The Michael Jackson Tapes (19 page)

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Authors: Shmuley Boteach

BOOK: The Michael Jackson Tapes
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I had learned this from Michael. We were once in his hotel room and Britney popped up on TV doing an interview. Michael commented to me that she was everywhere and it was going to hurt her career. “I would never do what she's doing. In a few years no one will want to hear her anymore. She knows nothing about mystery.'” And this was years before her crotch-displaying antics.
SB: So there are two things I want to ask you. Talk to me about mystery and what it means to you and how did you get the discipline to hold back when you know that every TV show wants you? I mean, gosh, we're being pounded by every single show in America right now to get an interview with you. How do you, where does that discipline come from? Especially Michael, this is important to comment on, because people, your detractors will criticize you and say, “Michael's a child, he behaves like a child” when really the only definition of maturity that everyone agrees on, is that maturity involves a capacity for delayed gratification. When other people act impetuously, and you can be patient and wait for things in their proper time, that's considered the essence of maturity and self-control.
MJ: Thank you.
SB: And your career is built on that and I'm not just saying that to flatter you. It's true, I'm amazed at it. So talk to me about mystery. How do you know this, where did it come to you, the power of that which is concealed?
MJ: Wow, you're so observant. It's amazing how you notice details. Um, I studied. . . I love psychology, I love magic, I love. . . I love real beauty. I love real talent. I love when something's miraculous, when something's so beautiful you shouldn't get it. What I love about Halley's Comet, and I always say this to my lawyer, Halley's Comet is no more of a miracle than the moon or the sun. But we make a big deal about it because you see it once in a lifetime and everybody's out there to see it. You know astronomers and fans and people and it's
this thing that circles around the solar system but you see it once in a lifetime. If it happened every night nobody would care, but to me the moon is just as miraculous. I always talk about deer and dogs and cats. A lot of people go, “There's a deer! There's a. . . ” 'cause they're shy, they're always hidden. It's a big deal to see a deer, I mean, and I appreciate that, how people should appreciate real ability and I always say I don't care if you're the most talented person in the world, if you come on the television everyday people will regurgitate you. You have to know how to play your audience. You have to know that and it's true, Shmuley. And it's not just a game. But it's real for me, it's real for me. It really is.
SB: How do you know that? For example, I had to be taught this. I write about this a lot in my books but I began to develop a lot of my ideas on it from insights from other writers, thinkers, philosophers, etcetera.
MJ: [If you remain mysterious, people will be] more interested, yeah. SB: Look if a woman is always taking off her top, no one's going to want to see her breasts.
MJ: That's right.
SB: But if she does it once in a while, that's what makes it so exciting. That's what makes it erotic.
MJ: That's right.
SB: But when it's, everyday. . .
MJ: That's right.
SB: Like you go to the African tribes and women walk topless, it's nothing.
MJ: Nothing, nothing. Leave something to the imagination. I believe in that and people are all. . .
SB: Did someone teach you that?
MJ: No. No, it just, looking at. . . learning from nature and learning you know, just watching and studying, being a serious observer. And umm, you can say to somebody, you can go, “There's six doors, you can open any of those doors. But the fifth door, don't open it. Don't open the fifth door, no matter what.” Of course everyone is going, “What's behind door number five?” because it's the great mystery. And that's, everyone wants to expose door number
five because you know. . . And I love that and it's not like a game but I want people to appreciate talent and ability. I only do an album every five years. Other artists do an album every year and my albums outlast and outsell all the other artists. And people wait for it. There's like, you know, a whole pulse going on about this album. [Michael was working on completing
Invincible
at the time.] Its like a fever, they're waiting, they're waiting. It's important to wait.
SB: So what is it about the hidden which makes it outlast the revealed? What is it about holding something back that people want it suddenly?
MJ: I just, I love, I do love the power of mystery, I really do. I think it's very powerful.
SB: Is it spiritual? What is it?
MJ: It's spiritual, it's, it's people conjure up all these ideas, people create it themselves. They conjure up all these ideas in their head about what's going on. I mean they used to say, you know, Howard Hughes is up there and he owns the hotel but he stays on that floor, he doesn't come down. He's in the dark, he's in the corner in the bed with long nails and hair down to here and he's hooked to an IV. So the brain would just go crazy conjuring up all kinds of crazy stories, and I love that. I love Howard Hughes 'cause he played this big thing. I mean, to me he's like one of my masters. But, I don't know, this is the first time I've ever said this Shmuley, I love Howard, he's a genius.
SB: Because what? Because he knew the power of mystery?
MJ: How to play people, yeah. He knew how to make the public interested. P. T. Barnum was pretty good at it himself.
SB: Is it a matter of just withdrawing? Is it that simple? For example, this book came along called
The Rules,
and I debated the people who wrote it twice. And they said the way you get a guy to marry you is by playing hard to get. He calls you up and you say, “Sorry, I'd love to go out to dinner but I'm too busy.” He leaves messages on your answering machine and you never return his phone calls. You hear of the book? It's a very controversial book. Is it that simple?
I am actually a critic of
The Rules,
believing that manipulation is the worst approach to relationships and that there is a far better alternative, namely, for a woman to indulge her natural feminine mystique.
MJ: I don't, I don't totally agree. It depends on the individual.
SB: But with you, when you say it's become about playing the public, is it as simple as withdrawal and they want more? And more ways how to reveal yourself?
MJ: It's rhythm and timing. You have to know what you're doing. Like you never see me on award shows saying, “The nominees are . . .” And I get asked to do every show. Now they don't even ask. They know I don't do it. Or to host the show or to come out and say like, “Coming up next, Michael Jackson to present the record of the year.” You never see me coming out and doing the nominees. I don't do it. They know not to even ask me. It's not what I do.
SB: You will never do something which makes you be the means to another end. You're either the end or you're not. It's either about you or you're not going to be the road.
MJ: Yeah, and I'm not trying to say that I'm holy or God or. . . SB: But you're not going to belittle yourself either.
MJ: I'm not going to, I want. . . you know? People should respect, you know? Ability and talent, and it's all for the sake of goodness, really 'cause my message is for goodness.
SB: I agree with you.
MJ: But really. I'm just trying to conserve and preserve. . .
SB: This, by the way, is a whole book unto itself, how you have learned the power of the hidden, of the mysterious. Look out there in New York. Right now as we speak there are hundreds of thousands of woman who want to get married and guys won't commit to them. And do you know one of the main reasons is because they'll have sex with them anyway.
Years later I authored a book called
The Kosher Sutra,
which outlined all the erotic principles of attraction, with mystery, forbiddenness, and sinfulness being at the forefront. The book became a best-seller.
MJ: Uh huh.
SB: Why would you marry her if you could have her without the commitment? If you wanted to borrow ten million dollars from the bank manager, and he says, “Here Michael, here's ten million dollars,” would you then say, “Oh, by the way, you forgot to ask me for collateral. Here it is”? You wouldn't volunteer it. So, you understand what I'm saying? And they might never get married and these women come in their hundreds to me, crying, writing about how lonely they are. They don't know the power of mystery. They go to bed on the first date; they don't know how to hold back. He never has to win them over. And by the way, that's what happened to Madonna. Madonna overexposed herself. She's still a celebrity but she's not what she was.
MJ: Yeah, I know.
SB: She didn't even overexpose herself, Michael, through TV and music. It wasn't that she gave too many interviews. Rather, she overexposed her body. She was a sex symbol. People wanted to know what her body looked like, and she did that stupid, sleazy, disgusting book, and all you had to do was buy the book. The mystery was permanently gone.
MJ: I know, I know. Exactly right.
SB: There are few people today who understand the power of mystery. You understand it because there is an intuitive spirituality to your nature that is a real gift. Because this understanding of mystery, and your understanding of the power of timing, helps us understand the holy. God only reveals very sporadically and at very choice moments. Mystery and timing are central to revelation. MJ: I love that. That's one of my favorite things to think about too. SB: How hidden God is.
MJ: How hidden.
SB: You've got to find him.
MJ: You see all his miracles through him but you don't see his face, himself, you know? You see through the children.
SB: Which makes you more interested in him?
MJ: Yeah.
SB: You want to find him?
MJ: Makes you want to seek him out and find him. Absolutely. I love that. And some people just throw up their hands and go, “What is this all about, this whole universe and where is he? I want to talk to him and what is it?” You know I love that. He's the ultimate. He is. He's the man.
SB: So this is how we stop people from being bored. First of all one more thing before we move on to boredom. So you instinctively knew timing, mystery? You just knew?
MJ: Yeah, it's true, Shmuley.
SB: It's not like a manager pulled you aside and said, “Michael. You can be a big star. Don't overdo it”?
MJ: No. No way.
SB: Did your brothers not understand it?
MJ: No, they don't understand it. They would jump on anything, any second. If anybody said, “I want to interview you tomorrow about Michael's new style of dress, “Sure.” 'Cause they just want to be on TV, to be on TV. I think people appreciate you much more when you, you know conserve, just hold. . . you know.
SB: Hold back?
MJ: Hold back and build yourself and give yourself a certain kind of class and make them reach out for you and just. . . I love gates, gates to a house. I love huge big pillars and gates. You don't know what's back there beyond the road. You just see these. . . You know, you go, “God who lives in there?” I love that. You know, you never see them but you see the gates and I love that.
SB: But the gates to Neverland are so simple?
MJ: So simple, that's how I wanted them. Because I don't want the gate to represent, you know, it's an act of almost psychology. I was gonna make them so, kind of, almost. . . what's the word? Umm, I can't think of the word I'm looking for. I was gonna have people swing them open and really kind of have them funky and tattered, just so psychologically you really feel like you're coming to a ranch, so that when you go around the bend I want it to change to Technicolor, like the Wizard of Oz does in black and white. SB: That's exactly what happened with us. First thing we said when we got to Neverland was, ‘This can't be his ranch, what are those
simple doors?' Then you drive through and you see the sign, “Welcome to Neverland” and then, kaboom.
MJ: Yeah.
SB: It just hits you.
MJ: That, see, that's important to understand in show business. If you open with too much of a bang, where do you go from there? You crescendo too big, you have nowhere to go. You can't do that. That's why I always say, in amusement parks, the guy who creates the roller coaster, the dips, you're going up at first, way up and you go, “Oh my God, why did I do this?” Then it takes you straight down and it takes you up a little bit, then down, and he's the real showman, the guy who creates the dips. You know the peaks and the valleys, then he takes you straight real fast and up and upside down. He's a showman. That guy's a real showman because he understands syncopation and rhythm and structure and that's important. That's real important as an artist of show business and most of your artists today know nothing about it.
SB: They all overexpose themselves.
MJ: At all. At all.
SB: Is that your professional greatest blessing, that you were born with that rhythm? You just had that natural timing and you understood it?
MJ: Yeah, yeah. I think
SB: Is it part of your love for God and his hiddeness and all that, that it's all one, that you sort of tapped into that divine mystery and you know the power of mystery?
MJ: Yeah, I think, yeah, like you say, it's just something. . . like the way you speak. That's the power of God in you Shmuley. You do, I've never heard anybody speak like you, it's amazing. It's like God is working right through you. I mean it's like that, when I'm on stage it's the same way. I don't think about what I'm gonna do, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
SB: You just get into the zone, the timing.
MJ: You get into it, man. You become one with what God gave you. It's like talking, it's spiritual. It's between you and God and the audience is right there with you. How do you describe it, I mean, how
do you dissect it, how do you analyze it? You really can't. People say how do you do it? “Well I work out and I train.” Well, you don't.

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