Interview Find: Part 3 – In his own words Michael Jackson talks to Ebony Magazine…

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Q: How does it feel to know you have changed history? Do you think about that a lot?

A: Yeah, I do, I really do. I’m very proud that we opened doors, that it helped tear down a lot. Going around the world, doing tours, in stadiums, you see the influence of the music. When you just look out over the stage, as far as the naked eye could see, you see people. And it’s a wonderful feeling, but it came with a lot of pain, a lot of pain.

Q: How so?

A: When you’re on top of your game, when you’re a pioneer, people come at you. It’s there, who’s at the top, you want to get at them.

But I feel grateful, all those record-breaking things, to the biggest albums, to those No. Is, I still feel grateful. I’m a guy who used to sit in my living room and listen to my father play Ray Charles. My mother used to wake me up at 3 in the morning, ‘Michael, he’s on TV, he’s on TV!’ I’d run to the TV and James Brown would be on TV. I said, ‘That’s what I want to do.’

Q: Can we expect more of Michael Jackson?

A: I’m writing a lot of stuff right now. I’m in the studio, like, every day. I think, like, the rap thing that is happening now, when it first came out, I always felt that it was gonna take more of a melodic structure to make it more universal, ’cause not everybody speak English. [Laughter] And you are limited to your country. But when you can have a melody, and everybody can hum a melody, then that’s when it became France, The Middle East, everywhere! All over the world now ’cause they put that melodic, linear thread in there. You have to be able to hum it, from the farmer in Ireland to the lady who scrubs toilets in Harlem to anybody who can whistle to a child poppin’ their fingers. You have to be able to hum it.

Q: So, you’re almost 50 now. Do you think you’ll be doing this at 80?

A: The truth is, umm, no. Not the way James Brown did, or Jackie Wilson did, where they just ran it out, they killed themselves. In my opinion, I wish [Brown] could have slowed down and been more relaxed and enjoyed his hard work.

Q: Will you tour again?

A: I don’t care about long tours. But what I love about touring is that it sharpens one’s craft beautifully. That’s what I love about Broadway, that’s why actors turn to Broadway, to sharpen their skills. It does do that. ‘Cause it takes years to become a great entertainer. Years. You can’t just grab some guy out of obscurity and throw ‘em out there and expect for this person to compete with that person. It’ll never work. And the audience knows it; they can see it. The way they gesture their hand, move their body, the way they do anything with the microphone, or the way they bow. They can see it right away.

Now Stevie Wonder, he’s a musical prophet. He’s another guy I have to credit. I used to say to myself, ‘I want to write more.’ I used to watch [producers] Gamble and Huff; and Hal Davis and The Corporation write all those hits for the Jackson 5 and I really wanted to study the anatomy. What they used to do, they used to have us come in and sing after they did the track. I used to get upset ’cause I would want to see them make the track. So they would give me “ABC” after the track was done, or “I Want You Back” or “The Love You Save.” I wanted to experience it all.

So Stevie Wonder used to literally let me sit like a fly on the wall. I got to see Songs in the Key of Life get made, some of the most golden things. I would sit with Marvin Gaye and just … and these would be the people who would just come over to our house and hang out and play basketball with my brothers on the weekend. We always had these people around.

So when you really can see the science, the anatomy and the structure of how it all works, it’s just so wonderful.

Q: So, you play on a world stage. How do you see the shape of the world today?

A: I’m very concerned about the plight of the international global warming phenomenon. I knew it was coming, but I wish they would have gotten people’s interest sooner. But it’s never too late. It’s been described as a runaway train; if we don’t stop it, we’ll never get it back. So we have to fix it, now. That’s what I was trying to do with “Earth Song,” “Heal the World,” “We Are the World,” writing those songs to open up people’s consciousness. I wish people would listen to every word.

Q: What do you think about the next presidential race? Hillary, Barack?

A: To tell you the truth, I don’t follow that stuff. We were raised to not … we don’t look to man to fix the problems of the world, we don’t. They can’t do it. That’s how I see it. It’s beyond us. Look, we don’t have control over the grounds, they can shake. We don’t have control over the seas, they can have tsunamis. We don’t have control over the skies, there are storms. We’re all in God’s hands. I think that man has to take that into consideration. I just wish they would do more for the babies and children, help them more. That would be great, wouldn’t it?

Q: Speaking of babies, as a father now, rewind back 25 years ago. What is the difference between that Michael and the Michael today?

A: That Michael is probably the same Michael here. I just wanted to get certain things accomplished first. But I always had this tug in the back of my head, the things I wanted to do, to raise children, have children. I’m enjoying it very much.

Q: What do you think about all the stuff that’s out there about you, all the things you read? How do you feel about that?

A: I don’t pay attention to that. In my opinion, it’s ignorance. It’s usually not based on fact. It’s based on, you know, myth. The guy who you don’t get to see. Every neighborhood has the guy who you don’t see, so you gossip about him. You see those stories about him, there’s the myth that he did this or he did that. People are crazy!

I’m just about wanting to do wonderful music.

But back to Motown 25, one of the things that touched me the most about doing that was, after I did the performance–I’ll never forget. There was Marvin Gaye in the wings, and the Temptations and Smokey Robinson and my brothers, they were hugging me and kissing me and holding me. Richard Pryor walked over to me and said [in a quiet voice], ‘Now that was the greatest performance I’ve ever seen.’ That was my reward. These were people who, when I was a little boy in Indiana, I used to listen to Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, and to have them bestow that kind of appreciation on me, I was just honored. Then the next day, Fred Astaire calls and said, ‘I watched it last night, and I taped it, and I watched it again this morning. You’re a helluva mover. You put the audience on their ASS last night!’ So, later, when I saw Fred Astaire, he did this with his fingers [he makes a little moonwalk gesture with his two fingers on his outstretched palm].

I remember doing the performance so clearly, and I remembered that I was so upset with myself, ’cause it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted it to be more. But not until I finished. It was a little child, a little Jewish child backstage with a little tuxedo on, he looked at me, and he said [in a stunned voice] ‘Who taught you to move like that?’ [Laughter] And I said, ‘I guess God … and rehearsal.’

THE END

Tagged as: 2007, Age 42 - 50 2000-2009, Celeb Barack Obama, Celebrity Stevie Wonder, interview, Mag: Ebony Magazine, Ray Charles