understanding-mj

Jet, May 21, 1984 Michael Jackson

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 20:07:01 +0100

Jet, May 21, 1984 Michael Jackson

DOWNLOADS:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?xs8l81378ddg0m5

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B6SSe8Mf204gYTRlZGQzM2QtMThmZC00YTM4LTk1MDktYjU0OWJhZDNlOTg2&hl=en

Jet, April 8, 1985 Michael Jackson

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 19:58:43 +0100

Jet, April 8, 1985 Michael Jackson

DOWNLOAD links:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4g2trpi7rf3xcek

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B6SSe8Mf204gY2U1NWQ0ZjMtMDNiYy00ZjRlLWE0OTQtNmEzMTBlYTRhMWJh&hl=en

Ebony, December 1982 Michael Jackson

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 19:54:31 +0100

Ebony, December 1982 Michael Jackson

therealmichaeljackson.info

=> DOWNLOAD link:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?xh88tu323m0dl6r

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B6SSe8Mf204gNWUzZjI5NDUtZDJiOS00NWI2LTg1NTItZjBmZjI3MGEyN2M5&hl=en

21. Katherine Files for Divorce

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:27:14 +0100

21. Katherine Files for Divorce

Katherine Jackson had tolerated many years of unfaithfulness from

Joseph. She knew he was cheating on her. Everyone knew. Joseph

had been on the road with the boys for years and having brief

encounters with their groupies. Not only had her friends told her,

several of Joseph's more audacious girlfriends had telephoned the

house over the years to brag about their encounters with him. ‘I

don't want those women calling the house,’ she would scream at

Joseph, sometimes in front of the children. ‘I'm sick of it, Joseph.

Enough is enough.’ The reasons for Joseph's actions didn't matter

to Katherine. She wasn't even sure she wanted him to stop his

philandering, as she told one friend. She simply wanted him to be

more discreet. ‘Do you have to play me for a fool?’ she would ask

him, tearfully. A terrible rage began to fulminate in her. ‘Don't you

dare treat me like I'm stupid,’ she screamed at him. ‘There's

nothing worse than being made to feel this way.’

In truth, Joseph treated Katherine just as she had allowed him

to treat her for as long as they'd been husband and wife. There was

little reason for him to stop, as far as he was concerned. In his

view, he worked hard for the Jacksons, he supported his family, he

gave them a good life, so what he did on his free time was none of

their concern, as long as he was present when they needed him.

In January 1973, Katherine learned that one of Joseph's

girlfriends had become pregnant and had a miscarriage. At first,

she couldn't believe it; it was more than she could bear. However,

when she confirmed that it was true, she decided that she had no

choice but to end the marriage. ‘It's over,’ she announced. ‘My

marriage is over.’

Immediately, the children sided with her; oldest daughter

Rebbie, who was twenty-three, couldn't bear to be in the same

room with her father. ‘I don't know how my mother hung in there all those years,’ she later said. ‘She didn't need that heartache with

everything she had to deal with, being a mother, supporting the

children's performance, getting involved in the business end of

things. It was too much. I encouraged her to leave him. I knew that

he was damaging her spirit, that she couldn't possibly have peace

of mind.’

The Jackson offspring had seen Joseph mistreat Katherine for

so many years, they were happy to see her finally take a stand

against him. ‘I hate Joseph,’ Michael said to one of the Motown

staffers. ‘I hate him so much for what he has done to my mother. I

hate him more than I can even say.’

‘But, Michael,’ the Motown employee said, ‘you shouldn't feel

that way. After all, he's your father.’

‘I wish he wasn't my father, sometimes,’ said fourteen-year-

old Michael. ‘I wish it with all of my heart. He's the loser here,’

Michael said. ‘His whole thing is always about winners and losers

and who wins and who loses. With this thing, he loses. Big time.’

Katherine filed for divorce in Los Angeles on 9 March 1973.

Joseph was stunned. He had been controlling and

manipulating Katherine for so many years, he couldn't fathom her

righting back in this manner. He also knew that he could not live

without her. Plus, they had a family, growing children. He had to

change her mind. Who was going to raise all of those kids?

Katherine was faced with a dilemma when she and her

attorneys began filling out the required forms. She didn't have a

clue as to the value or extent of her community property with

Joseph. She had no idea how much her husband – or her children –

earned annually, or what the extent was of their now vast business

enterprises. She didn't even know Joseph's social security number.

Therefore, she had to leave two pages of questions regarding this

personal information unanswered. Her lawyer, Neil C. Newson,

typed on the form, ‘The information required in this declaration is

currently being compiled. A separate amended financial

declaration will be filed.’ Katherine paid her attorney $150 and

then went back to the house on Hayvenhurst. She did not move out

of the house, and neither did Joseph. They just didn't speak to each

other.

‘When Motown heard that Katherine had filed for divorce, all

hell broke loose,’ remembered one family friend. ‘This could have ruined everything in terms of their family image. All of those

stories about how close they were, what a loving family they

were_ It had the potential to be a public relations disaster. It was

decided by Gordy that no one was to know that Katherine and

Joseph were splitting up. It would be a closely guarded secret by

the press department. Today, you couldn't keep something like

that out of the press, especially with a court filing. In the early

seventies, the press wasn't as intrusive as they are today. The

news was never leaked. However, Katherine was badgered

constantly by company officials who tried to convince her to

reconcile with Joseph for the sake of her family's image.’

‘I'm finished with Joseph,’ Katherine told one Motown

official at a meeting to discuss the possible consequences of her

decision. She looked bone-tired, recalled the lawyer. She wore a

simple yet elegant black dress, pearls at her neck, a fine, diamond

pin on her shoulder. Her hair was a jet black coif around her head.

‘It should have nothing to do with the boys' career,’ she said,

firmly. They can still make records and be famous, and their

parents can be divorced, and that will just have to be the end of it,

I'm afraid.’

Though the Motown adviser was not convinced, her son,

Michael, had made up his mind about his parents' marriage. ‘As

far as I'm concerned, it's over,’ he told Diana Ross, according to a

later recollection. ‘My father has hurt my mother, and that's all I

need to know. That, to me, is the end of it.’

‘But people are so complicated,’ Diana told Michael, hinting

at the complexity of Joseph's problems. ‘Who knows why they do

the things they do.’

‘I know why,’ Michael insisted. ‘It's because Joseph is a bad

man, that's why. My brothers are going down the same road,’ he

concluded. ‘I can see it, already.’

After a couple of months, Katherine withdrew her divorce

papers. Joseph promised her that he would try to change, and that

she should not break up the family over his past behaviour. Much

to the dismay of her children, Katherine and Joseph were

reconciled.

========================

22. The Downslide

Despite The Jackson 5's world-wide popularity with concert-goers,

trouble was brewing where their record sales were concerned. In

Europe, sales had always been uneven. However, record store

performance in America had always been strong. By April 1972

though, whether from overexposure or lack of promotion, the

group was losing steam. The April release of ‘Little Bitty Pretty

One’, was a huge disappointment. Except for a seasonal release of

‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’, it became the poorest-selling

Jackson 5 single to date, netting only 590,629 copies, globally. Its

follow-up, ‘Lookin' Through the Windows’, fared even worse:

581,426 copies. This was a terrible showing. (It is interesting,

though, that this song marked a sudden sales resurgence in Britain

– a Top 10 hit that was no doubt a consequence of their recent

tour.) When ‘Corner of the Sky’, from the Broadway musical

Pippin (which Gordy had financed), sold only a disappointing

381,426 copies worldwide, Joseph became irate.

‘What the hell is going on?’ he fumed. He began showing up

at Motown, harassing the sales staff and badgering the promotion

executives. The problem was that Berry Gordy was no longer

personally involved in what was going on with the record

company. Instead, he put in charge a man named Ewart Abner, a

seasoned executive in the recording industry by the time he got to

Motown. For his part, Berry now devoted most of his time to

Diana Ross's film career, and to establishing Motown Productions

in the movie business. Although still Motown's chairman of the

board, he was interested only in filmmaking, not in record

production. A star vehicle for Diana Ross called Mahogany was in

the works, a venture that would monopolize most of Berry's time.

At the time, Motown was capitalizing on a more socially

conscious sound with Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Perhaps

The Jackson 5's audience had become hungry for a hipper sound

than what they got with the group's next release, ‘Hallelujah Day’.

It sold less than a quarter of a million discs; too bad, it was a

terrific little record with leads shared by Michael, Marlon and

Jackie.

In truth, Ewart Abner didn't care about The Jackson 5. He

wasn't involved in signing them to the company, and he felt their best days were behind them. ‘They already had their own cartoon,

for Christ's sake,’ he argued. ‘Why spend any more money on

them?’ If sales figures were low and the group was losing its

audience, it was the group's fault, not Motown's, he decided. With

that point of view, it wasn't surprising that Joseph disliked Ewart

Abner, and in an intense, passionate way.

When an album, Skywriter, was released in March and sold

only 115,045 copies, it became the group's poorest-selling album.

(It didn't even reach the Top 50 in Britain.) Joseph believed that all

of the records which had been failures could have been more

successful if Motown had simply promoted them properly.

There was a reprieve in the downward slide when producer

Hal Davis put together a terrific track for the Jackson boys called

‘Get It Together’. The production was tight; the music,

background vocals and Michael's maturing lead all blended nicely

on this performance, a departure from the sweeter, pop music

styles previously associated with the group. Released in August

1973, it sold over 700,000 copies. Though not a million-seller, it

encouraged Joseph in his belief that his sons still had an audience.

To his way of thinking, The Jackson 5 was not finished. If

anything, he was finished_ with Motown.

=========================

23. Jermaine Falls for the Boss's Daughter

In early 1973, while Katherine and Joseph were distracted by the

discord in their marriage, their son Jermaine was falling in love_

with Berry Gordy's daughter. He had been dating Hazel Gordy for

several months and, at just eighteen, seemed about to follow

Rebbie's and Tito's lead by using matrimony to extricate himself

from the Jackson homestead.

It was clear to the brothers that Hazel had become an

important and influential presence in his life. For example, at a

rehearsal in March, the group had been attempting to solve a

problem in choreography with Suzanne dePasse. After a decision

had been made about how best to handle the situation, the brothers

were in agreement. However Hazel, who had begun attending all practice sessions, pulled Jermaine aside and whispered something

in his ear. Jermaine listened, nodded absently, and walked back to

his brothers. ‘I think we oughta change this step,’ he announced,

dutifully.

‘But why?’ Michael protested, according to a witness's

memory. ‘It's perfect as it is.’

‘Because Hazel has a better idea. Look, Mike, you stand here,’

he said positioning his brother. ‘And Tito here, Marlon there, and

Jackie over there.’ Jermaine then demonstrated Hazel's ‘great idea’

which, upon execution, made Jermaine more prominent in the

presentation. When Suzanne realized what had happened, she shot

Hazel a look. Hazel smiled innocently. Since Hazel was Berry's

daughter, Suzanne had no choice but to agree with her suggestion.

‘Looks fine, guys,’ she said. ‘Let's keep it.’

‘Well, I hate it,’ Michael announced, looking at Jermaine.

‘C'mon, Jermaine,’ he said, ‘I thought we agreed.’

Jermaine looked away.

The other brothers tried to ignore what had happened. ‘It ain't

that important,’ Tito decided.

‘Well, I think it is important,’ Michael concluded. ‘But you

guys can do whatever you want.’ He then looked over to Jermaine,

who now was in another conference with Hazel, shook his head

and rolled his eyes.

Jermaine had been attracted to Hazel when they first met in

1969, but not in the same way in which she fancied him. After a

short time, Hazel told Jermaine she was in love with him; he made

it clear that he was not sure he could return her affection. He was a

teenage idol, a star, and could have his pick of dozens of willing

young women. This kind of idolatry was heady stuff for a young

man like Jermaine. It made the idea of settling down with one

woman seem confining, no matter who she might be.

‘Jermaine likes girls too much to get married,’ Michael had

said. ‘I think he'll be in his thirties before he does anything like

that.’

However, Hazel was a young, idealistic girl who wanted more

than anything to marry and have a family. Not only had her father

been divorced three times, she had witnessed his tumultuous,

heart-wrenching affair with Diana Ross. Though young, Hazel

believed that true love was elusive, she remained a romantic. ‘I can truthfully say that since I fell in love with Jermaine I have

never even thought about any other man,’ she said.

Delores Robertson, who was a friend of Hazel's at the time,

recalled, ‘Berry Gordy had been lavishing Hazel, his only

daughter, with gifts for as long as she could remember. She told

him that she was in love with one of The Jackson 5 and she wanted

him for her own. Her feelings for Jermaine were so strong, she

was afraid to let him slip through her fingers for fear that no one

like him would ever come along again. She was jealous when she

would see Jermaine with female fans. 溺ichael can have fans, but

you can't,_ she used to tell him. Berry made sure she usually got

what she wanted. Now she wanted Jermaine. Berry got to know

Jermaine and, even though he felt there might be a problem with

Joseph, believed that Jermaine was right for Hazel. When

Jermaine asked Berry for her hand, he said, yes.’

Though Berry thought Joseph might be a stumbling block to

any union between his daughter and Jermaine, that wasn't the case,

at least not at first. Hazel actually found an unexpected ally in

Joseph, who might not have insisted on a pre-nuptial agreement

anyway (as he had with Tito's wife). He was certain that marriage

between his son and the boss's daughter would ensure job security

for the Jackson clan at Motown, especially since he was having a

difficult time of late in even getting Berry on the telephone. He did

all he could to help the youngsters, even referring to her as ‘my

Hazel’ and saying that he loved her.

Had Joseph given the matter more thought, he might have

been more concerned about the recent turn of events. When

Berry's sister, Anna, was married to Motown singer Marvin Gaye,

the alliance never gave Marvin special privileges at the company.

In fact, according to Marvin, it only served to complicate his life

and career because Anna acted as a spy for her brother during

times of conflict. Marvin was rarely able to make a move that

Berry didn't know about in advance. Also, Marvin said that he

always felt a strong conflict of interest whenever he and Berry

battled, which was often.

Many other Motown artists felt as Marvin did, that Jermaine

was about to be groomed by Berry to become a major star just as

Diana Ross had been lifted from The Supremes to superstar status;

that Jermaine's two solo releases for the company, ‘That's How Love Goes’ and ‘Daddy's Home’, had been successful, and he did

have the potential to be one of the company's biggest stars.

Actually, some critics cited strong similarities between Jermaine's

vocal style and Marvin Gaye's. The truth is that Jermaine had his

own sound, and it was a good one, too, full-bodied and always an

interesting contrast to Michael's high-pitch on the many songs the

two shared at Motown. (Actually, the reason Jermaine started

singing leads at the company was that the group's producer, Deke

Richards, was hospitalized with a slipped disk. He didn't want

Fonce Mizell and Freddie Perren, to work with Michael without

him, so he told them to write something for Jermaine. That song

was ‘I Found That Girl’, the flip side of ‘The Love You Save’.)

20. Rockin' Robin and Ben

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:57:45 +0100

20. Rockin' Robin and Ben

By winter of 1972, Motown had released two more solo singles by

Michael Jackson, the first being ‘Rockin' Robin’. While Michael

twitters his way through the song, the session player bangs out the

easy ditty on the piano to create a song that was irresistible.

‘Rockin’ Robin' became an even bigger success than ‘Got to Be

There’. The song peaked in the same position for Michael as the

original did for the late Bobby Day, at number two.

One early record of Michael's that still brings snickers today is

‘Ben.’ The words of the song extol friendship, though there is no

clue in the lyrics that the song is actually about a rodent. (In the

film, Ben, a young boy befriends a rat named_ Ben. A little-

known fact is that Bing Crosby was one of the movie's producers.)

Michael's voice complements the delicately orchestrated piece,

with its solo guitar accompaniment; the recording is layered at all

the emotional peaks with a precise string arrangement. The song

obviously stood on its own, independent from the film. It became

Michael's first number-one solo record, selling an amazing

1,701,475 copies. It was also nominated for an Oscar.

Michael saw the movie Ben many times, sitting in the back of

the theatre just waiting to hear his song and then see his credit on

the screen. As a child, Michael loved rats. At one point, Katherine

was horrified to find that Michael had thirty rats in a cage in his

bedroom. He was passionate about the rodents until the day he

discovered that they were eating each other – as rats will do.

Sickened by the sight, Michael put the rat cage outdoors.

In addition to his solo records, Michael started recording the

group's songs separately from his brothers, putting the lead vocal

on tape alone in the studio. Later, the brothers would come in and

record their background vocals. Often, additional – anonymous –

singers would be added to the mix. This was a decision made by

Motown to make the recording process more expedient. All it did

for Michael, though, was make him feel more singled out, and not

a part of the group. He didn't like it.

In November 1972, The Jackson 5 embarked on a twelve-day

European tour, which would begin with a royal command

performance before Queen Elizabeth. There was actually some

concern at Motown that the tour would not be a success, based on

the group's flagging record sales in Europe. Unlike the situation in

America, sales were down for The Jackson 5 in Europe, and

especially in Britain. The group's Maybe Tomorrow album, for

instance, didn't even make the UK Top 50. Their single ‘Sugar

Daddy’ also flopped in the UK. However, as a solo recording artist

Michael was faring well. ‘Got to Be There’ and ‘Rockin' Robin’

sailed to the British number five and three positions, respectively.

Later in the month, ‘Ben’ would peak at number seven and sell

more than a quarter of a million copies, just in the UK. So even if

the group was falling short in record sales with a British audience,

it was hoped that thanks to Michael's popularity the tour would

draw audiences. It did, and in a big way. As British teenagers

swarmed London's Heathrow Airport to welcome the group, the

ensuing mob scene was reminiscent of Beatlemania.

‘Large plugs of hair were jerked from the scalp underneath

Jermaine's giant Afro by souvenir hunters,’ reads Motown's 22

November press release. ‘Noise so intense that it drowned out the

whine of jet engines drove tears to Michael's and Marlon's eyes.

Tito was bruised and shaken by the stampede of the thundering

herd. Randy nearly panicked when frenzied females devoured him

with bear hugs and wet kisses. Jackie was cool but more than a

little bit worried. It was sheer pandemonium. It was near chaos. It

was frightening. It was JACKSONMANIA.’

Besides losing a shoe, Michael was almost choked to death.

‘He was really frightened,’ recalled Jermaine. ‘They were pulling

on both ends of his scarf, actually choking him. He had to put his

hand up under his scarf and start screaming so that it wouldn't

tighten up on his neck.’

Michael loathed such mob scenes. He recalls having to run

through crowds of screaming girls with eyes covered by his hands

for fear that their nails would scratch him. He remembers hiding in

broom closets, hoping the throng would rush by and miss him.

‘They grab your hair and pull hard and it hurts like fire,’ he

recalled. ‘You feel as if you're going to suffocate or be

dismembered.’

Fans barricaded the entrance to the Churchill Hotel where the

group stayed in London, preventing them from leaving the scene

after their royal variety performance. Joseph called the police, who

arrived with water hoses, which they unleashed on the fans. The

next day, a nine-year-old girl threatened to use a knife on a hotel

doorman unless he allowed her access to Michael's room. She was

detained by the police. A Rolls-Royce limousine carrying the

group sustained twelve thousand dollars' worth of damage when it

was dented and scratched by young girls clawing to get to their

idols. Later, as the Jacksons performed at the Talk of the Town

nightclub, souvenir hunters stripped their limousine of its

cushions, radio, lights, tyres_

It was this way wherever the brothers travelled on the rest of

their tour, whether in Amsterdam, Brussels, Munich, Frankfurt or

Paris.

19. Groupies

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:45:04 +0100

19. Groupies

Young Tito Jackson may have been off the open market, but Jackie

and Jermaine were young, single and ready to explore whatever

fame might bring their way in terms of female companionship.

Joseph had been a terrible example to them in the past, and he

didn't improve with time. In fact, when the boys became famous,

he starting having liaisons with their fans! With him as their guide,

was there any reason to think the brothers would act in a

responsible manner? By 1972, the older Jacksons had left a long

trail of broken hearts as they toured the country, city by city. Then,

they rented an apartment near their house in Encino, where they

could hang out with their female conquests away from Katherine's

scrutiny.

Rhonda Phillips was one of ‘those’ girls. Today, she is a forty-

nine-year-old divorcee who lives with her three children in Long

Beach, California. Back in August 1972, she was eighteen when

she met her idol, Jackie, who was twenty-one. She had been

selected from the audience by one of the group's road managers

when the brothers were on stage at the Forum in Inglewood,

California. Backstage, Jackie gave Rhonda a slip of paper with an

address on it and told her to meet him at that location in an hour.

As she mulled over his offer, she sensed someone behind her, and

turned around. It was Michael. ‘He was just a cute little guy,’ she

said. ‘He had big teeth, a flat, wide nose, a perfectly combed

natural; he looked like any pretty fourteen-year-old black boy

you'd find in the neighbourhood. He noticed the slip of paper in

my hand.’

‘Did Jermaine give you that?’ he asked.

‘No, Jackie.’

‘He wants you to meet him, doesn't he?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ Rhonda said. ‘I don't know if I should – ’

Michael cut her off. ‘Don't,’ he said. ‘I don't think you should

meet him.’

Rhonda asked Michael why she shouldn't go. She remembered

his answer: ‘My brothers don't treat girls too good. They can be

mean. Please, don't go.’

Rhonda remembered thinking that Michael was only fourteen;

what could he know? She changed the subject and asked him for

his autograph. She thrust forward the piece of paper Jackie had

given her, he scribbled on it and handed it back to her.

The group's representative had arranged the cab fare for

Rhonda to meet Jackie. She was taken to the Jacksons' apartment

in Encino. As the car pulled up to the curb, she happened to turn

over the slip of paper in her hand and realized that Michael had

written more than just his name on the back of it. There was a

message: ‘I hope you don't go.’ It was signed ‘Michael Jackson’.

She went inside the apartment complex, found the Jacksons'

and had sex with Jackie. ‘I won't be able to see you after this,’ he

told her when they were finished. She began to cry.

‘Suddenly, I was ashamed,’ she recalled many years later. ‘He

held me for a little while and then told me that someone from

Motown would be waiting outside to take me home. He kissed me,

and I left. The whole thing took less than half an hour.’

As Rhonda was walking down to the street, a white Rolls-

Royce pulled up. Michael and Marlon were sitting in the back seat.

The car pulled up to the curb. The boys got out and Marlon ran

past Rhonda up to the apartment. Michael came over to her.

‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, his tone accusatory.

‘Were you up there with Jackie?’

‘Yeah, I was,’ she answered.

‘Did you have sex?’ Michael wanted to know.

Rhonda began to cry.

Michael shook his head sadly. ‘I'm sorry,’ he said. ‘Did he

make you do it?’

‘No, of course not. I wanted to.’

‘You wanted to?’ Michael asked, seeming astonished. ‘But

why would you want to?’

Rhonda got into the car. She rolled down the window. Michael

was still standing at the curb. ‘Are you gonna be all right?’ he

asked.

‘Yeah, I will be,’ she answered.

‘By now, I was sobbing,’ Rhonda recalled. ‘I rolled up the

window and the car pulled off. I looked out the back window and

the last thing I saw was Michael Jackson standing there waving

goodbye to me.’

During these salad days, Michael, fourteen, often shared a

room with his brother, Marlon, fifteen and Jermaine, seventeen.

Jermaine would wait for their security man, Bill Bray, to go to

sleep before sneaking down to the lobby to pick up girls. Often, he

would bring them back to the room and then instruct Michael and

Marlon to, as Marlon recalled it, ‘play sleep’.

Yolanda Lewis is, today, forty-six, married, and living in St

Louis. In an interview, she recalled an experience she had with

Jermaine Jackson in 1972 when she was sixteen. ‘I was a real

groupie,’ she remembered, ‘and the boys did a concert in

Cleveland, where I was living at the time. Afterwards, a group of

us girls went to the hotel where we knew they were staying. We

had our J-5 buttons and posters, just wanting autographs, hoping to

see the guys, maybe get a picture with them. Jermaine came down

and struck up a conversation with a few of us. He was sweet, shy.

He pulled me off to the side and asked me if I would like to come

up to his room. Of course, I said yes. He was so handsome, with

his big natural and white teeth.

‘We got up to the room, and I walked in behind Jermaine. It

was pitch-black, with just a night light on in a corner.’

"Michael and Marlon are sleeping,_ he whispered to me. "o

we have to be quiet. Take off your clothes. Quick."_ He wasn't

exactly romantic. I jumped into bed with him and he climbed on

top of me. As he climaxed, he shuddered so loudly I was afraid he

would wake up Michael and Marlon, who were sleeping three feet

away in the next bed. Or at least I thought they were sleeping. As I

was slipping out of the room, I heard Michael say to Jermaine,

"Nice job. Now, can we please get some sleep?”’

It would be a couple of years before Marlon began playing

around with groupies. However, Michael was never a player; he

simply wasn't interested, and thought his brothers' behaviour

towards their female fans was deplorable. After years of

traumatizing overexposure, it was as if the very idea of sex had

become abhorrent to him.

A person who has known Michael since 1974, once told me, ‘I

was having a conversation with Rebbie when she said, "Michael

doesn't have time for girls._ I asked, "What kind of guy doesn't

have time for girls?_ She said that there were special

circumstances with Michael. When I asked her what she was

talking about, she told me a horrible story.

‘She said that when Michael was fifteen years old, a certain

member of his family, someone he trusted – I won't say who, even

though Rebbie did – decided he was old enough to have sex, and

that he had to have it. This person then arranged the services of

two hookers for Michael. He told them to work him over, and then

locked Michael up in a room with them. Rebbie said that this

incident absolutely traumatized her brother. I don't know whether

or not Michael actually had sex with the hookers. Rebbie didn't

say.’

Certainly, if this story is true, such a scenario must have had a

deep psychological impact on Michael, as it would on any

youngster going through puberty. After that happened, it's been

said, Michael turned to prostitutes, not for sex – but for

conversation. It was as if Michael had retaliated against his

brothers' actions with groupies by trying to reassure himself that

women were good for more than just fun times in bed. James

McField, the group's former pianist and band director, recalled,

‘Sometimes – maybe once, maybe twice – Michael just needed to

have someone to talk to and – maybe once, maybe twice – a

woman would be introduced to him as someone very nice that he

could be with, to have the company of a female. But he wouldn't

have sex with her, to my knowledge. As far as I know, nothing

intimate would ever happen. He liked nice girls, pure girls who

appeared to have no street background.’

One such ‘date’ remembered meeting Michael after a concert

in New York. ‘I was hanging around backstage, working Madison

Square Garden's dressing area,’ said Lillias Harris, ‘when someone

who introduced himself as an employee of the Jacksons came over

to me and asked me if I wanted to spend an evening with Michael.

"Well, yeah,"_ I said. He asked me how much, and I told him I would do it for free. I wanted to have sex with Michael Jackson.

Who wouldn't?

‘He brought me back to the dressing room. Michael was there, alone. I walked in, and he told me to close the door. The first thing

out of his mouth was, "Why are you a prostitute?" I answered, "Because I need the money." He said to me, "Would you like to have sex with me?_ and I said, "Yes, of course I would._ " He asked

me how much it would cost. I told him, "No charge._" He seemed

interested. So, I undid my blouse and showed him my breasts. He

then turned his head, repulsed. "Stop. I can't have sex with you," he said. "Please put them back," he added, referring to my breasts.

‘When I asked him why, he told me, "Because I just can't." I

thought he meant he couldn't get an erection, he looked so sad. Then, he said, "Can we talk about you and your life?" I didn't want to talk, that's not why I went there. So I gave him my telephone number.’

"Anytime you want to get off, you call me," I said. Michael

looked at me and asked, "What does that mean, get off?_ He was

totally sincere. "It means screw, Michael," I told him."Anytime

you want to screw, call me. Get it?_

‘He said, "Oh, okay. Maybe I'll call you someday. I doubt it,

though."And then I left.

‘He struck me as lonely and naive,’ Lillias Harris concluded.

‘He was a nice, mixed-up, good-looking guy who wanted female

companionship. No way was he about to have sex that night,

though. He was scared to death. I wondered if he would ever call

me. He never did.’

18. Tito Marries

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:12:53 +0100

18. Tito Marries

Along with their incredible success in the music industry came, for
the Jacksons, the inevitable lure of available women. Women of all
shapes, sizes and colours began to proposition them, appearing
backstage after concerts and offering to do all sorts of ‘favours’ for them.
Though Michael and Marlon were too young, Jermaine and

Jackie saw no reason not to take advantage of their young fans'
overworked libidos. Tito wasn't really interested in groupies,
though. He just wanted to settle down – and also get out of the
household and put some distance between him and Joseph.
In 1972, Tito announced that he wanted to marry seventeen-
year-old Delores (Dee Dee) Martes, whom he had met at Fairfax
High School a few months before the group became famous.

Joseph and Katherine were extremely upset, concerned that Dee
Dee might be a gold-digger and Tito too inexperienced to see it.
The least he could do, they argued, was insist that his fiancee sign
a pre-nuptial agreement. He did, and she agreed.

Michael felt strongly that Tito was letting their fans down by
marrying, and attempted to convince him to change his mind.

‘Think about all of those girls out there who love us,’ he said,
trying to reason with his brother one day in the Motown offices.
‘They don't even know us, Mike,’ Tito said. ‘We can't live our
lives for perfect strangers.’

‘But they do know us,’ Michael argued, according to a
witness, ‘and we owe them, Tito. We owe them.’
‘So what are we supposed to do?’ Tito wanted to know. ‘Put
up with Joseph for the rest of our lives? If that's the case, I don't
even want to be in the group, then.’

Michael stopped arguing with Tito at that point, perhaps
fearing Tito's next step might be to just quit the act.
Joseph and Katherine had hoped that Berry Gordy would
insist that Tito, as a Motown recording artist, remain single.
When Joseph presented the situation to Berry, however, he
wanted no part of it. ‘Keep me out of it,’ he said. ‘As long as
Michael isn't getting married, I'm cool.’

Joseph's face darkened. ‘Michael ain't the only one in the
group, Berry,’ he said, according to his recollection. ‘Thanks for
nothing.’

The wedding took place in June 1972 in a small,
unpretentious chapel in Inglewood, California. Joseph spent most
of the evening glaring at Dee Dee and her family. Katherine was
nicer, though one suspected she was just trying to get through the
day. (Their first baby, a son named after Tito, was born about a year later.
Tito was on tour, so LaToya acted as Dee Dee's Lamaze labour coach.)

17. Growing Up in the Public Eye

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:01:22 +0100

17. Growing Up in the Public Eye

It's always tempting, when dissecting a person's life, to go back in

time and assign blame for the way things turned out, but it's not

always fair. Certainly, Joseph and Katherine had the best intentions

when they were raising their family, and didn't intend to harm their

children. It's the rare parent, one would hope, who purposely sets out to completely screw up his kids' lives. If Joseph had told his

brood to forget about show business, and focus on lives out of the

public eye, such a demand would not have gone over well, at all.

Try as they might have, the value system the Jackson parents

passed on to their children was, at best, warped. Whatever it takes

to get to the top, that's what they were told they had to do – that

was their value system. Katherine tried to fight it and hoped to

instill other ideals along the way – especially having to do with her

religion – but none of them really seemed to matter when applied

to the world in which her children were being raised, the world of

show business. They were all caught up in the powerful illusion

that if they became rich and famous, their lives would be better.

Fate and circumstance, along with an obvious inadequacy in

parental skills, set into motion a chain of events that would do

irreparable harm to all of the Jackson children, and especially, to

Michael. At least the older brothers had had a few years to act like

children. Michael never did; he was barely five years old when

thrust into show business.

Of course, the boys loved to perform and even wanted to

perform. They excelled in that arena. The look of satisfaction on

Michael's face when he was onstage made it clear that he was

doing what he wanted to do, and that if someone had given him

the choice between playing basketball with his friends and

entertaining them on a stage, he would have chosen the later.

However, a fine line exists between what children may want, and

what may be in their best interests. It's not likely that Joseph

understood as much, or was able to gauge the difference between

what might be in the best interest of his children, and what his own

agenda was for them.

It is not only the vast sums of money child stars earn which set

them apart. Most child performers are shortchanged on their

education, as well. Few have ever attended public school regularly.

In the film industry, they are often tutored on the set. MGM even

had a school for the youngsters who worked in their movies.

Although the children were supposed to study a certain number of

hours each day, filming often took precedence over education.

They gleaned from their studies what they were able to, and then

went back to their work in front of the cameras.

What's more, child performers are often cheated out of

learning social skills – the all-important art of getting along with

people. The other boys and girls with whom they associate are

usually working children like themselves. Some of Judy Garland's

happiest memories were of the short time during her teens when

her career seemed to be going nowhere. She left the studio school,

enrolled in Hollywood High – hiding her background from her

fellow students – and enjoyed herself, immensely. (That happy

period came to an abrupt end when a vice-principal told her she

shouldn't be enrolled in school with ‘normal people’.)

The couple of years that the younger Jackson boys spent in

public schools are romanticized by Michael and Marlon as

highlights of their lives but, in truth, they weren't very happy.

Michael attended sixth grade at Gardner Street Elementary in Los

Angeles, though not consistently because of his work schedule. In

truth, he was just a guest there, making cameo appearances in the

classroom as he might on a television variety show. His sixth

grade teacher, Laura Gerson, remembered, ‘Once I was teaching

the kids a song with a three-part harmony, and I hit a flat note that

made my hair stand on end. Michael's eyes popped wide open.

Nobody but him noticed. He never talked about himself.

Occasionally, he would disappear and turn up on television…’* In the seventh grade, Michael joined Marlon at Emerson

Junior High. But by this time, The Jackson 5's accomplishments at

Motown had robbed them of their privacy. They only had two

weeks at Emerson, obviously no time to integrate into the

population or get to know anyone, before they were forced to

leave. There had been a death threat against them, and that was the

end of that: Joseph pulled them out of public school. His decision

was fine with the boys; they wanted to leave, anyway. ‘There were

mobs of people standing in the hallways just looking into the

classrooms,’ Marlon recalled. ‘It was embarrassing, and

frightening.’ From that time onward, the two were either enrolled

in private schools or tutored at home.

California law requires that minors have a minimum of three

hours of schooling a day when they are working. Mrs Rose Fine,

accredited by the state as a ‘children's welfare supervisor’, became

the tutor for all of the younger Jacksons. Much of their travelling

time was spent studying for tests that they would take as soon as they checked into their hotel rooms. Between their studies, rehearsals, sound checks and concerts, and the usual goofing off,

the Jacksons were kept busy. When in private school, which occurred from time to time in

between touring, Michael was bored by his studies, refused to do

his homework, and was a terrible student. During class, he would

draw pictures of animals and monsters when he should have been

paying attention to his lessons. When called upon for an answer,

Michael didn't have a clue as to what was going on, and he didn't

care.

Jackie and Tito have unpleasant memories of their time at

Fairfax High School, a public school in Los Angeles. The demands

of their careers made normal routines almost impossible; they

couldn't join any of the sports teams – a crushing disappointment

for Jackie, who loved baseball – because they were the focus of

attention. When they were singled out by classmates who had

previously ignored them, the two brothers became suspicious of

everyone. Who was legitimate in their intentions, and who had

ulterior motives in wanting to know them? Jackie and Tito would graduate from Fairfax when they were

eighteen. At least they can reflect on a small period of time when

they were exposed to people who weren't in show business, even if

they did not enjoy that time. Michael, Marlon and Jermaine can

not do as much; they were granted high school equivalency

diplomas by Rose Fine, who was empowered to award them.

Though technically graduated, the three younger Jacksons

certainly did not obtain a good grounding in basic subjects, no

slight to Rose Fine who probably did the best she could with them.

To this day, each has problems with penmanship, grammar and

(Michael in particular) spelling. They also lack a sense of history,

except that which they managed to pick up during their travels.

As early as 1972, when Michael was about fourteen, he began

exhibiting behaviour unlike that of his brothers. While they took

the pressures of success in their stride, Michael seemed more

affected by it. ‘He's just more sensitive than the others,’ Katherine

would explain. If anyone in show-business history could ever be

said to be lacking in ‘people skills’, it would be Michael Jackson.

To this day, he doesn't really understand people, or even try to

understand them, because when he was a youngster he was

surrounded, for the most part, by either showbiz kids or wealthy

students who, like himself, were never exposed to the ‘normal’

masses. By the time Michael was fourteen, Bill Bray (The Jackson 5's

security man, who still works for Michael) would arrange for him

to have access to freight elevators in hotels, rather than take public

lifts along with ‘normal people’, as Michael called them.

A year earlier Michael had told Judy Spiegelman of Soul

magazine, ‘I'm just like other kids.’ However, he soon realized he

was not like them at all. The other group members didn't seem to

mind ‘normal people’ – as long as they weren't in the form of a

pack of rioting fans – even if they had nothing to do with them.

Michael, though, was always the one who attracted the most

attention. If he entered a room with any of his other brothers, he

was the one to whom the fans would flock. Being singled out,

being made to feel different, knowing all eyes were on him, had a

deep impact on Michael. He began to show signs of a deep

insecurity, and even inadequacy. It was as if he knew he didn't fit

in. If he could spend his life on stage, he felt he would be happy.

Unfortunately, the world was not his stage. He had to deal with the

public, and he wasn't able to do so in a way that made him feel

comfortable in his own skin.

‘He became a loner,’ Katherine Jackson would remember. ‘I

was worried about him, but I hoped he would grow out of it, that it

was a phase. He didn't get along with other people his age. He was

better with adults. I don't know that he had friends his own age. I

think, probably not. As always, his brothers were his friends. As

long as we all had each other, I figured we would be okay. I prayed

we would be okay.’

16. Michael's First Solo Record

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:25:44 +0100

16. Michael's First Solo Record

Joseph Jackson always had his eye on the competition, namely the
Osmond Brothers, a family group from Salt Lake City, Utah. In
June 1971, MGM Records released ‘Sweet and Innocent’ by the
youngest member of the group, Donny Osmond, as a solo act.

That record's success all but guaranteed him teen-star status in the
predominantly white teenybopper magazines. Because of their
colour, The Jackson 5 could never be perceived as teen idols in
those magazines, despite all of their success and good looks.
Though the Jacksons would make occasional appearances in
magazines like 16 and Fave, the Osmonds and other white stars
like them dominated the pages of such publications. This practice
chagrined Joseph, who viewed it as racism.

After Donny Osmond's hit, Joseph decided that Michael
should also record a song on his own. He and Berry Gordy decided
to release a song called ‘Got to Be There’, as Michael's first solo,
instead of as a group effort as originally planned. Michael would
still be a part of the group, just as Donny was a part of The
Osmonds, but he would now also be a solo Motown artist. ‘Then
we can all make more money,’ Joseph reasoned. Joseph never
dreamed that he had just put into motion a plan that would one day
separate Michael not only from his brothers, but from him as well.
‘Got to Be There’ was issued in October. Although it would
not reach the top of the charts, it was a reality check of sorts for
the Jackson brothers when they saw that Michael could crack the Top Five on his own.
In England it was a number five hit, and stayed in the Top 50 for almost three months.
Globally, ‘Got to be There’ sold 1,583,850 copies.

This lushly produced and orchestrated, mid-tempo love song
was the perfect vehicle for launching Michael's solo career; it's
surely one of the most beautiful songs in Motown's publishing
catalogue. At the time, it was the envy of many artists whose
flagging careers could have been salvaged by such a versatile,
well-tailored number. Instead, it served to bolster the enormously
popular lead singer of The Jackson 5.

Immediately after Christmas in 1971, The Jackson 5 embarked
on a concert tour of the South. In Dallas, a reporter arranged an
interview in their hotel room. It wasn't long before fans had
congregated outside the door, chanting, ‘Michael! Michael!
Michael!’ Tito went out in the hallway hoping to quieten them
down. When he opened the door, a group of girls burst into the
room and began kissing and hugging Michael, totally ignoring the
others. The brothers did not appear to be jealous and, rather,
treated the incident as a chance to tease Michael. ‘Just wait till I
get my solo song released,’ Jermaine said. ‘Then I'll be the ladies'
man 'round here.’

‘Well, right now Michael's the real ladies' man,’ Jackie said
after the girls were escorted out of the room by security guards.

‘Aw, c'mon, you guys,’ Michael said, bashfully.

‘You are, Mike,’ Jermaine agreed. ‘But not for long…’

Then all four brothers jumped on Michael, tickling him good
naturedly and wrestling him to the ground. One could hear their
laughter echo through the halls.

15. Joseph and Katherine Buy an Estate

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:16:13 +0100

15. Joseph and Katherine Buy an Estate

On 5 May 1971, after the boys returned from another national tour, the Jacksons moved into their large estate at 4641 Hayvenhurst in Encino, California, the one in which Joseph, Katherine and miscellaneous other Jacksons (who aren't Michael and Janet) still live today.

Joseph and Katherine purchased the property for $250,000; they moved in a day after Katherine's forty-first birthday.
Katherine had asked Joseph not to sell the two-bedroom home in Gary, ‘just in case the family fortunes took a turn for the worse and they all had to move back to Indiana.’ Although Joseph didn't think that such a reversal of fortunes was likely, he decided to rent, rather than sell, the house, at 2300 Jackson Street. (Today, the property is worth roughly $100,000, and still owned by the family.)

Joseph and Katherine had never made as large a purchase as the Encino estate and were naive as to how to go about it. Joseph wanted to pay cash for the estate (‘At least, then we own it and no one can kick us out.’), but he didn't have that much capital.

Anyway, Berry Gordy convinced him that the family needed as much of a tax writeoff on the property as possible, since their income was increasing monthly, and that the interest on a loan could be written off their taxes. Although Joseph decided to put down as little as possible on the Encino property, because his credit profile was not a good one he had to raise nearly 40 per cent in order to qualify for a mortgage. That was a lot of money for a down-payment: $100,000. Berry offered to lend Joseph and Katherine the funds, but Joseph declined. ‘If we're going to live in that house, it's gotta be ours,’ he told Berry. Motown already had too much control over his kids; Joseph didn't want Berry also to have a vested interest in the family home.

In the end, Joseph did manage to get the $100,000, but he had to secure a large advance on his sons' future earnings. Of course, that advance came from Motown_ which was, Berry.

Encino, which is a thirty-five-minute drive from downtown Los Angeles, is one of the wealthiest communities in Southern California and home to many celebrities. The two-acre Jackson estate, resplendent with eighteen citrus trees and countless exotic plants, was guarded by an electronic gate and flanked by a guest house, playhouse and servants' quarters.

Johnny Jackson and Ronny Rancifer, The Jackson 5's drummer and organist, moved into the household with the rest of the family. This arrangement occurred because Joseph and Katherine were concerned about the influence both boys – but particularly Johnny – were having on their sons. Both youngsters liked to spend what little money they were given, rather than save it. They were also smoking cigarettes and drinking liquor. Joseph had considered letting them both go, but decided that it wouldn't be fair since the boys had been a part of the band since the early days in Gary.

‘The house had five bathrooms and six bedrooms,’ recalled Susie Jackson, Johnny's former wife. ‘Jackie and Ronny shared a room. Tito was with Johnny, Jermaine with Marlon, Michael with Randy, and LaToya with Janet. And then there was one left for Joseph and Katherine, so there were a lot of people living there’.

The family room had a recessed floor surrounded by a wraparound couch. The walls were lined with numerous plaques, gold and platinum records signifying million-selling singles and albums. One reporter noted that the room resembled ‘a cross between a motel lobby and the foyer of a Sunset Boulevard record company.’

The grounds contained an Olympic-size swimming pool, a basketball half-court, a badminton court and an archery range. The tranquil surroundings promised limitless peace for such a famous family. Hopefully, here they could be soothed and refreshed in their time away from the invasive eye of the public.

Plans were made to add a hundred-thousand-dollar recording studio and a twenty-five-thousand-dollar darkroom.

Jackie Jackson's Datsun 240 Z was usually parked in the driveway, along with Katherine's new Audi, Joseph's gold
Mercedes 300 SE convertible, and the family's huge van.

‘We had fun up the Big House,’ said Susie Jackson. (In time, many of the family's relatives referred to the Jackson estate as the Big House because they felt it had become as much a prison to the Jackson sons and daughters as it had been a home.) ‘It wasn't all drama and backstabbing. There were parties and, in the beginning, we had a special closeness. I remember a lot of fun times when they first moved in. Every time you were in that house, they were roasting peanuts.’

Though Katherine enjoyed the opulent estate and other aspects of her new life, she missed Gary. Simply put, she was not as happy as she thought she might be in Los Angeles. She missed her old friends and relatives.

If Southern California had to be her new home, Katherine would not allow the glamorous surroundings to influence her or her family to act in a pretentious manner. She was determined to maintain a sense of normality around the household.

Also, the Jackson family did not hesitate to show their appreciation to people who had helped them in their careers.
Instead of small, intimate gatherings, they preferred large, ostentatious affairs where quantity was the most important
consideration. Katherine looked at these parties as come-on-overs.

Only instead of root beer and pretzels on the back porch, she put out a lavish spread at the family estate. Always a gracious hostess, she made everyone feel welcome. Joseph's pride in the house was obvious. He would give tours to anyone who seemed interested. In August 1972, after The Jackson 5 finished their engagement at the Forum in Los Angeles, Katherine and Joseph held just such a party at the family home for about fifty press and show-business friends.

Katherine and Joseph did not disappoint their guests. The twelve-foot-long buffet offered hamburgers, roast beef, chilli, shish kebabs, fresh chilled fruit and seafood. Pastries were heaped on a cart decorated with red and yellow roses. In the middle of the family's oval swimming pool, Joseph floated a huge J-5 logo made of roses and tinted carnations. For entertainment, The Jackson 5 challenged The Temptations to a basketball game. The Jacksons won.

(This writer was a guest at many of the Jackson family's ‘come-on-overs’ between the years 1976 and 1981 at the Jacksons' estate in Encino.)

The Jacksons' phone number would be routinely changed by the phone company every month to guard against outsiders having it. Nevertheless, the number always got out. Once, a girl from Newark called to talk to Michael at two in the morning – just one day after the new number was assigned. As always, Joseph limited phone calls to five minutes and
would not hesitate to use a strap on any junior family member who broke that rule, pop star or no pop star. To say the least, the children were well disciplined. In fact, the boys were known in Hollywood circles as the best-behaved youngsters in show business. ‘You sometimes thought they were too nice,’ said one reporter. ‘It was as if something was wrong somewhere. They were sort of spooky.’

Jermaine has recalled that when the family moved into the Encino home their familial closeness began to dissipate, simply because there was so much space. ‘We were real close when we had the other homes, before Encino,’ he remembered. ‘In Gary, we had two bedrooms, one for our parents and one for all of us. You had to be close. You felt that closeness as a family. But in Encino, the place was so big we had to make plans in advance to see each other. I think that Michael, in particular, was unhappy there. He felt, as I did, that we were all losing touch with each other.’

In June 1971, The Jackson 5 released another single for Motown, ‘Maybe Tomorrow’, which went on to sell 830,794 copies, not as many as previous efforts but still respectable. A month later, the group taped its first television special, Goin' Back to Indiana, for ABC-TV. (It would air in September.) Later, they would even have their own cartoon series, that's how popular they'd become in such a short time. (The Jacksons' actual voices were heard in musical numbers, but their dialogue was provided by young black actors.) That summer, The Jackson 5 performed fifty shows on tour, the longest series of one-night performances ever attempted by the boys. ‘I wish for once we could finish a show and not have to leave before the end because of the crowds rushing the stage,’ Michael complained. ‘We have a real good ending, but we never get the chance to do it.’

At Madison Square Garden in August of that year, the show had to be stopped after only two minutes when the audience
stormed the stage. ‘Return to your seats, please,’ a frightened Michael begged. Ultimately, though, the group had to be extracted from the crowd and rushed away from the premises. The show resumed after the audience calmed down. Sixty minutes later, when the concert was over, the Jacksons sprinted to waiting limousines, without finishing their last number, in order to get away as quickly as possible. The audience went berserk. Once the fans realized that the group was gone, they surged on to the stage like an angry mob, sweeping away police and security men, and swarming the dressing room looking for their idols.

This was a heady time for the boys from Gary, and they were never again to be as close as they were during these early days – nor would they have as much fun. Insulated from outsiders by the Motown representatives and their father, they had only each other for company. To occupy their free time, they enjoyed dropping water balloons and paper bags filled with water from hotel-room windows, having pillow fights with one another, and playing Scrabble, Monopoly and card games. (They gave Jermaine the nickname ‘Las Vegas’ because he became such a skilled card shark.) Michael has fond memories of tag-team wrestling matches and shaving-cream wars with his brothers while they were cooped up in hotels, ‘or fast-walk races down hotel hallways once our chaperone was asleep,’ he said. Michael, who was twelve at this time, was quite a prankster. He liked to phone room service, order huge meals, and then have them sent to the rooms of strangers in the hotel; and he especially enjoyed setting up a bucket of water as a booby trap above the doorway to his and Jermaine's room (they always shared quarters), drenching whoever happened to walk into the room.

‘Mike always blamed me,’ Jermaine recalled with a grin. ‘He loved practical jokes, locking us out of our rooms in our
underwear, squirting us with water pistols. They were almost always his idea. We had so much fun. It was all fun, all the time.’

Indeed, success was sweet and innocent for The Jackson 5. ‘We don't have no gold records,’ Michael once told me during this time, a sad expression on his face. Then, after a beat, he explained,
‘They're all platinum! Ha-ha!’

Occasionally one of the Jackson brothers would show some
interest in the opposite sex. Backstage at the Hollywood Bowl, when the group performed there, Berry Gordy's sixteen-year-old daughter Hazel had her arm around Jermaine, also sixteen, and seemed to be nibbling on his ear. Joseph watched with great interest and pulled Jermaine aside.

‘What's the deal with her?’ he demanded to know.
‘I don't know,’ Jermaine said, shrugging his shoulders. ‘She likes me, I guess.’

At first, Joseph was annoyed. Then, he became thoughtful and nodded his approval. ‘Berry's kid,’ he muttered to himself.
‘Hmmm. Not bad. Not bad at all.’

During the concert, Jermaine decided to dedicate his solo of
‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ to ‘Hazel, for her birthday’. The audience's reaction was lukewarm. Whereas he usually got a standing ovation for the number, this evening it seemed that the female fans in the crowd did not appreciate Jermaine's honesty about his friendship with Hazel.
Jermaine recalled, ‘My father pulled me aside, I remember,
and he said, "You'd better not do that again." And I said,"You know, you're right. I'd better not." And I didn't.’