Part II
MJ: Yes.
JJ: … We all had prayer together, ahem…
MJ: Yes we did.
JJ: The Victory Tour. Describe that season.
MJ: The Victory Tour was one of the great pinnacles of our-our, my success because Thriller had won more Grammys than any other album in the history of – of music, and it created so much phenomenon and such adulation and notoriety at the universal level, and it was very, very hard to-to go anywhere, do anything without press and helicopters and people sleeping in your bushes and hiding in your trees, and it was just a phenomenal pinnacle, it really was and after all of that, I announced that I was going to tour. And to tour and perform those songs live, in front of an audience so the world was going just really, really wild at that time. And we did this tour that broke records all over America and we played stadiums, for instance, the-the setting records at Dodgers Stadium, before we played it, it was one show and a half by Elton John. We did 8 shows there – sold out, and they wanted another 2 – so we did 8 sold out shows there. (Clears throat) This happened all over America ~~ the first city was Kansas City and that’s where we met with you Jessie and I remember you coming to the suite and you gave prayer and it was a beautiful thing and ah, it was an amazing time, it really was. My dreams had come true.
JJ: Good. Good. But you know Michael, in this life, they say some rain must fall and you’ve had these seasons of just ahem, tailwinds like pushing you forward. But life is of such that’s not a straight line, ah, some argue you're either in a storm, or you are just leaving a storm, and going to a storm and it’s not difficult to handle the sunshine of bright skies, tailwinds days, but then these headwinds come that kind of uh, test what you really are made of, the kind of test your metal, your true grit. And so you’ve had these high points. What do you consider to be the low point?
MJ: Probably the low point, the lowest point, emotionally and experience, is probably what I’m going through (clears throat).
JJ: In the sense – what, what about it has kind of stung you?
MJ: What about it … has what?
JJ: Has stung you, so to speak.
MJ: Has, …. Use the word again…
JJ: STUNG. You said it’s kind of hurt you, you said the low point.
MJ: Yeah, just the pain of what I’m going through, where I’m being accused of something, where I know in my heart and in my experiences in life I’m totally innocent, and it’s very painful. But this has been kind of, ah, a pattern among Black luminaries in this country.
JJ: And so since, you-you have been going through this and you feel the pain, you think it’s a kind of a pattern? How are you handling it spiritually? Because you go from being held so high and now your very character, your very integrity is under attack. How you're handling it?
MJ: I’m handling it by using other people in the past who have gone through this sort of thing. Mandela’s story is giving me a lot of strength, what he’s gone through and the Jack Johnson story was on PBS ~~ it’s on DVD now. It’s called ‘Unforgivable Blackness’. It’s an amazing story about this man from 1910 who was the heavyweight champion of the world and bust into a society that didn’t want to accept his position and his lifestyle, and what they put him through, and how they changed laws to imprison the man. They put him away behind bars just to get him some kind of way. And-and Muhammad Ali’s story. All these stories. The Jesse Owens story. All these stories that I can go back in history and read about gives me strength Jessie. Your story gives me strength, what you went through. Because I didn’t, I came in at the tail end of the Civil Rights Movement ~~ I’m a, ah – I-I didn’t get to really, I’m a 70’s child, really, but I got in on the tail end of the Civil Rights Movement and I got to see it, you know?
JJ: And so, you-you-you-you had these hits, ahem, and people that you have embraced are now facing you in court on a daily basis. How does your spirit handle that?
MJ: Ah, I gained strength from God. I believe in Jehovah God very much and ah, and I gain strength from the fact that I know I’m innocent ~~ none of these stories are true ~~ they are totally fabricated, and it’s very sad, it’s very, very painful. And I pray a lot and er, that’s how I deal with it and I’m a strong person, I’m a warrior. And I know what’s inside of me. I’m a fighter. But it’s very painful. At the end of the day, I’m human, you know, I’m still a human being. So it does hurt very, very, very much.
JJ: You and I were watching, you know you and I were talking last week on the phone and – and there was this rhythm of the trial, which we will not get into at all today, but then they shifted from the focus of the trial to say you are broke. And last week, people are calling in, all around the nation saying, “Is Michael broke”? Michael, are you broke???
MJ: That’s not true at all. It’s one of their many schemes to embarrass me and to just drag me through mud. And it’s the same pattern, like I told you before with these other people in the past. Same pattern. Don’t believe [it], you know, this is tabloid, sensationalized kind of gossip.
JJ: Well, how did the money issue get in it in the first place? Some people called and they thought it was about the Sony catalog. What’s- what’s in that catalog?
MJ: In my Sony Catalog, is all the Beatles music, ahem, all of the music I own – I own Sly and the Family Stone, I-I own such a volume of so many, I own Elvis – so many Elvis songs and it’s a huge catalog, very valuable, it’s worth a lot of money. And there is a big fight going on right now, as we speak about that. Now, I can’t say whether or not – I can’t comment on it, but there’s a lot of conspiracy, I’ll say that – conspiracy going on as we speak.
JJ: It was suggested by a number of your friends and family members was that this fight was really more about this catalog issue than it is any thing else. Do you believe that?
MJ: Well, you know, I don’t want to comment. I don’t want to make a comment, Jessie ah—it’s a real delicate issue and uh, I’ll let you, I’ll let you make the comment on that one.
JJ: Let me shift this to this extent. Ahem, since so many people are listening and there have been so many opinions – I was in London a couple of weeks ago, and 24/7 was Michael Jackson all-day-long and all-night-long and the day that you came to the hospital late [to court], you said you were injured. What happened that day?
MJ: I was coming, er, out of the shower and I-I-I fell. And all my body weight, and I’m pretty fragile, all my body weight fell against my rib cage. And I pretty much, er, er, I bruised my lung very badly. My lung is on the right, it’s very [sic], it’s, I’m in pain as we speak and ah, I’ve been going to court everyday in immense pain and agonizing pain. And I sit there – and I’m strong, I try to be as strong as I can. So I can, ahh, but what we are looking for is the coughing of blood now. The doctor said I should – he said it’s still very dangerous as we speak, and if I cough the blood, he said it’s a very dangerous thing, so we’re, we’re still watching it very closely.
JJ: The cynics said you were faking. And it seems that the judge is [sic] was not even willing to believe you, even though you had just left the hospital.
MJ: You know the – there’s no faking with this at all. I mean there was a scan done and you could see, uhhh, the swelling on my whole rib cage, I mean, uh, it was ~~ you could see it and it’s bright red. And how it, it [the fall] busted my chin, and it put a huge gash over my forehead, blood, it was er, it was very bad actually. And er, but errr, we’ve treating it actually, I do have some medicine for it, but we are watching it very closely.
JJ: As I listen to your talking about this whole ordeal that you are going through, and how you’ve er, stood strong sometimes amazingly so, ah, at some point last week, you – you cried. What-what touched you? What made you, breakdown, as it were?
MJ: You mean at court?
JJ: Yeah.
MJ: I was in pain. I was sitting there hurting. And er, the pain was so immense, all I could do was to sit there and cry. See, because it er, it was so intense at that moment, ah, ahem, I just couldn’t handle it. So I just grab tissues and just put it to my face… and…
JJ: So, it was more about your personal pain, than the, than the challenges of the, from the stand?
MJ: No, it had nothing to do with what was going on inside. It was totally with personal pain, physical pain.
JJ: Michael, since so many people are listening, I’m trying to gleam from some of our calls on the phone today and from last week, as people listen to you, what do you want people to know? Those listening to you on the phone – I see calls from Philadelphia, and from Holland and from Britian and New York and Mississippi and Florida, California – what do you want people to know?
MJ: About?
JJ: About you. About where you are now in the head, how you are feeling?
MJ: Well, ahem, pretty much to-to be strong for me, to pray for my children and my family and myself. This is uh…uh very difficult time and to not believe what they hear, and see and read and just because it’s in print does not make it… just because it’s in print does not make it the gospel. And uh… you know, because they have sensationalized this thing to an immense degree. It’s a feeding frenzy – it’s because of uh, my celebrity. The bigger the celebrity, the bigger the target. And they have to remember that. So they’ve turned this into money – it’s like who gets the biggest ratings, you know, it’s terrible what’s happened with it. But it’s part of what I have to suffer [through] as a celebrity. It’s part-part of what I have to go through. And to just uh, just know in the end that I will be vindicated, I pray, because I know the truth. I’m an innocent person. And I believe in God and love God. And just continue to pray for us.
JJ: You know that, given your faith, in God and in yourself, and your declaration of innocence and while you are going through this storm ahem, presuming that you ah – win this, this has been a close battle, ahhh, a very intense battle, because the battle is-is not over, ah, the, appearance, given your relationship ahh, has called for lots of consternation. Is there anything that you will do differently? When this season is over?
MJ: Is there anything that I would do differently?
JJ: Differently? When this season is over?
MJ: (Clears throat) Ahem, my level of trust will change. And ah, there-there there’s a lot of conspiracy going on. I’ll say that much. A lot of it.
JJ: Do you think that…. |