Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon Page #6

that Berry Gordy really liked about Michael

because, not only was he a great vocal talent,

but he was a great performer.

Watching him, as a kid,

be so comfortable performing.

Peabo Bryson SINGER

probably helped me

become a better performer, actually.

His voice was nearly

as high as Stevie Wonder's.

Martha Reeves ARTIST, MOTOWN RECORDS

I met Stevie when he was eight years old

and I said, "Here's another little youngster

who's far beyond his age, talent-wise,

"but able to sing adult songs

in perfect-pitched voices,

"real high voices that hadn't changed yet."

His voice and his expressions and his...

Weldon Arthur McDougal III.

A & R EXECUTIVE,

MOTOWN RECORDS 1969-80

charisma start taking these songs over.

Like, if Smokey felt like he did his song

and more people like the way Michael

did it than him,

that's because he did that with all

of his songs at that time.

No matter who it was, the O'Jays, the Dells,

the Whispers or the Beatles,

we wanted to be the best.

And that's what we were striving for.

Berry Gordy did not like the stuff

that Bobby Taylor was recording on them.

I wanted to do the boys a certain way,

but he wanted me to do 'em his way.

And I says, "I can't do 'em the way

you want me to do 'em.

"l must have my own head."

So he says,

"Okay we 're going back to Detroit. .

Then he took oven.

RANCIFER:
Berry Gordy in turn,

put his crew together.

The Corporation was established

to bring fresh new material

to the Jackson 5.

Youthful material.

I think he probably felt

that Bobby Taylor would

give them more adult material

and forget that they were children.

He saw gazillions, right?

Then he took over.

Bobby Taylor did never get the recognition

he should have gotten

for working with them,

from the group or the public.

Bobby Taylor produced 10 songs on the

album:
'Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5'.

During 1969-70 the Jackson 5

released 4 number one singles in a row.

The Corporation, is

what they called themselves,

they topped themselves

with those early songs by the Jackson 5,

they were absolutely incredible.

Absolutely incredible.

KATHERINE:
When my boys had

five gold records in a row,

I was very proud of them because I know

it was something that they wanted

and it was their dream.

And they were happy and I was happy.

The whole family was happy about that.

We did a show once for Jesse Jackson.

Dennis Edwards

LEAD SINGER, 'THE TEMPTATIONS'.

You know, Jesse Jackson, he's the activist.

He's got an organisation called PUSH Expo.

He booked the Temptations

and the Jackson 5.

They were just up and coming.

We were superstars at that time

and, oh, man, it was so many people.

(PEOPLE CHEERING)

MCDOUGAL:
When they did that Show,

the Temptations got a great response.

When the Jackson 5 came on,

it was phenomenal.

I mean, almost blew the roof off the place.

EDWARDS:
They couldn't get us to our limos.

They had to back up an armoured car,

a Brink's car.

It's like a moment in history.

That's when they finally made it

with the black R&B public.

They were just ripe for stardom.

On the stage, he was a different guy.

He was really as much of an actor

in so many ways as he was a singer.

MICHAEL:
A lot of people always come up

to a lot of us and say.

Voice of Michael Jackson

Interview courtesy of J. Randy Taraborrelli

it's like two different people.

On stage and off stage.

When we was talking, he's shy

and, you know, very soft spoken.

But just when he jumped

on that stage, he's like...

(SCATTING)

(SINGING)

Well, l mean, he was a different person

and I've never seen

that in another artist's life.

He was like two guys.

Anything he felt that he wanted to do,

he would do it on stage.

The moment he came off of the stage,

he was back to the little boy he was

before he went on stage.

MICHAEL:
When I get on stage, I really,

totally do. That's with a lot of performers.

Voice of Michael Jackson

Interview courtesy of J. Randy Taraborrelli.

I've learned that about comedians, too.

It's like when I worked with Richard Pryor

in The Wiz.

A lot of people think he's the funniest guy

to be around 24 hours.

That's not true. He 's really shy and quiet.

We were all like that, too.

Singing or dancing

in front of like, one person, can't do it.

But, like, it's 30, 000, you feel so free,

so much easier.

It's hard to explain.

What motivates Michael Jackson?

That was an audience.

Think about it.

He's shy, he won't look at you, right?

On stage, what is he?

He owns it.

So if I had people looking at him,

I used to bring five, six girls

every time, right?

And I'd say, "Michael, look at that girl, man.

They think you're cute."

Michael'd say,

"Dang, Bobby, they said that?"

I said, "You better go out there

and sing now, son."

I said, "You go out there

and you mess up now," I said,

"They're gonna tell all the rest of the girls

out there.

"You're gonna be one ugly little boy

everywhere you go."

He used to go out and do one take.

When we were on the road,

Michael would worry you to death.

I hear somebody knocking on my door

and say,

"Hey, man, what's wrong?" "Oh, man,

what you doing? I wanna come in."

So I'd let him in. I'd say, "Man, why don't

you hang out with Jackie and them guys?"

"Hey man, they got somebody in their room. "

(LAUGHS)

I said, "Well, how do you know?"

He said, 'Cause I was listening

to the door for about an hour

(LAUGHING)

He was like a little boy, I mean, he...

I said, "What were they doing?"

He said, "They were talking,

but they won't let me in."

They were like little kids

and they were very, very happy

and very carefree.

TARABORRELLI:
Michael loved being

Michael Jackson at that age.

He loved touring,

he loved recording at Motown.

He loved his fans, he loved performing.

MCDOUGAL:
They had dirt bikes

and they used to go on Saturday mornings.

They'd go to a place

where they could ride them,

and Michael used to tear that thing up.

Man, he was flying up and down

over the hills.

I thought it was, you know, he was like

any other little boy.

But he was a little boy with a dirt bike.

I mean, they had two or three of 'em.

So, when people say

that he didn't have a childhood,

far as I'd seen he had a childhood.

When he was a kid, things were a lot simpler.

And I think that, as they got older,

the family became more divided

and other stuff happened

in Michael Jackson 's life

to make him wish

that he was 12 years old again.

So, when he says

he missed out on his childhood,

I've always felt that what he really meant was

that he just missed it very much.

(SLOW SONG PLAYING)

The first time I met him was when he was 14,

Don Black SONGWRITER, 'BEN'

full of life, full of ambition.

It was at the peak of his powers.

Fire in his belly and just everything

about him was fabulous.

I wrote it about friendship.

The story is about this boy

who's very seriously ill

and nothing's going right for him.

But a little rat comes along one day,

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