Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon Page #2

And we used to tell them to be quiet,

"Get out of here..

We used to kick them out the room.

And they used to beg to be in the group.

And we just said,

"Your little brother wants to be in the..."

You know, you just said, "No, get out of here.

This is big boy stuff."

The school was giving a programme

and all the parents were invited.

And Michael was singing solo,

Climb Every Mountain.

And so Joe's father wanted to go also,

so he could hear him.

And Michael starts singing.

I looked around, Joe's father was crying.

I guess he couldn't imagine

that a 5-year-old kid can keep harmony

and sing that well.

But that's what happened.

TITO:
We heard him sing

and we were so taken by that.

We couldn't believe it

so we rushed him home,

immediately took him to the room.

And he was in the group, that fast.

The big thing back then was winning

the Roosevelt High School talent show.

G-EST:
In the '50s and the '60s,

talent shows were the key

to getting a career and a record deal.

And that's what they dreamed of.

Initially, Michael was not our lead singer.

It was Jermaine was our lead singer

when we made it to the talent snow.

They came to me and asked me

if I would come over.

Robert Hite

NEIGHBOUR - GARY, INDIANA

and give them some pointers

on tightening up the group.

I actually decided that we were going

to present the song My Girl,

because it was a song

that I had become very fond of.

Each person would get a chance

to step forward in the song,

and showcase what they could do.

Milford actually sang My Girl along

with them.

Reynaud was singing My Girl.

And all of a sudden we said,

"Michael, sing My Girl."

(CHUCKLING) And he hit it, perfect pitch.

And that was it.

That was our secret weapon, quite honestly.

(UP-TEMPO SONG PLAYING)

When Michael came in,

the crowd just stood up.

(CHUCKLING)

They actually broke a couple of chairs

and seats in the auditorium.

It was such a surprise.

And that's when everybody recognised

the kind of talent that was there.

MILFORD:
We wanted to win and we won.

It was a really happy moment.

It was just... 'Cause that was the thing to win,

Roosevelt's talent show.

We win a Roosevelt's talent show,

it's like signing a contract with Motown.

(CHUCKLES)

ROBERT:
After the talent show ended,

Joe decided that Reynaud and Milford

weren't going to be rehearsing with them.

And that's what kind of split everything off.

TARABORRELLI:
Joseph was, in many ways,

a frustrated musician.

He had a band called the Falcons.

And I think to some extent

he wanted to live vicariously

through the success, the possible success,

of his children as musicians.

But Joseph is a very complicated person,

and it's not easy to paint Joseph

with a wide brushstroke.

Bobby Taylor

ARTIST, GORDY / MOTOWN RECORDS.

Joe was a tyrant to them.

He was mean to them. He was evil to them.

Michael was very afraid of Joe,

and a lot of times,

he would stay over at my house,

just to get away from Joe,

because he felt Joe had punished him

too much when he was younger.

He had taken a strap

and spanked him a lot of times.

And he felt it was too harsh.

He was a very strong, and often,

as they would tell it, violent disciplinarian.

Michael, Janet and Randy,

and a little bit of Marlon,

I think they got easy street,

'cause they were the babies.

The ones who really got the spankings

in my family, if I remember correctly,

and I'm pretty sure I do,

was myself Jermaine and Jackie,

the older guys.

I'm sort of like five years older than Michael.

So he was more of one of the little guys

that didn't get it the way the big guys did.

I think in later life,

he began to respect Joe more,

because he saw

that he wanted his kids to be somebody.

RONALD JACKSON:

My uncle worked in the steel mill.

He never wanted his kids to do what he did.

He wanted them to be better.

Ronald & Keith Jackson

JACKSON'S FIRST COUSINS

I seen the steel mill, and I'm gonna tell you...

- It's like working for Satan...

- Do not work there...

because it's 2,000 degrees out there,

and it's very dangerous.

So, his vision, I respect.

He wanted them to have a better opportunity,

and to do something they love doing.

TAYLOR:
I think Joe did the right thing

because none of his kids went to prison.

None of his kids were out

on the street using dope.

TITO:
I think I was raised right.

I think my father did a brilliant job

to take us from Gary, Indiana,

which is a very poverty-stricken town,

and not too many people get out of there

and make something of themselves,

and he had a dream, and he stuck with it.

And he knew how to get there

and he got us there.

It's okay to have fun sometimes

but you have to prepare yourself,

because your adulthood

is gonna be a lot longer than your childhood.

And if you didn't prepare for it,

you're gonna be on The Late Show.

So I think my father prepared his sons

for the future, to be men.

We were men at a very young age.

TARABORRELLI:
I remember asking Michael,

Why do you call him Joseph?.

And it was really clear,

the way Michael explained it,

that they thought of him as Joseph.

They didn't really think of him as their father;

They thought of him as Joseph.

And I thought that was very sad.

That had to hurt even Joseph,

to know that his children

felt that way about him,

but that was the way he designed it.

Katherine Jackson MICHAEL'S MOTHER.

The world now talks

about how mean and evil he is.

He's not that way.

He's just a firm person.

Michael's very close to my mother,

and she was like a comfort to him, I think.

KATHERINE:
Michael and I had

a very special bond.

Michael used to always tell me

that he was so much like me.

And then I used to tell him, I said,

"I can see myself in you,

but I don't want you to be like me,"

because I thought I was too easy-going,

trust people too much,

and that's exactly how Michael is.

There was a mystical connection

that made them almost, at times, one.

Michael and Katherine, two peas in a pod.

He was closer to no one else except for her.

TARABORRELLI:
Katherine Jackson

was golden where Michael was concerned,

throughout his entire lifetime.

She always cared.

When he went through stages of acne,

she knew how to handle him.

TARABORRELLI:
It was almost

as if they were

aligned with each other against the world.

And he could always go to Katherine

for anything.

And she would be there for him, 100%.

They had been working on the music

for a long time,

and they wanted to be signed to a label.

TITO:
We would go to school in the morning.

Then after school,

we'd get home about 3:00, 3:30.

And my father'd have all the mics set up

and amps on standby.

And we had enough time

to just drop our books,

and we would practise, like, four hours,

until about 7:
00 or 8:00.

And after that,

we would get ready

to go to Chicago or somewhere,

and go do an engagement.

We would play for 45 minutes,

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