Michael Jackson (21 page)

None of the Jackson brothers had ever had a private meeting with Berry Gordy. Until now, there had never been a reason for
one. It's unlikely that Berry would have consented to meet with Jackie, Marlon, Randy or Tito. None of them possessed Michael's
commercial voice or magical showmanship. And Berry felt he owed it to the teenager to hear him out. Though he liked Michael,
he considered him shy and meek, hardly the person to be blunt and forthright. Therefore, he was probably intrigued by the
notion of a private conference with him.

Michael didn't care how his father felt about his decision to meet with Berry. In fact, he didn't discuss it with him. Still
angry at Joseph for all he had done to Katherine, not to mention the abuse he had heaped upon his sons, Michael made up his
own mind. Also, Michael would say later that his intuition told him the difficult situation with Motown could have been resolved
sooner if only Joseph hadn't been so ill-tempered and possessive.

Others at the label agreed. Smokey Robinson said, in retrospect, ‘Joe never got used to Berry being the one to tell his kids
what to do. He believed that since he was their father, he was their boss, and that was the end of that. But Joe wasn't a
businessman. He kept screwing things up and pissing people off. No one wanted to do business with him, and that was a poor
reflection not only on the Jacksons but also on Berry and Motown. Without Joe's involvement, Berry would have worked things
out with the Jacksons the way he did with me, Stevie Wonder, and anyone else who was unhappy at Motown, but ultimately stayed
on.’

Nor did Michael tell his brothers of his plan to meet with Berry, since he felt certain that they would try to talk him out
of it. The Jacksons prided themselves on one vote each, even though Joseph's vote usually trumped everyone else's. Most certainly,
Michael's siblings would have felt that by meeting with Berry he was seizing more power than he was entitled to have as part
of the group.

Michael and Berry arranged to meet at the Gordy estate in Bel Air on 14 May 1975. ‘It was one of the most difficult things
I've ever done,’ Michael would recall. Mustering up his courage, he laid his cards on the table.

‘We're all unhappy, Mr Gordy,’ he said, according to his memory. ‘Do you really want us to leave Motown?’

‘Well, Michael, someone as smart as you,’ Berry began, ‘should know that without Motown, The Jackson 5 would still be in Gary,
Indiana, today.’

Michael wasn't cowed by the fact that Berry had apparently decided to play the guilt card. ‘That doesn't answer my question,’
he told him.

Michael would later recall that he complained to Berry about the fact that Motown would not allow the brothers to write or
produce their own music or control publishing rights. He was unhappy because he hadn't been allowed to contribute to The Jackson
5's most recent album,
Dancing Machine,
despite the fact that he thought he had some strong songs he could have added to the package. If he could have had just one
song on the album, Michael said, it would have shown that Gordy had confidence in him as a songwriter.

Berry remained calm. ‘I've been hearing this from my artists for years,’ he said. ‘However, we can work it out, Michael. Look,
I worked it out with Stevie [Wonder], and Marvin [Gaye], didn't I?’ He was clear. He said he did not want the group to leave
Motown. However, he added, ‘If you think you can get a better deal somewhere else, then you have to go somewhere else, I guess.
But it just won't be right… or fair.’

In Michael's eyes, Berry Gordy was a hero. He respected him and admired the tenacity with which he had transformed The Jackson
5 of Gary, Indiana, from local homeboys to international superstars. He thought of Berry as one of the smartest men he had
ever known, and was amazed by the way he had made Motown such an international success story. Berry was an inspiration to
Michael. To hear him now say that the Jackson family was being unfair to him – after he had brought the group to Los Angeles,
made arrangements for their living conditions, paid for their educations, and made them stars – was difficult for Michael.

‘What makes you think you can write or produce your own hit?’ Berry asked Michael.

‘I just know it,’ was Michael's quick answer.

Berry looked at him sceptically. ‘I don't know that that's good enough.’

‘Well, what made
you
think you could build Motown into what it is today?’

Berry didn't answer.

‘You just
knew
it, right?’ Michael challenged.

Berry flashed a tolerant grin. ‘He nodded at me as if to say, “You're going places, kid,”’ Michael recalled. It ended with
Berry emphasizing that he thought of himself as a father-figure to Michael, yet also stressing that it was important for the
teenager to honour his natural father. ‘He said he believed I would do what was best,’ Michael told me later, when remembering
the meeting. Michael added that he ‘felt a little sick about the whole thing’, especially when Berry hugged him as he was
leaving because, in his gut, he knew that no matter what he expressed to Joseph and the brothers about it, the cards were
stacked against the Jacksons staying with Motown.

‘I can promise you this,’ Berry concluded, ‘I won't do anything to hurt you or your family.’

Michael's meeting with Berry Gordy showed surprising initiative, as well as no small measure of courage for a teenager. It
was the first hint to many at the time that he was more than just a child prodigy. He had moxie. He seemed to understand what
his father didn't: that there are times when it makes sense to sit down with your opponent and try to reason with him. In
his own uncomplicated way, Michael was able to cut through some of the rhetoric that had lately been so prevalent in the communication
between Berry and the Jackson family. He was able to extract from Berry a promise that he would not do anything to hurt the
family, which was quite a statement for him to make, and seemed genuine.

Joseph had heard from an associate at Motown that Michael had seen Berry in private. Imagine his fury. When Michael got back
to Encino, he was pacing in the living room like a caged animal waiting for dinner. Michael would not discuss with me the
details of the argument that ensued between him and his father, but it isn't difficult to imagine that Joseph made it clear
that, in his view, Michael was out of his league in trying to negotiate with someone like Berry Gordy. Once he calmed down,
he had to admire his son's nerve, though. At least, one would hope so. The brothers, however, were annoyed.

‘Michael had no right to meet with Berry Gordy,’ Jackie said, years later. ‘It was unfair of him to go behind our backs. We
were all mad at him. And really, what did he accomplish?’

Perhaps Michael didn't accomplish much in terms of The Jackson 5's future at Motown, but his meeting with Berry was an important
personal milestone. He had obtained Berry's attention, which was something even his father, as well as his brothers (with
the exception of Jermaine), had not been able to do. However, it did set him apart from the brothers and, from this time onward,
none of the brothers would be warm to any suggestion that Michael be further individualized from the group. ‘Michael always
had his own idea of how things should be done,’ Marlon Jackson once said. ‘But The Jackson 5 was a group, not his special
project, and his was just one vote.’ In other words, Marlon saw the writing on the wall.

The night after Michael's meeting with Berry, Joseph called a group meeting in the living room of their Encino home. All of
the brothers were expected to appear, except for Randy and Jermaine. Young Randy had no say in any group matters, at this
time. Jermaine was on holiday with Hazel, but he probably would have been excluded, anyway, since the family felt he had lost
his objectivity about Motown. Jermaine later said, ‘Because of me being married to Hazel, they thought they couldn't trust
me so they kept me in the dark.’

Jackie, Tito, Marlon, Michael and Joseph voted unanimously to leave Motown. Michael was ambivalent, but he knew it wasn't
smart to be the one dissenting vote. What good would it do him, anyway?

‘I just want it to be done fairly, and something about this doesn't seem fair to me,’ Michael said. ‘Berry made us stars.
Don't forget that.’

‘Look, Berry's fine, but it's over,’ one of the brothers said. ‘It's time for us to be making the big bucks.’

‘I agree,’ said another one. ‘It's time to go. We're dying at Motown.’

‘He said he wouldn't hurt us,’ Michael said, trying to stick up for Berry.

‘Yeah, right,’ Joseph said, sarcastically. ‘Look, it's settled,’ he concluded.

‘But what about Jermaine?’ Michael wanted to know.

‘I'll take care of Jermaine,’ Joseph said. ‘What do I always tell you kids?’

‘There are winners in this life, and losers,’ Michael said, parroting his father's credo. ‘And none of my kids are ever gonna
be losers.’

Joseph smiled. ‘If we stay at Motown,’ he concluded, ‘we lose. And we're not losing.’

After the die was cast, Joseph Jackson and his attorney, Richard Arons, quietly began scouting for a new record deal, meeting
first with Atlantic Records, which had a long experience with rhythm-and-blues music. Surprisingly, Atlantic's chairman, Ahmet
Ertegun, was unenthusiastic about The Jackson 5, he said, because of their inconsistent record sales at Motown in recent years.
Joseph was not interested in trying to convince anyone of his sons' popularity. He'd had enough of that at Motown. If anything
Ahmet's view helped to underscore Joseph's opinion that Motown truly had damaged his sons' reputation in the music industry.

Joseph was more interested in the CBS Records Group anyway, at which most of the black acts were contracted to the Epic subsidiary.
CBS was renowned for its excellent record distribution and promotion network. ‘They make Motown look sick,’ is how Joseph
put it.

Ron Alexenberg, president of Epic, and, ironically enough, a former protégé of Motown's Ewart Abner, was interested in signing
The Jackson 5. Joseph respected Alexenberg – under his guidance, Epic had increased its annual billing from less than $10 million
to over $100 million. A competitive leader with his finger on the pulse of the record industry, he suspected that Berry Gordy
had tapped only a small percentage of the Jacksons' fullest potential. He wanted to find out what else was there.

Joseph was also attracted by the company's profitable relationship with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, producers of the so-called
Philly Sound that had generated millions with hit records by black groups like The O'Jays and Three Degrees. Gamble and Huff
had their own label at CBS, which they called Philadelphia International. Though Joseph felt that Philadelphia International
was too small a subsidiary for The Jackson 5, he admired CBS's commitment to black music. Perhaps the company would one day
award him his own label, as well, he thought. He saw a future at CBS, not just for his sons but for himself.

Ron Alexenburg told Walter Yetnikoff, president of CBS Records, that he wanted to sign The Jackson 5 immediately. Walter was
sceptical. ‘They haven't been hot in a long time,’ he said. ‘And now look at them. They're into this kitschy, Vegas thing.’

‘Trust me,’ Ron told him, according to his memory. ‘This group isn't finished. It hasn't even begun yet.’

After quick and easy negotiations, an agreement was struck, one that Joseph called ‘a sweet deal’. The Jackson 5 would receive
an advance – known in the record industry as a ‘signing bonus’ – of $750,000. They would also receive an additional $500,000 from
a ‘recording fund’ – money meant specifically to produce the group's albums. They were guaranteed to be paid $350,000 per album,
far more than they had ever received at Motown (but many millions less than Michael Jackson would be paid for his services
a scant five years down the road).

All of the advance money from CBS was to be recouped from royalties, but the royalty rate the new label offered was 27 per
cent of the wholesale price for records released in the United States. At Motown The Jackson 5 had been paid 2.7 per cent,
and before they saw that they knew they would have to pay back the costs of expenses – including studio time, over which they
had little to no control – from royalties.

At this time, 1975, an album retailed for approximately $6.98, $3.50 wholesale. So at Epic the Jacksons would make approximately
94.5 cents per album sold in the United States, and 84 cents abroad. At Motown, they made roughly 11 cents per album sold
in the United States, with no difference in the European rate.

As outlined in the Epic deal, after each Jackson 5 album topped $500,000 in sales, the group's royalty rate would jump to
30 per cent, about $1.05 a disc. In terms of income, this new deal was worth about
five hundred times
more than the one the group had at Motown.

A snag in negotiations occurred when Walter Yetnikoff refused to allow the Jacksons to write and produce, or even choose,
all of their own material. He simply did not have confidence in their abilities as writers or producers since none of them
had any experience in that arena. Ron Alexenberg assured Walter that ‘demos’ – roughly recorded samples – of songs penned and
produced by the Jacksons, which Joseph had submitted, showed great promise. Still, Walter was not swayed. Therefore, the best
Joseph could negotiate was that his sons would be able to choose at least three songs on each album, written by them or someone
else. Also, there was an understanding that if the group came up with three good songs of their own, those tunes would receive
fair consideration for use on an album. This, too, was more than they had ever gotten at Motown. However, the concession was
not to be in the contract. It was verbal, and anyone knows that in the world of business a verbal agreement is tough to enforce.
Still, at least there was some dialogue about the notion of the group having artistic freedom. Joseph was confident that his
boys would only have to prove themselves one time… and after that they'd never look back.