Michael Jackson

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  ‘Frank [Dileo] was against the idea, but Michael is a very strong-minded person. He told me what he wanted to say, I wrote the text of the statement, he approved it, and we went from there.’

  The problem was that Michael decided that he did not want to appear at the press conference; he was too shy to face the press and discuss such a personal matter.

  On 5 September 1984, a major news conference was arranged in a West Hollywood sound studio. Frank Dileo – in dark sunglasses and with a cigar in his mouth – stepped in front of a podium to announce that he was about to read a two-page statement from Michael, ‘who, as you all know, has risen to the pinnacle of success in his field.’

  In a gruff, tough-guy voice, the burly manager read: ‘For some time now, I have been searching my conscience as to whether or not I should publicly react to the many falsehoods that have been spread about me. I have decided to make this statement based on the injustice of these allegations and the far-reaching trauma those who feel close to me are suffering.

  ‘I feel very fortunate to have been blessed with recognition for my efforts. This recognition also brings with it a responsibility to one's admirers throughout the world. Performers should always serve as role models who set an example for young people. It saddens me that many may actually believe the present flurry of false accusations. To this end, and I do mean END: NO! I've never taken hormones to maintain my high voice; NO! I've never had my cheekbones altered in any way; NO! I've never had cosmetic surgery on my eyes. YES! One day in the future I plan to get married and have a family. Any statements to the contrary are simply untrue.

  ‘Henceforth, as new fantasies are printed, I have advised my attorneys of my willingness to institute legal action and subsequently prosecute all guilty to the fullest extent of the law.

  ‘As noted earlier, I love children. We all know that kids are very impressionable and therefore susceptible to such stories. I'm certain that some have already been hurt by this terrible slander. In addition to their admiration, I would like to keep their respect.’

  After reading the statement, Frank refused to answer questions from the assemblage of reporters, and left the podium.

  No celebrity had ever gone to such lengths to proclaim his or her heterosexuality. The fact that Michael didn't appear in person dampened his declaration. Also, his statement was full of half-truths. Perhaps he hadn't had surgery on his eyes, as he claimed, but he certainly had surgery on his nose, and three times. How could he repudiate one story relating to plastic surgery without admitting the whole truth about work done on his nose? Because of this obvious omission, one was forced to wonder what else Michael was not revealing. In the end, the press conference backfired; if anything, it raised more questions than it answered.

  PART SEVEN

  Michael Buys the Beatles' Songs

  While Michael Jackson was on the road with the Victory tour, he made further headlines – this time on the business pages – by purchasing the ATV Music Publishing Company for an astounding $47.5 million. The purchase, believed to be the biggest publishing acquisition of its kind ever by an individual, was actually the culmination of ten intense months of negotiation. The seed of this venture had been planted a few years earlier when Michael was in London to record the number one hit ‘ Say, Say, Say’ with Paul McCartney at Abbey Road Studios. Michael had become friendly with Paul and Linda McCartney during his stay; he ate most of his meals at their home outside of London. One evening after dinner, Paul displayed a thick booklet of song titles to which he owned the rights, including most of Buddy Holly's material, and standards such as ‘Autumn Leaves’, ‘Sentimental Journey’ and ‘Stormy Weather’.

  ‘This is the way to make big money,’ Paul said. ‘Every time someone records one of these songs, I get paid. Every time someone plays these songs on the radio, or in live performances, I get paid.’

  ‘You're kidding me, right?’ Michael said.

  ‘Do I look like I'm kidding you?’ Paul answered, seriously. In truth, Paul reportedly earns more than forty million dollars a year from record and song royalties not of his own personal composition.

  Michael was intrigued. He owned the publishing rights to his own songs – obtaining that right was one of the reasons he and his family had left Motown and Berry Gordy's Jobete publishing house – but he always thought of publishing as a tedious business primarily concerned with collecting royalties and licensing material for other media. Paul explained that the world of publishing can prove lucrative, especially thanks to the CD explosion and the increased use of popular songs in advertisements, movies and televisions. Songwriters often lose their copyrights for one reason or another: sometimes they sell them for profit – a shortsighted thing to do, especially nowadays when so much money is generated in the music industry – and often they lose them out of ignorance, as in the case of The Beatles, who simply signed away their rights when they were naive and didn't know any better.

  As it happened, Paul McCartney and John Lennon had sold their copyrights to a publisher named Dick James when they were young. James ended up making a fortune on The Beatles' songs. Then, in the late sixties, while McCarney and Lennon were each on their respective honeymoons James sold Northern Songs – the company that continued to hold the rights to the Beatles' compositions – to Sir Lew Grade's ATV Music Limited. ATV's assets were later purchased by Australian businessman Robert Holmes à Court's Bell Group. McCartney and Lennon's estate split with ATV the songwriting revenue generated by 251 of their songs written between 1964 and 1971 – including ‘Yesterday’, ‘Michelle’, ‘Help’, ‘A Hard Day's Night’, ‘The Long and Winding Road’, ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Let It Be’, and many others. ATV also held the publishing rights to thousands of other compositions, including songs by The Pointer Sisters, Pat Benatar and Little Richard (including ‘Tutti Frutti’, ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘Rip It Up’ and ‘Lucille’).

  When Michael told Paul, ‘Maybe someday I'll buy your songs,’ Paul laughed.

  ‘Great,’ he said. ‘Good joke.’

  Michael wasn't joking. Paul would one day regret their conversation.

  ‘I gave him a lot of free advice,’ he would later say. ‘And you know what? A fish gets caught by opening his mouth.

  ‘Michael's the kind of guy who picks brains. When we worked together, I don't even think he'd had the cosmetic surgery. [He actually did have surgery by that time.] I've got photos of me and him at our house, and he looks quite different. He's had a lot of facial surgery since then. He actually told me he was going to a religious retreat, and I believed him. But he came out of that religious retreat with a new nose. The power of prayer, I guess.’

  Michael and Paul remained somewhat friendly, but Michael also kept his distance. He didn't want Paul to perceive him as being anything more than an acquaintance, perhaps because he had a plan.

  When Michael returned to the United States, he mentioned Paul's book of titles to John Branca and said that he wanted to buy some copyrights himself, ‘like Paul’. John did his research and presented Michael with a list of songs that were for sale. Michael's first purchase was the Sly Stone catalogue, including all of Sly's pop classics of the 1970s, such as ‘Everyday People’, ‘Hot Fun in the Summertime’, and ‘Stand!’ (‘Stand!’ was the song The Jackson 5 performed the first time they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Now, Michael owned it.) For less than a million dollars, Michael also secured a few other titles, including two of Dion's hits, ‘The Wanderer’ and ‘Runaround Sue’, Len Barry's ‘1-2-3’ and the Soul Survivors' ‘Expressway to Your Heart’.

  For the next couple of months, Michael was too preoccupied with the Victory tour to concentrate on any publishing deals. But then in September 1984, when John Branca flew to Philadelphia to meet with Frank Dileo and Michael about the Victory tour's problems, John casually mentioned the availability of the ATV catalogue. Michael wasn't sure what kind of music ATV represented.

  ‘Well, it happens to include a few things you might be interested in,’
John teased.

  ‘Like?’ Michael asked.

  ‘Northern Songs.’

  Michael became excited. ‘You don't mean the Northern Songs, do you?’

  ‘Yeah, Mike,’ John said. He couldn't contain his enthusiasm. ‘We're talking The Beatles, man. The Beatles.’

  In fact, Paul McCartney had tried to buy ATV in 1981. He asked Yoko Ono to purchase the publishing house with him for twenty million dollars, ten million each, but she thought that was too much money and declined. Because Paul didn't want to spend the twenty million dollars himself, the deal fell through.

  As Michael skipped about the room, whooping and hollering, John warned him that there would be stiff competition in a bidding war for such popular songs. ‘I don't care,’ Michael declared. ‘I want those songs. Get me those songs, Branca.’

  John said he would see what he could do. He then telephoned John Eastman, Paul McCartney's attorney and brother-in-law, and asked if Paul was planning to bid on the catalogue. ‘No,’ Eastman said. ‘It's too pricey.’

  A few days later, Yoko Ono telephoned John and said that she had heard a rumour that Michael was interested in purchasing ATV. Then, she spent forty-five minutes trying to make John believe that buying the catalogue was a terrible idea. John discussed the conversation with Michael. ‘Man, she obviously just wants it for herself,’ Michael said, ‘but doesn't want to spend the bucks. She's hoping the price will go down if I don't buy it. So, buy it, Branca.’

  The next few months were filled with intensive and frustrating negotiations. Bidding against Michael were Charles Koppelman and Marty Bandier's Entertainment Company; Virgin Records; real estate tycoon Samual J. Lefrak; and financier Charles Knapp. At one point, John Branca called off the negotiations, completely.

  During those eight tense months, Paul McCartney again tried to convince Yoko Ono to join him in a bid. When Yoko repeated that she was not interested, Paul decided not to bid.

  Meanwhile, Michael telephoned John Branca once a week for news.

  When Koppelman and Bandier had beaten Michael's offer of $47.5 million with one of $50 million, Michael was crushed. ‘Branca, we can't lose this, now,’ he said. ‘You gotta do something. I know we agreed that we wouldn't spend more than $41 million, but I'm willing to do it.’

  The Koppelman and Bandier offer was being financed by the MCA company, so John made a telephone call to the head of the company, Irving Azoff. ‘Man, you can't give these guys money to buy this catalogue,’ John told Irving. ‘Did you know that they're competing against Michael for it? Remember, you were a consultant for the Victory tour?’

  ‘Johnny, don't worry about it,’ Irving Azoff said. ‘I'll take care of it.’

  Azoff then pulled the rug out from under Koppelman and Bandier by refusing to finance their offer. John Branca had put Michael back in the driver's seat.

  Soon, Robert Holmes à Court was telephoning John Branca and practically begging him to go to London and close the deal. John played hardball and acted as if Michael wasn't interested. Holmes à Court offered to pay for John's plane fare, but John could afford his own ticket, and didn't want any favours at this stage of the game. John agreed to go to Europe, and Holmes à Court even said that if the deal wasn't closed on that trip, he would reimburse all of John's travel and accommodation expenses.

  After Michael gave John power of attorney, he went to England and closed the deal in twenty-four hours. Michael Jackson never signed the important, history-making contracts; John Branca did. John then telephoned Michael long-distance to give him the news, bad and good. The bad news: he was out $47.5 million. The good news: he owned ATV.

  Michael couldn't believe his good fortune. The same could be said for Paul McCartney, who said, ‘Someone rang me up one day and said, “Michael's bought your songs.” I said, “What??!!” I think it's dodgy to do things like that,’ Paul complained. ‘To be someone's friend and then to buy the rug they're standing on.’

  After the deal was struck, Michael did attempt to telephone Paul to discuss the matter. Knowing his personality, that probably wasn't an easy thing for Michael to do, still he at least tried. However, when he called, Paul hung up on him. Finally, Michael concluded, ‘Paul's got a real problem, and I'm finished trying to be a nice guy. Too bad for him. I got the songs and that's the end of it.’

  Robert Hilburn, in an analysis of the ATV acquisition for the Los Angeles Times, explained Michael's purchase in dollars and cents: ‘If, for instance, “Yesterday” earns $100,000 a year in royalties from record sales, airplay and live performances, the Lennon estate and McCartney – as co-writers – divide about 50 per cent of that income, about $25,000 each. The publisher – now Michael Jackson – collects the other 50 per cent. The publisher also controls the use of the song in terms of films, commercials and stage productions.’ Yesterday in particular probably earns considerably more.

  As soon as Michael made the purchase, he and his representatives investigated tactics to make it pay off for him. He hired a staff to develop an anthology series and four films using The Beatles' music, including Strawberry Fields, an animated feature; Back in the USSR, a movie based on Russian rockers; and films based on ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘The Fool on the Hill’. Michael also planned musical greeting cards and music boxes. When he licensed ‘Revolution’ to Nike for a sneaker advertisement, he obtained Yoko Ono's consent, but not Paul McCartney's. In fact, Paul, like many Beatles fans, felt Michael was cheapening the music.

  In the end, though, Paul had to accept Michael's decision. Every time Paul performed one of the songs he wrote between 1964 and 1971, he had to pay Michael.

  When Michael sold ‘All You Need is Love’ to Panasonic for $240,000, Paul finally called him and told him he was going too far. Michael didn't even hang up on him. He explained that he felt using The Beatles' songs in commercials enabled the music to reach an entirely new generation of fans who would then buy Beatles' records. ‘I just don't like the idea that Michael Jackson is the only guy in the world who gets to sit in judgement as to which Beatles songs can be used in commercials,’ Paul later said. ‘He's drawn up a list! I don't see how he should have that power.’

  Paul said he had hoped that ‘All You Need is Love’ would remain an anthem of the sixties, not become a jingle for ‘a friggin' loudspeaker system. And I also don't want “Good Day Sunshine” to become an Oreo cookie,’ he complained, ‘which I understand he's done. I think that's real cheesy. I don't think Michael needs the money.’

  On the other hand, Paul owns the Buddy Holly catalogue and had exploited Holly's songs commercially many times over, because, as he's reasoned, ‘Buddy himself did commercials, and his widow actively wants us to earn money via commercials. It's her call.’

  Yoko seemed satisfied with what Michael did with The Beatles' catalogue and called his ownership ‘a blessing’. She said in November 1990, ‘Businessmen who aren't artists themselves wouldn't have the consideration Michael has. He loves the songs. He's very caring. There could be a lot of arguments and stalemates if Paul and I owned it together. Neither Paul nor I needed that. If Paul got the songs, people would have said, “Paul finally got John.” And if I got them, they'd say, “Oh, the dragon lady strikes again.”’

  In 1990, Paul and Michael met to discuss what Paul called ‘this problem of publishing’. Paul recalled, ‘I put it to him this way: “When we signed our deal, John and I didn't even know what publishing was. We thought songs were in the sky and everyone owned them. These days, even kids know better than that. Last year, “Yesterday” passed the five-million-plays mark in America, which no other song has ever done. Not even “White Christmas”. But no one has ever come up to me and said, “Hey man, I really think you need a bonus. You've done great for this company.” So what the fuck is going on? You mean I've got to be content for the rest of my life to be on this deal I signed when I was a fresh-faced twenty-year-old? I've done a lot for this company.’

  Michael acted as though he didn't understand what in the world Pa
ul was telling him. Therefore, Paul spelled it out for him. ‘I wanted him to recognize in the deal that I'm a big writer for this company that he now owns,’ McCartney recalled.

  Michael told Paul that he didn't ‘want to hurt anyone’, and Paul said he was happy to hear that. ‘He's a genuine bloke, Mike is,’ a placated Paul would then say of him. Michael promised that he'd try to work something out.

  The next day, John Eastman, Paul's attorney, telephoned John Branca and told him that Paul and Michael had agreed to renegotiate a higher writer's royalty for his songs. John checked it with Michael. ‘Heck, no, I didn't tell Paul that,’ Michael said, annoyed. ‘In fact, he's not getting a higher royalty unless I get something back from him, in return.’

  John passed Michael's comment on to Paul's attorney.

  ‘Okay, then fine. We'll sue,’ Eastman threatened.

  ‘Hey, be my guest,’ Branca told him.

  When John told Michael that Paul might sue him, Michael laughed out loud. ‘Cool. Let him sue,’ he said. ‘Meanwhile, go license some more songs, Branca. Let's make some money. Let's run this thing like a business.’

  An associate of Michael's said, ‘Privately, Michael's feeling was: Paul had two chances to buy the company. Both times, he was too cheap to spend the money. Mind you, Paul is said to be the richest entertainer in the world, worth about $560 million. His royalties in one year come to $41 million. As Mike told me, “If he didn't want to invest £47.5 million in his own songs, then he shouldn't come crying to me now.” He's a hard-hearted son-of-a-gun, Michael Jackson is, just like his father. And when it comes to Paul, Michael doesn't want to know anything. “I got those songs fair and square,” he's said. “They're mine, and no one can tell me what to do with them. Not even Paul McCartney. So, he'd better learn to deal with it.”’