Michael Jackson

With the recent death of Michael Jackson, we have lost one of the world’s greatest music stars, and a man who no-one really understood. He was given the tag, “wacko Jacko” because of his bizarre lifestyle.

Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana on the 29th August 1958, and he was the seventh of nine children. His mother Katherine was a member of the Jehovah’s Witness, and his Dad Joseph worked at the steel mills and performed in an R&B band called “The Falcons.” Jackson had 3 sisters and 5 brothers.

From the very beginning, Michael Jackson’s relationship with his father was very difficult, with Michael accusing his father of physical and mental abuse from a young age. In 2003, his father admitted that he had whipped Michael as a child. Michael had recalled one incident which left him suffering from nightmares about being kidnapped from his room, for many years. His father Joseph climbed in through the bedroom window one night wearing a scary mask and screaming. He said he did it to frighten his kids into shutting their window at night when they went to sleep.

Michael Jackson’s talent was recognized at an early age and in 1964 at the age of 6, he joined 4 of his brothers in their group known as “The Jackson 5.” They signed with Motown Records in 1968 and had No. 1 hits with “I Want You Back”, “ABC”, “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There”. In 1972, Michael Jackson released four solo studio albums and produced successful singles, “Got To Be There”, “Ben” and a remake of “Rockin’ Robin”. In 1975 the Jackson 5 moved across to CBS Records signing a 5 year deal and renamed themselves The Jacksons.

In 1978, when Michael Jackson was appearing as a scarecrow in the musical “The Wiz”, Michael broke his nose during a dance routine and had rhinoplasty, which was not successful and affected his breathing. This was the start of many surgeries.

Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson produced the very successful “Off The Wall” album, which produced 4 top 10 hits in 1979. In 1982 his second highly successful album was released. “Thriller” was a worldwide success and stayed in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for 80 weeks. One of the major hits was “Billie Jean”, along with “Beat It” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.” Michael continued to release many successful singles and in 1986 he released the album, “Bad”, and in 1987 he took his Bad World Tour around the world playing to sellout concerts. In total, he performed 123 concerts to a total of 4.4 million people. It was also around this time that Michael Jacksons’ skin began to get paler and his facial structures began to change because of surgeries. He was gaining a reputation of being very strange, so when he turned up at the 1991 Academy Awards with Madonna no-one thought anything about the King and Queen of Pop being together at the same event.

Because of all his success, Elizabeth Taylor named him the “King Of Pop”, a name which stuck to him throughout his life. However, Michael Jacksons’ life has been filled with controversy, not only because of his changing appearance, but also for child sexual abuse allegations in 1993, a bizarre marriage to Lisa Marie Presley in 1994 which lasted 2 years, and in 1996 he married his dermatologist nurse Debbie Rowe. She gave birth to two children she claimed were fathered by an anonymous donor. They divorced in 1999 with Debbie signing over full custody to Jackson. His third child was born in 2002 and the mother’s name has remained anonymous.

Child sexual abuse reared it’s ugly head again when Michael Jackson appeared in court in 2005 and was acquitted of all charges. There were rumors of financial problems in the latter years of Michael's life and in 2009 it was announced that Michael was doing a world tour and was due to perform at 50 sell-out concerts in London alone.

Sadly, Michael Jackson died of a cardiac arrest on the 25th June 2009. He was 50 years old. The “King of Pop” is dead!