Authors: Steve Knopper
“I had a sense,” Swedien as heroic figure, Swedien and Riley, and “Bruce would sit there”
: Chamberlin interview.
“I was feeling increasingly isolated,” “On
Bad
, he could call me after dinner,”
“Hey, Billy,” Sundberg picking up the
Bad
mixes, “I had no way of knowing,” “screw you,” and Sundberg placing the microphones under DAT racks
: Bottrell interview.
Unexpected cable, Chamberlin called Bottrell, and “I thought it could’ve come from Bruce”
: Chamberlin interview.
“It was beyond not cool”
: Russo interview.
“Boy, that’s great”
: Swedien interview.
“When the deadline came,” MJ crying over “Keep the Faith,” “Pull yourself together,” and “That was scary”
: Goldberg, “Michael Jackson: The Making of the ‘King of Pop,’ ” p. 32.
70,000 copies per day
: Ibid.
seven hundred thousand in first two weeks
: Michael Goldberg, “Fast start for ‘Dangerous,’ ”
Rolling Stone,
January 23, 1992, p. 9.
“a messy grab-bag of ideas”
: Chris Willman, “Dangerous? Hardly,”
Los Angeles Times,
November 24, 1991, Calendar, p. 3.
“Dangerous
was all Michael”
: Author interview with Larry Stessel.
“It’s not as cohesive”
: Forger interview.
“Michael as quirky crossover
wunderkind”: Susan Fast,
33
1
/
3
:
Dangerous
(New York: Bloomsbury, 2014), p. 17.
“
Elvis is the King,” MTV memo, and “It was laughed at”
: Rob Tannenbaum and Craig Marks,
I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution
(Penguin, 2012), pp. 438–39.
“You just had to deal with unrealistic requests”
: Tommy Mottola,
Hitmaker
:
The Man and His Music
(New York: Grand Central/Hachette, 2013), p. 233.
MJ meeting with Sighvatsson and
The Simpsons: Tannenbaum and Marks,
I Want My MTV
, p. 435.
“You have a good relationship,” “They’d blown through what the budgets were,”
and
Landis’s request for money and paycheck
: Author interview with John Landis.
“Trying to make something”
: Ibid.
“ ‘Black or White’ is a mess,” “Making shit up,” and
“That’s so neat”:
Ibid.
“I said, ‘I want to do a dance number’“
: Jocelyn Vena, “Michael Jackson’s Video Legacy in His Own Words,”
mtv.com
, July 2, 2009.
“Sandy was a screaming queen”
: Tannenbaum and Marks,
I Want My MTV
, p. 437.
“violence like Jackson’s”
: Elizabeth Chin, “Michael Jackson’s Panther Dance: Double Consciousness and the Uncanny Business of Performing While Black,”
Journal of Popular Music Studies
23, no. 1 (March 2011): 58–74. Fast’s
33
1
/
3
: Dangerous
pointed me to the Chin and Vena sources.
“Very prescient”
: Landis interview.
Mayonnaise-commercial disguise, Jordan’s dubbed dialogue,
“Something about the presence,” and President Bush meeting
: Author interview with David Kellogg.
Golden Temple restaurant
: Ian Halperin,
Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson
(New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2009), p. 10.
“fine-boned, delicate and dark like his mother”
: Maureen Orth, “Nightmare in Neverland,”
Vanity Fair,
January 1994, p. 70.
“The parents had separate families”
: Author interview with Larry Feldman.
June gave MJ her number and MJ’s call
: June Chandler testimony,
The People of the State of California vs. Michael Joseph Jackson,
California Superior Court, April 11, 2005.
MJ and Jordie shared love for video games
: Ibid.
MJ invited Jordan to his “hideout” but Jordan couldn’t go
: J. Randy Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story 1958–2009
(New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009), p. 452.
“The feel was different”
: Author interview with Eddie Garcia.
thirty-foot wall with 350 lights and “Now can I get that all the way around”
: Author interview with Peter Morse.
“
We can’t have that” and “I need rocket man”
: Author interview with Tom McPhillips.
$20,000 for rocket man, Chuck Norris stunt double, and “Michael would step away”
: Author interview with Ken Graham.
Soviet An-124 jet
: Karlayne Parker, “M.J.’s Livin’ Large in Russian Jet,”
Tampa Tribune,
June 17, 1992, p. 2.
Three jets
: Author interview with Benny Collins.
“changed stuff according to his liking
”: Garcia interview.
Ten-by-ten-foot dance platform on Victory tour and
“
He’d have cameras”
: Author interview with Sam Emerson.
“Balloons”
: David Gest interview,
Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon
(David Gest Productions, 2011).
Debbie Rowe background and discoid lupus diagnosis
: Debbie Rowe testimony,
Katherine Jackson, et al., vs. AEG Live, et al.,
California Superior Court, August 14, 2013.
Vitiligo description and “You have a little spot”
: Author interview with Endre Granat.
“He didn’t want to be spotted up”
: Katherine Jackson interview,
Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon
.
“
I’d never seen skin that color before”
: Author interview with Sonya Saul.
“Jackson emerges a casualty”
: Greg Tate, “I’m White! What’s Wrong with Michael Jackson,” David Brackett, ed.,
The Pop, Rock, and Soul Reader
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). pp. 342–44.
Nightly loss of eight or nine pounds of “water” weight
: Rowe,
Katherine Jackson vs. AEG,
August 14, 2013.
“All I knew was that he wasn’t eating”
: McPhillips interview.
Doctor, protein, and Kentucky Fried Chicken
: Emerson interview.
“
He was eating cheese pizzas”
: Author interview with Johnny Ciao.
“Can you please come and see Mike?” and “happy and working”
: Author interview with David Forecast.
Barnes and von Thurn und Taxis
: Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson
, pp. 452–53.
“There was always this family around”
: Confidential source.
“It’s just uncomfortable”
: Author interview with Sonya Saul.
MJ called Jordan while on tour
: June Chandler testimony,
People vs. Michael Jackson
, April 11, 2005.
“What’s he
doing
?” and “Some artists, with twenty dancers”
: Morse interview.
Dangerous
tour description
:
Michael Jackson Live in Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour
(Epic/Sony, 1992).
“The revelation of his sculpted, made-up face”
: Susan Fast, “Difference That Exceeded Understanding: Remembering Michael Jackson (1958–2009),”
Popular Music and Society
33, no. 2 (2010): 261.
HBO had paid $20 million
: David Wild, “Jackson: $20 Million from HBO,”
Rolling Stone,
October 1, 1992, p. 21.
Phillinganes trying to meet with MJ, “No problem, we’ll do it this time,” and “I wasted a day”
: Author interview with Greg Phillinganes.
“Hmm
, let me think,” “Why would I want to sleep in a chamber?,” and other interview details
: Michael Jackson,
The Oprah Winfrey Show
(ABC, February 10, 1993).
Chandlers at Neverland details
: June Chandler testimony,
People vs.
Michael Jackson,
April 11, 2005.
Fifty-six staff members
: Orth, “Nightmare in Neverland,” p. 70.
“sort of act like the place was hers”
: Wade Robson testimony,
People vs. Michael Jackson,
May 5, 2005.
“First of all, it’s a huge bed”
: Ian Halperin,
Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson
(New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2009), p. 15.
“Jordie is having fun”
: June Chandler testimony,
People vs. Michael Jackson
, April 11, 2005.
$12,000 Cartier bracelet
: Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson
, p. 460.
MJ crashing at the Schwartz house
: June Chandler testimony,
People vs. Michael Jackson
, April 11, 2005.
“[Chandler] would go on and on” and “Hang on”
: Carrie Fisher,
Shockaholic
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), pp. 62–63.
Grand Floridian, May 1993, Lily-June and MJ-Jordan rooms, and “He was not wanting to be with Lily and I”
: June Chandler testimony,
People vs. Michael Jackson
, April 11, 2005.
Description of Jordan’s room
: Raymond Chandler,
All That Glitters: The Crime and the Cover-Up
(New York: Midpoint Trade Books, 2004), pp. 27–28, 34, 58.
“Ruby red lipstick,” “Are you fucking my son” exchange, and Memorial Day spooning
: Ibid.
“Began to get jealous of the involvement”
: Mary Fischer, “Was Michael Jackson Framed?,”
GQ,
November 1994, pp. 214–69.
“I am prepared to move against”
: The Chandler-Schwartz transcript has been printed in numerous sources, including Halperin,
Unmasked
, p. 20.
“nastiest son of a bitch”
: Ibid.
Barry Rothman background and “done him in”
: Fischer, “Was Michael Jackson Framed?,” pp. 214–69.
Fields’s $500 an hour, “If you’re on the side he’s against,”
Abrams’s two-page letter, and “reasonable suspicion”
: Orth, “Nightmare in Neverland,” p. 70.
“Sodium amytal is a barbiturate”
: Halperin,
Unmasked
, p. 36.
Pellicano questions, “Did Michael ever touch,” “I’m sorry, Jordie,” “I’ve missed you too,” “I’m going to ruin you” exchange, and “Oh, my God”
: Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson
, pp. 481, 486, 489–91.
$20 million offer
: Orth, “Nightmare in Neverland,” p. 70.
$350,000 counteroffer, $15 million, three-script proposal
: Ibid.
Custody battles
: Soni Nazario and Amy Wallace, “International Furor Stirred by Allegations on Jackson Inquiry,”
Los Angeles Times,
August 26, 1993, p. 1.
Jordan revealing masturbation details to Abrams
: Orth, “Nightmare in Neverland,” p. 70.
“I can’t talk to you”
: Author interview with Conan Nolan.
KNBC breaking the story
: Ibid.
“Significant” pain
: Gordon Sasaki testimony,
Katherine Jackson vs. AEG,
August 13, 2013.
Sasaki prescribed Percocet
: Rowe, Sasaki testimony,
Jackson vs. AEG
, August 13, 2013.
“Filling” of acne scars and 100 milligrams of Demerol, Klein and Hoefflin competition, Diprivan through eyelid, Debbie brought soup to Neverland
: Rowe testimony,
Katherine Jackson vs. AEG,
August 13, 2013.
Stuart Finkelstein, Demerol, scarring, and IV morphine drip
: Stuart Finkelstein testimony,
Katherine Jackson vs. AEG,
July 8, 2013.
“led him down the path”
: Author interview with Eve Wagner.
“
He was exhausted”
: Emerson interview.
“
So we were behind”
: Author interview with Federico Sicard.
LeMarque charges, Paul Barresi, $100,000 to $150,000 tabloid offers, Hayvenhurst Five details, Quindoys and “gay pedophile,” $283,000 in “unpaid overtime wages,”
Hard Copy
$20,000 payment, and Blanca Francia details
: Diane Dimond,
Be Careful Who You Love
(New York: Atria, 2005), pp. 76–77, 78–79, 108, 120–22.
“It was frustrating,” “They kept a diary,” “we were just trying,” and Jordan’s description of the Mirage suite
: Sicard interview.
National Enquirer
’s twenty reporters and knocking on five hundred
doors
: Fischer, “Was Michael Jackson Framed?,” pp. 214–69.
“I just think Michael needs help
”: Jim Newton, “Jackson’s Sister Says She Believes He Is a Molester,”
Los Angeles Times,
December 9, 1993, p. B1.
La Toya Jackson’s rescindment and Jack Gordon abuse
: La Toya Jackson,
Starting Over
(New York: Pocket Star Books, 2011), pp. 1–10.
“A lot of strange things happened”
: Feldman interview.