered into rehearsal full of energy, full of desire to work; full of enthusiasm, and it was a different Michael,” Ortega recalls. A HAPPY MICHAEL ON JUNE 23The director even began wondering if he had seen a problem that didn’t exist. “I doubted myself,” he admitted. “I remember going, ‘Did I see something that couldn’t have been there?’ Because Michael just didn’t seem like the Michael that I had seen on the 19th. He was raring to go, fired up, in charge.”On Wednesday, Michael arrived at Staples at 6.30pm for a meeting with Randy Phillips, AEG president Tim Leiweke and television producer Ken Ehrlich. They discussed plans for a Halloween television special to be broadcast on CBS on October 31, 2009, which Ehrlich would produce; Michael wanted to combine his 1996 film Ghosts with segments of one of his live stage performances of ‘Thriller’ in London.He then spent the next hour reviewing the 3D segments for This Is It, before stepping onto the stage at around 9.30pm for rehearsal. Over the course of three hours Michael performed around a dozen songs, showing similar levels of energy and focus to the previous evening. The very last song he sang that night was ‘Earth Song’. Michael then sat down with Kenny Ortega as they watched Travis Payne go through the ‘Heal the World’ rehearsal, so he could observe the lighting, staging and scenic elements of the song. MICHAEL SINGS EARTH SONG FOR THE FINAL TIMEAt the end of the session, Michael had a communal hug with Ortega and Payne before returning to his dressing room. Ortega was ‘elated’ with Michael’s sudden transformation. “He knew we were over the hump,” Phillips said. As they were walking out of the arena at 12.30am, Phillips said it felt ‘like a million dollars’ when Michael told him, “Now I know I can do this,” and “Thank you for getting me this far, I can take it from here.”On Thursday Michael was due to begin rehearsing ‘the illusion’, which would transition ‘Dirty Diana’ into ‘Beat It’. During ‘Dirty Diana’, Michael was to perform on a bed surrounded by flames while being pursued by a pole-dancing female aerialist, who would eventually catch him and tie him to one of the bedposts. A series of silk flames would then obscure him, before falling and revealing the pole-dancing female. Michael would then start ‘Beat It’ by floating over the audience on a cherry picker.As Michael left the Staples Center, Ortega told him he would have everything prepared for him the next evening. “He felt like we were accomplishing the dream he saw before him in those rehearsals,” an emotional Ortega recalls. “He asked me to thank everybody, to tell them that he loved them – the dancers, the singers, the band, the crew. I told him that I would have everything prepared for him the next day so that he could step right into the illusion rehearsal, and I told him that I loved him and he told me that he loved me more, and I gave him a big hug and he left the building.”The drive from the Staples Center to Carolwood Drive took about 30 minutes that night. As usual dozens of fans were camped outside the front gates to greet Michael when he returned. As his SUV approached the property at around 1am, Michael was in good spirits as he wound down his window and chatted briefly with fans before the vehicle proceeded through the gates. CAROLWOOD DRIVE GATESBut after stepping through the front door and retiring to his bedroom, his mood changed. As always after a hectic rehearsal, he struggled to wind down and relax. At 1.30am, after Michael took a shower, Dr Murray tried putting him to sleep with a tablet of diazepam, also known as Valium, a benzodiazepine drug with sedative properties. When this failed Murray gave Michael two stronger benzodiazepines, lorazepam and midazolam. Michael fell asleep, albeit briefly; after ten minutes he was wide awake again, according to Murray.By 4.30am, Michael began to get desperate. “I got to sleep,” he told Murray. “I have these rehearsals to perform. I must be ready for the show in England. Tomorrow I will have to cancel my performance. I cannot function if I don’t get the sleep.” Murray tried more lorazepam and midazolam, but by 10.40am, Michael was still not asleep. It was then when he told Murray, ‘I’d like to have some milk. I know that this is all that really works for me.’ What Michael was referring to was Propofol, an intravenously administered anaesthetic usually used only in a hospital setting. Murray reminded Michael that he had to be awake by noon to get ready for his next rehearsal at the Staples Center. “Just make me sleep, doesn’t matter what time I get up,” Michael responded. MICHAEL'S ROOM AT CAROLWOODMurray admitted he had been giving Michael Propofol every night for eight weeks to deal with his insomnia. Michael was familiar with the drug; he had used it for the same purpose during the summer of 1997 while touring Europe, and during the recording of Invincible. Because he was receiving the drug from a doctor, Michael believed it was safe. Over 48 hours earlier Murray began his attempt to wean Michael off Propofol, giving him less of that and more of the lorazepam and midazolam. On the Tuesday night, Michael slept reasonably well using only the benzodiazepines. This may explain why he was so invigorated at rehearsal.Despite successfully getting Michael to sleep without Propofol the previous night, Murray gave in to the demands. “I decided to go ahead and give him some of the milk so he could get a couple hours sleep so that he could produce [rehearse], because I cared about him,” Murray explained. The doctor administered 25mg of Propofol, slowly infused through an IV saline drip in Michael’s leg. By 11am, as the drug surged through his bloodstream, Michael finally drifted off into a false sleep. He would never wake up.“Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it – my music, I know I will live forever.”Michael JacksonNOTE: This information was taken from the 'The Final Curtain Call' chapter in Making Michael. 

Michael Jackson and the Grammy Awards

The awards season is upon us, and every year the Grammys dishes out prizes to the year’s biggest music artists.Michael Jackson is the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music, and during his lifetime the King of Pop broke several Grammy records, once holding records for most honoured album and youngest nominee. He still holds the records for the most Grammys won in one night (joint with Santana), and most nominations in a night.Michael’s first appearance at the Grammy Awards came in 1971, when The Jackson 5’s ‘ABC’ was nominated in the category for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance by a Group. At the time, Michael was the youngest person ever to have been nominated for a Grammy.The brothers also attended in 1974, when they presented an award and sang a small selection of each of the nominated songs. The group returned to present an award three years later.Michael’s second Grammy nomination came in 1979, when his duet with Diana Ross forThe Wizmovie, ‘Ease on Down the Road’, was up for an award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.The Jackson 5 at the 1971 Grammys at the Hollywood PalladiumIn the wake of releasing his first major solo record,Off the Wall, in August 1979, Michael was nominated for two Grammys for the album’s lead single, ‘Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough’. But Michael felt he was being ignored by members of the Recording Academy (then NARAS) over a perceived lack of nominations, withOff the Wall’sfailure to land a nomination for Album of the Year proving particularly painful.“I remember where I was when I got the news,” Michael recalls. “I was upset by what I perceived as the rejection of my peers.Off the Wallwas well received by my fans and I think that's why the Grammy nomination hurt. People told me later that it surprised the industry too.”Read next:Super Bowl and Michael Jackson: The story behind the first big halftime showThe decision became all the more baffling when Michael went on to became the first solo artist to have four singles from the same album reach the top ten of the American singles chart, theBillboardHot 100.Off the Wallalso went on to sell a colossal ten million copies in three years, making it the biggest-selling album of all time by a black artist.But strange things had happened at the Grammys before. Bob Dylan’s monumentalHighway 61 Revisitedalbum failed to win a Grammy in 1965, while David Bowie’s 1972Ziggy Stardustcollection, considered to be one of the greatest records of all time, didn’t even land a nomination.Although he was up for two awards on the night, Michael decided not to attend the ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium in Downtown Los Angeles, and instead watched it on television at home in Encino.Read next:Author Mike Smallcombe discusses Michael Jackson and his book Making Michael‘Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough’ won in the Best R&B Vocal Performance category, but for Michael it was little consolation. His disappointment would only serve as motivation for the future. “That experience lit a fire in my soul,” he said. “I got excited thinking about the album to come. I said to myself, ‘Wait until next time – they won’t be able to ignore the next album’.”That album, of course, becameThriller. Hurt by hisOff the WallGrammy snub, Michael wanted every single song on his next album to be a hit record. He didn’t believe in albums where songs are included just to make up the numbers, and cited Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’sThe Nutcrackeras an inspiration. “It’s an album where every song is like a great song,” Michael explained. But he didn’t just want to make great songs; he also wanted the album to be the biggest-selling of all time. Many felt this was maybe a little too ambitious.The Jacksons at the 1977 GrammysIn the summer of 1982, America was in the midst of a severe recession, and the music industry was in tatters. When the team walked through the studio doors on day one to begin recordingThriller, producer Quincy Jones confided to Westlake studio manager Jim Fitzpatrick that he simply hoped the album would match the sales ofOff the Wall. “Quincy said to me, ‘Gosh Jim, this record business is in such a slump, I only hope this next one can sell as well asOff the Wall’,” Fitzpatrick recalls.Despite the industry crisis Michael had higher hopes for the album, even if other members of the production team didn’t. He was in the studio with Quincy and songwriter Rod Temperton one day when the pair dared to mention that sales may not reach the heights ofOff the Wall. “I admitted that I wanted this album to be the biggest-selling album of all time,” Michael said. “They started laughing. It was a seemingly unrealistic thing to want. There were times when I would get emotional or upset because I couldn’t get the people working with me to see what I saw.” Proving people wrong had been Michael’s goal ever since his big Grammys disappointment that night back in February 1980.Thrillerwas released on November 30, 1982, and became Michael’s first album to hit number one in both the United States and the United Kingdom. By early 1984, it had become the biggest-selling album of all time, surpassingthe 1977 movie soundtrack toSaturday Night Fever.Read next:Donald Trump and Michael Jackson: The full story behind a mysterious friendshipWhen the list of Grammy nominees was announced for the 1984 awards, Michael received a record 12 nominations. Hisclosest competitor was in fact Quincy, who received six nominations.After the announcement Michael called his record label chief, Walter Yetnikoff, and told him he didn’t want the producer to win any awards for his role in producingThriller. Michael didn't want Quincy to receive all the credit and steal the limelight. Yetnikoff recalls Michael telling him: “Quincy has enough Grammys. He doesn't need any more. Tell them not to give him any Grammys forThriller. You can call Quincy and tell him to withdraw. If he doesn't, I won't let him produce my next record. People will think he's the one who did it, not me.” Quincy, of course, didn't withdraw, but Michael needn't have worried about a lack of recognition.Grammy night was on Tuesday, February 28, 1984 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Michael’s date that night was actress Brooke Shields, who had already accompanied him to the American Music Awards and Guinness Awards that year. Michael once described Shields as "one of the loves of my life", and would even speak with her about the two marrying and raising adoptive children together. But ultimately, they would remain friends.Michael takes us behind the scenes at the 1984 Grammy Awards:When the two stepped out of their white Rolls-Royce outside the auditorium that night, they were met by Michael’s other guest, close pal Emmanuel Lewis, a 12-year-old actor best known for playing the title character in the 1980s television sitcomWebster. Once inside, they chatted with the likes of Gladys Knight, Chuck Berry and James Brown, and Michael caught Lewis trying to get under his date’s skirt. “He’s a flirt," Michael said, "see I like her and he liked her too, so it’s competition."After Michael took his seat in the front row, sitting between his two guests, show host John Denver took the stage to explain that the big words of the past year had been ‘videos, Boy George and Michael…’, leaving the audience to loudly scream out ‘Jackson’. Michael recalls: “When we walked in we got a huge… a tumultuous applause. People really were excited.”Read next:The making of Michael Jackson's Dangerous PART ONEIn a pre-recorded video which was shown on the screens before the ceremony got under way, comedian Joan Rivers was on hand to explain the rules. “The reason we’re reading the rules is so that all the losers will know why they lost to Michael Jackson,” she said. It was clear to everybody that Michael was the man of the moment, before a single winner had even been announced.This time, four years afterOff the Wallfailed to gain the recognition he believed it deserved, Michael wasn't ignored by his peers. Summoned to the stage time and time again, Michael picked up a record-breaking eight awards (seven forThrillerand one for theE.T.storybook). The record for eight awards in one night was only equalled 16 years later by Latin rock band Santana. Each time Michael, or even when his image appeared on the studio monitors beside the stage, the fans in the balcony erupted in a frenzied applause.When Michael picked up his record-breaking seventh award, he finally took off the aviator sunglasses he had been wearing all night. He was poking fun at his good friend, actress Katharine Hepburn, who had scolded him for wearing the shades during the American Music Awards a few weeks earlier. Michael explained: “WhenThrillerwon for Best Album, I went up to accept it, took off my glasses, and stared into the camera. ‘Katherine Hepburn’, I said, ‘This is for you’, I knew she was watching and she was. You have to have some fun.”Michael and Brooke Shields share a joke at the 1984 GrammysAs if the unrelenting exposure of winning a record eight Grammys wasn’t enough, Michael could also be seen during the breaks on Pepsi commercials which were premiering at the ceremony. Michael, of course, had been burned while filming the commercials inside the same venue only four weeks earlier.After the awards, Michael had few words to say to the press. But he did respond to one question."What’s your favourite song"? somebody shouted as Michael walked away."'My Favourite Things' by Julie Andrews", Michael responded, before he started singing the song.Michael and Brooke were whisked away in their motorcade and driven to an after-party at the nearby Rex il Ristorante restaurant. As their Rolls-Royce sped away from the auditorium, Michael rolled down the window and leaned out, clutching a Grammy in one hand. "All right", he yelled. "Allright".Michael also won a Grammy at the 1985 awards for Best Video Album for ‘Thriller’, but didn’t attend the ceremony. His next appearance came in 1986, when he scooped the ‘Song of the Year’ Grammy for ‘We Are the World’ with co-writer Lionel Richie, marking both the first and last time he won the coveted award. But once again, Michael was worried he would be overshadowed by Quincy Jones, who produced the record and was chosen to accept the prize.Michael came up with a mischievous plan to upstage Quincy and cause a commotion during the awards, which were being televised around the world. Michael had his team hire a young teenage girl to play the part of an adoring fan, who would run from the wings onto the stage and jump him as he stood next to Quincy.Nobody would remember the producer’s acceptance speech, and the incident would make headlines around the globe.As the ‘Song of the Year’ winner was announced, Michael walked up to the stage with Lionel Richie. Michael could be seen rocking nervously and looking to the wings as Quincy gave his speech, wondering when the girl was going to appear.Watch Michael squirming nervously:But the prank didn’t go to plan, as the girl had trouble getting through a crowd of people who had gathered in the wings. She had missed her moment, and the scheme failed. Michael later burst into laughter when his manager, Frank DiLeo, explained what had gone wrong.In 1988, Michael agreed to perform at the Grammy Awards for the first time. In late February 1988, Michael took a short break from his Bad Tour to rehearse for special performances of ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ and ‘Man in the Mirror’ at the awards, which were taking place at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on March 2. It would be his first televised performance sinceMotown 25five years earlier.Engineer Brad Sundberg said Michael wanted to do something special for his performance, so they decided to record a new slow intro for ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’. Michael’s background vocals for this intro were recorded in his hotel room in Pensacola, Florida, where he decided to base rehearsals for the tour. Engineers ran microphone cables up to his room from a recording truck below. “We put it all together in the truck, and jumped in the Hit Factory studio in New York a few days before the Grammy show for some final touches to the mix,” Sundberg said. “The performance was amazing, and our little hotel studio worked like a charm.”After his performance, which theLos Angeles Timesdescribed as “one of the most striking performances ever by a pop performer on national television”, Michael took his seat in the front row, and waited for the winners to be announced. But despite being nominated in four categories, including Album of the Year forBad, he failed to win a single award. He was devastated and humiliated. “He went back to the Helmsley Palace, where he was staying, and cried,” one friend said. But Michael had to pick himself up quickly, as the Bad Tour’s three New York dates took place at Madison Square Garden in the days following the awards.Michael was devastated after failing to win a Grammy in 1988Michael landed another Grammy in 1990, when ‘Leave Me Alone’ from theBadalbum won for Best Music Video (Short Form). But his next appearance at the show came in 1993, at the Shrine Auditorium. Michael had nominations in three categories for ‘Black or White’ and ‘Jam’ and gave a lengthy speech lasting more than six minutes.The speech was part of a media blitz strategy devised by his manager, Sandy Gallin, the aim of which was to improve an image which had been battered by years of negative tabloid coverage. Gallin felt Michael needed to reconnect with the American public. “I knew that we had to do something drastic and show Michael as a living human being, because his image was just so bizarre,” Gallin said.“I came up with a plan, and when I presented it to Michael, he thought I was insane. He said, ‘No way, you’re crazy, you’re trying to make me the boy next door.’ And I said, ‘Michael, I could work with you for a thousand years and I could never make you the all American boy next door. I just want people to know that you’re human and that you don’t walk around with a snake around your neck’. People thought he couldn’t talk, that he couldn’t carry a conversation, and that he was from Mars.”Watch Michael's brilliant speech at the 1993 Grammys:By the time Michael appeared at the Grammys on February 24, 1993, he had already made several high profile appearances including performing at President Clinton’s inauguration, the American Music Awards and the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show. A rare interview with chat show queen Oprah Winfrey at Neverland was also telecast live around the world to an estimated 90 million viewers.Although Michael didn’t win any awards, his sister Janet did present him with the Grammy Legend Award, and his speech was well received by the audience. At one stage, he addressed his recent flurry of public appearances. “In the past month I’ve gone from, ‘Where is he’? to ‘Here he is again’,” Michael joked, bringing laughs from the crowd. “But I must confess it feels good to be thought of as a person, not as a personality.”Once again Michael's date that night was Brooke Shields, and after the ceremony the pair attended a party at Jimmy's Restaurant in Beverly Hills.Michael and Brooke Shields on their way to a Grammys after-party in 1993It was the final time Michael attended a Grammy Awards show, although he did win one more award in 1996 for ‘Scream’, which was awarded Best Music Video (Short Form). A performance at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2002 was cancelled due to Michael’s issues with Sony and the promotion ofInvincible, and a planned performance at the 2008 show to promote theThriller 25album also never came to fruition.In 2010, Michael was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. It was accepted by his children, Prince and Paris and their cousins, 3T. Prior to the presentation of the award, a special tribute performance took place.It will have disappointed the immensely competitive Michael at some stage that he never held the record for most Grammy wins, the honour of which goes to Hungarian-British conductor Sir Georg Solti. But his 13 Grammy awards contribute to his title of being themost awarded recording artist in history. Not bad for a kid from Gary, Indiana.READ MORE ABOUT MAKING MICHAEL

Super Bowl and Michael Jackson: The story behind the first big halftime show

Musical acts have performed on the NFL’s Super Bowl halftime show ever since trumpeter Al Hirt and a university marching band graced the inaugural contest in 1967.But over the next 25 years the NFL failed to attract any stellar names in the world of entertainment to perform at its showpiece event, and it finally dawned on the executives that TV ratings were most vulnerable during the halftime show.Whenever halftime rolled around, the Super Bowl broadcast would lumber into its usual lull as tens of millions of viewers rushed to the bathroom or the refrigerator.Things came to a head in 1992, when broadcaster CBS’s halftime rating fell 10 points from game action in the previous half-hour. A staggering 20 million viewers switched over to Fox to watch a live edition of its popular showIn Living Color, rather than sit through performances by former Olympic champion skaters Brian Boitano and Dorothy Hamill and singer Gloria Estefan.READ NEXT:Donald Trump and Michael Jackson: A mysterious friendshipTo maintain viewership, the NFL suits knew they needed to raise their game and recruit the biggest contemporary acts in the world. "Our thought afterward [the Super Bowl in 1992] was we had to step it up a notch,” the NFL’s then executive director of special events, Jim Steeg, recalls.Their mission? Get Michael Jackson.In February 1992, only four weeks after Super Bowl XXVI, Steeg and Arlen Kantarian, the chief executive of halftime show producers Radio City Productions, landed a Beverly Hills meeting with Jackson’s manager Sandy Gallin.It was a start. But in the initial meetings, the pair had a hard time persuading Gallin to accept their offer. “I remember pitching them and them not really having a clue what we were talking about," Steeg said. In a subsequent meeting, Kantarian recalls Jackson asking him, “Who plays in it? What is it?”Gallin said no to the NFL’s proposal three times before saying yes. At one point, when Gallin was told that the NFL pays performers only for their expenses, he told Kantarian: “You’ve got to be kidding… this is Michael Jackson”, before asking for a $1 million fee.The deal-breaker came when show producer Don Mischer pointed out that the Super Bowl would be broadcast in more than 120 countries, including third world nations, and on United States military bases. “Man, I’ll never tour there,” Kantarian recalls Michael saying.READ NEXT:The making of Michael Jackson's Dangerous“We talked to him about the blue-collar football fan that might not otherwise be a Michael Jackson fan and about how he could build a new fan base,” Kantarian said. “He got that as well. He was very sharp and very shy.”The NFL’s proposition also fitted perfectly with Gallin’s new management strategy, which was to place his client in front of the largest television audiences possible. Gallin believed the negative Jackson stories that were appearing in the tabloids were causing substantial damage, and felt his client needed to reconnect with the American public. “I knew that we had to do something drastic and show Michael as a living human being, because his image was just so bizarre,” Gallin said.“I came up with a plan, and when I presented it to Michael, he thought I was insane. He said, ‘No way, you’re crazy, you’re trying to make me the boy next door.’ And I said, ‘Michael, I could work with you for a thousand years and I could never make you the all American boy next door. I just want people to know that you’re human and that you don’t walk around with a snake around your neck’. People thought he couldn’t talk, that he couldn’t carry a conversation, and that he was from Mars.”Michael, manager Sandy Gallin and MadonnaPrior to the Super Bowl Michael had already performed at President Clinton’s Inaugural Gala in Washington D.C., followed by the American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium a week later. But the most high profile performance would come at the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Los Angeles on January 31. A deal was struck after the NFL agreed to donate $100,000 to Jackson’s Heal the World Foundation.When discussions began over the show production, Jackson affirmed his desire to sing new songs from his latest smash album,Dangerous. Michael said, “Billie Jean’s just a tune, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s a new world; this has to be about ‘Heal the World’.”Jackson and his touring band spent 28 days in January 1993 rehearsing at the Rose Bowl. At 7pm the night before the game, Jackson was still rehearsing his routine in a tent outside the stadium. Perhaps for the only time in his career, Jackson was nervous about taking to the stage the following day. "It's live and there's only the time of a couple of potato chip commercials to get the stage out into the field," band member Jennifer Batten said. "I'll tell you, it was the only time I ever saw Michael nervous."On the stroke of halftime, with the Dallas Cowboys leading the Buffalo Bills by a score of 28 to 10, crews had only three minutes and 20 seconds to put together the 75-foot stage, which came in 22 pieces and weighed a huge ten tonnes.[image error]Jackson decided to begin his set with a three-minute medley of ‘Jam’, ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Black or White’. He was catapulted onto the stage as fireworks went off behind him, before standing motionless in a black and gold military outfit for one and a half minutes to build anticipation, just as he had been doing on tour over the previous six months.Jackson had only informed show producer Don Mischer of his plans for the opening two days before the show. Mischer recalls: “Michael called me at my house at 3am in the morning and said, ‘I want to determine when the show starts. I have a concept for the beginning’. And the cue was, ‘I am going to reach up and take my glasses off. And that’s when you prepare to roll the track’.”Around 40 seconds after landing on the stage Jackson still hadn't moved, and Mischer began to panic. “When you’re directing this, every second is like an eternity,” he said. “And I just start to shout, ‘Michael, dammit, take your glasses off’! He can’t hear me, but I’m just losing it, kind of shouting into my headset. All the camera guys can hear me, but that was the deal I had made with him, and I was not going to jump the queue.”After the energetic three-minute dance set, the show finale kicked off with an audience card set and a choir of 3,500 local Los Angeles area children singing ‘We Are the World’. Musical director Brad Buxer then transitioned into the opening chords of ‘Heal the World’. At this stage, Michael told the audience: "Today, we stand together all around the world, joined in a common purpose to remake the planet into a haven of joy and understanding and goodness. No one should have to suffer… especially our children. This time, we must succeed; this is for the children of the world”.Jackson went on the sing ‘Heal the World’, one of his favourite songs. The final moments of the show, in which he was joined by the choir of children as a giant globe appeared on the stage, were the most viewed in the history of television at the time.Super Bowl XXVII became the first in history where audience figures actually increased during the halftime show, and it became the most watched American television broadcast ever. Ratings increased 8.6% over the previous year, and NBC kept its audience during halftime as well as the game's second half.Suddenly, the entertainment world saw the value of the Super Bowl halftime show. The NFL has never looked back, courting the biggest starts the music world has to offer.Meanwhile, Michael’s time in the public eye continued when he gave a rare interview to chat show queen Oprah Winfrey at Neverland on February 10, 1993. The show, which was telecast live around the world to an estimated 90 million viewers, was a monumental success for Michael. Along with the Super Bowl, it helped theDangerousalbum rise back up theBillboard200chart to number ten, over a year after its initial release. Geoff Mayfield, who managed theBillboardchart, said he couldn’t remember such resurgence at the end of an album’s life, and theLos Angeles Timesdescribed the shock media blitz as ‘the sudden coming-out of Michael Jackson’ in the United States.Sandy Gallin’s plan to ‘humanise’ Michael had worked. “It made him much more accessible, and made him appear more like a real person,” Gallin said. “Michael was thrilled with the results. I knew I would have been fired immediately if it didn’t work.”In March 1993,Sony wrapped up its marketing campaign forDangerous. “We all breathed a big sigh of relief when it was over,” former Epic marketing executive Dan Beck said. “Michael had done the Oprah interview, the Super Bowl, and the Grammys, and we felt that throughDangerouswe had accomplished a great deal with Michael from an image stand point.”The NFL has a lot to thank Jackson for, too.

Donald Trump and Michael Jackson: The full story behind a mysterious friendship

Donald Trump's inauguration is upon us – the 45th President of the United States will take office just ten weeks after what was seen as the biggest shock in the country's electoral history.Before trying his hand at politics, Trump was known as a billionaire real estate mogul and reality television star.Trump was also no stranger to parading around with A-list celebrities and he long courted personalities from sports and entertainment, including pop superstar Michael Jackson.It may come as a shock to Jackson’s daughter Paris that her father spent a significant amount of time in Trump’s company in the 1990s, with Trump going so far as to call Jackson “a very good friend of mine”.As many Americans struggled to come to grips with a Donald Trump presidency in the wake of his election, Paris took to social media to share a picture of a man staring at a noose, revealing that she had a “feeling of impending doom” surging through her entire body. She also made the point that those who voted for Trump were defying her entire family.Read next:Author Mike Smallcombe discusses his book Making MichaelIt is important to remember that Jackson’s association and ‘friendship’ with Trump existed many years before the property tycoon turned to politics, and Jackson never had the opportunity to pass judgment on Trump’s professed beliefs and agendas.Trump and Jackson on a private jetThe story of Donald Trump and Michael Jackson begins in March 1988, when the pair met backstage at a concert at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Trump recalls: “I spoke to him for a little while, he was low-key, and I’d think, ‘There’s no way this guy is going out to that stage to perform’. And then you see him moonwalk across the stage and the place would go crazy.”The two became properly acquainted in 1990, when Trump opened what was then the world’s glitziest casino, the Taj Majal in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Dubbed the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’, the 1,250-room casino hotel was constructed at a total cost of $1.1 billion, making it the most expensive casino ever built.Trump and Jackson goof around at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic CityOn Friday, April 6, 1990 Jackson travelled to Atlantic City to assist Trump with the grand opening, and stayed in the hotel’s $10,000-a-night ‘Alexander the Great Suite’. “If I ever needed him for something, he’d always be there,” Trump later said. “He was very loyal to his friends.”Jackson’s arrival at the Taj that afternoon caused pandemonium; thousands of screaming fans and dozens of photographers chased the pair as Trump gave his star guest a guided tour of the facilities.“There were thousands of people literally crushing us,” Trump said, recalling the bedlam. “We had 20 bodyguards, but it was really dangerous.Trump gives Jackson a guided tour around his Taj Mahal casino hotel in Atlantic City“He dropped to his knees and started crawling to the exit. He did it so routinely, I thought he fell. And I said, ‘Michael, is it always like this?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, this is nothing. Japan is much worse’."The next day Trump gave Jackson a tour of the Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall arena, adjacent to his Trump Plaza casino hotel. On the Sunday, Jackson was due to leave for Indiana to be at the bedside of his close friend, 18-year-old Ryan White, who was losing his brave five-year battle with AIDS.Read next:Inside the Bad sessions and the split with Quincy JonesAs he arrived at the airport, Jackson was told that Ryan had passed away. Trump, who was about to board his private jet to return to New York, told Jackson he would accompany him on the journey to the White family home, seemingly sensing a golden public relations opportunity.Trump and Jackson on the tarmac at Atlantic City before flying to IndianapolisThe pair flew to Indianapolis together aboard a private jet provided by Jackson’s record label, before travelling the 20 miles to Ryan’s hometown of Cicero in a motorcade of three limousines and several police vehicles.After arriving at the home, a grieving Jackson sat briefly in the back of a red Ford Mustang GT, which he had given to Ryan as a gift a year earlier. He told the waiting media: "He was a personal friend. It's sad.”After extending his condolences to the family, Trump returned to New Jersey. Jackson remained at the house until the evening, reminiscing and looking through scrapbooks with Ryan's mother, Jeanne.Jackson spent the next 18 months working on hisDangerousalbum, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. He and Trump crossed paths again in June 1992, at a charity gala held at the iconic Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York. Trump and his future wife, Marla Maples, accompanied Jackson as he collected an award for his efforts in helping economically disadvantaged children.Read next:The making of Michael Jackson's DangerousJackson, Trump and his future wife Marla Maples at Tavern on the Green in New York in June 1992The Trump-Jackson friendship was at its strongest in 1994. In March that year, with a gruelling world tour and damaging child molestation accusations behind him, Jackson relocated to New York City to work on his next album, which becameHIStory.Read next:Michael Jackson's HIStory in the making, PART ONEJackson reportedly paid $110,000 a month to rent a four-bedroom apartment near the top of Trump Tower, high above Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan. The apartment, which offers spectacular views over Central Park, was put on the market earlier this year for a cool $23 million.Trump Tower in New York CityJackson’s friend, Frank Cascio, recalls the stay: “Michael’s apartment at Trump was over the top, with dramatic views and gold fixtures in the bathrooms. On the second floor there were three bedrooms. He transformed one of them into a mini dance studio by having all the furniture removed and putting in a dance floor.”Jackson was living just a few floors below Trump's own $100m penthouse, where the pair would often spend time together. “He’d come into my apartment and we’d talk a lot about business,” Trump said. “He was actually a very, very smart businessman.”Jackson's apartment boasted dramatic views of the Empire State Building and Central ParkOne night, they went for dinner at Manhattan’s Le Cirque restaurant. “It was as if he had never seen a menu before, and we carefully went over each item,” Trump recalls.“But what was most amazing were the looks on the distinguished faces in the room as they came over to our table practically begging for an autograph. These are people who had probably never asked for anyone’s autograph before, and I can guarantee you, it was not easy for them to do. They would always start by saying, ‘I have a son who is a big fan of yours, Mr Jackson. Could you give him an autograph’?“But I believe it was for them, not their sons. One woman, one of the most socially prominent in New York, known for her attitude approached our table trying to look cool, then slightly tripped. She grabbed the table for support and asked in the same breath, ‘Mr Jackson, can I have your autograph’? It was amazing to see this woman, whom I have known for years, so flustered and nervous.”Jackson hold Trump's daughter Tiffany in 1994Trump says he was surprised when Jackson told him he had a new girlfriend. “I congratulated him and asked, ‘Who is it’? He was very shy and looked down into his napkin, then put the napkin over his face and said, ‘Trump, Trump, I don’t want to talk about it, I’m so embarrassed’. I chided him. When he finally looked up, he said that it was a girl named Lisa Marie [Presley, Elvis’s only child].”A couple of weeks later, Jackson asked his host if he could bring his new love interest to Trump’s sprawling Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. “We flew down in my plane together,” Trump said. “On the flight down, he asked if it would be possible for his girlfriend to come over and stay. I said absolutely, I looked forward to meeting her. He said she would be arriving sometime around eight o’clock, about an hour after we got to the house.”Trump's sprawling Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, FloridaTrump said that when Lisa Marie arrived, Jackson ran to the living room and greeted her with a hug, before they took off to look at the ocean. “When they came back, holding hands and hugging, they seemed very much in love,” Trump said.During their week-long stay, Jackson and Lisa Marie spent nearly every evening in a part of the mansion called the Grand Tower, and left the house together just once.“He was up there one week with her, and he never came down, so I don’t know what was going on, but they got along,” Trump said.“People often ask me whether or not the relationship was a sham and I give them an emphatic no. I can tell you, for at least a period of time, these two folks were really getting it on.”Jackson married Lisa Marie in a secret ceremony in the Dominican Republic in late May 1994, but they divorced 20 months later. Meanwhile, in December 1994 Jackson finally checked out of Trump Tower after a nine-month stay and returned to California to complete theHIStoryalbum.Jackson with Trump's children Ivana and Eric at Mar-a-Lago in 1994At this stage, it would have seemed like the two were good friends. But then Jackson decided to subtly include Trump in the lyrics of one of theHIStoryalbum's tracks, 'Money', which is an attack on greed and ruthless and unethical individuals.At one point the background vocals feature the words, 'If you want money, then earn it with dignity', before Jackson speaks the names of several American industrialists and business magnates, including Trump, Cornelius Vanderbilt, J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and J. Paul Getty.Somewhat surprisingly, the lyrics were subtle enough to avoid any major headlines in the media. It would appear that although the pair shared a business relationship, Michael's true feelings about Trump came to light through those lyrics.Read next:Full interview with HIStory producer Jimmy JamBut Brad Buxer, who worked on the song as a producer and musician, says there was never a falling out between the pair and that the lyrics were not meant as a personal attack on Trump."I was around Michael Jackson constantly, and we talked about everything," Buxer said. "There was no falling out between him and Donald Trump; Michael thought the world of him. Michael loved and greatly admired successful people, and was truly inspired by Trump. He thought he was an amazing businessman, respected him greatly and liked him very much."He would have called out Donald Trump's name out of respect and admiration. Sometimes in Michael's music his lyrics and their meaning would be misunderstood. 'They Don't Care About Us' is an example where some people thought his lyrics were racist."A note Jackson wrote to his assistant in 1990: 'Where's footage of Trump's speech about me'?One of the individuals Michael admired included Thomas Edison, an American inventor and businessman with links to Morgan, Vanderbilt and the controversial motor company founder Henry Ford, who Michael also once praised.When discussing the notion of not giving up in the face of adversity in a recorded conversation with a friend in 2004, Michael said of Edison and Ford: "Some of the greatest men who have made their mark on this world were treated like that - you know, 'You're not gonna do it, you're not gonna get anywhere'."They laughed at the Wright brothers. They laughed at Thomas Edison. They made jokes about Henry Ford. They said he was ignorant. These men shaped and changed our culture, our customs, the way we live, the way we do things."Either way, Jackson and Trump met again half a decade later, which would indicate that there was no fallout. Jackson called Trump when he was staying in New York to record hisInvinciblealbum, and invited the businessman and his partner Melania for dinner at the luxury Pierre Hotel.Melania, who married Trump in 2005 and will become the next First Lady of United States, recalls how she hit it off with Jackson. Melania said: “Just after dinner, we were chatting on the sofa and my husband went into another room to see some art somebody wanted to show him. And Michael said to me, 'Hey, when Trump comes back, let's start kissing so he will be jealous’!” The two didn’t kiss. "But we were laughing so hard,” she says.Trump with (L-R) Jackson's mother Katherine and sisters Janet, Rebbie and La ToyaIn 2004, Trump publically defended Jackson ahead of his child molestation trial. “I'm going to stick up for him, because nobody else is,” Trump told Larry King. “But I don't believe it.“He lived in Trump Tower. I knew what was happening with Michael Jackson. You know what was happening? Absolutely nothing. I had many people that worked for me in the building, and believe me, they would tell me if anything was wrong.“And if you look at the mother of this young man [Gavin Arvizo], she has had plenty of experience at going after people. And she goes after them viciously and violently, and I saw a story and I read another story about some of the things she's done.“It's tough to win [a trial]. But I have a feeling he is going to win.”Trump later reiterated his point, and said his young children were often in Jackson’s company when he was living in Trump Tower in 1994. “Michael would spend a lot of time with my kids,” Trump said. “Michael would come, play with the kids. He just loved children. He was not a child molester and I am certain of that. He’d play with my son Eric and my son Donald and he’d just play with them forever.”Trump and Jackson at the Taj Mahal hotel casino in April 1990In February 2016, Trump was criticised by Jermaine Jackson after claiming Michael lost self-esteem due to “bad surgery”.Trump said: “He lost tremendous confidence because of, honestly, bad-bad-bad surgery. He had the worst. He had people that did numbers on him that were just unbelievable. Believe it or not, when you lose your confidence in something, you can even lose your talent."Read next:The story behind Michael Jackson's GhostsBut Trump also paid tribute to his friend.  “He was an amazing guy, but beyond all else, he was the greatest entertainer I've ever known,” he said. “He had magic. He was a genius. He was also a really good person, and when you got to know him, you realized how smart he was. He was brilliant.“Now, Michael wasn't the same Michael for the last 10 years. He was not well. He had a lot of problems, a lot of difficulties. He was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by what was happening to him.“But he's not going to be remembered for the last 10 years; he's going to be remembered for the first 35 years. Michael in his prime — there's never been anybody like him.”Find out more aboutMaking MichaelhereTo return to the blog page clickhere

The making of Michael Jackson's 'Human Nature'

In tonight's extract fromMaking Michael, Toto band member Steve Porcaro tells us how 'Human Nature', from theThrilleralbum, came to be.By the fall of 1982, it was certain that Michael’s three songs, ‘The Girl Is Mine’, ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’’ and ‘Billie Jean’, were going to make the final cut, as well as Rod Temperton’s ‘Thriller’. At this stage these songs were considered to be the cornerstones of the album. Songs such as ‘Carousel’, ‘Got the Hots’ (written by Michael and Quincy), ‘Nightline’ (Glen Ballard) and ‘She’s Trouble’ (Terry Britten, Sue Shifrin and Bill Livsey), as well as Temperton’s ‘Baby Be Mine’, ‘The Lady in My Life’ and ‘Hot Street’, were also being strongly considered.But a few of these songs were causing Quincy and Temperton to reconsider the direction of the album. They realised songs such as ‘Hot Street’, ‘She’s Trouble’ and ‘Got the Hots’ were ‘a little too poppy’ and ‘straightforward’ in comparison with ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’’, ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Thriller’. What the album was really missing, according to Quincy, was a big rock song. He encouraged Michael, as well as others, to try to write it. Musician Steve Porcaro said Quincy was looking for something in the vein of ‘My Sharona’ by The Knack, and asked Porcaro’s fellow band member David Paich to try to come up with something. But instead of getting a rock song from Paich, it was by complete chance that another ballad caught Quincy’s attention.Read:The making of 'Billie Jean' Porcaro, working onThrilleras a musician, was living at Paich’s house at the time and assisted him in throwing down his ideas on tape while he was trying to come up with material for Michael. “There was a week long period where Quincy would send his assistant to David’s studio every day to pick up a cassette of what he was working on,” Porcaro recalls. “One day, David told me to take the two grooves he had worked on the previous day and make a cassette copy of them, because Quincy’s assistant was on the way to pick something up. When I went in the studio to do this, I found we had run out of blank cassettes.”Porcaro had been working on a new tune, called ‘Human Nature’, although it was far from finished. “The demo I had of it at the time was a very rough track with no verse lyrics, just me horribly singing the same thing over and over, but the chorus was intact. I was hoping Toto would do it. I had that on a cassette and figured I would fast forward it, flip it over to the B-side, and record David’s two grooves. I relabelled the cassette so that David’s tunes were on the A-side, but didn’t label the B-side. That was what was sent over to Quincy.”Quincy played Paich’s demos, but he forgot to turn the tape off at the end and it kicked into auto reverse. “All of a sudden, at the end, there was all this silence,” Quincy recalls. “There was, ‘why, why, dah dah dum dum dum dum dum dum, why, why’. I get goose bumps just talking about it. I said, ‘What the hell is that, this is where we wanna go,’ because it’s got such a wonderful flavour.” The producer called Paich the next day and told him he loved the ‘why, why’ song. “David told me it took him half an hour to figure out what he was talking about,” Porcaro said.Read next:The making of Michael Jackson's Dangerous, PART ONEAfter Porcaro agreed to let Michael have the song, Quincy asked him to finish the lyrics. “As much as Quincy loved the chorus, he was underwhelmed with my verses for a very good reason…they were horrible,” Porcaro admitted. “He asked if I would mind letting a lyricist named John Bettis take a shot at the verses, which I agreed to, and he just knocked it out of the park. His very first draft that he presented to me is what you hear on the record. John turned my tune into a song. He did change my title, ‘Human Nature’, but Quincy wanted to keep it. Michael, Quincy and Bruce, my brother Jeff, Steve Lukather, David Paich and Michael Boddicker turned it into a record. Talk about a fluke.”When the time came for Michael to record his vocals, Porcaro was present to assist him. It is a session he will never forget. “I was standing next to him in the vocal booth, feeding him lines and guiding him,” he recalls. “He pretty much did that in one take, apart from a couple of little things. Michael barely knew the words or melody but he nailed it. And he improvised, the high ad-lib parts [improvised lines] he sang were all him, that wasn’t written in beforehand.”MORE INFO ABOUT MAKING MICHAELRETURN TO BLOG FOR MORE CHAPTERS