by Greg Prato
FRANK STALLONE: Fucking great, unbelievable, probably the best of all. He had everything he wanted — budget, anything. Michael Jackson could have done anything. And I'll say one thing about Michael. I knew Michael, and he worked his ass off. He didn't phone it in. He worked really hard. I thought "Billie Jean" was great. I thought "Beat It" was great. You can't not like them if you're a music guy. I don't think there's anyone that's come up with anything as good now. I mean, it was a minimal of special effects. Now it's totally special effects.
JOE ELLIOTT: Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Again, you're probably a little jealous of his budget. You find out they got a movie director doing them. But that's the solo artist over the band. It's a different animal. Nobody was expecting us to do Thriller. It was only Mutt that said that we could make "a rock Thriller," when we came to Hysteria. "Let's do an album with seven hit singles." We copied the theory. But "Billie Jean" was a fantastic video. I thought it was just awesome. The pavement lighting up was very cool.
ROB HALFORD: First of all, I still can't believe he's gone. I'm a metalhead first and foremost, but there's no denying he was an extraordinary talent, and there will never be another Michael Jackson. He was flying high in his career around the MTV moment, and everybody was excited. When they had those world premieres for the Jackson videos, everybody tuned in. Everybody stopped what they were doing. Because each one of them was going to be sensational. Every one of his videos were just extraordinary and uniquely different of the previous ones. You could tell — much like when you watch his last piece that's out now [This Is It] — he's just so on the ball of everything. Every single tiny thing means a lot to him, because he understands the value that this particular song or video piece will last forever. It will be here for centuries. I can just remember tuning in like everybody else and seeing "Beat It," "Thriller." Just every one was mind-blowing. He led the charge for that type of experience, with the dancers especially. I think he was one of the first artists that incorporated that extensive kind of choreography. So he just blew everybody's mind. He couldn't put a foot wrong — musically, visually, the look, everything. Gigantic superstar.
STEWART COPELAND: I can't remember. I think MTV and videos had been going for quite a while, concept videos that were shot like "a shoot," as opposed to just shooting the band goofing off. But he took it to the next level, certainly. But the idea, I'm not sure if he preceded or followed Adam Ant, but Adam Ant took "the video" a step further. But then [the videos from] Thriller went way far in that direction. It wasn't so much seminal as it was an apotheosis. So I wouldn't say it changed the rules; it just maximized the application of what was going on.
PETE ANGELUS: I would start by saying, regardless with what happened with Michael and the tabloids and all that crap, I have a tremendous respect for his talent. And I think that the videos that he created on MTV were outstanding. I think they changed the face of the channel. Everything about them — just his talent, was undeniable. And he kept pushing further and further up through “Thriller.” He was really creating something very special. I think that Michael Jackson was a very, very substantial part of the growth of MTV. I have nothing but respect for what he did in that regard.
GERALD CASALE: It was a different universe and aesthetic than what we were interested in. But I understood the artistry, and I admired his talent. I saw him, and I couldn't believe how incredible it was to watch him. And, of course, he had the money to do these slick, high production videos. I would find it hard to believe anybody that said they didn't like him. For some, it would be a guilty pleasure, but I mean, he's so incredible. There's nothing like him.
JELLO BIAFRA: I haven't seen a single one [of Michael Jackson's videos] to this day. I've seen little snippets after he died, but I just wasn't interested. I mean, I hated the Jackson 5 when I was kid, because I would much rather — at the time — listen to Black Sabbath or Steppenwolf or Led Zeppelin. "What's this crap doing on the radio? Get it away!" Of course, I was aware that a lot of other people disagreed with me. I finally figured I could forgive Michael Jackson for all that horrible music when he tried to buy the Elephant Man's remains. I thought, "Wow...by the time he's gone, this guy is going to be even weirder than Elvis!" I just didn't know how strange.
FEE WAYBILL: To be honest, I was never a Michael Jackson fan. I thought he was just too weird, trying to be a white guy. He was just too weird for me. I mean, the songs were very well-recorded and well-crafted, but I was not a huge fan.
ROGER POWELL: I never was actually a Michael Jackson fan per se. I actually thought he could sing a lot better when he was younger. And that maybe they just didn't let him sing, but developed that percussive vocal style. There were no long, drawn-out notes. It always had this "vulnerability sound" to it. So I was never really impressed with him as a singer, but those videos just worked so well. Of course, I bought his album, but it was mostly to hear how Quincy Jones did the magnificent producing and arranging and hiring all exactly the right players to pull that off. It was the backing tracks I guess I was most impressed with.
DAVE MARSH: People talk about Michael's videos..."Billie Jean" was beautiful. From "Thriller" onward, it just went into excess as far as I was concerned. And the music didn't stay as good.
ANGELO MOORE: As far as MTV goes, Michael Jackson was great all the way around. And as far as being one of the first black people to break through on MTV — as far as having your music out there — well man, Michael Jackson was doing what black people are supposed to do. They're supposed to play R&B. They're supposed to play funk and soul. They're not supposed to play rock. So Michael Jackson was doing what black people are supposed to do, and when Michael Jackson did play some rock, it was just a speck in the middle of all this R&B, soul, and funk, which is what the people know him for. So he wasn't causing any waves anyway. Bands like Fishbone, Bad Brains, [and later] Living Colour, 24-7 Spyz, and probably a couple more out there, those bands were going against the grain, as far as white America goes when it comes to rock n' roll.
DEBORA IYALL: I did write "A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)" as a response to "Billie Jean," and I also wrote it for a friend of mine who I wanted to cheer up. But I didn't like him saying, "The kid is not my son." I thought, "If any girl-pal friend of yours is in that situation, that's how you're going to act?" What a jerk! It's just another jerky male attitude. So I wrote "A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)" for her, in a way. I may be as fascinated by the production values, the amazing dancing, and great riffs of the Michael Jackson videos and persona, but I was always analyzing it for the content, to be true to myself, what I appreciate in our culture. He wasn't working in the same revolution as I was. [Laughs]
RUDY SARZO: To me, the most significant thing about Michael Jackson's videos was the fact that I strongly believe that people fear what they do not know or understand. And the fact that you might have somebody that represents to some people — unfortunately, who are racist — a "fear of," to bring into your home, to actually understand and realize that they are the same as everybody else, that we're all the same. To create that familiarity was an important factor that any MTV artist ever had, the fact that Michael Jackson was the great equalizer. Now, beyond that, you take his incredible artistry and vision, and it just magnifies his contribution. And not only that, he brought it not only to the people of the same demographic, but also to those who grew up watching Michael Jackson and appreciated him as an artist and a human being, and not just because he happened to be of a certain color. So his impact transcended generations. It made people who may have had a different outlook of what a black artist is and finally realize, "Oh, we're all the same." Whereas the new generation that might have never had that thought come across, just took him for what a great human being and artist he actually was.
BOB GIRALDI: I remember [the "Say Say Say" video] was one of the great moments of my life. Paul McCartney loved the idea. I came up with this idea that would [be] the "Mack and Jack Hour," and I thought they would be great c
on artists, roaming the Wild West, because that's the kind of song it sounded to me. And it seemed like kind of a "period piece song." In all due respect to Paul, it didn't seem terribly contemporary. It was always in my mind, rooted in a period mentality. And I came up with this sort of throwback. And two things I remember standing out in my mind about that shooting. One was that Paul was terribly insecure about appearing next to Michael, in terms of dance. And who wouldn't if you're going to go on stage and be choreographed next to Michael Jackson. You don't stand a chance, obviously. We went for a walk in the woods of Santa Ynez, where he was staying and where we shot. We talked about what I was going to do and how I wasn't going to do any dance at all, just a ten or fifteen second little romp, that was in the middle of it, when they were on the stage before they put the place on fire, to escape the police. And he needn't worry about it. He took me for a walk and got me high! It was one of the highlights of my life up until that time, being "turned on" by one of my favorite Beatles. He's notoriously famous for having the best smoke in town, and it sure was. We had a great walk. The second thing that I remember — which turned out to be historic — was it was the first time that a little known fashion designer...my fashion coordinator, a stylist named Faye Poliakin, went to Gianni Versace and asked if we could take what was then the beginning of his new collection. Which happened to be a Western theme. And she got those hats — those fedoras — old-fashioned sweaters, jackets, slacks. Paul was a little reluctant, but Michael went along, because Michael looked great in anything. The way he was built, he was so young, thin, supple, and beautiful, that he could wear anything. Linda talked Paul into it. And the stuff they were running around in all was lent to Faye for that video by Gianni Versace. It was the beginning of a couple of careers. [Laughs] There was another incident that happened that was kind of funny, and I can talk about it years [afterwards]. I was interviewed then, because I was working with those two superstars. And somebody asked me the question of what it's like on the set with two enormous egos and two enormous and talented superstars. And obviously, they were leading me into a place that I didn't know where I was going in those days. I wouldn't answer the question the same way today. But I said in a very naïve way, "There's only one star on my set, and that's the director." It was then printed a few days later, and it wasn't about ten minutes after it came out on newsstands that Michael called me from California, and it was one of the few times that he was lashing into me. He was telling me, "What the hell was that about?" We always used the same weak excuse, that we were misquoted, but I wasn't misquoted. It was exactly what I said. It was a very naïve statement and a very stupid statement, because while I had the authority as a director, the real authority and stars were Paul and Michael. But however, having said that, there was never a problem. Michael Jackson had the most incredible respect for people and other artists. As you can imagine, in all my years of working in film and commercials, I've worked with some of the worst divas and superstars of all time. Paul and Michael were not that. They were gentlemen. Because they were so big, they didn't have to scream and shout. And Paul ended up dancing...not dancing, strutting alongside Michael in that one little scene, and he did fine, because he was strumming on his guitar, like he always does.
BOB PITTMAN: Michael wanted to produce "Thriller" [as a video]. But CBS wouldn't pay for it. CBS said, "We're only going to pay for two videos per album." And for the only time I think in the history of MTV, we paid for a video. But we had to figure out, "How do we pay for it without starting a precedent that everybody wants us to pay for their video?" So we actually paid for “The Making of Thriller,” a TV show, which I think Vestron had the video rights on. We ran it on air, and they sold it as a VHS. And it turned out to be a big hit, but embedded in the cost of that was actually the cost of making the video. That was how we got around paying for a video, but in essence, paid for it. And by then, Michael had become so important to us that we wanted more and more from him, not less and less.
ALAN HUNTER: "Thriller" came along with an even bigger premiere, and the floodgates were open at that point. I think we all decided that we felt good about it, because it opened up for a lot more videos. We had a lot more to talk about at that time.
NINA BLACKWOOD: We all remember the big world premiere of "Thriller," which we talked about for weeks on end. Everybody was at home turning in on their TV, to see this amazing piece of footage. That was huge.
KEN CEIZLER: For the premiere of "Thriller," they had a big party at a museum, and we were invited. And a big argument we had, because I wanted to wear jeans, and everybody said I couldn't wear jeans. And then we got there, and Michael Jackson came out. He was wearing jeans.
LES GARLAND: "Thriller" wasn't just a music video. It was a short film. "Thriller" ran at 11 minutes, and we said, "Wait a minute. This video is going to be so huge. Let's try something." We never did what was called "destination television" very much. We had world premieres, like, "World premiere, Duran Duran, noon tomorrow." "Thriller," we pre-promo'd every single time we were going to play it. "'Thriller' will be repeated at 4:00." It was unbelievable the spikes in the ratings we would see.
JOE ELLIOTT: The "Thriller" video was just insane. I don't care what music you're into. Everybody sat in front of a TV if they could get to one for the premiere of the extended version of "Thriller." We all just looked at each other and went, "Whoa. That's just awesome."
ALDO NOVA: "Thriller" was like nothing you had ever seen at the time. It incorporated dance, a plot, a storyline. He just totally reinvented the genre at that point, to really stretch the boundaries. Everything he did, he really stood out. How much he was involved in it, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that he had some sort of vision that came out.
ERIC BLOOM: More money was spent. It was like making a movie. I mean, we spent like ten g's. [Laughs] We had no budget, and then he goes and spends a million on a video, and it's a night-to-day difference of how it was done and how it was made. It's the real deal. It's real Hollywood. It was inevitable, but he did it first. But you know something, Bob Seger and Rod Stewart had great videos without huge production. You didn't have to be Hollywood.
STAN RIDGWAY: When I would see a video like Michael Jackson's "Thriller," it came off fake to me. Like a bad movie or something. I would say almost too much cutting. When you cut a video and people are dancing, and you cut it every three seconds, there's really no charm in it, there's no joy in it, because I can't really ever see anybody complete a move much. So cutting in videos became rapid-fire, to a point where we were just cutting and cutting and cutting.
PAUL DEAN: My fondest memory of Michael Jackson was Cyndi Lauper, Mike [Reno], and I were at the American Music Awards. "And the 'Album of the Year' goes to...Michael Jackson!" Michael Jackson walks up, and I shook the gloved hand of Michael Jackson.
MIKE RENO: I liked the fact that he brought in a guitar player from a rock band. He'd bring in Eddie Van Halen or Slash or somebody. I knew some of the guitar players that worked with him, and they didn't bring in the "rhythm and blues guys." They brought in the heavy rockers. That really bridged it for me.
PETE ANGELUS: As far as the Edward thing [Eddie Van Halen playing the guitar solo on "Beat It"], all I remember is getting a phone call that Edward was being asked to play with Michael. And then having heard that he did it. He had a good time, and it went well. There have been incredible musical collaborations prior to that. But I think that Michael Jackson being what he was and the perception of Edward Van Halen as a guitar virtuoso, I think it was a very significant pairing. And very significant to that time in music and very significant to also what was being present on MTV, where you weren't seeing those collaborations more often than not. I thought it was great. It brought two musical worlds together.
FRANK STALLONE: When I first met him, he came over to Sly's house. I've got a picture of him and I on my website, frankstallone.com. He's wearing a red sweater with a Mickey Mouse thing on it and Levi's with white socks and black loafers and a black fedor
a. He was very nice. I was telling him some jokes, and he was laughing. He had a good sense of humor about him. But he was so guarded. People were up his ass all the time. But he was very cool.
BOB GIRALDI: I worked with him three times — on "Beat It," "Say Say Say," and that ill-fated Pepsi campaign, which the world has totally misinterpreted and been misinformed. It was an accident. It was an advertising agency wanting more, bigger, and better. And me asking the effects people to make the spark that happens at the top...when he comes up for the explosion behind him at the top of the stairs to be bigger. And "bigger" just exploded and got into his hair. What he had in his hair, mixed with the sparks, created a quick fire on his head, enough to really be injurious and hurtful. He went down the stairs trying to put it out. I was backstage watching the five monitors — I had five cameras going — and saw him completely out off-synch and realized, "This guy's never out of synch. Something is terribly wrong here." Then he fell to the floor, and we finally realized. It was put out and smothered, the police and ambulance were called, and the rest is history. But it was an accident. Nobody tried to hurt anybody. Nobody was, in my opinion, being irresponsible. I think it was just unfortunate, and it happened. I know he went through a lot of pain. I saw him later in the hospital. The burning of flesh is not an easy thing to take. But he was marvelous. He ended up donating money to the burn ward of UCLA, the hospital where he really enjoyed how they treated him. He got better and went on to become even bigger. There are not a lot of nice anecdotes on that shooting. Not only that, but the day before, when I did that wonderful commercial with the Jackson 5 and the young fellow that imitated him, Alfonso Ribeiro. They're both terrific commercials, actually, and you'd think you'd have a lot of joy. There was no joy. When you work with clients and an agency as high powered as they were, I remember it being contentious. And with Michael, too. There wasn't a lot of fun. There was a lot more pressure. I had a lot more fun making the videos. It's just the pressure of a client wanting it a way he wants it, an agency wanting it the way they want it, but also the way their clients want it. And a director wanting it to be the way I would like it to be. And then on top of it all, Michael...I think, in all honesty, Michael was embarrassed selling Pepsi Cola. I don't think he was comfortable ever selling Pepsi Cola. He never drank it. And that was also the time the brothers decided to wear shades, and the Pepsi client and the advertising client wanted me to tell Michael, Jermaine, Jackie, Tito, and Marlon to take their sunglasses off. And I said, "Why am I going to take them off? You tell them to take them off! They look kind of cool with them on." In a commercial, today, you can wear sunglasses. In those days, it was a barrier between you and the audience, so you didn't want to wear them. They eventually had to go and tell them themselves, and Michael didn't want to take them off, and then he reluctantly did. His father was involved, having been part of making the deal with Pepsi. Don't forget — this is the biggest deal of superstars endorsing a product of its time. It was not a lot of fun. It was a lot of pressure, a lot of opinions, a lot of high-power people. And out of it came a horrible accident. I saw him a couple of times afterwards at affairs or in California, and that was it. And then didn't have any relationship with Michael over the last 20 or so years. And as we all know, became a different person. But that was my history with Michael. And mostly, if you don't count the Pepsi experience, a positive experience in my life, obviously. I'm associated with that piece of work, but I'm proud of that piece of work.
