3
1 Jackson donated the $1.5 million to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California where he received treatment for his burns. The Center was subsequently renamed the Michael Jackson Burn Center.
2 Australian billionaire, Robert Holmes à Court owned the catalogue.
3 ‘We Are The World’ sold over 20 million copies worldwide and made over $10 million for the USA for Africa charity.
4 Directed by Oscar winner Francis Ford Coppola, this film was, at the time, the most expensive film ever produced on a per-minute basis. The 17-minute film cost $30 million, which averaged out at $1.76 million per minute.
5 Part of the publicity for this film included Jackson deciding to be photographed inside a hyperbaric chamber under the premise that he sleeps there every night in order to extend his life to 150 years. The fictional story made headlines around the world, which created ideal publicity for his upcoming sci-film.
6 Michael was credited as co-producer.
7 Michael wanted to release a three-disc album.
8 There was an additional ‘bonus track’ on the CD and digital download editions, ‘Leave Me Alone’, composed by Jackson.
9 The two tracks he had no part in composing were ‘Just Good Friends’, written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, and ‘Man In The Mirror’, composed by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett.
10 It entered the chart at Number 1.
11 The five singles were ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’, ‘Bad’, ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, ‘Man In The Mirror’ and ‘Dirty Diana’. By contrast, ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ was the only single that reached Number 1 in the UK.
12 The Los Angeles Times review called Bad ‘… a respectable successor to Thriller’, while Rolling Stone magazine stated, ‘Comparisons with Thriller are unimportant, except this one: even without a milestone recording like ‘Billie Jean’, Bad is a better record.’
13 Lisa D. Campbell, Michael Jackson: The King of Pop (Branden Publishing, 1993).
14 Bad won the Grammy for Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical.
15 The tour was sponsored by Pepsi and began in Tokyo at the Korakuen Stadium on 12 September 1987 and ended on 27 January 1989 at the Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles. In between there were 127 concerts across 15 countries and the tour was seen by almost 4.5 million fans.
16 Named after the fantasy island in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.
17 Sycamore Ranch had been on the market for $35 million.
18 Neverland would also cost Jackson a reported $4 million annually in operating costs.
19 According to Diane Dimond’s book, Be Careful Who You Love (Atria Books, 2005), Jordan Chandler had already met Michael Jackson. Once they met by chance at the Golden Temple Restaurant in Los Angeles when Jordan was five years old, and following Jackson’s accident filming the Pepsi commercial, Jordan wrote Michael a ‘Get Well’ note and sent it to the hospital with a picture and his phone number. Michael apparently called Jordan that same day to thank him.
20 Dangerous entered the UK album charts at Number 1 and also peaked in seven other territories. It eventually sold over 35 million copies worldwide.
21 In the UK, seven singles from the album broke into the Top 10 which equalled Jackson’s record set previously by Bad. This record was broken by Calvin Harris in 2013 who had eight Top 10 singles from his album 18 Months.
22 In her book, Be Careful Who You Love, Diane Dimond states that Jackson had been phoning Chandler regularly throughout the tour, calling him for two or three hours at a time from wherever in the world his tour schedule had taken him.
23 Released in 1973, The Exorcist was directed by William Friedkin and was named the scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
24 Studies of sexual offenders have found that deliberate tactics are often used to select victims and engage them in sexual abuse. One such tactic is to charm, to be likeable, to radiate sincerity and truthfulness. This is all crucial in gaining access to children. Some offenders will attempt to establish peer relationships with people much younger than themselves, as they prefer the company of children to adults, rather than looking for age-appropriate relationships. They will also attempt to establish a trusting relationship by spending time with children and listening to them. They give the child presents and compliments, and use these gifts and trickery to manipulate the child and silence them into keeping any assault a secret. Was this a pattern that Jackson was following in his relationship with Jordan Chandler?
25 Jordan Chandler’s father, Evan, kept a diary that noted this chronology. His 29 March entry reads: ‘That night Michael and Jordie watched The Exorcist and Jordie got scared. Michael asked Jordie if he wanted to stay with him so he wouldn’t feel frightened. Jordie said yes and they slept together. This was the first time Jordie slept in the same bed with Michael. There was no sexual contact.’ The following day’s entry, 30 March, reads ‘When June woke up she went into Jordie’s room and noticed his bed was made. When she asked Jordie where he had slept last night, he told her he slept in bed with Michael. June was upset and told Jordie not to do it again.’ – Be Careful Who You Love by Diane Dimond.
26 The LAPD claimed to have found a youngster who had stated Jackson had molested him/her. The sex of this child wasn’t revealed, but there doesn’t ever seem to have been any allegations against Jackson made by girls and there are no photographs of Jackson with young girls. He is only ever photographed with young boys.
27 Actress Carrie Fisher was amongst his patients and in her book Shockaholic, she claims that he was known as the ‘dentist to the stars’.
28 Jackson’s team suggested a counter offer of $1.05 million, which consisted of a proposed deal for the Fox Network to ‘buy’ three screenplays written by Evan Chandler for $350,000 over a three-year period. Chandler rejected this, and also a second offer, which had reduced to just $350,000 – Be Careful Who You Love by Diane Dimond.
29 J.Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1991)
30 At a personal cost to him of $10 million.
31 Upon entry into the UK, 18 vials of medicine were found in Jackson’s suitcase.
32 Neverland had already been subjected to a police search in August 1993, and publicity surrounding the search became major news, sparking headlines around the world.
33 This involved examining, photographing and videotaping his entire body when naked, including his genitalia and buttocks. Authorities wanted to use this photographic evidence to compare them with the descriptions his accuser, Jordan Chandler, had previously given to the police in order to prove or disprove the alleged child molestation by Jackson. Initial media reports citing law enforcement agencies suggested that Chandler’s description of Jackson’s genitalia did not match the photographic evidence, although later a story emerged following an interview given to Vanity Fair by District Attorney Thomas Sneddon, that the photos did match Chandler’s description, which, actually, appeared to be no more than an educated guess.
34 Jim Newton, ‘Jackson’s Sister Says She Believes he is a Molester’, Los Angeles Times, 9 December 1993.
35 J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2003).
36 J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2003).
37 Evan Chandler committed suicide on 5 November 2009. He was found dead in his New Jersey apartment after shooting himself in the head. There was no suicide note. He was 65 years old. His son, Jordan Chandler, now lives under an assumed name in Long Island, New York.
38 Lynton Guest, The Trials of Michael Jackson (Aureus Publishing, 2006).
39 J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2003).
40 J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2003).
41 J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2003).
42 J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2003).
43 Others had advised Michael that John Branca’s influence in his affairs had grown too large and they remained apart for three years, but Branca was to be rehired, fired and rehired again by Jackson at a various stages throughout his career.
44 The first disc was a compilation of greatest hits while the second disc was entirely new material or cover versions.
45 The debut single from the album, ‘Scream/Childhood’ entered the Billboard Hot 100 at Number 5 but failed to go any higher. After ‘You Are Not Alone’ topped the Billboard Hot 100, the other singles released fared poorly. ‘Earth Song’ didn’t even chart on the Hot 100, ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ stalled at Number 30 and ‘Stranger In Moscow’ could only reach Number 91 in the US Billboard Hot 100.
46 Interestingly, the only concerts of the tour to be in the USA were two concerts held in Hawaii, and the whole tour began with a free concert in Brunei in celebration of the fiftieth birthday of the Sultan of Brunei.
47 Jackson collapsed while rehearsing for an HBO special, which they hoped would be watched by 250 million people worldwide. He collapsed at the Beacon Theater at 5pm and was rushed to Beth Israel Medical Center North on New York’s Upper East Side. He was given oxygen and was said to be suffering from low blood pressure. It later emerged he was suffering from a viral infection that brought on an irregular heartbeat.
48 The Associated Press, 19 January 1996.
49 Randall Sullivan, Untouchable: The Strange Life & Tragic Death of Michael Jackson (Grove/Atlantic, 2012).
50 J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2003).
51 J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2003).
52 Apparently, on their wedding night, Michael did not sleep with Debbie, but stayed in another room at the Sheraton on the Park Hotel in Sydney with an ‘assistant’, in order to get some rest.
53 Debbie Rowe would receive a reported $8 million divorce settlement in exchange for giving Jackson full custody rights of the two children. This consisted of $6 million plus ownership of the couple’s Beverly Hills mansion.
54 In documents filed in a California court in 2005 for a custody hearing, Debbie Rowe claimed she was artificially inseminated by an anonymous sperm donor before giving birth to both children.
55 The ‘Dunkirk Clause’ enabled artists to gain ownership of the mechanical copyright of their recordings when their contract expired. This was significantly different from the 1960s, when artist deals gave recording companies the mechanical copyright for eternity.
56 J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2003).
57 J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2003).
58 ‘Speechless’ was only released in Korea, ‘You Rock My World’ reached Number 10 in the US Billboard Hot 100 and Number 2 in the UK, ‘Cry’ was not released in the USA and only reached the Top 10 in Spain, and ‘Butterflies’ was only released in the USA where it peaked at Number 14.
59 The only songs he performed by himself were ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Rock My World’ on the first night and ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ and ‘Billie Jean’ on the second night.
60 $150,000 per minute on stage.
61 Jennifer Vineyard, ‘Michael Jackson Shocks Al Sharpton By Calling Tommy Mottola A Racist’, MTV News, 7 August 2002.
62 Jackson later produced a documentary special for Fox, which used the footage his own camera crew had shot during the making of Bashir’s film. The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant To See used identical footage shot by Bashir, except Jackson’s own crew shot it. When shown together, it illustrated how the editing of Bashir’s film manipulated the footage to create a very different picture of Jackson for the audience. Jackson was paid $5 million for this footage.
63 The Daily Telegraph, ‘Former Manager Unveils Scale of Michael Jackson’s Drug Use’, 1 July 2009.
64 The child in question was Gavin Arvizo, and amongst the charges laid against Jackson were false imprisonment and administering an intoxicating agent to a minor.
65 During the trial, Jackson’s defence team sought to portray both Gavin Arvizo and his family as ‘dishonest gold diggers’ (BBC News, 13 June 2005). As the trial progressed, Jackson’s defence lawyers were able to damage Gavin Arvizo’s credibility by revealing that he had taken acting lessons ahead of a previous lawsuit against the US retailer, JC Penney. They discovered that, in separate interviews with a social worker and a teacher, Gavin had denied being molested by Jackson. Gavin’s mother, Janet, was one of the most explosive witnesses who drew laughter from the courtroom and the defence said she had concealed sources of income while receiving welfare cheques. (Matthew Davis, BBC News: The Arvizo Family, 13 June 2005.) In August 2005, Los Angeles County prosecutors filed fraud and perjury charges against Janet Arvizo for fraudulently receiving more than $18,000 in government benefits. (Los Angeles Times, 24 August 2005.)
66 While Michael Jackson was on trial, the Bank of America, an established US institution, grew nervous as Jackson was in debt to them for a considerable amount of money. They held security in the form of Jackson’s shares in Sony/ATV and Mijac (Jackson’s catalogue), but knew that once the child molestation charges had been laid to rest, anything could happen. They needed to offload the Jackson debt as soon as possible, while ensuring they managed to keep their whole relationship with Jackson off the radar. So, secretly, the Bank of America sold Jackson’s mortgage to a New York investment group called Fortress, a company specialising in high-risk debts. All Sony had to do now, having been in talks with Fortress for some time, was to wait for Jackson to default on the loan, as Sony were entitled to first refusal on the Sony/ATV shares should Jackson be forced into selling any or all of them. Biding their time, it wasn’t until 2005 that Sony was able to take another 25 per cent of the catalogue off Jackson, leaving them in complete control of it.
67 Michael’s brother, Jermaine, had formed a close friendship with Sheikh Abdullah in 2001 following his conversion to Islam in Saudi Arabia.
68 Ryan Kisiel, ‘Michael Jackson Failed To Keep £4.6 Million Music Deal’ The Daily Mail, 18 November 2008.
69 In an interview with The Daily Telegraph in 2011, Jermaine Jackson stated that a private jet, financed by a friend, was on standby to whisk the King of Pop to Bahrain if Michael had been convicted at the end of the 2005 trial. Bahrain does not have an extradition treaty with the USA.
70 William Lee Adams, ‘Michael Jackson Settles Out of Court with Sheik’ Time, 24 November 2008.
71 Ugandan born Grace Rwaramba began working for Michael Jackson in 1991 as his secretary before working as a nanny once the children arrived.
72 Al Arabiya News, ‘Bahraini Prince Sues Michael Jackson in UK’, 17 November 2008.
73 Billboard, ‘Michael Jackson Sued Over Album Advance’, 17 November 2008.
74 Jackson was also paying $4.5 million per month on interest payments to service this debt.
75 Jeff Leeds and Andrew Ross Sorkin, Michael Jackson Bailout Said To Be Close’, The New York Times, 13 April 2006.
76 The Guardian, ‘Michael Jackson Sued by King of Bahrain’s Son’, 17 November 2008.
77 By the time Michael returned to Las Vegas in 2006, the rest of the Jackson family was suffering their own financial hardships. The millions they had made from the ‘Victory’ tour had evaporated: Marlon was stacking shelves, Randy fixed cars at a garage and Jackie was managing his son to make ends meet. Jermaine had charges on file against him totalling $5 million and Tito was playing in a band, which charged $1,000 per performance. Even Joe and Katherine had been declared insolvent.
78 Anyone who came to the house had to sign confidentiality agreements that carried a $10 million penalty for disclosing any details about Jackson.
79 Randall Sullivan, ‘The Billion Dollar Shopping Spree That Killed Michael Jackson’, Daily Mail, 17 November 2012.
80 Untouchable: The Strange Life & Tragic Death of Michael Jackson by Randall Sullivan (Grove/Atlantic, 2012).
81 The contract Jackson had signed with Sheikh Abdullah gave the Sheikh rights to all future or live-recording performances Jackson might undertake. In effect, the career of Jackson was frozen until this lawsuit was settled. Jackson and Sheikh Abdullah reached an undisclosed out of court settlement in November 2008.
82 Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard, with Tanner Colby, Remember The Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days (Scribe Publications, 2014).
83 Jackson would cover up all of the nude pictures within the suite, as he didn’t want his children looking at them.
84 Thriller 25 would include guest artists such as will.i.am, Kanye West, Akon and Fergie.
85 Dr Tohme Tohme assumed the role of Jackson’s business manager in 2008, arranging for Jackson to pay him $35,000 a month plus expenses to act as manager plus $100,000 a month, later, to act as producer for Jackson’s forthcoming London engagements.
86 The Associated Press, ‘Jackson’s Mysterious Advisor Opens Up’, 4 July 2009.
87 He had called Barrack previously to suggest he meet with Jackson but Barrack had declined.
88 Benjamin Wallace, ‘Monetizing The Celebrity Meltdown’ New York magazine, 28 November 2010.
89 Mijac was Jackson’s own music catalogue, which contained his own songs, as well as titles by Sly & The Family Stone, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin.
90 Zack O’Malley Greenburg, Michael Jackson, Inc. – The Rise, Fall & Rebirth of a Billion-Dollar Empire (Atria Books, 2014).
91 Josh Gittelsohn and Nadja Brandt, ‘Jackson Neverland Ranch Being Readied For Sale by Colony’, Bloomberg, 31 July 2014.
92 Benjamin Wallace, ‘Monetizing The Celebrity Meltdown’ New York magazine, 28 November 2010.
93 Chris Lee and Harriet Ryan, ‘Others Have Tried To Revive The Onetime Pop Star’s Performing Career. Tom Barrack Is Convinced He’s The “Caretaker” To Do It’, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2009.
94 Randall Sullivan, ‘The Billion Dollar Shopping Spree That Killed Michael Jackson’, Daily Mail, 17 November 2012.