Authors: Steve Knopper
“
Watching Diane Dimond on TV”
: Author interview with Lauren Weis Birnstein.
“Sorry!” and “He left us there”
: Phillinganes interview.
“Things went belly-up”
: Forecast interview.
“He was there, but he wasn’t there”
: Collins interview.
“head powers”
: Finkelstein testimony,
Katherine Jackson vs. AEG
, July 8, 2013.
“We had a slight professional discussion”
: Forecast interview.
“The pressure resulting from these false allegations”
: Chuck Philips and Jim Newton, “Jackson Ends World Tour, Cites Painkiller Addiction,”
Los Angeles Times,
November 13, 1993, p. 1.
MJ’s entourage, 737 to Reykjavík, Liz’s dog, Luton Airport, and John Reid’s $3 million home
: Forecast interview.
MJ on the sofa, “No one knew,” and “Listen, we will send your kids”
: Ibid.
“Okay, tour’s over,” “We didn’t even know,” and flying An-124s to Vegas
: Author interview with Anthony Giordano.
“I went to a lot of different experts”
: Feldman interview.
Chandler filing details and quotes
: “Declaration of J. Chandler,” Los Angeles Superior Court, December 28, 1993; posted on
thesmokinggun.com
, November 18, 2003.
“splotches,” “a light color similar to the color of his face,” and “He has short pubic hair”
: Deborah Linden affidavit quoted in Halperin,
Unmasked
, p. 46.
“sharp-tongued and tenacious” and Sneddon background
: Martin Kasindorf, “Jackson’s trial to open Monday,”
USA Today,
January 28, 2005, p. 3A; Associated Press, “Prosecutor in Jackson trial denies personal grudge played role in case,” June 14, 2005; and United Press International, “District Attorneys Back Toxic Waste Proposal,”
San Jose Mercury News,
July 25, 1986, p. 2C.
“We were pretty satisfied”
: Author interview with Ron Zonen.
“hard-on for Michael”
: Author interview with David LeGrand.
“
People are getting ticked off,” police arrival at Neverland, and harp music
argument with Weitzman
: Author interview with Richard Strick.
“Get out!” and MJ examination details
: Halperin,
Unmasked
, pp. 52–53.
“
He was whining and complaining” and “shut the fuck up”
: Strick interview.
Forecast denial
: Forecast interview.
examination details including discoid lupus erythematosus
: Strick interview.
“It sure would appear”
: Ibid.
“Get rid of this thing” and “I felt that paying any substantial amount”
: Author interview with Bert Fields.
“Are you crazy, Michael?,” MJ bringing Branca back, Branca’s criticism of Fields, and Branca replacing Fields with Cochran
: Zack O’Malley Greenburg,
Michael Jackson Inc.: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of a Billion-Dollar Empire
(New York: Atria, 2014), pp. 166–67. Fields told Greenburg and me that he believed in MJ’s innocence and did not want to settle.
EMI deal
: Andrea Adelson, “EMI to Pay Michael Jackson $70 Million to Manage Music,”
New York Times,
November 25, 1993, p. D6.
Settlement details
: “Confidential Agreement and Mutual General Release,” January
25, 1994, signed by Jordan and Evan Chandler, Larry Feldman, MJ, Johnnie Cochran, and Howard Weitzman;
thesmokinggun.com
, June 16, 2004.
Feldman wouldn’t talk about settlement details
: Feldman interview.
Jordan Chandler’s $2.35 million home
: Taraborelli,
Michael Jackson
, p. 545.
“He would’ve been better off,” “Pandora’s box,” and “The word got out”
: Author interview with Thomas Mesereau Jr.
“
You are Michael Jackson’s newest favorite director”
: Author interview with Rupert Wainwright.
HIStory “
teaser” filming details
: Ibid.
“
He never touched New York City’s dirt”
: Author interview with Tony Black.
“It was really a simple formula” and “offering no personal opinion”
: Author interview with Dan Beck.
MJ’s trip to Minneapolis to work on
“Scream”
: Author interview with Steve Hodge.
“Mr. Sherman”
: Black interview.
“a current immediately passed between us”:
Brad Buxer,
Black & White,
November/December 2009, pp. 74–75; posted at info.sonicretro.org.
“Brad was his comfort-level guy”
: Black interview.
“
Brad was one of the most hyper people”
: Author interview with Trip Khalaf.
“He had his own power”
: Author interview with CJ deVillar.
$4,000 per day and “Everything costs and costs”
: Ibid.
Bernie Grundman at the Pierre, $400-an-hour Sony mastering, MJ didn’t want to stick around for cold NYC autumn, $200,000 in personal costs, and “
HIStory
was probably the most expensive album”
: Author interview with Bernie Grundman.
“The crew, all these sound engineers”
: Confidential source.
“Fiery and angry” and “soundscapes”
: Author interview with Chuck Wild.
Four days on a panning effect and opening/closing a door
: Author interview with Gus Garces.
hiring people to record LA sounds and “whoosh-vroom”
: Ibid.
“They Don’t Care About Us” and “Michael wanted the drums”
: Author interview with Rob Hoffman.
“I’ve never seen so many people”
: Author interview with Trevor Rabin.
“sat for days mixing”
: Ibid.
“magnum opus,” “It dropped into my lap” and “a much more inclusive, liberating understanding,” MJ played the song for Buxer, and
“It became quite the obsession”
: Joseph Vogel,
Earth Song: Inside Michael Jackson’s Magnum Opus
(BlakeVision e-book, 2011).
“I was pretty disappointed”
: Author interview with Bill Bottrell.
“gravitas”
: Author interview with William Ross.
Magic Johnson dropped by and “I’ll see you guys tomorrow”
: Hoffman interview.
“an unearthly pairing”
: Cheryl Levenbrown, “It Wasn’t Just Their Imagination,”
Wichita Eagle,
February 4, 1994, p. 2A.
“If Elvis really were alive”
: Argus Hamilton, “Rumor Has Elvis Rolling in Grave,”
Daily Oklahoman,
July 13, 1994, p. 2.
Scientology theory
: Richard N. Leiby, “Harmonic Conversion? Ex-Scientologists Speculate on Why Michael and Lisa Wed,”
Washington Post,
August 4, 1994, p. C1.
Graceland value from low millions to $100 million
: “If His Wedded Bliss Ends Now, MJ Wins Pact Lets Him Off $ Hook,”
Philadelphia Daily News,
December 2, 1994, p. 4; Michael Villano, “In Print,”
Billboard,
October 17, 1998, p. 28.
“In spite of what some people speculated”
: Lisa Marie Presley interview,
The Oprah Winfrey Show
(ABC, October 21, 2010).
“I wouldn’t change anything”
: Author interview with Lisa Marie Presley for the
Chicago Tribune,
2013. Presley refused to answer questions about MJ.
“My dad’s family’s from
Hee-Haw”: Author interview with Clif Magness.
Livingston-Stone dinner
: J. Randy Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story 1958–2009
(New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009), pp. 507, 510, 520, 542.
“We’re together all the time”
: Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley interview,
PrimeTime Live
(ABC, June 14, 1995).
“very hot”
: J. Randy Taraborrelli, “Lisa Marie Presley Said He Was a Passionate Lover. So What WAS the Truth About Jackson’s Sexuality,”
Daily Mail,
June 30, 2009, pp. 32–34.
Sexual details with MJ and
“There were other girls”
: Author interview with Theresa Gonsalves.
ten-karat diamond
: Lisa Marie Presley interview,
The Oprah Winfrey Show
(ABC, October 21, 2010).
MJ wearing lipstick and fifteen-minute ceremony
: Matthew McCann Fenton, “The Odd Couple,”
Entertainment Weekly,
May 30, 2001, p. 94
Lisa Marie in beige dress, MJ in black, gold bands
: Robert Dominguez and Joanna Malloy, “Judge Says He Married Jackson, Presley,”
The Day,
July 13, 1994, p. 8.
“They spent a full week”
: Author interview with Donald Trump.
“The magazines were questioning whether it was a publicity stunt”
: Hoffman interview.
“Wherever she walks, she’s always in slow motion” and earthquake details
: Wainwright interview.
“His hand was blue afterwards”
: Lisa Marie Presley interview,
The Oprah Winfrey Show
(ABC, October 21, 2010).
“I don’t know why I did it”
: Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson
, pp. 609–10.
“I love my family very much”
: Michael Jackson interview,
The Oprah Winfrey Show
(ABC, February 10, 1993).
“The bottom line here”
: Chuck Philips, “Jermaine Jackson: ‘Word to the Badd!!’: A Call to Michael,”
Los Angeles Times,
November 7, 1991, p. F1.
La Toya receiving $500,000
: Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson
, pp. 423–26.
Jermaine’s divorce and child support
:
In re the marriage of petitioner Hazel Jackson and respondent Jermaine Jackson,
Superior Court of the State of California, March 30, 1998.
“I had been abused and humiliated”and Jackie Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Enid Jackson
: Margaret Maldonado Jackson, “Jackson Family Values” (Dove Audio, 1995), pp. x, 29–30.
“She sounded like a young Michael Jackson”
: Author interview with Bobby Watson.
“Masterstroke” and “I don’t want my daughter”
: Anthony DeCurtis, “Free at Last,”
Rolling Stone,
February 22, 1990, p. 44.
“If we did something she liked” and
“I wanted her to sound like a rock queen”
: Author interview with Jesse “Jellybean” Johnson.
“people would see that I’m holding my own”
: Steve Pond, “Janet,”
US,
November 1995, p. 46.
“working on that with Michael”
and “She wanted to work really hard”
: Hodge interview.
Janet predicted MJ would like “Scream”
: Chaz Lipp, “An Interview with Jimmy Jam of the Original 7ven, Part Two,”
themortonreport.com
, April 19, 2012.
$75,000 average Sony video and “much of what we were doing”
: Beck interview.
Sony paid for up to $1 million and “It was like, ‘Michael, write a check’ ”
: Confidential source.
other videos were costlier, “I am annoyed,” and shoot expanding from six to fourteen days,
2001: A Space Odyssey
influence
: Peter Sciretta, “Interview: ‘Never Let Me Go’ Director Mark Romanek,”
slashfilm.com
, September 10, 2010.
Santiago Calatrava
: Author interview with Richard Berg.
Janet insisted on using her choreographers
: Author interview with Sean Cheesman.
“Make it magical,” rolling on the floor and CGI
: Author interview with Tina Landon.
Landon and Cheesman teaching the routine to Travis Payne
: Cheesman interview.
“It wasn’t a good vibe,” MJ’s behind-the-scenes footage, cameramen paying no attention, and dark curtains
: Landon interview.
“When I first met him,” and “You would see Janet”
: Ibid.
“Everything gets worked out in the end”
: Ibid.
“It was a dream”
: Berg interview.
“When we subsequently found out”
: Author interview with Nick Brandt.
“It was absolutely electrifying” and other
Earth Song
video details
: Ibid.
Forty tracks, “On another budget, where every orchestra session,” “[Songs] would come in and out,” and “Much Too Soon” as an orphan
: Hoffman interview.
Work
expanding from sixteen to eighteen hours
: Ibid.