I don’t categorize music. Music is music. They change the word R&B to rock ‘n’ roll. It’s always been, from Fats Domino to Little Richard, to Chuck Berry. How can we discriminate? It is what it is—it’s great music, you know.
I wasn’t involved at all.
How were you able to let go of something so big and so special?
Trust.
What was your experience on September 11?
I was in New York [after performing at Madison Square Garden on September 10] and I got a call from friends in Saudi Arabia that America was being attacked. I said no way. I turned on the news and saw the twin towers coming down and I said, “Oh my God.” I screamed down the hallway to all our people. “Everybody get out, let’s leave now. Marlon Brando was on one end, our security was on the other end, we were all up there but Elizabeth [Taylor] was at another hotel. We all got out of there as quickly as we could. We didn’t know if our building was next. We jumped in the car, but there were these girls that had been at the show the night before, and they were banging on the windows, running down the street screaming. Fans are so loyal. We hid in New Jersey. It was unbelievable—I was scared to death.
What artists past and present inspire you?
Stevie Wonder is a musical prophet. All of the early Motown. All the Beatles, I’m crazy about Sammy Davis Jr., Charlie Chaplain, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bill Bojangles Robinson. The real entertainers, the real thing, not just gimmicks. Showstoppers. When James Brown was with the Famous Flames was unbelievable. There are so many wonderful singers. Whitney Houston, Barbara Streisand, to Johnny Mathis, real stylists, you hear one line and know who it is. Nat King Cole, great stuff. Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, they are all ridiculous.
What do you do for fun, for recreation?
I like water-balloon fights. We have a water-balloon fort here, there’s the red team and the blue team. We have slings and cannons and you are drenched by the time the game is over. There is a timer and whoever gets the most points in is the winner. I don’t do anything like basketball or golf. If I’m going to do some kind of sport, if you want to call that a sport, you have to laugh. I want to laugh. Basketball you get very competitive and so is tennis, makes you angry. I’m not into that I like to laugh, have fun, laugh with it. That’s what it should be, fun, therapeutic. I love that. I also like to go to amusement parks, animals, things like that.
Is there still a fantasy that you maintain of something that you’d like to do in your career?
I’d like to see an international children’s holiday when we honor our children, because the family bond has been broken. There’s a Mother’s Day and a Father’s Day but there’s no children’s day. I really would I would mean a lot. It really would. World peace, I hope that our next generation will get to see a peaceful world, not the way it’s going now.
At what point in your life did you realize that you were different, a visionary?
I never thought about it, I just always accepted it from the heavens and said on my knees, “Thank you.” Whenever I write a song and I know that it is musically correct, there are no laws to music, but when it feels right, I get on my knees and I say, “Thank you.” I really do, I mean it. Because it drops into your lap just easy and magical with no effort.
Did singing ever stop being fun and become work?
It’s always been fun, unless I get physically sick, it’s always fun. I still love it.
What is your financial status?
I’m taken care of fine.
Michael, don’t be embarrassed, but you are an innovator who has set a standard that still stands in music. Where does Michael Jackson go from here?
Thank you, thank you. I have deep love for film, and I want to pioneer and innovate in the medium of film—to write and direct and produce movies, to bring incredible entertainment.
What kind of movies? Are you looking at scripts?
Yes, but nothing has been finalized yet.
Are you ever lonely?
Of course. If I’m on stage, I’m fine there. You can have a house full of people and still be lonely from within. I’m not complaining because I think it’s a good thing for my work.
Tell me about the inspiration for your new song “Speechless.” It’s very loving.
You’ll be surprised. I had a big water-balloon fight, I’m serious, in Germany. And what inspires me is fun. I was with these kids and we had big water-balloon fight, and I was so happy after the fight that I ran upstairs in their house and wrote “Speechless.” That’s what inspired the song. I hate to say that because it’s such a romantic song. But, it was the fight that did it. I’d had fun, I was happy, and I wrote it in its entirety right there. I felt it would be good enough for the album. Out of this bliss comes magic, comes wonderment, comes creativity. It’s about having fun, it really is.
Tell me about how you channel your creativity.
You don’t force it. Let nature take its course. I don’t sit at the piano and think, “I’m going to write the greatest song of all time.” It doesn’t happen. It has to be given to you. I believe it’s already up there before you are born and then it drops right into your lap. It really does. It’s the most spiritual thing in the world. If people could witness what it feels like… When it comes it comes with all of the accompaniments, the strings, the bass, the drums, the lyrics and you’re just the source through which it comes, the channel—really, honestly. Sometimes I feel guilty putting my name on the songs written by Michael Jackson because it’s as if the heavens have done it already, I mean it. Like Michelangelo would have this huge piece of marble from the quarries of Italy and he’d say, “Inside is a sleeping form.” And he takes hammer and chisel and he’s just freeing it. It’s already in there. It’s already there.
What do you collect?
I like anything Shirley Temple, babies, children, Shirley Temple, Shirley Temple, lots of Shirley Temple. Little Rascals, Three Stooges, a lot of Three Stooges. I love Curly, he kills me. My brothers we love Curly, we just love him. I love Curly so much that I did a book on Curly. I got his daughter and she and I wrote a book on him. Women have a hard time with all the slapping and poking and stuff, guys love that stuff. My mother loved Abbott and Costello, but we would say, “We want the Three Stooges.”
Tell me about your fashion selections.
It isn’t conscious, it happens that way.
Is there anything that you would like to say to VIBE readers?
I love Quincy. I mean, I really do. I think he is wonderful soul and a beautiful person. And I think you should tell the readers, don’t judge a person by what they hear or even what they read unless they heard from the person. There is so much tabloid, sensationalism going on that’s totally false. Don’t fall prey to it, it’s ugly. I hate the tabloids. I’d like to take them all and burn them. I want you to print it, don’t believe tabloid press, tell them that. Don’t believe tabloid press. Some of them try to disguise themselves but they are still tabloid press.
They want to know about the plastic surgery that you’ve done.
Who is they?
VIBE’s editors.
Tell VIBE, you know, that’s a stupid question. Put it just like that. You should be embarrassed to ask that. That’s why I don’t do interviews for this very reason. That’s why for years I didn’t do them for that very reason.
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