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Authors: Shmuley Boteach

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BOOK: The Michael Jackson Tapes
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Advice on Fame
Shmuley Boteach: So yesterday, 'N Sync came to see you. The lead singer Justin Timberlake, and I don't know who the other guy was. What's his name?
Michael had invited me to his hotel suite to meet Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, who had flown in to see him the day after they had jointly hosted the American Music Awards. I was, at that time, not at all enamored of Britney Spears for her sexualization of teenage girls in America. Still, I behaved myself and spoke to them briefly about our efforts to get parents to prioritize their children. Neither of them seemed particularly interested and we didn't really click. Justin said something about contacting his manager or agent. They were there to meet the superstar. I don't mean to be insulting, but I found them unimpressive and forgettable. With all of Michael's myriad flaws, he had infinitely more class. Michael Jackson at least knew how to treat people with dignity and make them feel important, something for which the new generation of stars could use some tutoring.
Michael Jackson: Wade is a choreographer for. . .
SB: Oh, he wasn't from 'N Sync, Wade?
MJ: No, he's a choreographer for Britney Spears and 'N Sync. See I taught Wade.
SB: Really?
MJ: Yeah, I taught Wade. All the stuff you see Britney Spears and 'N Sync doing, that whole style came from me 'cause I taught Wade. Wade's from Australia and I brought him to America.
SB: So he's their choreographer?
MJ: Yeah, and he does music. He was on my record label. We signed him to MJJ. He raps, he does everything.
SB: So he was here with Britney Spears, one of the biggest stars in the world right now, and that lead singer of 'N Sync, and they're boyfriend and girlfriend. When you look at them, and you had a long conversation with them, what would you tell them, based on this idea we're trying to speak about in this book, childlike qualities? Would you warn them against anything that might happen in their careers? Would you tell them, “You know, when I was your age I thought X, Y, and Z and now I've changed my view”? Is there any advice you would give them?
MJ: Just try to stay a child as long as you can. Don't force into adulthood. Don't force it, don't push it. Don't try to be cool and. . . go to Disney, hang out, enjoy your youth, 'cause you'll be old for, I mean you know, just keep your innocence. Have some fun and really be yourself.
This advice from Michael was sorely disappointing. I see Britney Spears, in particular, as a woman in serious need of guidance and counseling. It took Michael several decades to become a train wreck. Britney has done it in her early twenties. But Michael seemed incapable of summoning lessons from his own life to thwart her decline.
SB: So what would you say to these people that are successful in the arts who are younger than you? The 'N Syncs? You would just tell them to be playful as well, don't take it too seriously? Would you tell them anything else? Don't take yourself too seriously or something?
MJ: No, I would tell them always perfect your craft, always. I'm a very strong believer in working hard. But enjoy it, you know? Like be mild-spirited, playful, have some fun. You've got to have some fun, too.
SB: What about, you always say to me how proud you are that your show is a family show, that your concerts are appropriate for children.
MJ: Oh yeah.
SB: Britney Spears was heavily criticized by some in the last MTV awards, like she almost did a striptease on stage.
MJ: Oh. . . yeah, yeah, yeah.
SB: She took this off and that off and just threw off. . . Do you think she needs to use that much sexuality to get out her message? Or, if she's really talented she may not need that? Would you give her any advice on that? Or it's a part of the show and no big deal?
MJ: Umm, I don't want to condemn her for it 'cause it's a show. But she has to realize she has, you know, kids out there who want to be like her and they'll do whatever she does. I don't know, sometimes artists don't realize the danger of what they're doing. If I took a picture of me with a cigarette, how many kids would start smoking that very day? You know, you have to think about all that. And I understand, well, it's just a video, I'm just acting a part, but you're like their god. I mean. . .
SB: You've always felt that sense of responsibility?
MJ: Uh huh.
SB: You've always known how the picture of you appears, people are going to emulate that?
MJ: Yeah, and I understand why some artists may be a little controversial at times. I understand it. You know, if the press start talking too much about her coming from the Mickey Mouse Club and being, you know, cutie Britney, she might think, “I want to give them some edge so I can strip this. I'm edgier, I'm tougher, I'm. . .” You know? So I understand. I think deep inside she's just a sweet person, you know?
SB: So you would say to her, keep your clothes on, keep it in balance here, 'cause there are kids who want to be like you and you have a responsibility?
MJ: Yeah, 'cause I like edge.
SB: You always understood the importance of that responsibility, when you became famous? You knew you had a huge responsibility as an icon and as a trend-setter?
MJ: Yeah, 'cause I don't think, I don't think I've ever done anything offensive on stage. . . ever. Like some of these acts, you talk about how Bobby Brown would get a girl up there and he starts grinding her, you know, right on in front of everybody and police arrested
him several times. Like having sex right on stage and all these kids in the audience. My show it's just totally different.
On another occasion I asked Michael why he grabs his crotch, and isn't that a contradiction to his claim of acting responsibly on stage. He told me he is not even conscious of it. It's reflexive and not meant to be sexual.
Sexuality and Modesty
SB: In trying to preserve childlike qualities in your life Michael, you have shied away from talking about overt sexuality. Like when Oprah asked you about your sex life, you responded something to the effect that, “I'm a gentleman and I don't talk about that.” Do you feel that we should be more respectful of the sexual side of our lives? Has it all become too overt? I mean you're naturally shy about this.
MJ: Yeah, I'm just naturally, um, 'cause I think that's. . .
SB: Private?
MJ: Yeah, that's my personal opinion. Other people who are exhibitionist, you know naturists, who go out nude and they feel different about it. Um, I don't know, I'm just different in that way.
SB: We don't have to misuse our sexuality to increase ticket sales and record sales?
MJ: No, that's crazy, like some of these singers who put bulges in their pants, that's crazy. I don't understand that. That's like disgusting to me when they do stuff like that. That's embarrassing. I don't want nobody to even look at me down. . . like looking for that. That would just embarrass me so bad, oh God.
SB: Isn't that just a sign of insecurity though? They think that maybe their dancing isn't good enough and they need to highlight that other stuff.
MJ: Yeah.
SB: Would your message to someone like Britney Spears be, “Look, you're pretty and talented. You don't need the sleaze. You're so talented without pulling everything off so that people
will look at you. Like Madonna, who's often been criticized for taking advantage of the male sexual drive to sort of get all these guys hunkering after her to make her popular.
MJ: Yeah, uh huh. Aha.
Fears
Shmuley Boteach: Do you live with fears? You know people are going to shoot you down, metaphorically speaking. Does that make you afraid?
Michael Jackson: Not as an artist. I am like a lion. Nothing can hurt me. No one can harm me without my permission. I wouldn't let it bother me, even though I have been hurt and I have felt pain in the past, of course, I have been saved by a lot of that.
This is quite a contradiction to Michael's extreme vulnerability where he told me that everything he had done as an artist was to obtain love. I contrasted the two quotes in the epigraph.
SB: You don't live in fear now?
MJ: No.
SB: Do you think children teach us not to be afraid? On the one hand they are afraid, they are afraid of dogs, they are afraid of the dark, and so many other things. On the other hand they are not afraid to love and not afraid to need.
MJ: We listen, we watch, we learn. We open our hearts and we open our minds, open our souls. Yes, we can learn but you have to realize that. . .
SB: Adults live with more fear than children.
MJ: Absolutely. . . nervous breakdowns. And they have created their own circumstances in a lot of ways. To worry about something until it destroys your health. If there is something they want very badly, kids will keep on saying it until they get it because they have no other way of getting it. Until you give in, which is really sweet,
it's adorable. I always say to them, “If that's the most important thing for you to worry about in life then you are a lucky person. If that's your biggest issue then you are lucky.” You realize in the future. . . for them it's important at the time, which is sweet. It can be the simplest little thing, too. Sweet.
SB: So, the point I was trying to make was that on the one hand there are things that frighten you [Michael had told me about his fear of dogs], and they are classic childhood fears. And, by the way your love of fear is very similar to that of Adam and Eve. They love danger, you know. God said to them “there is this fruit and it's very dangerous,” and that's when they want to eat it. On the one hand, you're afraid of nasty dogs.
MJ: Yeah, I don't like that kind of thing. That frightens me. Or if you cornered a mother cougar among her babies. . . I don't know if they call them cubs or what. . . and she's cornered and she's very territorial, you don't go there. You don't cross that line. I don't understand when people take the gun and they shoot the mother. . . and the baby elephants they do the same dance every time. They let off this screech and they turn in circles of confusion and the mother's lying there dead, they spin in circles like they're going crazy. And I don't understand how man can do that. That hurts me so much. It's so sad. SB: Did you do safaris when you were in Africa?
MJ: Yeah, yeah.
SB: You got close to some of the dangerous animals?
MJ: Yeah.
SB: And you weren't afraid. . . ?
MJ: No. No I love safaris. I love them so much.
SB: So you see the contradiction of this fear. You're afraid of things like spiders, things that children would be afraid of, but you're not afraid of a lion.
MJ: No, no. I'm fascinated by it.
SB: I mean, in Neverland I saw you get within like a foot of a cobra. Remember that?
MJ: Yeah, yeah. And the rattlesnakes. I mean, we stroked the rattlesnakes. And they're very, highly, highly. . . I mean, they could kill you.
SB: And you're not afraid of anything like that?
MJ: I'm fascinated by things that are dangerous to men and to just look at a shark. Why are we so fascinated by sharks? Because they can kill you. And you yell “Shark!” and everybody goes “where? What? Who?” You know, you say, “barracuda” and nobody cares, you say, “shrimp.” It's about the danger and the legend of it, it's about the folklore of it. And I love all that. . . I think I like what PT Barnum liked about it. You know, things that interest people, I love that kinda. . . that's what I love about magic, and Howard Hughes. I love all that.
SB: What are your biggest fears though? I know you're afraid of mean people. You don't like mean people.
MJ: I don't like big, mean, tall guys that are like aggressive. And that's what turned me off about you know who. That hurt me when he asked me, I didn't like it at all. How could a human being have that in him to be that harsh? If that's how he felt, keep it to himself, you don't say it.
SB: You don't like tall, angry, aggressive men. . . ?
MJ: No. In my life, they've been mean. Even though there have been some gentle giants. The tall ones have been turned off of me. SB: But your bodyguards are tall. . .
MJ: They are tall. . .
SB: But they're all nice. . .
MJ: I make sure they're nice. They have to be gentlemen. And they all know, if a child comes up, you don't turn the child away. If a child comes up and asks for an autograph, you roll out the red carpet of courtesy to 'em. They all know that. Very important. I mean, Brando won't sign autographs for anyone unless they're children. Unless they're a little kid, he don't sign. I think that's so sweet, you know? SB: What other fears do you have?
MJ: What other fears? Um. . . .
SB: Dogs. I don't understand why children have certain fears. The other night we put on a DVD for kids and there was a monster and Baba started screaming and crying and she ran out of the room and she always pushes her bed time, but she said, “I want to go to bed.” And she went to sleep. She just hated it.
MJ: What show was it?
SB: I think it was
Men in Black
or something.
MJ: Ohhh. On DVD? But the other kids were fine with it? They knew it was movie stuff and not real?
SB: Yeah. I don't really let them see stuff like that but they got it and I was watching it with them, so. . . Baba saw the first guy and. . .
MJ: Yeah, it's not for Baba. It's not for her. Prince and Paris love Jurassic Park, even though there can be violence and guns. But I want him to see great movies if they're great. Not too many but great, great art.
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BOOK: The Michael Jackson Tapes
13.31Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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