Tyrannical and controversial manager, Michael Jackson's father is dead
Joseph Walter Jackson, who died on June 27 at the age of 89, leaves behind the image of an iron-fisted patriarch, largely responsible for the success of his children, Michael Jackson's first and foremost. While the latter never really seemed to hold it against him, the road to superstar status has been paved with many belt shots and endless rehearsals.
Many fathers have made music stars of their children. Mury Wilson for the Beach Boys, Mathew Knowles for Destiny’s Child and Beyonce… But none has ever had the reputation of Joseph Walter Jackson, father of the five Jackson 5, and therefore of Michael Jackson. Violent, angry, tyrannical… The adjectives are not exaggerated. This is the image we will remember of him after his death on June 27, 2018 at the age of 89, after six years fighting the damage of a stroke, a car accident. He eventually died of overwhelming pancreatic cancer.
The legend of the broken rope
Himself the son of a violent father, he grew up in Oakland, California, and from his early teens seemed to have a predisposition for boxing, a sport in which he would have a small amateur career. It was in Chicago that he met his future wife, Katherine Scruse. Together, they will have ten children between 1950 and 1966. Among them, six will become pop superstars: Tito, Jermaine, Michael, Jackie, Marlon and Janet. The first five formed from the beginning of 1965 the group The Jackson Five.
The legend is as follows: one day, Tito borrows his father's guitar without his permission and breaks a string. Instead of inflicting the usual rousing on him, Jospeh allegedly asked him to play him a song. The boys had rehearsed in secret, and impressed with their performance, he would have finally bought his first guitar from Tito. Little by little, the group formed, with Michael, the youngest (then six years old), in choirs. First named The Jackson Brothers, they soon became The Jackson Five, and in 1967 signed their first record label deal with modest Steeltown Records. That's for the grandiloquent story, but the undersides of the nascent success are less glowing.
A tyrannical manager
The Patriarch leads his sons with an iron fist. The rehearsals are grueling, incessant and endless. And when the notes or the steps are wrong, the belt blows rain. But that, the public does not know. Big Boy, their first single, is a local Chicago hit. The siblings turn more and more, even occur in strip clubs from which Joseph pockets plump commissions. A classic in the music industry of the day. "We loved being together and singing together," Jospeh Walter Jackson said in 1970. It kept the boys busy and kept them from hanging out in the streets at night, and going wrong. In our neighborhood, a lot of kids got into trouble, some really big trouble. I didn't want this life for my kids. "
From 1969, everything changed. The Jackson Five signed with the juggernaut of American black music, created ten years earlier: Motown. The group opens concerts for label stars such as The Supremes, which includes singer Diana Ross. Already, Michael has gone from chorister to lead singer, and amazes by his maturity and musical rigor. Diana Ross coaches him, advises him, with the backing of Joseph, who behind the scenes takes care of all the contracts and oversees his small and downright flourishing family business.
Michael, planetary star
The single I Want You Back is a huge success, as are ABC, I’ll Be There and then The Love You Save. Four top tracks on the charts in four singles, a hell of a performance. From then on, his sons became superstars, toured relentlessly, and, for some, ended up going solo. And of course, the most lucrative goose that lays the golden eggs is Michael, who released his debut album Off The Wall in 1979. Joseph Jackson is still his manager, and without him he would never have become the King Of Pop. . For sure.
It wasn't until 1982, when Michael worked on his Thriller album, containing the tracks Beat It, Billie Jean, Thriller, PYT, or The Girl Is Mine, and which is still the best-selling album to this day. of all time, that the singer moves away from his father. But at the same time, Joseph launched the career of his 16-year-old daughter Janet.
Already, the image of the patriarch is deteriorating. Michael publicly flaunts his father's strict methods on several occasions, but never failing to make it clear that without this often-clicking wand, he and his brothers would never have achieved this level of musical performance. In 1993, the King Of Pop was at the height of its notoriety. A guest on Oprah Winfrey’s show, he says of his father, “If you weren't doing it right he would run into you, really. In response, Joseph explained that he did use the belt as a punishment at times, but always refused the term "beating his children."
Repercussions on the personality of his son?
His children have forgiven him for everything that made him the strictest father in the music business, including his numerous infidelities to their mother Katherine. In his Moonwalk autobiography released in 1988, Michael explained: “He looked after our interests and his. To this day, I am so grateful to him for not having tried to take all our money from us like so many celeb parents did… But I still don't know him in the end, it's sad for a son who aims to understand his own father. "
Michael, pushed into the limelight early on, isolated from other kids, has always lived in an adult world. Many put forward these facts as an explanation for the ambiguous relationship he will have with children during his career, and his more than atypical personality. But despite lawsuits, questionable arrangements with the families of alleged victims, and a baby hanging from a window in front of a crowd of reporters, Michael Jackson has so far taken the truth to his grave on June 25, 2009, at the age of 50 years. At the time of his death, his father was accused by many fans of taking advantage of this huge media exposure to promote his own record company. Eight years later, almost to the day, he has finally joined her.
