Authors: Steve Knopper
Lawyers at meeting, “You know why you’re not as big,” eating chicken with Janet, and “Don’s going to be the promoter”
: Author interview with Peter Paterno.
$
3 million and $500,000
: Michael Goldberg and Christopher Connelly, “Trouble In Paradise?,”
Rolling Stone,
March 15, 1984, p. 27.
“Would you get on a plane
”: Paterno interview.
“A salesman is a salesman”
: Joseph Jackson,
Die Jacksons
, p. 149.
MJ agreed after meeting with Katherine
: Katherine Jackson with Richard Wiseman,
The Jacksons: My Family
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990), p. 138.
“Michael didn’t want to do the tour”
: Gold,
Michael Jackson
, p. 145.
“It was constant fights with Don”
: Paterno interview.
Paterno and King hollering
: Ibid.
“Had the Jacksons tour sponsorship” and King mentioning to Pepsi he’d spoken with Coca Cola
: Confidential source.
“Nonetheless, we ended up doing a deal”
: Author interview with Roger Enrico.
King’s attorney chasing Jackie
: Confidential source.
Coke and $4 million
: Glenn Collins, “Coke’s Hometown Olympics; The Company Tries the Big Blitz on Its Own Turf,”
New York Times,
March 28, 1996, p. 1.
Pepsi and $5 million
: Bruce Horovitz, “Matchmaker Was First to Rock Ad World,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 10, 1991, p. D1. Confirmed by Enrico.
Pottasch and “You can shoot my feet”
: Enrico interview.
MJ’s borrowed military-style uniform
: Ant interview, Weisner interview, Marcelli interview.
“Before the Victory tour”
: Gold,
Michael Jackson
, pp. 145–46.
“Just very quiet but very determined” and other Enrico quotes
: Enrico interview.
Glove, toilet, and “Oh, forget it”
: Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson
, p. 280.
“I want more!,” “Why?,” and “Because of the stuff he had in his hair”
: Author interview with Reed Glick.
Details of Pepsi accident
: “Video: How Michael Jackson’s Pill Addiction Began,”
usmagazine.com
, August 31, 2009.
“Get my glove” and “When they started skin grafts”
: Hayes interview.
Hoefflin and “quite shaken up,”
: Discharge report, Brotman Burn Center, January 28, 1984;
thesmokinggun.com
, April 4, 2013.
“palmed-size area” and “surrounding burned and singed hair”
: Ibid.
MJ took sleeping pill but refused painkiller
: Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson
, pp. 282–83.
“You feel that?”
: Kohan interview.
Taking painkillers after the hospital
: Brian Panish, attorney for Katherine Jackson, said during
Katherine Jackson vs. AEG
that MJ took Demerol after the Pepsi commercial accident. In 1993, MJ said in a statement: “I have been undergoing treatment for dependency on pain medication. This medication was initially prescribed to sooth the excruciating pain that I was suffering after recent reconstructive surgery on my scalp.”
“You don’t understand”
: Enrico interview.
“I’m done” and “I came back”
: Confidential source.
“If you want to take this tour away from me”
: Jermaine Jackson,
You Are Not Alone: Michael Through a Brother’s Eyes
(New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2011), p. 248.
Three percent of tour profits
: Ibid.
Chuck Sullivan background
: John Steinbreder, “The $126 Million Fumble,”
Sports Illustrated,
March 14, 1988, pp. 64–70.
$41 million deal
: Sullivan interview.
$12 million down, the rest within two weeks
: McDougal, “The Agony of ‘Victory,’ ” p. AD60.
61,000 seats
: Will McDonough, “Patriots’ Records Show Debts Over $75 Million,”
Chicago Tribune,
July 27, 1987, Sports p. 2.
Sullivan Stadium as collateral
: Steinbreder, “The $126 Million Fumble,” pp. 64–70.
Roughly 83/17 percent split
: Dean Budnick and Josh Baron,
Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped
(Toronto: ECW Press, 2011), p. 205; confirmed by Sullivan.
250 personnel
: McDougal, “The Agony of ‘Victory,’ ” p. AD60.
Riggers hanging kitchen sink
: Author interview with Ken Graham.
“Ice sculptures, fuchsias, potted palms,”
$40,000 for traveling parlor, $196,500 for Sullivan’s contract, and $500,000 for insurance
: Ibid.
Bob Gurra meeting, Rolls-Royce, spider, “Michael came up with the idea”
: Confidential source.
Hydraulics
: Author interview with John McGraw (stage designer); Roth interview.
“We did fifty-five shows”
: Luysterborghs interview.
“There was a whole system”
: Roth interview.
Fifty-six thousand pounds of lights
: Ibid.
“He struck me as sort of a kid”
: Jander interview.
Jacksonville Picayune
details
: Luysterborghs interview.
“
The power of a fifty-piece orchestra”
: James McBride, “The Glove Comes Off as Michael Goes to Work,”
People,
June 11, 1984, p. 151.
Rehearsal details and “It was like NFL training camp”
: Author interview with Gregg Wright.
Kids moonwalking as the van went by
: Kaplan interview.
“Oh, sir!”
: Luysterborghs interview.
“Michael—Pepsi”
: Jander interview.
Hoefflin eighty-minute procedure
: Gold,
Michael Jackson
, p. 145.
$1 million a week
: McDougal, “The Agony of ‘Victory,’ ” p. AD60.
$500,000 Irving Azoff fee
: Michael Goldberg, “Behind-the-scenes confusion causing various delays: Wheeling and dealing continues as Jacksons tour approaches,”
Rolling Stone,
June 21, 1984, p. 51. Confirmed by confidential source.
Ken Graham and “front porch”
: Graham interview.
375 security guards, 170 local police officers, and 70 metal detectors
: William Plummer and James McBride, “The Jackson Fireworks,”
People,
July 23, 1984, p. 46.
Pocket Redee and $160,000
: McDougal, “The Agony of ‘Victory,’ ” p. AD60.
Arrowhead road and Giant Stadium beam
: Graham interview.
“It was like, turn it all on”
: Roth interview.
$5,000 glove, “Really?,” and Sharpie system
: Author interview with Tony Villanueva.
“Pretty much each brother had their own session”
: Wargo interview.
“Aptly named,” $300,000 budget, Jackie was in charge, MJ had little interest, and $1 million costs
: Author interview with John Diaz.
“I’m sorry, Perri”
: Author interview with Perri Lister.
“It was the
Heaven’s Gate”: Diaz interview.
Meshulam Riklis’s seven private jets
: Jermaine Jackson,
You Are Not Alone
, p. 266.
“If there was jealousy”
: Author interview with Howard Bloom.
“A Whitman’s sampler” and $70 million in Jacksonville
: Plummer and McBride, “The Jackson Fireworks,” pp. 44–47.
HOLD YOUR BREATH
and firefighters’ convention
: Sally Kalson, “The Concert That Wasn’t,”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
October 13, 1984, p. 7.
$250,000 not going to Pittsburgh tax revenues
: Ibid.
“Michael said it was going to be a drug-free tour”
: Graham interview.
MJ rehearsed steps on a portable wooden platform
: Wright interview.
“It didn’t take anything”
: Luysterborghs interview.
$20 million
: Gordon Forbes, “Sullivan family ties are broken,”
USA Today,
April 1, 1988, p. 2C.
$8 million
: Sullivan interview.
“Jimmy, I’m gonna fly back”
: Murray interview.
Sullivan spending the night in a luxury box
: Mark Farinella, “Jackson’s part in Pats’ history was real ‘thriller,’ ”
thesunchronicle.com
, June 27, 2009.
“I was not homeless”
: Sullivan interview.
Mr. Tibbs the ram, et al.
: “Jackson has new pet project,”
Miami Herald,
September 28, 1986, p. 7K.
OshKosh B’gosh, designer shirts, pajamas, dresser drawer, Häagen-Dazs, and prayers
: La Toya Jackson interview,
Michael Jackson and Bubbles: The Untold Story
(Animal Planet, 2010).
Osaka mayor and green tea
: “Jackson & chimp visit Osaka mayor,”
Chicago Sun-Times,
September 20, 1987, p. 17.
Bubblesmobile
: Author interview with Steve Stevens (“Dirty Diana” video guitarist).
“Bubbles became
a human”:
La Toya Jackson interview,
Michael Jackson and Bubbles.
“If there was a box,” tape machine story, “BUBBLES, NO!,” and “like he would jump over his skin”
: Author interview with Matt Forger.
“I saw Mike hit Bubbles with his shoe”
: Author interview with Chris Currell.
“He hit that monkey so hard”
: Author interview with Brian Malouf.
“We Are the World” origin details
: David Breskin,
“We Are the World”
(New York: Perigee Books, 1985).
“He always gave to kids”
: Author interview with Hugo Huizar.
Details of MJ-Lionel Richie “We Are the World” session, including “We didn’t mention
‘truth’ yet”
: Cassette recording provided by confidential source.
“Everybody came in there”
: Author interview with Louis Johnson.
MJ’s compact and touching his nose
: Author interview with Johnny Colla (of Huey Lewis and the News).
“as his typical quiet self”
: Author interview with John Oates.
“Ethiopians do not speak Swahili”
: Breskin,
“We Are the World.”
“would go off by himself”
: Author interview with Kim Carnes.
“How do you buy them?”
: Robert Hilburn, “The long and winding road,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 22, 1985, p. 60.
“You are now earning a lot of money,” Northern Songs history, “too much money,” and “I’m going to buy your songs”
: Ray Coleman,
McCartney: Yesterday & Today
(Garden City, MI: Dove Books, 1995), pp. 110–15, 132–40.
The Long and Winding Road
: Hilburn, “The long and winding road,” p. 60.
“I think we hit the mother lode” and MJ–John Branca exchange about copyrights
: Author interview with John Branca.
Gelfand, $46 million, and MJ’s favorite Beatles songs
: Hilburn, “The long and winding road,” p. 60.
Kawashima background and “It became harder”
: Author interview with Dale Kawashima.
Eisner background, “They hadn’t made classics,”
“It was Michael Jackson doing something,” and old-lady makeup
: Author interview with Michael Eisner.
MJ arrived after Disneyland closed and “He knew his way around”
: Author interview with Rick Rothschild.
“Where’s Michael?”
: Author interview with Eric Henderson.
Eleven-year-old friend
: Ibid.
Jonathan Spence and Brotman Hospital
:
Jet,
August 19, 1985, p. 45.
Boy holding cape and delivering drinks
: Author interview with Kevin Bender.
Hyperbaric chamber as a plant
: Author interview with Michael Levine.
“He was tabloid gold
”: Author interview with Tony Brenna.
Currell Synclavier lessons
: Currell interview.
“First, you take this floppy disk,” MJ’s low technical skills, and ten
A.M.
to seven
P.M.
at Hayvenhurst
: Ibid.
Nineteen eighty-five demos and
“He walked down twelve or thirteen stairs”
: Author interview with Bill Bottrell.
“Wow, this is really cool”
: Currell interview.
“He was very prolific”
: Forger interview.
“He’d do it all himself” and “Michael would go to the ends of the earth”
: Currell interview.
“Bad” bassline
: Ibid.