It was 2002 and Michael was battling with his record company, his album “Invincible” was becoming invisible, he dangled his child outside a balcony in Berlin which caused a media frenzy, and he was dragged into court for breach of contract.
In the middle of all of this, Connie Chung from CNN spoke with Jermaine Jackson about Michael, his troubles with Sony, and the bad press he’d been receiving.
In the interview, Jermaine hints at a conspiracy against Michael, saying amongst other things; “I think his consciousness has become a threat to society out there…And that’s why whatever he does is being portrayed the wrong way…”
CONNIE CHUNG Interview | CNN | December 31, 2002
CHUNG (voice-over): The sounds, the steps, the magic, the Jacksons.
When this band of brothers from Indiana landed on the scene in 1968, pop music would never be the same: the maturity, the stage presence, and, of course, the hit records. From the Jackson Five to the Jacksons, it was a dynasty in the making. In front of it all: the one who would become the megastar of the family, Michael.
By the late ’70s, the popularity of these boys-to-men had faded some. And, in 1978, Michael took his act to the big screen, starring as the scarecrow in “The Wiz.”
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, “THE WIZ”)
MICHAEL JACKSON, SINGER: Out of the frying pan into the — this is like a setup.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: It was, in more ways than one. The film’s composer was the legendary Quincy Jones. And the very next year, things would change for Jackson forever.
The Jackson-Jones team was off the wall and off the charts. The Grammy success of Michael’s first solo album put spark back into the family band. And, in 1981, the Jacksons embarked on the Triumph tour. But the power of five pale compared to what would happen next.
With hits like “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” the Jackson-Jones “Thriller” album redefined pop music in 1982. It earned seven Grammys, held the No. 1 spot for nearly 40 weeks, and still stands as the best-selling album of all time.
In 1984, all six Jackson brothers reunited again for the Victory tour, which grossed a record $75 million. At the time, it was the hottest concert ticket going and turned out to be the last time the Jacksons would tour together.
For years, success followed Michael. There were mishaps along the way, but nothing as shocking as what was about to happen. In 1994, the king of pop, the man who celebrated his love for the children of the world, stood accused of mild molestation.
M. JACKSON: I am totally innocent of any wrongdoing. And I know these terrible allegations will all be proven false.
CHUNG: Even his sister did not exonerate him.
LATOYA JACKSON, SISTER OF MICHAEL JACKSON: I have never seen him molest boys, never. But I have seen things that indicate that that’s what he was doing.
CHUNG: Jackson’s life was put under a media microscope: accusations that he had multiple plastic surgeries, his surprise marriage to Lisa Marie Presley. When that marriage ended, he married his dermatologist’s assistant, Debbie Rowe, now the mother of two of Jackson’s three children.
At times, Michael Jackson tried to fight off the negative publicity, accusing his own record company of racist behavior.
M. JACKSON: Racism is bad. And I’ve made billions of dollars for Sony. And they — what they did was really terrible. And I just leave it up to some of their other artists, too.
CHUNG: Now, at 44, Michael Jackson is still making headlines, not with successful recordings, but because of bizarre antics. His recent appearance in court prompted Jackson-watchers to ask if what they were seeing was just a harmless act. But it was last month’s shocking behavior in Berlin that caused others to ask serious questions about the pop icon. He dangled his 9-month-old son from a third-floor hotel balcony. Jackson later admitted that what he did was reckless. But even his diehard fans were wondering what their hero had become.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Few people are in a better place to know than Michael’s older brother, veteran of the Jackson Five and his own solo career, Jermaine Jackson, who joins us now from Los Angeles.
Jermaine, thank you so much for being with us and talking with us.
I know you’ve seen that picture of your brother time and time again with his child over that balcony. What do you think was going on?
JERMAINE JACKSON, BROTHER OF MICHAEL J. JACKSON: Well, Connie, like I said before, Michael’s intent wasn’t to hurt his child.
He was caught up in the moment. And I’ll say it again. You judge a person by their intentions. He is a wonderful father. He’s a great dad. He’s great to our kids, my kids. And that wasn’t his intent at all. And I think the media has taken things out of context. Yes, it wasn’t the wisest thing to do. But, at the same time, he was caught up in the excitement. But they never showed the 60-some thousand fans down there being excited about his presence.
CHUNG: But, Jermaine, you have seven children. You would never have done anything like that, would you?
J. JACKSON: Connie, we’ve all made errors in judgment. We’ve all taken our kids and tossed them up in the air. And now we find out that that’s not the proper thing to do, correct?
CHUNG: Well, but I don’t think — being a parent, I couldn’t imagine even bringing my child even close to the balcony in that way.
J. JACKSON: No. What it is, is being caught up in the excitement. And he said that he was excited about the children being out there. And that wasn’t his intent, to hurt his child. Really, it wasn’t.
CHUNG: Your brother has made a number of court appearances recently. And his behavior has been kind of strange. He was sort of making faces like the devil. And what was that all about, do you think?
J. JACKSON: That was during recess. And there were some fans in the courtroom. And he was saying hi to them. And they were making faces at him. And he was making faces back at them. But the way that was portrayed, as if he was making faces at the judge or whomever, that wasn’t the case. But things are always revealed the wrong way, because this is what has happened. I think his consciousness has become a threat to society out there. And that’s why whatever he does is being portrayed the wrong way.
CHUNG: What do you mean his consciousness has become a threat to society?
J. JACKSON: Meaning that Michael has put himself in the position to be economically independently strong financially. And they’re going to say things…Michael has put himself in the position to be economically independently strong financially. And they’re going to say things.
I mean, I didn’t see the clip that you showed. But to say racism, yes, there were words that Tommy Mottola referred to a rapper as a fat black N-word. And we know that that album — I mean, you’ve seen the papers in New York.
CHUNG: Well, you’ve jumped onto a different subject. And I just want to clarify for our viewers that…
J. JACKSON: OK, I’ll finish.
Irv Gotti was referred to as a fat black nigger, Irv Gotti. And these are things that go on. I mean, we look at the Enron situation. The record industry is the same way. And then there was something about his album and he’s blaming Sony for the sales. But there are a lot of other artists complaining about sales. It was just in the trades in the last three months, there’s $45 million to $50 million being lost at Sony. So, who’s to blame?
CHUNG: Well, Jermaine, I know. Just so that we can clarify for our viewers, he did say that this record executive named Tommy Mottola was racist. But that’s a different subject.
I’m just talking about your brother’s behavior, which has been — don’t you think it’s kind of strange?
J. JACKSON: But, Connie, when you show a clip and you say that he’s accusing someone else of racism, then I have to defend that, because my brother wasn’t brought up to be racist. He wasn’t brought up to accuse anybody that way. But when someone refers to someone else that way, you have to depict that.
I mean, Michael’s behavior is no different from — there’s the Einsteins, who were considered as brilliant minds. But they consider him as to be weird. They never spoke about Michelangelo’s looks. And he’s changed his looks many, many times, but he’s gone on to do some incredible works.
There’s William Shakespeare, who is never talked about, the way he looked. And I think this is just — leave him alone. Leave him alone. Yes, we’re a family. We’re a family. And he’s a family member.
CHUNG: I understand what you’re saying. I think the only concern that people might have out there is that, sure, he can do whatever he wants, because he’s earned the right to do that. But people are just concerned about his children.
J. JACKSON: No, his children are fine.
And, Connie, we’ve worked very, very hard over the years. I’ve referred to our family as an oak tree. There’s some strong roots, strong root that go deep, deep, deep. And it is a tree that is beautiful. There are many different branches. There are many different family members. But, still, at the same time…
CHUNG: Do you actually see him with the family often?
J. JACKSON: Yes, yes, yes.
CHUNG: How often do you see him? How often does the family get together?
J. JACKSON: Connie, we are brothers and sisters. We get together, just like any other family. We have family day, when we come together. He’ll bring his children over. We play. I have children his kids’ age. And they play together.
But I think what it is, the media gets to a point where they want to sort of kick someone when they think they’re down. No, it’s not over with yet. We are never finished. We just pick our time and we take our breaks and we come back. And Michael is fine.
CHUNG: All right, Jermaine, don’t go away. We’re going to take a break.
And when we come back, we’ll talk to a man who’s been following the Jacksons for quite some time. And we’ll continue to talk with Jermaine as well.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: When spoke to Jermaine Jackson recently about all the attention his brother Michael got in this year and not for singing. We wanted to get an outside prosective as well. So we brought in Emil Wilbekin, editor-in-chief of “Vibe” magazine and asked him for his impressions during a recent “Vibe” interview.
EMIL WILBEKIN, EDITOR IN CHIEF, “VIBE”: Well, the interview was a very kind of basic interview, talked about Michael’s influences, what music he was into Was he into hip-top, because Jay-Z had brought him out to a huge hip-hop concert here in New York? We talked about music, who his influences were.
And then we asked him things like what did he do for fun, which he said he liked to have balloon fights with his kids in the yard, stuff like that. He talked about 9/11 after the concert and going and hiding with Elizabeth Taylor, things like that. So, they were pretty basic. He didn’t want to talk about plastic surgery or his augmentation. And he was very clear about that. But, for the most part, he was very, very professional and actually kind of gave a lot. We were pleasantly surprised.
CHUNG: Do you think he was normal-ish? Or was he sort of acting in this bizarre way that we’ve seen recently?
WILBEKIN: Well, at this point, he wasn’t doing all these kind of bizarre things that we’re seeing in the media. He was a little bit more behind the scenes.
The album had just come out. And he was really kind of promoting the album. So, we hadn’t heard anything about racism with Sony or complaints about his album and how things were done. I knew that he was having some financial problems. And we talked about that a little bit. But it was pretty basic.
CHUNG: What do you make of this recent bizarre behavior?
WILBEKIN: I’m not really sure. It’s kind of startling, because it’s almost as if you’re watching this pop superstar that you grew up with kind of like imploding and kind of breaking down in some kind of way.
The baby picture was very startling when it was in the newspaper. And I was at a photo shoot that day for the magazine. And everyone was really horrified to see that on the cover of the New York tabloids, because it’s just such a scary thought. And then, two days later, to see the kids at the zoo with the burkas on, and just all these kind of bizarre things, it’s kind of saddening.
CHUNG: Jermaine, you just heard what Emil Wilbekin said. And I wonder how you react to what he said. And I think, honestly, Jermaine, this is what people are thinking about Michael.
J. JACKSON: Well, I’ll tell you, Connie, today, we have problems with kidnappings and things of that sort. To deprive your children the chance to go out and be a part of society, there’s a problem with that also. So, he feels free with his children. At the same time, I think this — we speak about the plastic surgery and this and that. If everybody who had plastic surgery in Hollywood were to leave town, there wouldn’t be anybody here.
(LAUGHTER)
J. JACKSON: So, we can’t talk about plastic surgery here. What we need to speak about, judge him on his music. Judge him on what he’s done, because I’ll say it again. Leonardo da Vinci, who had dyslexia, who gone on to invent some incredible things.
But we take someone who we feel — we build them up and then we tear them down. And I don’t think that’s fair. I mean, yes, it wasn’t the wisest thing to do with the child. But he came out and he said he was caught up in the moment. But, at the same time, when I look in his eyes and we hear him speak and we hear his heart, that’s our brother. And we have to realize that — look at the good things that he’s done. And we are going to continue to do great things. And whether they talk or not, judge us on our music. Have you ever said that we did a bad show or he’s done a bad record? No. No.
CHUNG: Jermaine.
J. JACKSON: And — go ahead.
CHUNG: You did mention — you brought up the plastic surgery. And it was a funny thing that you said. And you’re probably right. Nobody would be left in L.A.
But your brother did tell Oprah Winfrey at one point that he — let’s see, the words that he used…
J. JACKSON: Vitiligo.
CHUNG: Well, and that he was never pleased with his looks. So, why do you think he’s had so much work?
J. JACKSON: Well, I’ll tell you, Connie, Vitiligo, which I’ll answer, that it is a discoloration of the skin that — it’s sort of like a disease that eats away at the pigmentation of the skin.
CHUNG: Yes. Yes.
J. JACKSON: But, at the same time, we have people who want to go out in the sun who want to become darker.
I think, if I don’t like something that’s wrong with me or that I feel that I want to improve, I would make a change. You would do the same, whether it’s a hairstyle or this or that. But I think, because he’s in the public’s eye and because of who he is, every little thing is taken out of context.
CHUNG: Jermaine…
J. JACKSON: We love him the same. We love him the same. He’s Michael. He’s the greatest dad. And the fans don’t feel that way. It’s the media that want to sort of try to portray him to be this “Wacko Jacko” and all these crazy names. It’s just hurting.
CHUNG: Jermaine, I want to give you a chance to talk about your project. Just, can you give me 30 seconds on your project?
J. JACKSON: I think, with all this stuff that’s going on, there are more important things.
We are focused on the AIDS problem in Africa with EarthCare. And I think, to talk about someone’s color, the way they look, there are more important things. People are dying in Africa. And our focus — we’re a 501(c)(3) foundation, Earth Care. We are busy building clinics in Gabon in South Africa. And that’s where my focus is. And that’s where the world’s attention should be, not on war, but people getting together to become one.
CHUNG: Well, Jermaine, kudos to you for all the work that you’ve done. And I know — you really aren’t recording anymore, are you? But you did want me to listen to something, so you’ll have to send it to me. Will you do that?
J. JACKSON: I’ll send it to you.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: OK.
Jermaine Jackson, thank you so much for being with us.
And, Emil, thank you, too, as well.
Popularity: 1% [?]
