PROFILE MICHAEL JACKSON:He's sold Neverland and is auctioning off his prized possessions, but the disgraced former King of Pop has also announced UK gigs in the summer, and he's hoping to moonwalk back into public favour
DO A SEARCH for “What would Michael Jackson Look Like Now” on the net and the resulting image will shock you. Photographers have created an image of how the 50-year-old “King Of Pop” would now look if hadn’t gone under the plastic surgeon’s knife with such enthusiasm. The image is one of a good-looking middle-aged black man, happy and comfortable in his own skin.
Contrast with the pictures of Jackson as he arrived in London this week to announce his “comeback/final curtain”: he looks like a bad Salvador Dali painting; his pallid skin is severely stretched, his nose looks like it rightly belongs on a chihuahua, his cheekbones defy the laws of physics and there is a hunted look in his eyes. He looks like a very young child’s drawing of an adult.
Jackson was in London to announce a mini-residency of concerts at the capital's O2 arena. The singer has signed up with the same promoters behind Prince's hugely successful run of shows at the same venue two years ago. His 10-night stand at the 20,000 capacity venue begins on July 8th. Jackson will be using the shows to drum up a bit of publicity for a new album – his first since 2001's flop (by his standards) Invincible. He calls the shows his "final curtain" and from London he will most likely go on a protracted farewell tour of all the major cities.
It’s a surprise move in that for the past few years he has been living a life of almost benign eccentricity. He has been fearful of the spotlight due to the miasma of bad publicity that still lingers over his acquittal on child molestation charges four years ago. Suffering from bad health and having struggled with addictions to various prescription drugs, he has confined himself to brief appearances at awards shows over the last few years where he manages to warble just a verse of one of his songs before dissolving into tears and telling everyone in the world how much he loves them.
But the man who has been singing and dancing since three years of age and, Elvis aside, is possibly the most important popular music phenomenon ever, is preparing himself for most rigorous test of his career to date. He has electrified over the years with some dazzling music and displays but the legal and emotional baggage he now carries threatens to sink this project.
The small print of his contract for the 02 shows is believed to contain many conditions about his ability to perform a full-length, greatest hits concert. He had to undergo a “medical” before the contract was signed. His behaviour of late has been described as “erratic” (he was photographed out and about in Las Vegas recently dressed only in his pyjamas); there are rumours of a lung infection and complications arising from his nose surgery jobs. He is reportedly in serious debt; just last year he was forced to give up the deeds to his 2,500-acre Neverland ranch in California and he is auctioning 2,000 items from the home. These items went on public view for the first time at Newbridge Silverware, Co Kildare yesterday in an exhibition that will run for two weeks.
Already, the bookmaker William Hill is taking bets on whether Jackson will show up for his first 02 gig – offering odds of 5/1 that he won’t. A spokesman says, “once people start buying tickets, they may well want to have a bet that he won’t show up as a form of insurance.”
Some would have it that Jackson is “damaged goods”, irredeemably tarnished by the unsavoury child abuse allegations over the years and simply too much of a “freak show” now to re-ignite the fervour he once sparked when his Thriller album became the biggest selling album in the world (a record he still holds). But that is to underestimate the level of his celebrity wattage. His appeal may now depend more on a sense of voyeurism, but he still retains the commercial pulling power that means even during his 2005 trial on charges of child molestation, his albums sales increased dramatically.
When you’ve been signing autographs since the age of six, had Elizabeth Taylor as your best friend as a teenager (and as an adult) and – as a TV documentary once recorded – can blithely spend $6 million (€4.8m) in a one-hour shopping spree, your notion of “reality” is going to be a bit on the warped side. But, given what he went through, could he have possibly turned out any different? The only other entertainment figure to have reached his level of success was Elvis – and his later years were hardly of the happy-go-lucky type.
Born in Gary, Indiana in 1958, the seventh of nine children in a working-class family, he was fast-tracked by his parents into his siblings’ song and dance group, The Jacksons. It’s only been in his adult life that he has revealed the true nature of how his father behaved as a showbiz martinet – physically abusing him for getting his dance moves wrong.
The Jacksons/Jackson 5 were billed rather vulgarly as “The Black Osmonds” and enjoyed huge success. When Jackson was just seven, he was singled out by his record company as the “cute one” and a solo career was assiduously put into place for him. As he went through his teens, he grew out of The Jackson’s lightweight pop music and moved into a more soul-based, r ’n’ b sound. His first solo album of real significance, 1978’s Off The Wall, showcased some remarkable vocal stylings and saw him effortlessly glide between mid-tempo pop ballads and up-beat funk/disco tracks.
It paved the way for Thrillerin 1982 – a now-classic collection of songs that saw him doing edgier musical work. It made him the biggest star in the popular music firmament. Its sales were staggering: it was selling one million copies a week on its release – it has now sold somewhere around the 100 million mark – and seven of the album's nine tracks became top ten singles.
Due to the massive worldwide exposure he was receiving, Jackson has hinted that it was at this stage he became self-conscious over his appearance. He underwent a rhinoplasty operation, had a cleft inserted in his chin and various other procedures. At the same time he says he developed vitiligo – a pigment disorder which causes the skin to form irregular white patches. His skin is effectively now “depigmented” – hence its bleached look. Vitiligo is a distressing medical condition – hence his hurt at the jibes that he was trying to look “white”.
HIS FAME SEEMED to provoke some bizarre behaviour: it was reported he slept in an oxygen chamber to delay the ageing process; that his best friend was a pet chimpanzee called Bubbles. “Wacko Jacko” was born. Attention, though, was focusing on the amount of time he spent with young boys and his now infamous “sleepovers” at his Neverland mansion. In 1993 a 13-year-old boy, Jordy Chandler, accused the singer of child molestation. The charge was dropped when Chandler refused to testify against his “best friend”. It has been widely reported that Jackson paid Chandler’s family a substantial cash settlement. Jackson developed his first prescription drug dependency in the wake of the Chandler accusations.
Shortly after, Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley (daughter of Elvis) in a move that was cynically dismissed as a PR stunt and an attempt at rehabilitating his image. The couple divorced less than two years later. Hitting back at the cynics, Presley told reporters that the marriage had been “sexually active”. Jackson went on to marry a nurse, Debbie Rowe, with whom he had a son, Prince, and a daughter, Paris. When the couple divorced in 1999 she handed over full custody of the children to Jackson.
Jackson also has another son, known as “Blanket” (real name Prince Michael), conceived through artificial insemination (he has never revealed the mother’s identity). It was “Blanket” who he so recklessly dangled over a hotel balcony in Berlin a few years ago.
In 2002, in an act of hubris, he invited Martin Bashir to Neverland to uncover the “real” Michael Jackson for a TV documentary. The footage showed Jackson cuddling a 12-year-old boy, Gavin Arvizo, with Jackson telling Bashir that the boy slept with him in his bedroom. Whatever protestations Jackson made about “an innocent sleepover”, this was still a middle-aged man saying he slept with a 12-year-old boy.
Later, following testimony from Arvizo, Jackson was charged with seven counts of child molestation in a highly publicised trial. Jackson was acquitted of all charges. During the trial, the singer’s psychological profile was studied by a mental health professional who found that Jackson had regressed to a 10-year-old boy and was not typical paedophile material.
To his fans he is a victim, betrayed by those closest to him who have sought to cash in on their association with the singer through fanciful claims. To others he is disturbed. To all, though, he can only be one of the most supremely gifted entertainers of this or any other generation. That voice, those dance moves – he has redefined the medium of popular music as much as he has his own face.
He may still be able to hit the high notes on his songs and throw out the odd “moonwalk” dance move, but the person on the stage at the 02 this summer will not be the “cute” Jackson of early days, or the “King of Pop” from the 1980s. It will be a fearful 50-year-old going for one last close-up.
CV Michael Jackson
Name: The King Of Pop should do it
Reason he's in the news: He's preparing for one last lap of hysterical adulation
Why?Like everyone else, he's broke
Will say a lot:"I love you all. Thank you. I love you all so very much"
Watch out for:His hardcore fans. Good God – they're even odder than he is.
