Michael Jackson (62 page)

‘She just isn't that good,’ Michael told one associate of Madonna. ‘Let's face it. She can't sing. She's just an okay dancer.
What does she do best? She knows how to market herself. That's about it.’

In 1989, Madonna was named ‘Artist of the Decade’ by many newspaper and magazine polls. Warner Bros., her record label, even
paid for an advertisement in one of the industry trade publications pronouncing Madonna ‘Artist of the Decade’. It was the
kind of empty compliment record labels often give their artists in paid promotions, but Michael was incensed by it just the
same. He telephoned John Branca and Frank Dileo and complained that Madonna didn't deserve such an award. ‘It makes me look
bad.
I'm
the artist of the decade. Aren't I? Did she outsell
Thriller?
’ Michael asked, his vast insecurity coming forth. ‘No, she did not,’ he said.

John who, lately, was in the business of problem-solving for Michael, suggested that he could approach MTV with the idea of
a fictional award. Off the top of his head, John came up with something he called ‘The Video Vanguard Artist of the Decade’
award. That title sure sounded impressive to Michael; he was happy, again. ‘That'll teach the heifer,’ he said, speaking of
Madonna.

And so it came to pass that at the MTV Awards in 1989, Michael was presented with the ‘Video Vanguard Artist of the Decade’
trophy. Peter Gabriel handed over the honour, certainly not the most meaningless award ever offered at such a festivity, but
sad in that it was given to a fellow who really wanted people to know he deserved it. (To this day, the Michael Jackson Video
Vanguard award is presented to artists who excel in that medium, a testament not so much to Michael's amazing videos, but
to John Branca's amazing ability to placate his client.)

It's ironic, considering Michael's obsession with Elvis Presley, that John Branca represented the Presley estate. John once
mentioned to Frank Dileo that Elvis used to give his trusted employees Cadillacs. He suggested to Frank that it was time for
Michael to start taking care of his trusted associates in that same fashion, especially considering all of the bullets John
had dodged on Michael's behalf over the years. John was only half-joking. Who wouldn't want a new car?

‘Hey, Johnny, that's a damn good idea,’ Frank said, seriously.

Later, Frank had a talk with Michael. ‘Hey, Mike, listen up. You think you're as good as Elvis?’

‘Yeah, I do. Of course I do,’ Michael answered.

‘Well, you know what? Elvis used to give his people Cadillacs,’ Frank said. ‘You're a little cheap sometimes, Mike,’ Frank
added with a grin. He nudged him, good-naturedly.

‘What do you mean cheap?’ Michael asked, defensively.

‘Well, hey, Mike, you got sort of a reputation. No big deal. Let's change the subject.’

Frank had planted the seed.

A few months later, when Michael and John Branca were in London negotiating the ATV acquisition, Michael said to him, ‘Branca,
if you get me The Beatles catalogue, I'll buy you any car you want, just like Elvis would have done.’

‘Including a Rolls-Royce?’

‘You got it,’ Michael said.

Of course, John Branca later brilliantly closed the deal… and Michael bought him that Rolls. The only problem was that he
didn't buy one for Frank Dileo. Frank was on the phone to John as soon as Michael told him he had bought him a car.

‘He got you a fucking Rolls-Royce?’ Dileo asked, bewildered. ‘I can't believe this. It was
my
fucking idea, and you ended up with the Rolls!’ The two had a good laugh. Finally, Frank got a Rolls from Michael as well.
Both guys had played Michael, no doubt about that. John deserved a vehicle, that much was clear, if only for clearing the
way for
Thriller to
be released, both the album and the video. One has to wonder about Frank Dileo though, considering the undeniable damage
he had done to Michael's image. However, in truth, he was doing exactly what Michael had asked him to do… so, yes… he probably
deserved a Rolls-Royce, too.

On 23 February 1988, Michael Jackson brought the Bad tour to the United States for the first time at the Kemper Arena in Kansas
City, Missouri. By this time, the three single releases from
Bad
– ‘I Just Can't Stop Loving You’, ‘Bad’ and ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ – had all gone to number one. Michael was in good spirits,
especially since Frank Dileo predicted that there would probably be two more number-one hits.

Before the show, the Jackson crew unloaded eight truckloads of equipment, including seven hundred lights, one hundred speakers,
a massive stage, two huge video screens, and eighty-five costumes. On the night of the concert, banks of floodlights rose
from the stage bathing the audience in blinding white light before
he
appeared, frozen still onstage in a line of dancers. Dressed in a black toreador's outfit with buckles down the trouser seams,
Michael exploded as a supernova of energy in motion to the strains of the opening number. ‘Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'’.

There were startling and grandiose effects: bullet-like, multi-coloured laser beams, smoke bombs and explosions, all of which
were effective and
loud.
There was also plenty of shtick: Michael disappearing from one side of the stage and reappearing on the other in a puff of
smoke; Michael swinging out over the audience on a boom crane during ‘Beat It’. In terms of pure stagecraft and showmanship,
it was impossible to fault Michael and his huge supporting cast, including four male dancers who took the place of Michael's
brothers.

In this show, Michael also became much more sexually suggestive. He grabbed his crotch at least five times during the opening
number. His ungloved hand hovered around his groin during most of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Bad’ and ‘Beat It’. It was an odd gesture
coming from someone like Michael, but the seventeen thousand mostly middle-class white fans seemed to love it; the audience
was on its feet for the entire slick, demanding, two-hour performance. Every time Michael moonwalked across the stage the
audience would cheer and Michael's face would light up. It was clear that he still enjoyed performing.

‘The word “superstar” became meaningless compared with the power and grace pouring from the stage,’ wrote Gregory Sandow,
who reviewed the concert for the
Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

Vocally, Michael was in terrific shape; his voice teacher, Seth Riggs, travelled with him for much of the tour. ‘He's a high
tenor with a three-and-a-half octave range,’ Riggs said. ‘He goes from basso low E up to G and A-flat above high C. A lot
of people think it's a falsetto, but it's not. It's all connected, which is remarkable. During his vocal exercises he would
put his arms up in the air and start spinning while holding a note. I asked him why he was doing that, and he said, “I may
have to do it onstage, so I want to make sure it's possible.” I'd never seen anything like that before. I thought maybe I
should stop him so he can concentrate on his voice now, and dance later. But I figured if he can do it, let him do it.’

A good third of the show consisted of material Michael and his brothers had used in Kansas City four years earlier when the
Victory tour opened, right down to some of the dialogue. This time, though, Michael performed ‘Thriller’ in his act – complete
with werewolf mask and the kind of high school jacket he wore in the video – now that he no longer considered himself a Jehovah's
Witness.

When Katherine and Joseph saw the show, they were disturbed by it. ‘He should have his brothers with him,’ Joseph said, not
letting go of that idea. ‘What the hell's the point in not having them? I don't get it. He's got a good show, but with his
brothers it's a better show.’

Katherine told Frank she thought Michael was better when he performed with his brothers. Frank laughed in her face. ‘You are
crazy,’ he told her. Imagine, telling Michael's mother that she was crazy! Of course, she was offended. ‘I am not crazy,’
she shot back. ‘The show would have been better with the brothers, and that's that.’

‘Yeah, well…’ Frank said before walking off.

Just prior to going onstage in Kansas City, Michael was handed a copy of the
Star,
a tabloid, with the cover headline, ‘Michael Jackson Goes Ape. Now He's Talking with His Pet Chimp – In Monkey Language’. The
story claimed that Michael was now obsessed with learning how to communicate with his pet monkey by making chimp sounds. ‘Did
Frank plant this?’ Michael wanted to know. ‘Where'd they get these pictures of me and Bubbles?’

Michael's aide shrugged his shoulders.

‘Well, I don't like it,’ Michael said. ‘I don't want to see this. Don't show me this kind of stuff before I go onstage. What
the hell's the matter with you?’

Like many stories published about Michael, the tale of his fixation with Bubbles – a three-and-a-half-year-old chimp who had
been released to Michael from a cancer lab in 1985 – was false. Michael enjoyed his ape, the way he enjoys all of his animals,
but even though master and ape sometimes ate together at the dinner table – good enough material for a story in and of itself,
one would think – he wasn't speaking chimp language to his pet, not that anyone knew, anyway. (Incidentally, contrary to some
reports, there has only been one Bubbles – not a series of monkeys named Bubbles. Just the one.)

Katherine had been after Frank for months to stop promoting her son as ‘Wacko-Jacko’. She later said, ‘I spoke to him about
it on numerous occasions. I knew it was not a good idea, it was backfiring. But, there was nothing I could do about it.’

Partly as a result of the bizarre image Michael had cultivated, it seemed that some of his public had begun turning against
him.
Rolling Stone's
readers voted him the worst artist in nearly every category in its yearly poll. Still, he hoped for some redemption at the
Grammy Awards on 2 March.

He decided to perform on the telecast, the first time in five years he had entertained on television. ‘Michael wanted to erase
all the negative publicity that had been trailing him and replace it with a positive image of him doing what he does best,’
said Bob Jones, vice president of communications for MJJ Productions. He wanted to prove to the world that he is serious about
entertaining, that the very essence of him is a performer, not an eccentric. He did it, too. Anyone who saw his riveting performance
that night would have to agree. He is an intensely competitive person; he wanted to leave an unforgettable impression of himself
with the academy and with his audience.

However, after truly inspiring, absorbing performances of ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ and ‘Man in the Mirror’, Michael then
had to sit in the first row of Radio City Music Hall, in full televised view of millions, and suffer one humiliating defeat
after another. Out of four nominations – Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Producer
of the Year – he had no wins. The last time Michael appeared at the Grammys, with
Thriller,
he had received more awards (eight of them) than anyone else in the history of the event. This time, he got nothing. Most
of all, he had craved the Grammy for Best Album for
Bad.
However, much to his dismay, U2 won it for
The Joshua Tree.

‘He couldn't have looked any more heartbroken if someone had walked away with his pet chimp,’ wrote Robert Hilburn, the
Los Angeles Times
pop music critic.

‘He went back to the Helmsley Palace, where he was staying, and cried,’ one friend said. ‘He and Frank had made a vow that
they would at least win Album of the Year and, of course, they didn't. He thought the whole thing was unfair. It wasn't about
the music. It was about the image. Would the Academy give Record of the Year to a guy who sleeps in an oxygen chamber? Not
likely.’

There was little time for Michael to feel sorry for himself, though. The next day he was due to give a conceit at Madison
Square Garden. After the show, he and a representative from the Pepsi-Cola Company (which had sponsored the Bad tour) presented
a $600,000 cheque, the proceeds from the concert, to the United Negro College Fund. Four years earlier, Michael had endowed
a scholarship programme at the UNCF with a portion of his earnings from the ill-fated Victory tour. By 1988, seventy students
at UNCF member schools had received Michael Jackson scholarships. (At some of the country's smaller black colleges, that could
be an entire graduating class.) Michael maintained a low profile when it came to such donations. Perhaps if his generosity
were better known, he would not have been so roundly criticized by many African-Americans for not having a so-called ‘black
consciousness’. In truth, he has given many millions of dollars to black charities over the years.

Most people who accompanied Michael on his Bad tour also recall how generous he was to children who wanted to see him perform.
At every concert stop on his Bad tour, he set aside a portion of tickets for underprivileged youngsters who otherwise would
have been unable to attend his shows. All of the royalties from his number-one single ‘Man in the Mirror’ were donated to
Camp Good Times, a charity for terminally ill patients in Los Angeles.

Though his good deeds were going unnoticed, his eccentricities were still getting the once-over by the media. While on stage
at Madison Square Garden, Michael shared a kiss with model Tatiana Thumbtzen, who appeared in his video ‘The Way You Make
Me Feel’. A week later, the photo showed up in the
National Enquirer
with the headline, ‘Michael Jackson and Model Fall Head-Over-Heels in Love’. The story said that Michael and Tatiana were
having an affair (which was not true) now that Michael's romance with makeup artist Karen Faye was over (the two were never
romantically involved).

Later, the
National Enquirer
would run with the story that Michael saw Jesus Christ materialize from a cloud of smoke while he performed onstage. That
same week,
Star
would print that Michael had fallen in love with Princess Diana and wanted her to star in his next video. When Michael demanded
to know where these stories came from, all fingers pointed at Frank Dileo. By this time, though, Frank wasn't doing anything
to promote such stories. The media was acting on its own, providing Michael with the image it felt he wanted.