God took that little man and he says,
"Okay now, you take over the music world."
Bobby Taylor ARTIST, GORDY I MOTOWN RECORDS
"It now belongs to you."
What made him so special
is that he was held back
for so long
that when he was finally released, all of it came out.
He just lit the stage on fire.
He stole the show from everybody, including the Jackson 5.
Tito Jackson MICHAEL'S BROTHER
Michael was into his fans.
To make all these people that happy, it charged him up, it really did.
Ronnie Rancifer KEYBOARDIST, 'JACKSON 5' 1967-77
My fondest memory is the Motown 25.
Yeah. We were on that show,
- and he premiered the moonwalk. Wow. - That was something.
Valerie Simpson & Nickolas Ashford,
SINGERS I SONGWRITERS, 'ASHFORD & SIMPSON'
Michael called me
when he got home from doing Motown 25,
and said, "I've just given the greatest performance of my life."
David Gest MICHAEL'S CLOSE FRIEND
How excited we all were for him,
it was like, "I guess I've arrived," you know?
Dionne Warwick SINGER
With an armful of Grammys. It was wonderful.
In 1984 Michael won an unprecedented 8 Grammys for 'Thriller'.
'Thriller' became the best selling album of all time with sales exceeding 110 million.
Michael!
During the eighties Michael had more number 1 hits than any other artist.
Michael Jackson is
one of the greatest artists of all time,
who transcended being labelled black, white, red, yellow,
it didn't matter, he appealed to everybody, everywhere.
I think he came here ready 'cause he always wanted to be a superstar.
He was wearing little rings on his fingers when he was a little man, you know.
He was very conscious
of the iconoclastic nature of "Michael Jackson,"
J. Randy Taraborrelli JACKSON FRIEND AND BIOGRAPHER
and what it would mean historically.
Michael's image was very important to him
because Fred Astaire and the people that he studied,
Jackie Wilson, James Brown...
How are they being revered? Why are they so terrific and what did they do?
And he was a great student.
Ron Alexenburg SNR. VICE PRESIDENT CBS I EPIC RECORDS
It just didn't come upon him,
he studied his craft, he worked at it.
He was directing his career,
he was so street smart
and he knew how to make a campaign work, and more importantly, how to make it last.
He believed that the biggest stars left the biggest impression
and it was bigger than just their art, you know.
What you thought of instantly
when you thought of these celebrities
and with Michael, what you began to think of instantly
was the fedora hat, it was the one glove.
On the show that we did together at Madison Square Garden,
he came out with a suitcase
and inside was the glove, and he had the hat,
and he had everything he needed to show them,
"Nobody does it better than I and these are my trademarks."
The total package of Michael Jackson became very important,
especially with the advent of video culture,
which happened at the exact same time
that Billie Jean and Beat It were becoming hit records.
'Billie Jean' was the 1st video by a black artist to receive heavy rotation on MTV.
Michael never officially left The Jacksons. 'Victory' (1984) was their last album together.
It was an immense pressure to be in the public eye
and he kept wanting to look better and better.
He was very, very self-conscious.
Michael felt under pressure
where his image was concerned
because of who he is.
He was a black guy, he was an inner-city guy.
How could he be the darling of white society?
He had to change.
I think all that was what led to the first plastic surgery, in 1978.
I went to interview Michael at his home in Encino
and he showed up at the door with bandages on his face
and his eyes were black and blue,
and I thought that he had been in some kind of a fight.
He explained to me that he had fallen on stage
and broke his nose.
This was why he had that first surgery.
His next major one was in 1981
and he stayed with me for four weeks. I took care of him.
I always felt that he looked so good after that second one,
he never needed to do more.
And then after that,
there were all kinds of other things that were going on
that it was really hard to determine,
you know, what he was doing and when he was doing it.
I think he should have stopped before he did, yes.
Being vulnerable and listening to others, he just kept going.
Rebbie Jackson MICHAEL'S SISTER
Steve Hoefflin, I believe, and I said to Michael,
did too many operations and made Michael not secure, but insecure.
One of the ways Steve stayed close to Michael
was constantly telling him what he needed.
Steve would probably disagree with that, but I felt
you just went a bit too far.
The disease that Michael had, vitiligo,
Katherine Jackson MICHAEL'S MOTHER
Michael suffered from it and he...
He didn't wanna be spotted up and he...
He went to a skin doctor and had him to get his whole face one colour
but below, his legs and things were still spotted up
but he didn't show that part of his body,
Vitiligo Sufferer
only parts of his body like his hands and his face and his neck and chest.
That's the part that he had bleached out so it wouldn't look so bad.
Some people have their own ideas of what they think it is,
but I know what it is.
It always felt unfair to me
and I think that Michael always felt victimised by it.
I loved it when Michael said,
"Plastic surgery was not invented for Michael Jackson.
"People have been having plastic surgery for years.
"I'm not the first one to do it.
"Why am I always the one being picked on about it?"
And I thought that was a really good point.
We were doing a Pepsi commercial, the year was 1984.
And we were just getting ready to go out on the Victory Tour.
I went to the set the day they were shooting it
and they had a lot of performances that were great.
So it was the end of the day, they called for a wrap,
I said goodbye to him. And I was walking out the door
when I heard the producer say, "We have to do one more take."
There was some pyro, and Michael was coming down the steps
and I think somebody missed their cue.
One of the flames came and landed on Michael's head,
which he had hairspray, something like that, and it just...
After the accident, Michael had to go through a horrific experience
to repair his scalp.
It was a form of tissue expansion known as ballooning.
This procedure is often used on the scalp
Dr. Michael May FRCS - HAIR TRANSPLANT SPECIALIST, THE WIMPOLE CLINIC
to treat burns, scarring.
This is done by the surgeon
inserting a plastic balloon underneath the skin
and, over a period of time, increasing the volume of the balloon,
and therefore, stretching the skin above.
The surgeons,
almost like drawing a curtain,
bring the normal tissue over that area of scalp
and fill in the scarred area.
I actually spoke to Dr Steven Hoefflin,
who did the first ballooning procedure on Michael after the Pepsi incident.
And he explained to me
Michael continued to do the ballooning procedure
with different doctors, throughout his career.
It was quite painful, you can imagine.
If a large balloon of saline is placed beneath the skin,
is blown up to perhaps 1000 cc of fluid,
it causes quite a large amount of discomfort.
I think after he got burnt,
that was the first time he was exposed to strong pain medicine,
because he did have a lot of pain in that spot for a long time.
People don't realise that his dependency on pills
was due to that one accident that changed his life forever.
I used to give a lot of private parties for Michael
because he'd wanna meet somebody.
My neighbour, when I was living in New York,
was Liam Neeson,
and he loved Liam Neeson's work in Schindler's List.
And I invited Liam over
and some friends of mine.
You gave him a party, and I remember
Michael McDonald sang, Gloria Gaynor sang.
Lamont Dozier SONGWRITER, HOLLAND-DOZIER-HOLLAND
You and Michael were clowning, he had three bottles of wine, I think,
and he was having a food fight.
In the middle of Gloria Gaynor singing,
Michael threw some jellybeans at me,
and then he started throwing them in the piano.
And I remember Gloria Gaynor looking up, like, "What's going on?"
I said, "He's just a kid at heart."
We ended up sitting at a table together.
I got up and I went to talk to some other people away from the table.
Peabo Bryson SINGER
When I got back, Michael was in my seat,
in my date's ear, in her face.
I tried to wait a while, maybe he was gonna go away soon.
No, he was so engrossed in the conversation with my date,
he didn't even notice me coming back.
"Michael, get your own."
The first time Michael ever drank in his life
was at a dinner that I had with Burt Bacharach
and he drank about a bottle and a half of a vintage wine
and he loved the taste.
And I remember we went back to my flat, and when we got out of the car,
he threw up in the parking lot.
He threw up in my house, everywhere.
And I was picking up all this mess, and he said,
"You know, if I told Joseph, you would be in real hot water.
"He would be really mad at you." I said, "Don't tell him."
Not only did we have fun,
I got to set up a number of collaborations with Michael and other artists.
Where I actually met him was at a big do for him,
Petula Clark SINGER I ACTRESS
and he had asked for me to come along and sing.
I sang Downtown, of course, inevitably.
But it seems that he was a great fan.
Bless his heart, he financed a recording session for me.
He was a very giving person, Michael.
And very funny and of course deeply, deeply talented.
David called me on one given day and said that, "I think there's a possibility
"that you and Michael should sit down and write together."
Paul Anka SINGER I SONGWRITER
Michael and Paul were in the Jacuzzi and came up with This Is It.
Not many people know that I was responsible for putting them together.
Unfortunately it evolved, and I don't know if you remember,
but Michael took the tapes out of the studio in Los Angeles,
because he didn't want to finish the project.
He kept them, illegally. We had the same lawyer, unfortunately.
I fired the lawyer because he couldn't find the contract, all of a sudden.
So, what really happened was, after Michael, under pressure, returned the tapes,
he obviously copied them.
Thus, years later, they went into his home,
and they found a copy, on a cassette or whatever,
of my multi-tracks, from my studio,
which they thought was new, they thought it was a new song.
What threw them off was when they heard "This is it" as the first line,
it correlated with the tour that he was gonna do.
After gathering all of the evidence, I realised that there was an honest mistake made
and I don't wanna cause any problems.
So we sat down very quickly, within a few hours,
and we hammered out a deal, which I think is fair to all of us.
And that's the story about This Is It.
In 1990, I was producing the American Cinema Awards,
which honoured legendary stars of the cinema,
as well as great musical entertainers.
And over the years, we'd honoured many great legends.
There was nobody more qualified to win the award
for musical Entertainer of the Decade than Michael Jackson.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to express my gratitude
to those responsible for the American Cinema Awards.
I thank David Gest. You're just fantastic. Thank you so much.
And final, I thank little Christina and Michael. I love you all, goodbye.
In 1993, Michael Jackson was accused of molestation
by this kid, whose name was Jordy Chandler,
and by Jordy's father, whose name was Evan Chandler.
These people were people that Michael allowed into his life,
and he befriended them.
And the next thing we knew, this kid was claiming that Michael had molested him.
Back in 1993, this was unbelievable to all of us who knew Michael Jackson.
Because we just really didn't think of Michael in any kind of sexual way.
He was sort of asexual in our minds at that time.
If you know Michael, you know his heart.
Billy Davis, Jr. SINGER, '5th DIMENSION'
Michael was probably one of the most gentle people that one would ever want to meet.
Michael always told me he loved children because they were innocent.
They never wanted anything from him.
Michael was always so protective of children.
Marilyn McCoo SINGER, '5th DIMENSION'
The side that I saw of him, he was such a family-oriented person.
All of us, growing up, you may know about,
I mean, we always had a baby in our arms, on our laps,
and we always gravitate to kids.
I mean, it's just an innocent thing and that's as far as it would ever go.
I was sick to my stomach,
because I knew that Michael wouldn't do a thing like that.
And I was wondering, why are they lying on him like that?
And I can imagine how Michael must've felt.
Michael called me and said,
"You do something nice and people try to fuck you."
And that's what he said to me.
And he was just so hurt.
And I rarely heard him cuss.
Michael was on tour
and they took great care to wait until he go on tour to put this stuff out.
It did appear to me, and to everybody in the circle,
and also to Michael,
that the district attorney, Tom Sneddon, was really after Michael Jackson.
And he said, "Why would people believe this?"
And I said, "You know, I'm having a hard time understanding it, too, Michael,
"but what I think is that for so many years, people have wondered about your sexuality
"and they've wondered, 'ls this guy gay, is this guy straight? '
"No one really could understand it.
"And now that this has happened, people feel that they have the answer,
"and it's something that they've decided to latch on to."
And he said, "Yes, but it's not true."
And I said, "Yeah, I know that, but this is what's going on.
"You know, this is what you are up against."
And he was devastated by the '93 allegations, there's no doubt about it.
Freda Payne SINGER
I felt that somebody was trying to get something out of this
or they were manipulating a situation.
Michael was a target.
Michael had made a lot of money, and unfortunately, in our world,
we have people out there who would like to get some of your money.
And they will do almost anything to get it.
Michael is my brother. I love him a great deal.
La Toya Jackson Press conference, Israel 1993
But I cannot, and I will not be a silent collaborator of his crimes
against small, innocent children.
It was hard for me to believe that she believed that this was true.
Just because, if you knew La Toya and you knew Michael, they were so close
that it just seemed unfathomable that La Toya would speak out against her brother.
I have seen cheques payable to the parents of these children,
and I don't know if these children were apparently bought,
the parents, by Michael, or not, but I have seen these cheques.
And I've seen these cheques through my mother.
Jack Gordon was the guy's name who basically put her out there
to do things that was well out of her character.
I can't really say on television the words for Jack Gordon.
But he was a man who had no morals and very little class.
You can come in contact with the wrong people without knowing it
or people that surround you, they can have a strong influence on you.
And these kids are gonna be scarred for the rest of their lives,
and I don't wanna see any more innocent, small children being affected this way.
I love Michael very dearly but I feel even more sorry for these children
because they don't have a life any more. They don't.
I had spoken to him on the phone
the day after she had said all those things.
And I have never heard him
feel so much hate for a person than he did for La Toya.
I just know that it was something that was very ugly and disheartening,
and the family didn't like it at all.
There's certain things you're not gonna get me to do
for no price, whatsoever,
when it comes to people I love and care for.
He was hurt. He was really hurt.
La Toya Jackson and her husband, boyfriend, I guess, at that time, Jack Gordon,
and I went to Spain to do a TV show together.
And it was a crazy TV show, where she was going to be rigged to a lie detector
and then I was going to ask her questions.
I can't imagine why she wanted to do this because I totally thought she was lying.
When Michael gave his speech from Neverland,
we watched it in the green room backstage at this TVshow.
I ask all of you to wait and hear the truth.
And I remember seeing it with La Toya thinking, "This is your brother
"and you're getting ready to go on television
"and I'm gonna ask you these questions
"and the lie detector's gonna be swinging like crazy."
And suddenly, La Toya's price for that interview
had gone up to, like, $100,000 from $10,000.
Jack said, "You know, this is now the biggest story in the world,
"and La Toya is going to be paid appropriately."
And the show would not pay her that money,
and so, I ended up getting a free trip to Madrid.
They served a search warrant on me,
which allowed them to view and photograph my body, including my penis,
my buttocks, my lower torso, thighs and any other area that they wanted.
Michael did talk to me about the strip search.
Basically, he said it was the most humiliating experience of his life.
He couldn't believe that it could happen.
He couldn't imagine that the law provided for such a thing.
Who would stoop as low as trying to take pictures of a person's genitals,
and just trying to humiliate him like that?
That was terrible.
If that can happen, anything can happen. This man could end up going to jail.
Because this guy, Tom Sneddon, he is definitely after Michael Jackson.
And he's got power. He's got the law behind him.
It was a real wake-up call.
I remember Michael calling me at 2:00 a.m. In the morning
and we spoke till 5:00 a.m.
And he told me he would never, ever settle that case.
He would never give the guy a dime. I said, "You're right.
"If you pay him off, people are gonna think you are guilty."
He said he would never do that.
Michael was getting some really horrible advice at the time from lawyers,
Tito Jackson MICHAEL'S BROTHER
saying, "Let's just get rid of it, you know.
"Settle it out and people will forget it and it'll go away."
The time has come for Michael Jackson to move on to new business,
to get on with his life,
to start the healing process
and to move his career forward to even greater heights.
When they settled the case by paying off,
right away the next day, I called Michael, "Why did you do that?"
And Michael said, "Mother, I didn't do that. I wanted to fight it till the end.
"But they told me, the lawyers and things told me,
"'Just go on and pay it off and settle it."'
He just heard a lot of people making a lot of promises
Frank Dileo JACKSON MANAGER 1984-89, 2009
and telling him, "It's no big deal."
Like, "Pay them the money, it's like a quarter to you."
The reason they did it was because Michael was out on tour,
they had accused him of this terrible thing,
and they didn't want to stop the tour, so they just paid it off.
It was too late. He got some of the worst advice, probably, in the music business.
I interviewed Michael right after he made the settlement,
and I asked him, "Why did you do it?
"Don't you realise that from this moment on, people are going to believe you were guilty?"
And Michael said he didn't care.
He said, "It's my life, it's my career, it's my choice."
I discussed it with him many years later and he did regret the settlement.
It was one thing in the moment, you know, when you're in pain
and you're making a decision based on the pain of the moment,
it's another thing when years go by and you look back on it and you think,
"Why did I do that?"
And it wasn't about the $17 million, that meant nothing to him.
It was paid out in an instalment plan, like he was buying a refrigerator.
It really meant nothing to him.
It was just the fact that people believed he settled because he was guilty
that really pissed him off.
DILEO: A lot of people are very confused on this.
But I can sit here under oath or any other way you want it,
and I'm a staunch Catholic, I'll swear on the Bible,
Michael was not gay.
Nor has he ever been gay.
He's confided in me that certain women that he had relationships with,
he wasn't public about any of it,
because you don't want the fans to think you're tied down,
they don't have that shot of getting to you.
I went to his home, Neverland,
Whitney Houston SINGER
and he pulled out all of the stops.
He picked me up in a helicopter, and I got to the house,
and he had a coach and buggy pick me up from the gate, to his home.
We were in the kitchen, and this is when he had Bubbles, the monkey.
I had taken off my shoes, and I felt this little nibble at my toe,
and I thought Michael was playing with my toes.
I was like, "Oh, Michael, aren't you special."
But it was Bubbles sucking on my big toe.
I thought to myself,
"You better watch out, I'll take Bubbles home."
Michael told me about being on the set of a movie,
and one of the leading ladies invited him to her room to watch a movie
and I guess the saying would be she "jumped his bones."
I know some of the stars that Michael had been with.
I'll take that to my grave.
When he married Lisa Marie Presley, it came out of nowhere
and everybody thought it was a big joke, including me.
I went on television and I cracked a joke
that if anybody's interested in buying Michael and Lisa Marie a wedding present,
they're registered at Toys R Us.
On my way home, the phone rang and it was Michael,
and he said, "Of all the people in my world,
"I would think that you would not belittle my relationship."
And I said, "Well, you know, I feel really terrible right now about this, Michael,
"but you have to understand that this thing with Lisa Marie
"has come out of the clear blue sky.
"Nobody understands what's going on here.
"She's from Graceland, you're from Neverland.
"What is going on here?"
We did a very long interview, in which he explained to me
that he really felt very strongly about Lisa Marie Presley,
that the marriage was a real marriage for him.
And he said, "And if you don't believe me, ask Lisa Marie."
And so I did.
I interviewed Lisa Marie several times.
And I can tell you one thing about Lisa Marie Presley,
she's tough.
She tells the truth.
She is in-your-face honest.
I believed her when she told me that that was a real marriage.
It was a surprise to me.
I had heard it on television, but he never told me.
He called me, and I said,
"I've been hearing about you being married to Lisa Marie Presley."
He said, "Yes, that's why I called you. I wanted to tell you about it.
"And she's right here. You wanna speak to her?"
And I spoke to her.
Being raised in the South, she had that accent.
She had a very deep voice, also.
And I told Michael, I said, "Michael, that's not her.
"That's a black girl that I spoke to."
He was married to his career.
And I don't think any woman could live with somebody
and find that they place second,
and not first.
Michael and Debbie were always very different.
Debbie Rowe and Michael Jackson were not in love.
Debbie Rowe was somebody that would have been a surrogate mother
to Michael's children, had he had his way.
Had he had his way, we would never even know her name.
The problem was that Michael's own mom
was so determined that Michael not have children out of wedlock,
that she really wanted Michael to marry Debbie.
And Michael felt pressured also, by the record industry and by his fans,
to sort of make an honest woman out of Debbie Rowe.
And she would have done anything for Michael.
She was a big fan of his. She had posters of him all over her apartment.
She would have done anything for him.
She never lived at Neverland.
She never moved in to Neverland, like Lisa Marie did.
Their marriage was a marriage in name only,
so that she could have his children and then they divorced.
Michael told me the reason he married Debbie Rowe
David Gest MICHAEL'S CLOSE FRIEND
was because he wanted to have a child
and that she was just a really nice person to be around.
It wasn't that he was so physically in love with her,
it's that he liked that she was a great nurse, and she understood him.
Michael had two children with Debbie Rowe: Prince (1997) and Paris (1998).
He had a third child 'Blanket' in 2002 with an unknown mother.
I got up one day and heard on the radio The Love You Save by the Jackson 5.
It was my all-time favourite record by the group.
And I called Michael and said, "We're gonna do a concert,
"and I'm gonna reunite you and your brothers."
Michael said no.
Straight out, no.
And I called him again and I said, "We've got to do this.
"You're gonna make a lot of money
"and we'll put together a deal and you and I will own it.
"We'll be partners in this."
And Michael said, "Okay, let's do it."
We set the wheels in motion
for the Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Celebration: The Solo Years
in New York City at Madison Square Garden.
It was about six weeks before the show.
Frank Cascio JACKSON'S FRIEND, ASSISTANT
And all of a sudden, as Michael expected,
Jermaine had all these random requests and demands.
Michael was very disappointed with Jermaine.
He never thought he was very shrewd or sharp.
He loved his brother dearly.
But there was a competition between them.
Michael said, "Well, if he's a problem, get him off the show."
I think it was really difficult for Jermaine to live in the shadow
of somebody who was as huge as Michael.
J. Randy Taraborrelli JACKSON FRIEND AND BIOGRAPHER
And they were very, very competitive in that family.
Two weeks before the show, Katherine Jackson called me and said,
"I want all my sons together.
"Jermaine has to go back."
I said, "I can't deal with him."
And she said, "He will be no problem."
And he came and was a perfect angel.
Michael really wanted Elizabeth Taylor at the show, as his date.
But Elizabeth wasn't gonna do anything for nothing.
"Oh, Michael, I don't know.
"I don't know, Michael.
"I'm not feeling so well and I don't know if it's a good idea."
That day, he picked out the most beautiful necklace for Elizabeth Taylor.
"Oh, Michael, I love it.
"Of course I will come to the show with you. Of course."
So, Elizabeth Taylor, for a fee of a $250,000 necklace,
was Michael Jackson's date at the show.
Well, he is one of my closest friends.
Madison Square Garden SEPTEMBER 7TH, 2001
And we know more about each other, probably, than any two people.
And I love him and he loves me.
He was supposed to be in the audience from 8.;00 to 9.;00,
watching all the acts do a tribute to him.
No Michael at 8:00, no Michael at 8:15, no Michael at 8:30.
The CBS people were saying, "What's going on?"
I said, "He's on his way."
Frank Cascio went over to the hotel.
So I walk into his room, he's sleeping.
"What do you mean he's asleep?"
I could tell he was out of it and he wasn't completely there.
I started shouting at him. I said, "What did you take?"
So, he told me, he took a shot of Demerol.
He said, "Frank, my back was killing me."
I said, "You're just looking for an excuse to get out of the show.
"Just tell me, isn't that right?"
He wouldn't answer me.
But I knew that was what it was.
I said, "I don't care what you've taken, you get on there and entertain."
What makes this a great night for you?
It's a reunion and I'm honoured that the world appreciates my art.
I'm very honoured.
I remember talking to Michael at that time,
and he fell asleep on the phone when I was talking to him.
And I called his lawyer and I said, "Is it possible that Michael is on drugs?"
Because I couldn't imagine it. Michael never did anything like that.
Michael never admitted to anybody that he had a problem with drugs.
He was totally aloof.
Those of us that did know, and tried to help,
he just eliminated.
He's an amazing man, that he could, on the pills that he took,
put on a performance.
He looked like his eyes were closed most of the time,
because I've got the tapes.
But no one knew.
It was a brilliant show.
A lot of energy with the brothers being on stage once more, again.
And the whole thing, just playing those hit songs once more,
brought back a lot of great memories.
I don't know anybody who could do all those dances
and get up there. And he got away with it.
The TV broadcast of the concert went on to become
one of the highest rated 'Music Specials' in American history.
Around 2003, Michael became involved with a family by the name of Arvizo.
And Martin Bashir was doing a documentary about Michael.
And it was Michael's idea
to feature this kid in the documentary.
Michael has a deep affection for helping children in need.
And this child happened to have a severe case of cancer.
Michael immediately wanted to do something to help, to give this child hope,
and give him a reason to live.
A lot of the people working for Michael Jackson didn't want Michael to do this
because they felt that after what happened with Jordy Chandler,
people shouldn't be reminded of any association that Michael had with any kids.
But Michael had no consciousness of guilt, at all.
I saw the original documentary that Mr Bashir produced.
Thomas A. Mesereau, Jr. JACKSON'S ATTORNEY, 2005 TRIAL
I didn't know Michael Jackson at the time.
But something seemed very, very manipulative,
very sinister, about the way he approached Michael Jackson.
And what was proof of that was the na; ý; veté Michael displayed
in continuing to talk to this man, who clearly, in my opinion,
was bent on destroying his reputation.
Tonight, 12-year-old Gavin reveals he spends nights at Neverland,
sometimes in Jackson's bed, the star on the floor.
Next thing you know, children protective services became involved,
and different lawyers began asking questions,
Tom Sneddon is back in the picture again.
And the Arvizo family, suddenly, have decided that Michael had molested Gavin.
Gavin came to Michael, and said, "Michael, can we sleep in your room tonight?"
Frank Cascio - UNINDICTED CO-CONSPIRATOR, JACKSON TRIAL 2005
And Michael looked at me and says, "I don't know.
"You know, I think you better ask your mother."
"Oh, we already asked our mother. She says, 'Sure, no problem."'
I'm like, "No. This is... Something's odd. This is not right."
And then, as I was about to go tell Gavin that he cannot sleep in Michael's room,
Michael says, "Okay, I have a solution for this.
"You have to sleep in the room with me."
The two children slept on the bed and Michael and I slept on the floor.
An arrest warrant for Mr Jackson has been issued
on multiple counts of child molestation.
At this point in time,
Mr Jackson's been given an opportunity to surrender himself
to the custody of the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department
within a specified period of time.
They were claiming that Michael organised a conspiracy to abduct children,
to falsely imprison a family and to commit criminal extortion.
And the other counts had to do with allegations of child molestation.
These were serious allegations, the most ridiculous allegations.
Anyone who knows Michael, Michael is not a paedophile.
Mr Jackson has been booked into the county jail.
He has since been released. He has posted the bail
and he has been given an arraignment date.
Katherine Jackson MICHAEL'S MOTHER
It bothered me because I was wondering how he was feeling
and how he was dealing with it.
Michael used to always tell me, "I'd rather slit my own wrist than to hurt a child.
"And here they are trying to accuse me
"of the thing that I love best, and that's children,
"accuse me of molesting them."
The more I looked at the facts, the more I conversed with him,
the more ridiculous these charges appeared.
He just did not seem like the kind of person
that could ever engage in this kind of behaviour.
Mr Sneddon was obsessed with taking down Michael Jackson.
My understanding is that in the mid-'90s, Mr Sneddon personally travelled
to Australia and Canada, and perhaps other countries I'm not aware of,
to find witnesses against Michael Jackson.
He also arranged to have a website at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department
where they were looking for any witnesses or evidence against Michael.
Finally, in 2004, he got his wish,
a criminal trial with Michael Jackson as the defendant.
To see this DA, with this wicked smile and grin,
like, he's gonna become a national hero
for catching Michael Jackson doing something that he never did
made me wanna just throw up on the television.
Jackson himself, I believe, has said that this was all done
to try to ruin his new CD that was coming out or whatever it is he's doing,
like the sheriff and I really are into that kind of music. But...
There was a real, sort of, leaning in the press corps
that, "Look, if this is happening again, then he must be guilty."
We really didn't know what they had.
We just... Because it was all sealed and nobody knew what it was.
I personally believe this Janet Arvizo
was provoked by someone.
Janet Arvizo is a sick woman.
She has a track history of shaking people down.
The more I looked at the history of welfare fraud,
the more I looked at their hustling celebrities to try and get money,
the more I put this package together, I have to say, I was quite surprised
that the prosecutors pinned their hopes on these people.
We've been ready to do this for some period of time.
I wanna clarify that so that you understand that.
Prosecution was like a train that left the station.
It was not gonna slow down.
Once they decided to charge Michael Jackson,
it almost appeared as if they were gonna do whatever it took
to make sure this thing got to trial and that they got a conviction.
Seventy sheriffs from Santa Barbara County raided Michael Jackson's home.
Now, I've seen murder cases,
I've seen serial killers have investigations done in their premises,
with five people, with six people, with 10 people.
Never have I seen this many sheriffs descend on anybody's home in any case.
It was all done because of who he was,
and they knew this was gonna be a worldwide event,
and, frankly, it was very despicable as far as I'm concerned.
There was a lynch mob mentality in Santa Maria that extended
not only to the police and to the district attorney
but, maybe, to the media as well.
And I remember when we were standing in line to get our press credentials,
one of the reporters, a woman, who was a very popular reporter in America,
pulled herself out of the line and she said,
"Is there anybody standing in this line, besides J. Randy Taraborrelli,
"who does not believe that Michael Jackson is guilty?"
And there was the issue of race.
When he got in big trouble, he reached out to black leaders
to try and defend him.
He reached out to Reverend Jesse Jackson, to Reverend Al Sharpton and others.
I wanted to avoid any racial division.
There was a phone call one night. It was Michael Jackson and his publicist.
She wanted to bring black celebrities into the courtroom.
She felt this would be better for his legacy.
And my comment about this request was that,
you know, if he's convicted,
his legacy is gonna be dying in California State Prison.
And I flew out, at the request of Katherine, to go to the arraignment.
When we all drove up together, you know, and went through that.
Frank Dileo JACKSON MANAGER 1984-89, 2009
Of course, then he got on the roof.
When he got in the car, I said,
"Will you stop that already? This is serious stuff here."
He went in there, he was strong, he was not gonna let anything get to him,
he was jumping on the bus,
really proud, you know what, showing his fans,
"We're gonna get through this, we're gonna fight.
"Everything's gonna be fine."
When we first started,
Michael came in and he looked really robust and healthy.
He was sharp and focused,
and determined to prove his innocence.
The People v Jackson begins on February 28, 2005.
Even after the first day,
you knew that these people were only after money,
and this was the biggest hoax in the world that they were trying to pull.
They put witnesses on the stand to testify under oath
to things that never happened,
to things that were completely exaggerated and untrue.
They were willing to almost throw anything at the jury,
hoping something would stick.
Time for a diminutive mother of four, Janet Arvizo,
to take centre stage.
Her evidence could end the career of a pop legend.
What had upset me is they were reporting
Tito Jackson MICHAEL'S BROTHER
everything that was said about Michael,
but they wasn't reporting anything in his defence.
It looked like a feeding frenzy to me.
The media were just out
to see the world's greatest known celebrity fall to destruction.
That's where they thought their ratings in the future would come from.
And, for me, it was really a disgrace.
During the trial,
Diane Dimond was the worst person in the world.
Nice to meet you. Your hands are very cold.
I didn't say what you thought I'd say. Did you get my message?
I got your message.
I don't understand how these people can run out and lie.
They don't even get a chance to find out the truth.
Tom Mesereau would get there and show... And clean it up,
and show that this is not true, this is really how it went,
but they wouldn't report that.
And that went on for months.
When we finally got to see what was being alleged,
it just seemed so ridiculous and so far-fetched
that I remember one reporter from CNN came over to me
after the day that the mother testified, Janet Arvizo,
and he said, "I feel so used."
Mrs Arvizo claimed that she feared Michael Jackson so much
that she thought he and his henchmen were gonna
put she and her family on a hot air balloon and let them sail away to their demise.
That was one of, probably, 500 crazy things that came out of this trial
that the Arvizo family were alleging.
Sitting in court, listening to all these people lie,
people he'd been good to and all of that,
he said he couldn't believe that they were telling all these lies on him.
These people must have been paid off to do a lot of this stuff.
I warned him about this family.
I warned him about that mother. That mother, I read from a mile away.
She had an agenda from day one.
There was a so-called rebuttal video that was played,
the video that the Arvizo family made after the allegations had surfaced,
in which they claim that Michael had been a father figure
to this family.
And they were really adamant about it on this video.
And this video existed.
And you would've thought that just the fact that this video existed
would've been enough for the district attorney
to not wanna prosecute this case,
because, eventually, we would have to see this video.
And all of us would then have to look at this and think, "What the heck is going on here?"
Which is exactly what happened.
The focus, instead, was on the defence's first celebrity witness,
the actor Macaulay Culkin.
The prosecution had suggested that in the early 1990s,
he was one of a number of young boys who'd been sexually abused by Jackson.
I have to say, Chris Tucker and Macaulay Culkin
will always go down in my book as loyal, good friends.
They had managers and agents and lawyers who didn't want them to get involved,
and they both told me that, "When Michael needs us, we're gonna be there."
There were other witnesses,
people he knew at Neverland, who came in to tell the truth.
We had a lot of people that rose to his defence.
I stood by him because he was a decent, good man,
with a warm heart, a loving heart.
The family were extremely supportive of Michael Jackson throughout this trial.
His mother never missed one day.
The trial lasted almost five months. She never missed a day.
I knew what Michael was going through
and my heart just bled for him all the time.
The family was there
and there was this, sort of, sense that it was gonna be okay.
I remember they showed the Martin Bashir documentary,
and Michael's music was playing throughout it,
and I remember looking around the courtroom
and seeing all these heads bobbing up and down to Michael's music.
And I thought to myself,
"Wow, this is gonna be some crazy molestation trial,
"because everybody here is, sort of, rocking out to Billie Jean."
It just seemed very surreal to me.
The prosecution, in my opinion, didn't know what to do
with the fact that they found 10 years' worth of magazines,
Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, at Neverland,
which would suggest that Michael Jackson was heterosexual,
and interested in seeing pictures of beautiful women who were naked.
They weren't quite sure how to fit that into their theory that he was a paedophile.
So they came up with the notion that a paedophile will take magazines like this
to somehow groom the alleged victim.
The district attorney showed so much pornography
that your head was spinning by the time this was over.
It was the only day that Katherine
excused herself from the courtroom for the afternoon.
I thought, they're constantly flashing this material at the jury,
which was a majority of females, by the way,
I thought just was stupid, but that's what they did.
They couldn't find any pornography on his computers.
They had the FBI test every computer at Neverland,
they couldn't find any kiddie pornography.
So they just tried to fit everything into their theory
and it just became an absurdity.
You just knew that there was really something devious going on.
This guy, Tom Sneddon, was really out to get him.
It had to be totally torture.
I couldn't imagine what was going on in his mind and in his head.
He's not strong in that way, though.
The stress and strain of this five-month trial took a toll on him.
You saw him losing weight, he was having trouble sleeping.
I would talk to him at 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 in the morning,
and he would be terrified,
particularly about what might happen to his children.
He did need some things to help him fall asleep at night,
because there was no way he was sleeping with all this stuff going on in his head.
I don't know how anyone could sleep.
The thought that you might be found guilty
and spend the rest of your life in a jail cell
and all your accomplishments washed down the drain,
I don't know how he coped.
Most people would've taken a gun to their head.
His frame of mind was very, very fragile,
and I was concerned for him.
He was very worried about his children and his mother
and what people would think.
The first day of Gavin's testimony,
Michael shows up and he's in pyjamas,
and he looked like he was in really bad shape.
And they actually, they had to, like, help him into the courtroom.
From that moment on, everything started to get really awful.
You started seeing Michael coming in every day, looking like death.
It was as if the testimony was just destroying him.
To sit there in court and watch the legal system hurl
absurd and vindictive and nasty, mean-spirited allegations at him like this,
absolutely traumatized him.
For me, and for other people who actually knew Michael,
this was a real human being, whose life was being destroyed,
and every day it just seemed to get worse.
5 months after the trial began the attorneys presented their closing arguments.
On June 13th, 2005 after 9 days of deliberation the jury reached a verdict.
If found guilty of all 10 charges Michael faced spending the rest of his life in prison.
One of the sheriffs came to me and said, "You've got the best seat in the house."
And I said, "Why?" And he said, "Because you're sitting right behind Michael.
"And when we find him guilty,
"we're going to get him out of there so fast that your head's gonna spin."
These people had already decided that Michael was guilty.
And they were sure of it,
so sure that they had an exit plan to get him out of there.
Michael came into the courtroom and he looked like he was on serious drugs.
He really, truly looked like a dead man walking.
It was a tense moment, you know,
the entire world stopped to watch what was gonna happen
to the best known celebrity, a musical genius, Michael Jackson.
That was such an awfully emotional day, you just didn't know what to expect.
We, the jury, in the above entitled case,
find the defendant not guilty of conspiracy,
as charged in count one of the indictment.
The verdict was read and it was, "Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty."
All the way down the line, all counts, "Not guilty."
And I remember, very specifically, Michael seeming to not understand.
And I remember Tom Sneddon looking at Michael for a reaction
and not really getting one.
And I also remember Tom Mesereau, his lawyer, leaning in
and mouthing to Michael Jackson, "You're a free man."
I could read his lips, 'cause I was so close.
And Michael still didn't get it.
You felt like it was a triumphant moment
but then when you looked at him, you realised that he wasn't there for it.
There was nothing you could do.
He was so devastated that it had happened
that you couldn't even find a place to be happy that it ended the way it did
because it was so devastating that it had occurred at all.
It's sad because I really feel that trial
is what really depressed my brother out to the point
where he just wasn't happy.
He never went back to Neverland.
For Michael not to go to Neverland,
he must've been pretty sad.
Didn't wanna have nothing to do with that place ever again.
He would always tell me,
"It's over. I don't trust anyone.
"I don't know why they're doing this to me. They want me dead."
He said, "They're gonna kill me for what I got."
I'm pretty sure there was times when he felt that, you know,
"I wish I was someone else," or, other than an entertainer.
There's a certain point that you can get to with success
Smokey Robinson ARTIST, MOTOWN RECORDS
where you have no life whatsoever.
You lose the ability to be a person.
To be a person that cannot be a part of the everyday life of this world,
Russell Thompkins, Jr. LEAD SINGER, 'THE STYLISTICS'
it could really be devastating on the mind.
You can't get it all for free.
And that's what happened with Michael,
Freda Payne SINGER
he had to give up so much that he lost his ability
to just walk amongst everyday people.
This was the first artist that I'd been associated with,
Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff
PRODUCERS I SONGWRITERS, PHILADELPHIA INT. RECORDS
and the only artist that I'd been associated with,
that you could not walk down the street with.
Look at my life. It's somewhat normal. It's not normal, but it's a little normal.
But judging my life to his, his was nowhere close.
He just couldn't be anonymous.
Impossible.
Michael Jackson is proclaimed the King of Pop.
Martha Reeves ARTIST, MOTOWN RECORDS
It's kind of hard being a king.
You can get out of sorts.
I think he, kind of, like, isolated himself from everyone who would say no.
BILLY DAVIS JR: Everything he wants is, "Yes. Okay, Michael."
It's hard to have someone there
Billy Davis, Jr. SINGER, '5th DIMENSION'
to give you an honest answer, an honest opinion.
KATHERINE: Joseph would always tell him, "Michael, watch your people.
"Michael, watch your people."
He said, "I trust my people. My people are good people."
But that's not the case.
Katherine Jackson MICHAEL'S MOTHER
People smile in your face, pat you on the back
and stab you at the same time.
These people saw money,
Bobby Taylor ARTIST, GORDY I MOTOWN RECORDS
and they saw somebody who they could get to.
It was hard for Michael to say no, as a kid and as an adult.
Because he generated so much wealth and so much profit,
Thomas A. Mesereau, Jr. JACKSON'S ATTORNEY, 2005 TRIAL
he became the repeated target of unsavoury characters,
many of them mediocre,
who tried to get near him, promise him the moon
and then profit themselves by being around him.
And I think he received some tremendously bad advice throughout his career
when it came to finances.
Michael was an easy touch,
and anybody could take advantage of him
just because he trusted everybody's word.
Michael would bring random people into his life for business deals.
They would offer him the world and Michael would believe them.
Michael told me he only committed to 10 shows at the O 2 dome
for his comeback concerts.
When he found out that he was committed to 50 shows
and there was no way of getting out of it,
he snapped.
He felt like they'd tricked him, he was put up against the wall
and let down by people, or misled, I should say.
It was thrown on him by his manager
and, in his state of mind, he could've said yes to anything.
After I heard that he was doing those many shows,
I started calling him, telling him...
Then I heard how they were gonna do 'em every other day,
and I told him he couldn't do it that way. He had to rest.
And I kept after them.
The wear and tear
of all the managers,
all the promises that they didn't live up to,
took its toll.
Probably, a more stronger person would be able to fight through a lot of that,
and a lot of them have.
Frank Sinatra, he was pursued the same way,
but he seemed to be a person who could put people at bay.
But it seemed like Michael has a certain type of frailty to his self
and it wouldn't allow him to be very strong-minded
or to be forceful with a lot of people.
Everybody he met, he trusted them, for some reason.
And I think that's why Michael was taken advantage of so much.
Doctors are human beings, too,
and they get star-struck,
and they want a little touch of that fame,
and they wanna be able to say, "I'm Michael Jackson's doctor."
Michael would doctor shop, like a lot of celebrities do,
and he'd find the doctor,
just the right one, who would do the thing that Michael wanted him to do.
Michael felt that he needed to escape,
and he had always been suffering from insomnia,
from as far back as I can remember.
Michael Jackson did have a problem.
Do I believe he was an addict?
No, I don't believe Michael Jackson was a drug addict.
He went through cycles.
It really depended on what was happening in his life and in his world.
I had no reason to think or believe that he was on drugs
until my children came to me one time and they said it,
and I said, "Well, I've never seen him in that shape."
Then I went to him and I talked to him about it,
and he kept denying it.
I asked him, I said, "Now, Michael, is there any problems I should know about?"
"What do you mean?"
I said, "Well, you know, once in a while you seem a little dizzy.
"You wanna go to rehab?"
"No. No! There you go. See? Now, why would you assume that?
"I'm not taking anything, Frank. I'm not doing one thing."
One of the people working for him said,
"You won't ever guess what this man is doing to get to sleep."
And I said, "What?"
And I was told he's using an anaesthetic.
And I said, "What?
"How do you do that?" I had never heard of such a thing.
He said, "Dude, I don't know what to tell you, but that's what's going on."
Unfortunately, he did find doctors who were willing to do this crazy thing
that ultimately led to his death.
Fire Paramedic 33. What is the nature of your emergency?
We have a gentleman here that needs help, he's not breathing.
We have breaking news for you tonight,
the singer Michael Jackson is reported to have died from a heart attack.
I heard that my brother had passed away through my sister Janet,
Tito Jackson MICHAEL'S BROTHER
who asked me to pull over 'cause I was rushing over to my mom's.
I just couldn't believe it.
So, I had to just sit in my car and pull myself together,
you know, and I went over to my mom's home.
The entire family had met that evening,
and was there condoling each other, you know.
It was rough.
Just the whole time was a rough time in my life.
Rebbie Jackson MICHAEL'S SISTER
It's so very difficult even to talk about it. It really is.
I was heartbroken.
I was just totally heartbroken.
It was probably one of the most surreal
Peabo Bryson SINGER
and solemn days of life as we know it, I would think.
I was devastated. I started to cry.
David Gest MICHAEL'S CLOSE FRIEND
We had spent 40 years of our lives as the closest of friends.
And I couldn't believe it.
I remember the feeling I got, you know.
Lamont Dozier SONGWRITER, HOLLAND-DOZIER-HOLLAND
It was like somebody punching you in the stomach.
God, it was just so...
I didn't follow the news a lot.
I'll tell you why I didn't follow the news.
Eddie Floyd SINGER I SONGWRITER, STAX RECORDS
It's because of the people exploiting the man.
That makes me sad.
The night that Michael died,
the next show I did, I mentioned Michael, too.
Dennis Edwards LEAD SINGER, 'THE TEMPTATIONS'
It just was...
People just stood up, you know. They stood up.
And a lot of people took their cigarette lighters out
and just lit it.
You know, it's just sad, man. It's sad.
It's just a sad moment,
to have to carry one of your brothers to his grave.
We would perform all night, tell you the truth, every day.
It's not a good feeling.
It's a major part of you died with that.
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.
I never lost a child.
Children are supposed to bury their parents, not parents bury their children.
And that's what hurt me the most.
Many days, I go back to his first cry,
from the doctor slapping him on his butt,
up till his death.
But
all the memories of Michael are fond to me. I can't pick out any particular.
I'm happy with the children here,
and at the same time, I'm sad because their father's gone.
They always say, "Daddy did it this way.
"Daddy used to do this. Daddy used to do that."
Those kids are so proud of their father.
I can't find words.
To me, it's just such a loss, too soon.
Eddie Holland SONGWRITER, HOLLAND-DOZIER-HOLLAND
It left such a gap and made us see what was missing.
Valerie Simpson & Nickolas Ashford
SINGERS I SONGWRITERS, 'ASHFORD & SIMPSON'
Why hadn't we embraced him? Why hadn't we loved him?
He gave us so much love
and so much wonderful music.
And I think that this is what we'll always remember him for.
I love the fact that everything he sang, he sang from his heart.
And I love listening to him singing, every record he's ever recorded.
Michael's legacy is that he will be known as the greatest entertainer ever.
Michael was a great talent.
He was the best overall talent that I've ever seen in my life,
and I've been following talent since I was three years old.
He was the best I ever saw.
I'll remember that little boy that I met when he was 10 years old,
Dionne Warwick SINGER
that little feisty, cute, incredibly talented youngster,
that went on to become one of the greatest entertainers that ever lived.
There's only one Michael Jackson.
To me and my children,
Percy Sledge SINGER
he meant so much to our lives.
He was, to me, the greatest entertainer I had ever seen in my life.
Whitney Houston SINGER
He was a gentleman and he was very kind.
And I'll always love him, always.
He was one of the warmest
and most loveable persons you could ever meet.
I think Michael's greatest achievement, throughout his life,
was making people happy,
helping people.
If somebody needed an operation, or a family starving that needed food,
he would send over groceries for a year and things like that.
I think that's where he really got his enjoyment,
seeing somebody sad become happy.
Those are the things he really wanted to achieve that was beyond the music.
We will remember him as this great showman and humanitarian.
When people say to me,
"Do you think of Michael as being a tragedy?"
I just don't think of that at all.
I think that Michael's story is one of triumph.
This is a man who was the total embodiment of the American dream.
This is a guy who came out of Gary, Indiana, and set the world on fire.
He did amazing things with his life.
Did he make mistakes? Yes.
But that's the humanity of Michael Jackson, I think, that's most appealing.
He wanted to make the world a better place.
That spirit of his is still around now.
The part that I loved the most about him was that gentle friend side.
All the other things, everybody knows about.
But that part of Michael, that's the part I love.
God bless Michael Jackson, you know, 'cause he was one of the greatest.
Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff
PRODUCERS I SONGWRITERS, PHILADELPHIA INT. RECORDS
Michael Jackson became the biggest pop star of all time
but that's not how I'm gonna remember him,
because he was just one great human being.
Rest well, my friend. I love you, M.
Katherine, how do you feel Michael Jackson will be remembered?
Well, David, Michael practised one thing, and it was from his heart,
L-O-V-E, love.
And I think he will be remembered for the love that he had for the world,
and especially for his fans,
and his family.
- Thank you so much. - Okay.
- I love you. Can I have a big hug? - Of course.
Rip By Senseman