Chapter Five - The Moonwalk----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Off the Wall was released in August 1979, the same month I turned twenty-one
and took control of my own affairs, and it was definitely one of the major
landmarks of my life. It meant a great deal to me, because its eventual
success proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a former "child star" could
mature into a recording artist with contemporary appeal. Off the Wall also
went a step beyond the dance grooves we had cooked up. When we started the
project, Quincy and I talked about how important it was to capture passion
and strong feelings in a recorded performance. I still think that's what we
achieved on the ballad "She's Out of My Life," and to a lesser extent on
"Rock with You."
Looking back, I can view the whole tapestry and see how Off the Wall
prepared me for the work we would do on the album that became Thriller.
Quincy, Rod Temperton, and many of the musicians who played on Off the Wall
would help me realise a dream that I had had for a long time. Off the Wall
had sold almost six million copies in this country, but I wanted to make an
album that would be even bigger. Ever since I was a little boy, I had
dreamed of creating the biggest-selling record of all time. I remember going
swimming as a child and making a wish before I jumped into the pool.
Remember, I grew up knowing the industry, understanding goals, and being
told what was and was not possible. I wanted to do something special. I'd
stretch my arms out, as if I were sending my thoughts right up into space. I'd make my wish, then I'd dive into the water. I'd say to myself, "This is
my dream. This is my wish," every time before I'd dive into the water.
I believe in wishes and in a person's ability to make a wish come true. I
really do. Whenever I saw a sunset, I would quietly make my secret wish
right before the sun tucked under the western horizon and disappeared. It
would seem as if the sun had taken my wish with it. I'd make it right before
that last speck of light vanished. And a wish is more than a wish, it's a
goal. It's something your conscious and subconscious can help make reality.
I remember being in the studio once with Quincy and Rod Temperton while we
were working on Thriller . I was playing a pinball machine and one of them
asked me, "If this album doesn't do as well as Off the Wall , will you be
disappointed?"
I remember feeling upset - hurt that the question was even raised. I told
them Thriller had to do better than Off the Wall . I admitted that I wanted
this album to be the biggest-selling album of all time.
They started laughing. It was a seemingly unrealistic thing to want.
There were times during the Thriller project when I would get emotional or
upset because I couldn't get the people working with me to see what I was.
That still happens to me sometimes. Often people just don't see what I see.
They have too much doubt. You can't do your best when you're doubting
yourself. If you don't believe in yourself, who will? Just doing as well as
you did last time is not good enough. I think of it as the "Try to get what
you can" mentality. It doesn't require you to stretch, to grow. I don't
believe in that.
I believe we are powerful, but we don't use our minds to full capacity. Your
mind is powerful enough to help you attain whatever you want. I knew what we
could do with that record. We had a great team there, a lot of talent and
good ideas, and I knew we could do anything. The success of Thriller
transformed many of my dreams into reality. It did become the
biggest-selling album of all time, and that fact appeared on the cover of
The Guinness Book of World Records.
Making the Thriller album was very hard work, but it's true that you only
get out of something what you put into it. I'm a perfectionist: I'll work until I drop. And I worked so hard on that album. It helped that Quincy
showed great confidence in what we were doing during those sessions. I guess
I had proved myself to him during our work on Off the Wall . He listened to
what I had to say and helped me accomplish what I had hoped to on that
album, but he showed even more faith in me during the making of Thriller .
He realised I had the confidence and experience I needed to make that record
and at times he wasn't in the studio with us for that reason. I'm really
very self-confident when it comes to my work. When I take on a project, I
believe in it 100 percent. I really put my soul into it. I'd die for it.
That's how I am.
Quincy is brilliant at balancing out an album, creating the right mix of
up-tempo numbers and slow ones. We started out working with Rod Temperton on
songs for the Thriller album, which was originally called Starlight . I was
writing songs myself while Quincy was listening to other people's songs,
hoping to find just the right ones for the album. He's good at knowing what
I'll like and what will work for me. We both share the same philosophy about
making albums; we don't believe in B-sides or album songs. Every song should
be able to stand on its own as a single, and we always push for this.
I had finished some songs of my own, but I didn't give them to Quincy until
I saw what had come in from other writers. The first song I had was
"Startin' Something," which I had written when we were doing Off the Wall
but had never given to Quincy for that album. Sometimes I have a song I've
written that I really like and I just can't bring myself to present it.
While we were making Thriller , I even held on to "Beat It" for a long time
before I played it for Quincy. He kept telling me that we needed a great
rock song for the album. He'd say, "Come on, where is it? I know you got
it." I like my songs but initially I'm shy about playing them for people,
because I'm afraid they won't like them and that's a painful experience.
He finally convinced me to let him hear what I had. I brought out "Beat It"
and played it for him and he went crazy. I felt on top of the world.
When we were about to start work on Thriller , I called Paul McCartney in
London and this time I did say, "Let's get together and write some hits."
Our collaboration produced "Say Say Say" and "The Girl Is Mine."
Quincy and I eventually chose "The Girl Is Mine" as the obvious first single
from Thriller . We really didn't have much choice. When you have two strong names like that together on a song, it has to come out first or it gets
played to death and overexposed. We had to get it out of the way.
When I approached Paul, I wanted to repay the favour he had done me in
contributing "Girlfriend" to Off the Wall . I wrote "The Girl Is Mine,"
which I knew would be right for his voice and mine working together, and we
also did work on "Say Say Say," which we would finish up later with George
Martin, the great Beatles producer.
"Say Say Say" was coauthored by Paul, a man who could play all the
instruments in the studio and score every part, and a kid, me, who couldn't.
Yet we worked together as equals and enjoyed ourselves. Paul never had to
carry me in that studio. The collaboration was also a real step forward for
me in terms of confidence, because there was no Quincy Jones watching over
me to correct my mistakes. Paul and I shared the same idea of how a pop song
should work and it was a real treat to work with him. I feel that ever since
John Lennon's death he has had to live up to expectations people had no
right to hang on him; Paul McCartney has given so much to this industry and
to his fans.
Eventually, I would buy the ATV music publishing catalogue, which included
many of the great Lennon-McCartney songs. But most people don't know that it
was Paul who introduced me to the idea of getting involved in music
publishing. I was staying with Paul and Linda at their house in the country
when Paul told me about his own involvement in music publishing. He handed
me a little book with MPL printed on the cover. He smiled as I opened it,
because he knew I was going to find the contents exciting. It contained a
list of all the songs Paul owns and he'd been buying the rights to songs for
a long time. I had never given the idea of buying songs any thought before.
When the ATV music publishing catalogue, which contains many
Lennon-McCartney songs, went on sale, I decided to put in a bid.
I consider myself a musician who is incidentally a businessman, and Paul and
I had both learned the hard way about business and the importance of
publishing and royalties and the dignity of songwriting. Songwriting should
be treated as the lifeblood of popular music. The creative process doesn't
involve time clocks or quota systems, it involves inspiration and the
willingness to follow through. When I was sued my someone I had never heard
of for "The Girl Is Mine," I was quite willing to stand on my reputation. I
stated that many of my ideas come in dreams, which some people thought was a convenient cop-out, but it's true. Our industry is so lawyer-heavy that
getting sued for something you didn't do seems to be as much a part of the
initiation process as winning amateur night used to be.
"Not My Lover" was a title we almost used for "Billie Jean" because Q had
some objections to calling the song "Billie Jean," my original title. He
felt people might immediately think of Billie Jean King, the tennis player.
A lot of people have asked me about that song, and the answer is very
simple. It's just a case of a girl who says that I'm the father of her child
and I'm pleading my innocence because "the kid is not my son."
Billie Jean
There was never a real "Billie Jean." (Except for the ones who came after
the song.) The girl in the song is a composite of people we've been plagued
by over the years. This kind of thing has happened to some of my brothers
and I used to be really amazed by it. I couldn't understand how these girls
could say they were carrying someone's child when it wasn't true. I can't
imagine lying about something like that. Even today there are girls who come
to the gate at our house and say the strangest things, like, "Oh, I'm
Michael's wife," or "I'm just dropping off the keys to our apartment." I
remember one girl who used to drive us completely crazy. I really think that
she believed in her mind that she belonged with me. There was another girl
who claimed I had gone to bed with her, and she made threats. There've been
a couple of serious scuffles at the gate on Hayvenhurst, and they can get
dangerous. People yell into the intercom that Jesus sent them to speak with
me and Gold told them to come - unusual and unsettling things.
A musician knows hit material. It has to feel right. Everything has to feel
in place. It fulfills you and it makes you feel good. You know it when you
hear it. That's how I felt about "Billie Jean." I knew it was going to be
big while I was writing it. I was really absorbed in that song. One day
during a break in a recording session I was riding down the Ventura Freeway
with Nelson Hayes, who was working with me at the time. "Billie Jean" was
going around in my head and that's all I was thinking about. We were getting
off the freeway when a kid on a motorcycle pulls up to us and says, "Your
car's on fire." Suddenly we noticed the smoke and pulled over and the whole
bottom of the Rolls-Royce was on fire. That kid probably saved our lives. If
the car had exploded, we could have been killed. But I was so absorbed by
this tune floating in my head that I didn't even focus on the awful
possibilities until later. Even while we were getting help and finding an alternate way to get where we were going, I was silently composing
additional material, that's how involved I was with "Billie Jean."
Before I wrote "Beat It," I had been thinking I wanted to write the type of
rock song that I would go out and buy, but also something totally different
from the rock music I was hearing on Top 40 radio at the time.
"Beat It" was written with school kids in mind. I've always loved creating
pieces that will appeal to kids. It's fun to write for them and know what
they like because they're a very demanding audience. You can't fool them.
They are still the audience that's most important to me, because I really
care about them. If they like it, it's a hit, no matter what the charts say.
The lyrics of "Beat It" express something I would do if I were in trouble.
Its message - that we should abhor violence - is something I believe deeply.
It tells kids to be smart and avoid trouble. I don't mean to say you should
turn the other cheek while someone kicks in your teeth, but, unless your
back is against the wall and you have absolutely no choice, just get away
before violence breaks out. If you fight and get killed, you've gained
nothing and lost everything. You're the loser, and so are the people who
love you. That's what "Beat It" is supposed to get across. To me true
bravery is settling differences without a fight and having the wisdom to
make that solution possible.
When Q called Eddie Van Halen, he thought it was a crank call. Because of
the bad connection, Eddie was convinced that the voice on the other end was
a fake. After being told to get lost, Q simply dialed the number again.
Eddie agreed to play the session for us and gave us an incredible guitar
solo on "Beat It."
Beat It
The newest members of our team were the band Toto, who had the hit records
"Rosanna" and "Africa." They had been well known as individual session
musicians before they came together as a group. Because of their experience,
they knew both sides of studio work, when to be independent, and when to be
cooperative and follow the producer's lead. Steve Porcaro had worked on Off
the Wall during a break as keyboardist for Toto. This time he brought his
band mates with him. Musicologists know that the band's leader David Paich
is the son of Marty Paich, who worked on Ray Charles' great records like "I
Can't Stop Loving You."
I love "Pretty Young Thing," which was written by Quincy and James Ingram.
"Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" had whetted my appetite for the spoken
intro, partly because I didn't think my speaking voice was something my
singing needed to hide. I have always had a soft speaking voice. I haven't
cultivated it or chemically altered it: that's me - take it or leave it.
Imagine what it must be like to be criticised for something about yourself
that is natural and God given. Imagine the hurt of having untruths spread by
the press, of having people wonder if you're telling the truth - defending
yourself because someone decided it would make good copy and would force you
to deny what they said, thus creating another story. I've tried not to
answer such ridiculous charges in the past because that dignifies them and
the people who make them. Remember, the press is a business: Newspapers and
magazines are in business to make money - sometimes at the expense of
accuracy, fairness, and even the truth.
Anyway, in the intro to "Pretty Young Thing," I sounded a bit more confident
than I had on the last album. I liked the "code" in the lyrics, and
"tenderoni" and "sugar fly" were fun rock'n'roll-type words that you
couldn't find in the dictionary. I got Janet and LaToya into the studio for
this one, and they produced the "real" backup vocals. James Ingram and I
programmed an electronic device called a Vocoder, which gave out that E.T.
voice.
"Human Nature" was the song the Toto guys brought to Q, and he and I both
agreed that the song had the prettiest melody we'd heard in a long time,
even more than "Africa." It's music with wings. People asked me about the
lyrics: "Why does he do me that way . . . I like loving this way . . ."
People often think the lyrics you're singing have some special personal
significance for you, which often isn't true. It is important to reach
people, to move them. Sometimes one can do this with the mosaic of the music
melody arrangement and lyrics, sometimes it is the intellectual content of
the lyrics. I was asked a lot of questions about "Muscles," the song I wrote
and produced for Diana Ross. That song fulfilled a lifelong dream of
returning some of the many favours she's done for me. I have always loved
Diana and looked up to her. Muscles, by the way, is the name of my snake.
"The Lady in My Life" was one of the most difficult tracks to cut. We were
used to doing a lot of takes in order to get a vocal as nearly perfect as
possible, but Quincy wasn't satisfied with my work on that song, even after
literally dozens of takes. Finally he took me aside late one session and the first to say it. Finally I realised I had to do the whole thing - mix
the entire album - all over again.
We took a couple of days off, drew a deep breath, and stepped back. Then we
came to it fresh, cleaned our ears out, and began to mix two songs a week.
When it was done - boom - it hit us hard. CBS could hear the difference too.
Thriller was a tough project.
It felt so good when we finished. I was so excited I couldn't wait for it to
come out. When we finished, there wasn't any kind of celebration that I can
recall. We didn't go out to a disco or anything. We just rested. I prefer
just being with people I really like anyway. That's my way of celebrating.
The three videos that came out of Thriller - "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and
"Thriller" - were all part of my original concept for the album. I was
determined to present this music as visually as possible. At the time I
would look at what people were doing with video, and I couldn't understand
why so much of it seemed so primitive and weak. I saw kids watching and
accepting boring videos because they had no alternatives. My goal is to do
the best I can in every area, so why work hard on an album and then produce
a terrible video? I wanted something that would glue you to the set,
something you'd want to watch over and over. The idea from the beginning was
to give people quality. So I wanted to be a pioneer in this relatively new
medium and make the best short music movies we could make. I don't even like
to call them videos. On the set I explained that we were doing a film , and
that was how I approached it. I wanted the most talented people in the
business - the best cinematographer, the best director, the best lighting
people we could get. We weren't shooting on videotape; it was 35-mm film. We
were serious.
For the first video, "Billie Jean," I interviewed several directors, looking
for someone who seemed really unique. Most of them didn't present me with
anything that was truly innovative. At the same time I was trying to think
bigger, the record company was giving me a problem on the budget. So I ended
up paying for "Beat It" and "Thriller" because I didn't want to argue with
anybody about money. I own both of those films myself as a result.
"Billie Jean" was done with CBS's money - about $250,000. At the time that
was a lot of money for a video, but it really pleased me that they believed
in me that much. Steve Baron, who directed "Billie Jean," had very imaginative ideas, although he didn't agree at first that there should be
dancing in it. I felt that people wanted to see dancing. It was great to
dance for the video. That freeze-frame where I go on my toes was
spontaneous; so were many of the other moves.
"Billie Jean's" video made a big impression on the MTV audience and was a
huge hit.
"Beat It" was directed by Bob Giraldi, who had done a lot of commercials. I
remember being in England when it was decided that "Beat It" would be the
next single released from Thriller , and we had to choose a director for the
video.
I felt "Beat It" should be interpreted literally, the way it was written,
one gang against another on tough urban streets. It had to be rough . That's
what "Beat It" was about.
When I got back to L.A., I saw Bob Giraldi's demo reel and knew that he was
the director I wanted for "Beat It." I loved the way he told a story in his
work, so I talked with him about "Beat It." We went over things, my ideas
and his ideas, and that's how it was created. We played with the storyboard
and moulded and sculpted it.
I had street gangs on my mind when I wrote "Beat It," so we rounded up some
of the toughest gangs in Los Angeles and put them to work on the video. It
turned out to be a good idea, and a great experience for me. We had some
rough kids on that set, tough kids, and they hadn't been to wardrobe. Those
guys in the pool room in the first scene were serious; they were not actors.
That stuff was real.
Now I hadn't been around really tough people all that much, and these guys
were more than a little intimidating at first. But we had security around
and were ready for anything that might happen. Of course we soon realised we
didn't need any of this, that the gang members were mostly humble, sweet,
and kind in their dealings with us. We fed them during breaks, and they all
cleaned up and put their trays away. I came to realise that the whole thing
about being bad and tough is that it's done for recognition. All along these
guys had wanted to be seen and respected, and now we were going to put them
on TV. They loved it. "Hey, look at me, I'm somebody!" And I think that's
really why many of the gangs act the way they do. They're rebels, but rebels who want attention and respect. Like all of us, they just want to be seen.
And I gave them that chance. For a few days at least they were stars.
They were so wonderful to me - polite, quiet, supportive. After the dance
numbers they'd compliment my work, and I could tell they really meant it.
They wanted a lot of autographs and frequently stood around my trailer.
Whatever they wanted, I gave them: photographs, autographs, tickets for the
Victory tour, anything. They were a nice bunch of guys.
The truth of that experience came out on the screen. The "Beat It" video was
menacing, and you could feel those people's emotions. You felt the
experience of the streets and the reality of their lives. You look at "Beat
It" and know those kids are tough. They were being themselves, and it came
across. It was nothing like actors acting; it was as far from that as
possible. They were being themselves; that feeling you got was their spirit.
I've always wondered if they got the same message from the song that I did.
When Thriller first came out, the record company assumed it would sell a
couple of million copies. In general record companies never believe a new
album will do considerably better than the last one you did. The figure you
either got lucky last time or the number you last sold is the size of your
audience. They usually just ship a couple of million out to the stores to
cover the sales in case you get lucky again.
That's how it usually works, but I wanted to alter their attitude with
Thriller .
One of the people who helped me with Thriller was Frank Dileo. Frank was
vice president for promotion at Epic when I met him. Along with Ron Weisner
and Fred DeMann, Frank was responsible for turning my dream for Thriller
into a reality. Frank heard parts of Thriller for the first time at Westlake
Studio in Hollywood, where much of the album was recorded. He was there with
Freddie DeMann, one of my managers, and Quincy and I played them "Beat It"
and a little bit of "Thriller," which we were still working on. They were
very impressed, and we started to talk seriously about how to "break" this
album wide open.
Frank really worked hard and proved to be my right hand during the years
ahead. His brilliant understanding of the recording industry proved invaluable. For instance, we released "Beat It" as a single while "Billie
Jean" was still at number one. CBS screamed, "You're crazy. This will kill
166;Billie Jean'" But Frank told them not to worry, that both songs would be
number one and both would be in the Top 10 at the same time. They were.
By the spring of 1983 it was clear that the album was going to go crazy.
Over the top. Every time they released another single, sales of the album
would go even higher.
Then the "Beat It" video took off.
On May 16, 1983, I performed "Billie Jean" on a network telecast in honour
of Motown's twenty-fifth anniversary. Almost fifty million people saw that
show. After that, many things changed.
The Motown 25 show had actually been taped a month earlier, in April. The
whole title was Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, and Forever , and I'm forced to
admit I had to be talked into doing it. I'm glad I did because the show
eventually produced some of the happiest and proudest moments of my life.
As I mentioned earlier, I said no to the idea at first. I had been asked to
appear as a member of the Jacksons and then do a dance number on my own. But
none of us were Motown artists any longer. There were lengthy debates
between me and my managers, Weisner and DeMann. I thought about how much
Berry Gordy had done for me and the group, but I told my managers and Motown
that I didn't want to go on TV. My whole attitude toward TV is fairly
negative. Eventually Berry came to see me to discuss it. I was editing "Beat
It" at the Motown studio, and someone must have told him I was in the
building. He came down to the studio and talked to me about it at length. I
said, "Okay, but if I do it, I want to do 166;Billie Jean.'" It would have been
the only non-Motown song in the whole show. He told me that's what he wanted
me to do anyway. So we agreed to do a Jacksons' medley, which would include
Jermaine. We were all thrilled.
So I gathered my brothers and rehearsed them for this show. I really worked
them, and it felt nice, a bit like the old days of the Jackson 5. I
choreographed them and rehearsed them for days at our house in Encino,
videotaping every rehearsal so we could watch it later. Jermaine and Marlon
also made their contributions. Next we went to Motown in Pasadena for
rehearsals. We did our act and, even though we reserved our energy and never went all out at rehearsal, all the people there were clapping and coming around and watching us. Then I did my "Billie Jean" rehearsal. I just walked
through it because as yet I had nothing planned. I hadn't had time because I
was so busy rehearsing the group.
The next day I called my management office and said, "Please order me a
spy's hat, like a cool fedora - something that a secret agent would wear." I
wanted something sinister and special, a real slouchy kind of hat. I still
didn't have a very good idea of what I was going to do with "Billie Jean."
During the Thriller sessions, I had found a black jacket, and I said, "You
know, someday I'm going to wear this to perform. It was so perfect and so
show business that I wore it on Motown 25 .
But the night before the taping, I still had no idea what I was going to do
with my solo number. So I went down to the kitchen of our house and played
"Billie Jean." Loud. I was in there by myself, the night before the show,
and I pretty much stood there and let the song tell me what to do. I kind of
let the dance create itself. I really let it talk to me; I heard the beat
come in, and I took this spy's hat and started to pose and step, letting the
"Billie Jean" rhythm create the movements. I felt almost compelled to let it
create itself. I couldn't help it. And that - being able to "step back" and
let the dance come through - was a lot of fun.
I had also been practising certain steps and movements, although most of the
performance was actually spontaneous. I had been practising the Moonwalk for
some time, and it dawned on me in our kitchen that I would finally do the
Moonwalk in public on Motown 25.
Now the Moonwalk was already out on the street by this time, but I enhanced
it a little when I did it. It was born as a break-dance step, a "popping"
type of thing that blacks kids had created dancing on the street corners in
the ghetto. Black people are truly innovative dancers; they create many of
the new dances, pure and simple. So I said, "This is my chance to do it,"
and I did it. These three kids taught it to me. They gave me the basics -
and I had been doing it a lot in private. I had practised it together with
certain other steps. All I was really sure of was that on the bridge to
"Billie Jean" I was going to walk backward and forward at the same time,
like walking on the moon.
One the day of the taping, Motown was running behind schedule. Late. So I went off and rehearsed by myself. By then I had my spy hat. My brothers
wanted to know what the hat was for, but I told them they'd have to wait and
see. But I did ask Nelson Hayes for a favour. "Nelson - after I do the set
with my brothers and the lights go down, sneak the hat out to me in the
dark. I'll be in the corner, next to the wings, talking to the audience, but
you sneak that hat back there and put it in my hand in the dark."
So after my brothers and I finished performing, I walked over to the side of
the stage and said, "You're beautiful! I'd like to say those were the good
old days; those were magic moments with all my brothers, including Jermaine.
But what I really like" - and Nelson is sneaking the hat into my hand - "are
the newer songs." I turned around and grabbed the hat and went into "Billie
Jean," into that heavy rhythm; I could tell that people in the audience were
really enjoying my performance. My brothers told me they were crowding the
wings watching me with their mouths open, and my parents and sisters were
out there in the audience. But I just remember opening my eyes at the end of
the thing and seeing this sea of people standing up, applauding.
And I felt
so many conflicting emotions. I knew I had done my best and felt good, so
good. But at the same time I felt disappointed in myself. I had planned to
do one really long spin and to stop on my toes, suspended for a moment, but
I didn't stay on my toes as long as I wanted. I did the spin and I landed on
one toe. I wanted to just stay there, just freeze there, but it didn't work
quite as I'd planned.
When I got backstage, the people back there were congratulating me. I was
still disappointed about the spin. I had been concentrating so hard and I'm
such a perfectionist. At the same time I knew this was one of the happiest
moments of my life. I knew that for the first time my brothers had really
gotten a chance to watch me and see what I was doing, how I was evolving.
After the performance, each of them hugged and kissed me backstage. They had
never done that before, and I felt happy for all of us. It was so wonderful
when they kissed me like that. I loved it! I mean, we hug all the time. My
whole family embraces a lot, except for my father. He's the only one who
doesn't. Whenever the rest of us see each other, we embrace, but when they
all kissed me that night, I felt as if I had been blessed by them.
The performance was still gnawing at me, and I wasn't satisfied until a
little boy came up to me backstage. He was about ten years old and was
wearing a tuxedo. He looked up at me with stars in his eyes, frozen where he stood, and said, "Man, who ever taught you to dance like that?" I kind of
laughed and said, "Practice, I guess." And this boy was looking at me,
awestruck. I walked away, and for the first time that evening I felt really
good about what I had accomplished that night. I said to myself, I must have
done really well because children are honest. When that kid said what he
did, I really felt that I had done a good job. I was so moved by the whole
experience that I went right home and wrote down everything which had
happened that night. My entry ended with my encounter with the child.
The day after the Motown 25 show, Fred Astaire called me on the telephone.
He said - these are his exact words - "You're a hell of a mover. Man, you
really put them on their asses last night." That's what Fred Astaire said to
me. I thanked him. Then he said, "You're an angry dancer. I'm the same way.
I used to do the same thing with my cane."
I had met him once or twice in the past, but this was the first time he had
ever called me. He went on to say, "I watched the special last night; I
taped it and I watched it again this morning. You're a hell of a mover."
It was the greatest compliment I had ever received in my life, and the only
one I had ever wanted to believe. For Fred Astaire to tell me that meant
more to me than anything. Later my performance was nominated for an Emmy
Award in a musical category, but I lost to Leontyne Price. It didn't matter.
Fred Astaire had told me things I would never forget - that was my reward.
Later he invited me to his house, and there were more compliments from him
until I really blushed. He went over my "Billie Jean" performance, step by
step. The great choreographer Hermes Pan, who had choreographed Fred's
dances in the movies, came over, and I showed them how to Moonwalk and
demonstrated some other steps that really interested them.
Not long after that Gene Kelly came by my house to visit and also said he
liked my dancing. It was a fantastic experience, that show, because I felt I
had been inducted into an informal fraternity of dancers, and I felt so
honoured because these were the people I most admired in the world.
Right after Motown 25 my family read a lot of stuff in the press about my
being "the new Sinatra" and as "exciting as Elvis" - that kind of thing. It
was very nice to hear, but I knew the press could be so fickle. One week
they love you, and the next week they act like you're rubbish. Later I gave
the glittery black jacket I wore on Motown 25 to Sammy Davis as a present. He said he was going to do a takeoff of me on stage, and I said, "Here, you
want to wear this when you do it?" He was so happy. I love Sammy. He's such
a fine man and a real showman. One of the best. I had been wearing a single
glove for years before Thriller . I felt that one glove was cool. Wearing
two gloves seemed so ordinary, but a single glove was different and was
definitely a look. But I've long believed that thinking too much about your
look is one of the biggest mistakes you can make, because an artist should
let his style evolve naturally, spontaneously. You can't think about these
things; you have to feel your way into them.
I actually had been wearing the glove for a long time, but it hadn't gotten
a lot of attention until all of a sudden it hit with Thriller in 1983. I was
wearing it on some of the old tours back in the 1970s, and I wore one glove
during the Off the Wall tour and on the cover of the live album that came
out afterward.
It's so show business that one glove. I love wearing it. Once, by
coincidence, I wore a black glove to the American Music Awards ceremony,
which happened to fall on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. Funny how
things happen sometimes.
I admit that I love starting trends, but I never thought wearing white socks
was going to catch on. Not too long ago it was considered extremely square
to wear white socks. It was cool in the 1950s, but in the 166;60s and 166;70s you
wouldn't be caught dead in white socks. It was too square to even consider -
for most people.
But I never stopped wearing them. Ever. My brothers would call me a dip, but
I didn't care. My brother Jermaine would get upset and call my mother,
"Mother, Michael's wearing his white socks again. Can't you do something?
Talk to him." He would complain bitterly. They'd all tell me I was a
goofball. But I still wore my white socks, and now it's cool again. Those
white socks must have caught on just to spite Jermaine. I get tickled when I
think about it. After Thriller came out, it even became okay to wear your
pants high around your ankles again.
My attitude is if fashion says it's forbidden, I'm going to do it.
When I'm at home, I don't like to dress up. I wear anything that's handy. I
used to spend days in my pyjamas. I like flannel shirts, old sweaters and slacks, simple clothes.
When I go out, I dress up in sharper, brighter, more tailored clothes, but
around the house and in the studio anything goes. I don't wear much
jewellery - usually none - because it gets in my way. Occasionally people
give me gifts of jewellery and I treasure them for the sentiment, but
usually I just put them away somewhere. Some of it has been stolen. Jackie
Gleason gave me a beautiful ring. He took it off his finger and gave it to
me. It was stolen and I miss it, but it doesn't really bother me because the
gesture meant more than anything else, and that can't be taken from me. The
ring was just a material thing.
What really makes me happy, what I love is performing and creating. I really
don't care about all the material trappings. I love to put my soul into
something and have people accept it and like it. That's a wonderful feeling.
I appreciate art for that reason. I'm a great admirer of Michelangelo and of
how he poured his soul into his work. He knew in his heart that one day he
would die, but that the work he did would live on. You can tell he painted
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with all his soul. At one point he even
destroyed it and did it over because he wanted it to be perfect. He said,
"If the wine is sour, pour it out."
I can look at a painting and lose myself. It pulls you in, all the pathos
and drama. It communicates with you. You can sense what the artist was
feeling. I feel the same way about photography. A poignant or strong
photograph can speak volumes.
As I said earlier, there were many changes in my life in the aftermath of
Motown 25 . We were told that forty-seven million people watched that show,
and apparently many of them went out and bought Thriller . By the fall of
1983 the album had sold eight million copies, eclipsing, by far, CBS's
expectations for the successor to Off the Wall . At that point Frank Dileo
said he'd like to see us produce another video or short film.
It was clear to us that the next single and video should be "Thriller," a
long track that had plenty of material for a brilliant director to play
with. As soon as the decision was made, I knew who I wanted to have direct
it. The year before I had seen a horror film called An American Werewolf in
London , and I knew that the man who made it, John Landis, would be perfect for "Thriller," since our concept for the video featured the same kind of
transformations that happened to his character.
So we contacted John Landis and asked him to direct. He agreed and submitted
his budget, and we went to work. The technical details of this film were so
awesome that I soon got a call from John Branca, my attorney and one of my
closest and most valued advisers. John had been working with me ever since
the Off the Wall days; in fact he even helped me out by donning many hats
and functioning in several capacities when I had no manager after Thriller
was released. He's one of those extremely talented, capable men who can do
anything. Anyway, John was in a panic because it had become obvious to him
that the original budget for the "Thriller" video was going to double. I was
paying for this project myself, so the money for the budget overruns was
coming out of my pocket.
But at this point John came up with a great idea. He suggested we make a
separate video, financed by somebody else, about the making of the
"Thriller" video. It seemed odd that no one had ever done this before. We
felt sure it would be an interesting documentary, and at the same time it
would help pay for our doubled project. It didn't take John long to put this
deal together. He got MTV and the Showtime cable network to put up the cash,
and Vestron released the video after "Thriller" aired.
The success of The Making of Thriller was a bit of a shock to all of us. In
its cassette form it sold about a million copies by itself. Even now, it
holds the record as the best-selling music video of all time.
The "Thriller" film was ready in late 1983. We released it in February and
it made its debut on MTV. Epic released "Thriller" as a single and sales of
the album went crazy. According to statistics, the "Thriller" film and the
release of the single resulted in fourteen million additional album and tape
sales within a six-month period. At one point in 1984, we were selling a
million records a week.
Thriller
I'm still stunned by this response. By the time we finally closed down the
Thriller campaign a year later, the album was at the thirty-two million
mark. Today sales are at forty million. A dream come true.
During this period I changed my management as well. My contract with Weisner
and DeMann had expired in early 1983. My father was no longer representing me and I was looking at various people. One day I was at the Beverly Hills
Hotel, visiting Frank Dileo, and I asked him if he had any interest in
leaving Epic and managing my career.
Frank asked me to think about it some more and if I was certain to call him
back on Friday.
Needless to say, I called him back.
The success of Thriller really hit me in 1984, when the album received a
gratifying number of nominations for the American Music Awards and the
Grammy Awards. I remember feeling an overwhelming rush of jubilation. I was
whooping with joy and dancing around the house, screaming. When the album
was certified as the best-selling album of all time, I couldn't believe it.
Quincy Jones was yelling, "Bust open the champagne!" We were all in a state.
Man! What a feeling! To work so hard on something, to give so much and to
succeed! Everyone involved with Thriller was floating on air. It was
wonderful.
I imagined that I felt like a long-distance runner must feel when breaking
the tape at the finish line. I would think of an athlete, running as hard
and as fast as he can. Finally he gets close to the finish line and his
chest hits that ribbon and the crowd is soaring with him. And I'm not even
into sports!
But I identify with that person because I know how hard he's trained and I
know how much that moment means to him. Perhaps a whole life has been
devoted to this endeavour, this one moment. And then he wins. That's the
realisation of a dream. That's powerful stuff. I can share that feeling
because I know.
One of the side effects of the Thriller period was to make me weary of
constantly being in the public eye. Because of this, I resolved to lead a
quieter, more private life. I was still quite shy about my appearance. You
must remember that I had been a child star and when you grow up under that
kind of scrutiny people don't want you to change, to get older and look
different. When I first became well known, I had a lot of baby fat and a
very round, chubby face. That roundness stayed with me until several years
ago when I changed my diet and stopped eating beef, chicken, pork, and fish,
as well as certain fattening foods. I just wanted to look better, live better, and be healthier. Gradually, as I lost weight, my face took on its
present shape and the press started accusing me of surgically altering my
appearance, beyond the nose job I freely admitted I had, like many
performers and film stars. They would take an old picture from adolescence
of high school, and compare it to a current photograph. In the old picture
my face would be round and pudgy. I'd have an Afro, and the picture would be
badly lit. The new picture would show a much older, more mature face. I've
got a different hairstyle and a different nose. Also, the photographer's
lighting is excellent in the recent photographs. It's really not fair to
make such comparisons. They have said I had bone surgery done on my face. It
seems strange to me that people would jump to that conclusion and I thought
it was very unfair.
Judy Garland and Jean Harlow and many others have had their noses done. My
problem is that as a child star people got used to seeing me look one way.
I'd like to set the record straight right now. I have never had my cheeks
altered or my eyes altered. I have not had my lips thinned, nor have I had
dermabrasion or a skin peel. All of these charges are ridiculous. If they
were true, I would say so, but they aren't. I have had my nose altered twice
and I recently added a cleft to my chin, but that is it. Period. I don't
care what anyone else says - it's my face and I know.
I'm a vegetarian now and I'm so much thinner. I've been on a strict diet for
years . I feel better than I ever have, healthier and more energetic. I
don't understand why the press is so interested in speculating about my
appearance anyway. What does my face have to do with my music or my dancing?
The other day a man asked me if I was happy. And I answered, "I don't think
I'm ever totally happy." I'm one of the hardest people to satisfy, but at
the same time, I'm aware of how much I have to be thankful for and I am
truly appreciative that I have my health and the love of my family and
friends.
I'm also easily embarrassed. The night I won eight American Music Awards, I
accepted them wearing my shades on the network broadcast. Katharine Hepburn
called me up and congratulated me, but she gave me a hard time because of
the sunglasses. "Your fans want to see your eyes," she scolded me. "You're
cheating them." The following month, February 1984, at the Grammy show,
Thriller had walked off with seven Grammy Awards and looked like it was going to win as eighth. All evening I had been going up to the podium and
collecting awards with my sunglasses on. Finally, when Thriller won for Best
Album, I went up to accept it, took off my glasses, and stared into the
camera. "Katherine Hepburn," I said, "this is for you." I knew she was
watching and she was.
You have to have some fun.
--------------------------End of Chapter 5