I Want My MTV (75 page)

 

DOUG GOLDSTEIN:
The videos caused tension in the band. Axl would just not show up for a day of shooting, so it doubled the cost. He did that on every video. Everybody else in the band was upset about it, and Slash was the only one who spoke up.

 

DAVE GROHL:
When a musician starts to use the phrase “mini-movie” to describe a video, it's time to quit. Some videos I enjoyed just because they were train wrecks, like “November Rain.” I looked forward to seeing that on TV because I didn't need those nine minutes of my life anymore.

 

DANIEL PEARL:
Axl was as unreliable a person as you could possibly imagine, but at the same time he was a good benefactor. I did three big videos with Andy Morahan for Guns N' Roses—“Don't Cry,” “November Rain,” and “Estranged”—and each one cost over a million dollars, God bless 'em.

 

DOUG GOLDSTEIN:
Oh fuck. To be honest, I blank on the
Use Your Illusion
videos, because they all seem like the same video to me.

 

ANDY MORAHAN:
Axl had written a trilogy of videos based around a short story by his friend Del James. We made “Don't Cry” the first video. Axl was undergoing regressive therapy, he'd gone through bouts of severe depression and wanting to blow his brains out, and his personal madness became part of the video's story line. Izzy Stradlin had left the band, and the cracks were starting to appear—the trilogy was Axl's way of saying, “I'm gonna take control here.” Before we started those videos,
Use Your Illusion
was up to about 8 or 9 million in sales. After those videos, it went up to 22 million.

If I wanted to do a daylight scene, I'd have to keep the band up all night and shoot it first thing in the morning. They were like vampires. I had a day set aside for the graveyard scene. I had half of the LA County cemetery closed down, and a cortege and two hundred extras and four rain machines, and Axl didn't show up until it was dark. That's why the graveyard scene is at night.

 

PETER BARON:
Andy Morahan shot part of “Don't Cry” on the top of the Trans-america Center in downtown LA. We had two helicopters. It was mayhem. We got in a lot of trouble from the city because we completely stalled traffic on a Friday night.

 

ANDY MORAHAN:
Stephanie Seymour and Axl were lovey-dovey on the first video. Stephanie had no shame in cuddling up to Axl in front of me and saying, “Hey Axl, why don't you work with some really big Hollywood directors?”
Thanks, Steph
.
Love you, too.

 

PETER BARON:
When the “Don't Cry” shoot finally ended, I got on the freight elevator by myself to go down to my car. I press the button, and just as the doors start to close, who walks in but Axl and Stephanie Seymour. And they proceed to make out. I'm not going to say he was dry humping her, but he was dry humping her. He just did not care that there was someone else in the elevator. He was a rock star, and he was having a rock star moment.

 

DOUG GOLDSTEIN:
Their relationship was tumultuous. Axl loved that girl to death. I'd say Stephanie was the unstable one in that relationship. The first time I met her, she opened the door naked. She goes, “No, you can come in.”
Sorry, gotta go
.

 

ANDY MORAHAN:
We couldn't figure out what we were going to do with Slash in “November Rain.” I said to him, “Wouldn't it be cool if you walked out of the church into a completely different environment?” And he said, “Yeah, let's go to New Mexico and do that.” So we did. Weirdly enough, Anton Corbijn was staying in the same hotel as us in New Mexico. I'd known Anton for a while, and I invited him to come to the shoot. After about a half hour he said to me, “Andy, this is incredible. You've got five cameras, cranes, helicopter, this big crew. Is this the whole video?” I said, “No, it's about twenty-seven seconds of it.”

I've had calls from Sofia Coppola's people over the years asking to buy the original storyboards from “November Rain.”

All three songs—“Don't Cry,” “November Rain,” and “Estranged”—are overblown power ballads. And all three videos are crazy. It was like
Spinal Tap
with money. I still don't know to this day why, in “November Rain,” you see only half of Stephanie Seymour's face in the coffin.

 

DOUG GOLDSTEIN:
Axl jumping off the oil tanker in “Estranged,” that's got to be the most extravagant thing I've ever seen.

 

BILL BENNETT, record executive:
I got a notice at work one day that Sunset Boulevard was going to be closed all afternoon for a video, and thought,
Who the fuck would close down Sunset
? Guns N' Roses, that's who, for “Estranged.” Their videos were late, bloated, and expensive. The band was so big, they did whatever they wanted.

 

ANDY MORAHAN:
By the time we got to “Estranged,” Axl had split up with Stephanie Seymour, and he said, “I never want a girl in a video again. I'd rather go out with a dolphin.” Which is why I put dolphins all over the video. I've been asked by students about the metaphorical imagery in those videos, and I'm like, “Fuck if I know.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“HERE'S A
A
UNIQUE ONE,” MTV'S MATT FARBER
wrote in a November 1991 memo to staff. “We need to refer to Michael Jackson as ‘The King of Pop' on-air.” This was not MTV's idea—it was Jackson's. That week, he was debuting an eleven-minute video, “Black or White” (his first with John Landis since “Thriller”), and any network that wanted the extravaganza had to agree to call him by the nickname he'd chosen. MTV was willing to do whatever was required to keep him happy. “I know this is a bizarre request,” Farber wrote apologetically, as he outlined a system for pleasing Jackson: Each VJ had to refer to him on-air as “The King of Pop” at least twice per week. Farber added one more instruction: “Please be sure to note which segments you do this in case we need to send dubs to the King of Pop himself.” Jackson had made MTV huge, and now he was monitoring the channel, to make sure they expressed their gratitude toward him.

 

JONI SIGHVATSSON:
Propaganda had a contract to produce all of Michael Jackson's videos for his
Dangerous
album. In retrospect, the spiraling budgets weren't healthy, and some of the work wasn't great. I met Michael at Sound Recorder Studios in Hollywood. It was a Thursday. The meeting was supposed to start at 6 P.M., but Michael—and Bubbles, his chimp—didn't arrive until eight. We started the meeting, and at eight-thirty Michael suddenly says, “Oh, we have to stop.
The Simpsons
is coming on.” We stopped the meeting and watched
The Simpsons.

JOHN LANDIS:
Propaganda had a deal to make the videos for
Dangerous
. I got a call from Propaganda, asking if I would do “Black or White.” I said, “Listen, Michael owes me a lot of money from “Thriller,” so I don't think so.” Michael called, and he kept coming over to my house, pleading, “John, come on, come on.” So finally I said, “All right. But I want to be paid weekly.” I got a lot of money to direct that, because the label and Propaganda were having terrible trouble with Michael—he wasn't cooperating and he kept wanting to spend more and more money. I thought I'd be working on it for a month. It ended up being three months. By the time of “Black or White,” Michael was not entirely on this earth. My job on “Black or White” became clear: Try to make a video where Michael did not look too crazy.

Michael kept wanting to add more and more scenes. He'd tell the production crew to get a Louma Crane and a Chapman Crane and a Steadicam, all this equipment. I would say, “Wait, what's going on?” And they'd say, “Well, Michael wanted . . .” So I go to Michael and say, “Michael, why do you want all this?” “Well, maybe we'll get an idea.” I said, “You're spending several hundred thousand dollars, in case we get inspired?” I don't know the exact total, but that video must have cost millions. There was one day when we had a lot of dancers on the set, and Michael didn't show up. We're all wondering, “Where the fuck is he?” Turned out he had gone to Toys “R” Us with Macaulay Culkin and they'd spent something like $50,000. It's
hard
to spend $50,000 at Toys “R” Us.

I thought for “Black or White” it would be neat to see human faces morphing into one another. I went to a friend, John Whitney, Jr. His dad, John Whitney, Sr., was a fine artist who was basically the father of what we call CGI—computer generated imagery—and John Jr. owned the company that did graphics for the first computer-generated movie,
The Last Starfighter
. John sent me to a company called PDI, and PDI did it. It was very expensive—it cost $100,000 and took a month. I shot the live action pieces and then PDI morphed them. At the time, it was totally mind-blowing, because it was so seamless. Now, of course, you can buy the software at Best Buy and do it on your laptop.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan came by to watch Michael make “Black or White.” We were on a stage in Hollywood, and Michael says, “John, would you like to have lunch with President and Mrs. Reagan today?” I said, “Absolutely not,” and went out for lunch to make sure we didn't see them.

Then there was the famous scene where Michael morphs from a panther. He's dancing on top of a car, and all of a sudden he grabs his crotch and starts rubbing himself. I yelled, “Cut!” I said, “Michael, what are you doing?” He said, “I'm expressing myself.” I said, “Michael, that's weird, don't do that.” He said, “Madonna does it. Prince does it.” I said, “You're not Madonna or Prince. You're Mickey Mouse.” So we're shooting again, and he actually unzips his fly and puts his hand in there. I went, “Cut!” I said, “Mike, I am really not comfortable with you touching your nuts and stroking your cock. I just don't think it's acceptable.” And Michael turns to our choreographer, Vince Patterson, and says, “Well, what do you think, Vince?” And Vince says, “I didn't really like it either.” Michael says, “Well, let's call Sandy.” At that time, Michael was managed by Sandy Gallin, who also represented Dolly Parton and Cher. Sandy was a screaming queen. A very flamboyant homosexual. Sandy Gallin comes to the set, looks at the playback, and he goes, “Do it, Michael! Do it! Do it!”

Maybe this was part of Michael's genius, because when “Black or White” aired, it created huge controversy. It premiered simultaneously in sixty-some countries. It had one of the largest viewing audiences in history. I know it had more audience than the moon landing.

 

TOMMY MOTTOLA:
Michael Jackson spent $6 or $7 million sometimes, but 90 percent of that was his own money. When I came in as president of CBS Records, I never was in favor of huge-budget videos. And many times we got criticized by artists about that. But when you're drawing up a marketing plan, and it's seven figures just for one video, it's hard to justify that cost.

 

LARRY STESSEL:
By that point, I'd become head of worldwide marketing and was no longer involved with Michael on a day-to-day basis. But when they showed me “Black or White,” I said, “Are you crazy? A black guy beating the shit out of cars, in the ghetto? You can't send that to MTV.” But Michael's new team were all yes-men. Dave Glew and Polly Anthony, who were running Epic, said, “It's great.” Sure enough, MTV showed it once and the backlash was so strong, they had to recut the video.

 

JOHN LANDIS:
When Michael came back from one of his Saudi Arabian adventures, I went to see him and he'd had further surgery, and he had, like, no nose. He looked like the Phantom of the Opera. I was horrified. He wanted me to do another video for him, but I honestly couldn't figure out how to film his face.

TARSEM SINGH:
Michael Jackson was obsessed with the video I did for Deep Forest. I was told, “Michael wants you to hear his new song. Please come to LA and the song will be played for you.” I said, “I have no interest in it.” They sent me a piece of paper; just sign this, it says you won't give the song to anybody, and we'll send it to you. I wouldn't sign it. Then a guy flew over to London and played me the song. Guess what? I loved the song. And I said, “Okay, I'll meet him.”

When I saw him and had a look at his face, I realized there's no way this man should be filmed. And I said, “I have an idea: You'll sing behind a tree. I'll see your body language, but I'll never see you. You dance behind a tree, and I'll film the tree.” He said, “Can I come out occasionally?” And I said, “No.” I didn't know what to do with him.

 

DOUG HERZOG:
Judy, Abbey, and I were in a conference room with Michael's manager Sandy Gallin, discussing Michael's participation in our tenth anniversary special on ABC. Sandy says, “Well, you know, you have to give Michael an award. He loves awards.” We said, “Of course.” Sandy said, “And it's gotta be BIG . . . really BIG . . . HUGE!” We were like, ”Uh, okay. Artist of the Decade? Artist of the Century? Artist of the Universe? You name it.” Sandy said, “No . . . I mean PHYSICALLY BIG!”

 

JUDY McGRATH:
Sandy told Doug that Michael wanted a Moonman. We thought, “Oh that's easy.” Turned out Michael wanted a
life-size
Moonman. A Moonman that was
his
size. So we gave him a six-foot Moonman.