Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon Page #3

and take 15 minutes off

and do our homework.

By the time we was through with our day,

it was about 2:
30 in the morning.

And we'd drive back from Chicago to Gary,

get home about 3:00, 4:00 in the morning,

then go to school the next day.

And that's what life was for us

for many years, a lot of work.

MICHAEL:
We would perform all night,

tell you the truth, every day.

Voice of Michael Jackson

Interview courtesy of J. Randy Taraborrelli.

We would be dancing, doing James Brown,

and a lot of people throwing money on stage,

and standing ovations.

And then, soon as we drove home,

we'd get up and go to school.

And we couldn't keep our pants up

'cause we had so much money in 'em.

I mean, change just broke 'em.

And there was this man's house,

who used to sell candy

we used to stop there and just load up,

eat candy for days.

They had a studio at home

and they had these big mirrors and stuff.

And they would say, "Do it again,

do it again, do it again, do it again."

And next thing you know,

seven, eight, nine hours go by,

but they were looking for perfection.

Ronnie Rancifer

KEYBOARDIST, 'JACKSON 5' 1967-77.

They were focused,

that's what I liked about them.

They were serious about doing it,

and it was about perfection.

Johnny Jackson and Ronnie Rancifer

were part of the early Jackson 5.

They were not named members

but they were a part of the group,

and an integral part of the group.

Beck then, we didn't have

the greatest instruments in the world.

Other big name groups,

they would have big PAS and all that.

Jacksons didn't have that,

but what they had was soul.

See... And soul goes a long way.

You can have $10 jillion

worth of equipment, baby,

but if you ain't got no soul,

you might as well stay home. (CHUCKLES)

In 1967 the Jackson 5 signed for local

record label, Steeltown Records.

They released two songs on the label;

'Big Boy'

and 'We Don't Have To Be Over 21

(To Fall In Love).

Neither appeared on any Billboard Chart.

One day, I was setting up a VIP section

for Bobby Taylor,

all of a sudden, I hear the people clapping

and hollering...

Weldon Arthur McDougal III - A & R

EXECUTIVE, MOTOWN RECORDS 1969-80.

And so I come out of the office and I look

and there was the Jackson 5.

Well, they are pretty good.

Joe Jackson said,

"Listen, man, we wanna be on Motown."

And I said,

"Man, I can't get nobody on the label."

And he said, "Well, do you know anybody

you could introduce me to at Motown?"

I was so excited about them,

I told Bobby Taylor that Thursday

about them.

He said, "Okay, I'll look at 'em."

I met them in 1968, at the Regal Theater.

I was headlining the show.

They were the opening act,

and I was introduced to them

by the promoter.

Berry Gordy, President of Motown,

gave him permission

to produce any act that he wanted

and they would listen to it.

He, at that time, had a group

called Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers.

They had records on the radio

that were going really well and stuff.

(R&B SONG PLAYING)

I liked the way he sang, 'cause he was

a star vocalist in his own right.

He knew how to do it, when to do it,

why to do it, and why not to do it.

I saw this little kid spinning and stuff,

I said, "Dang.

"Send him upstairs when they finish,

I want to talk to this kid."

Never thought

about recording him at that time.

I said, "This little guy,

I wanna see what's happening."

He was a kid that would worry you, bug you,

until you had to do something with him.

Instead of him going back

to Gary, Indiana, from Chicago

every night, he'd go and ask Joseph

if he could stay with me,

and spend a night at the hotel with me.

So he stayed in my face for 10 straight days,

from the time

that we woke up in the morning,

and I 'd take and feed this kid.

It was pure. This kid wanted what he got.

He was a workaholic.

Bobby Taylor worked hard.

I mean, I can't say it enough.

I want people to know.

He worked harder on them

than he did with the Vancouvers.

My motivation was Michael.

I just figured this kid here,

he's an adult in kid's clothing.

That was my only motivation.

Everybody around here knew

that Michael Jackson was "it."

The world just didn't know it.

Bobby was pushing.

When I say he was pushing,

the next time I seen Bobby

or I seen the group,

he had called me and said

he's working at the Apollo.

And come over to the Apollo,

he got a surprise for me.

And when I went to the Apollo,

the Jackson 5 was on the bill.

Apollo Theater Harlem, New York City.

The Apollo was known

as the greatest R&B showroom in the world,

because many albums

had been made from there,

James Brown, Live at the Apollo.

Jackie Wilson played the Apollo.

Gladys Knight and the Pips

played the Apollo.

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

Everybody who played the Apollo was a star.

And everybody

who was underneath them on a bill

was trying to gain that national fame.

And if you make it there,

you're assured of stardom

because people knew

that you've got something very special.

It was a very tough audience.

And if they did not like you,

and you were not a good live act,

even though you may have a hit record,

they'd boo you off the stage.

The Jackson 5 tore that place up.

I mean, I've never seen an act

that nobody never heard of,

didn't have a record,

and, I mean,

the people kept hollering, "Jackson 5!"

On the same show was the 5 Stairsteps,

and they were young kids, too,

or they were about the same age

as the Jackson 5.

And they were complaining,

they wanted to get the Jackson 5

off of the show

because every time they went on,

people just hollered,

"Jackson 5! Jackson 5! Jackson 5!.

And I said,

"Wow! I ain't never seen nothing like this."

Martha Reeves ARTIST, MOTOWN RECORDS.

My very first time that I saw Michael Jackson

was at the Apollo Theater in New York.

He and his family were a self-contained act,

which was very unusual.

And yet there was a guitarist in the group

and a bassist in the group,

and keyboard and drums.

They'd won a contest.

They'd won

at the Apollo Theater Amateur Night,

and their prize was to open the show

for the great James Brown.

Well, he broke out into this James Brown,

I Got the Feelin',

and doing his little toes and dancing

and looking like James,

if James were a wind-up toy.

And it was amazing.

Rebbie Jackson MICHAEL'S SISTER.

He would perform and do the moves

and routine that everyone else was doing.

He used to do Fred Astaire

and James Cagney.

Then all of a sudden, he would add

a little bit of something in there, different.

And that was him feeling what he was doing.

He excited me. I saw all of this in him.

I saw things that he could do that I couldn't.

He had the makings of a great singer.

Michael had universal appeal

back when he was real young.

I mean, we weren't really into marketing

or anything like that,

but it was already there.

I think the word for it,

the phraseology, would be,

"A diamond in the rough,"

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