Authors: Steve Knopper
“I’m sorry”
: Joseph Vogel,
Man In the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson
(New York: Sterling, 2011), pp. 181–82.
“Michael was like, saunter”
: deVillar interview.
Chuck Wild at Record One, MJ’s sleep habits, and “It was a conscious decision”
: Wild interview.
Finishing the album at three
A.M.
and Grundman’s speedy mastering
: Vogel,
Man In the Music
, pp. 181–82.
HIStory
cost $10 million
: Jon Wiederhorn, “A Marketing Blitz of Epic Proportions,”
Rolling Stone,
June 15, 1995, p. 24.
“filled with deep emotions”
: Liner notes,
HIStory
, 1995.
“never intentionally meant to be offensive”
: Abraham Foxman statement, “ADL Welcomes Michael Jackson’s Decision to Remove Anti-Semitic Lyrics from Song,” press release from Anti-Defamation League,
archive.adl.org
, June 22, 1995.
Gallin views and “He tried to convince me to do it”
: Zack O’Malley Greenburg,
Michael Jackson Inc.: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of a Billion-Dollar Empire
(New York: Atria, 2014), p. 177.
How MJ cut the new lyric for “They Don’t Care About Us”
: Beck interview.
$30 million Sony budget
: Neil Strauss, “Michael Jackson’s ‘HIStory’ shows the growing stature of global marketing,”
New York Times,
November 25, 1996, p. D7.
Two-hour special and
“
It was going to be the man”
: Damien Shields, “Inside the King of Pop’s 1995 HBO special that never was,”
damienshields.com
, December 27, 2014.
MJ meeting with Jeff Margolis
: Author interview with Jeff Margolis.
Sony sound stage and one hundred dancers
: Shields, “Inside the King of Pop’s 1995 HBO special that never was.”
Marcel Marceau details and “It would have been one of those moments”
: Margolis interview.
A Clockwork Orange
version of “Dangerous”
: Shields, “Inside the King of Pop’s 1995 HBO special that never was.”
“a futuristic, gritty, industrial feel” and MJ’s choreography work with Barry Lather
: Author interview with Barry Lather.
Marceau noticing no MJ illness
: Shields, “Inside the King of Pop’s 1995 HBO special that never was.”
MJ seemed sick days before the show
: Lather interview.
Broth and “You need to eat!”
: Beck interview.
Heaters between door and trailer
: David Stout, “Michael Jackson Collapses at Rehearsal,”
New York Times,
December 7, 1995, p. B3.
“He is exercising regularly,” Hoefflin, Vistaril and Ultram, and MJ more sensitive to pain
: Allan Metzger testimony,
Katherine Jackson, et al., vs. AEG Live, et al.,
California Superior Court, September 13, 2013.
“He fell super-duper hard”
: Ibid.
“My manager and I looked at each other”
: Author interview with George Duke.
Morey called 911 and paramedics details
: Shields, “Inside the King of Pop’s 1995 HBO special that never was.”
“Abnormally low” and blood pressure
: Stout, “Michael Jackson Collapses at Rehearsal,” p. B3.
“Michael got himself into this shit”
: Khalaf interview.
use of new “Thriller” steps in “Ghosts”
: Lather interview.
“Who are all these people?”
exchange
: Author interview with Benny Collins and John Lobel.
“It was just a general feeling”
: Khalaf interview.
MJ worked on his routines separately
: Author interview with Stacy Walker.
German anesthesiologists, “enough equipment where it looked like a surgical suite,” Diprivan, and “What happens if you die?”
: Rowe testimony.
“Debbie Rowe says she’ll do it” exchange
: Rob Tannenbaum, “Playboy Interview: Lisa Marie Presley,”
Playboy,
July 30, 2003, pp. 59–63, 142–44.
“He relied on her a lot”
: Author interview with Mick Garris.
MJ-Rowe wedding details
: Karen S. Schneider, “What Friends Are For,”
People,
December 2, 1996, p. 100.
$10 million divorce settlement
: Maureen Orth, “Losing His Grip,”
Vanity Fair,
April 2003, pp. 420–48.
“I can tell on his face” and Prince Jackson at the vocal session
: deVillar interview.
Grace Rwaramba scouting for locations and negotiating prices
: Author interview with Des McGahan.
“Michael trusted her one hundred percent”
: Author interview with Dieter Wiesner.
Early 1998, Marvin’s Room, and Mottola and Rooney
: Damien Shields, “Xscape Origins: The Songs & Stories Michael Jackson Left Behind” (Modegy e-book, 2015).
Forty tracks in ten days, “I may go
here
,” and “Michael wastes a lot of money”
: deVillar interview.
$1.54 million for Oscar, $5,000 an hour for plane, and $20 million for
Invincible
production costs
: Peter Wilkinson, “Is the King of Pop Going Broke?,”
Rolling Stone,
April 25, 2002, p. 25.
“
Get anything you want” DVD-shopping exchange
: Author interview with Harvey Mason Jr.
“Michael would believe somehow that Sony was paying”
: Randall Sullivan,
Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson
(New York: Grove Press, 2012), p. 123.
$140 million debt in 1998, $11.2 million in
HIStory
tour losses, and
Dangerous
tour broke even
: William R. Ackerman testimony,
Katherine Jackson vs. AEG,
August 12, 2013.
HIStory
tour $165 million gross
: Jeff Gottlieb, “Lawyer Attacks Jackson Earnings Estimate,”
Los Angeles Times,
July 17, 2013, p. AA1.
“He was simply addicted”
: Tommy Mottola,
Hitmaker: The Man and His Music
(New York: Grand Central/Hachette, 2013), p. 288.
$90 million
: Author interview with Michael Schulhof; in Greenburg,
Michael Jackson, Inc.
, p.174, Martin Bandier, Sony ATV’s president, quotes a higher figure, $115 million, plus about $10 million annually.
“He said it very explicitly”
: Schulhof interview.
“vampires” and “spiders”
: Lisa Marie Presley interview,
The Oprah Winfrey Show
(ABC, October 21, 2010).
“I was always scolding him”
: Author interview with Uri Geller.
Aubrey cut SUV rental from $3,000 to $300 and “He didn’t keep on top”
: Author interview with Henry Aubrey.
Wayne Nagin and Anthony Giordano charged into the pit
: Author interview with Anthony Giordano.
“Oh, no, we’ve killed the pop star!”
: Khalaf interview.
“He suffered back pain”
: Karen Faye testimony,
Katherine Jackson vs. AEG,
June 28 and May 9–10, 2013.
Teddy Riley in a bus, “I want you to go to your studio,” and recording junkyard trash cans with DAT
: Shields, “Xscape Origins.”
Dr. Freeze production details, “We would all have our different planets,” “Look what Teddy did” exchange, and “A lot of egos”
: Author interview with Dr. Freeze.
“It was a lot of ‘Do it again’ ”
: Author interview with Rodney Jerkins.
“You Rock My World,” rhythmic beginning, and beds in studio
: Shields, “Xscape Origins.”
“It cost a fortune”
: Author interview with Robert “Big Bert” Smith.
“
Most of the record could have been done,” “way-too-expensive hotels,” “If inspiration happens,” and “[That] never really happened
: Author interview with Brad Gilderman.
“
We were advancing Michael”
: Mottola,
Hitmaker
, pp. 348–49.
“Tommy was calling Rodney for days”
: Smith interview.
“
He did not succumb to pressure”
: Mason interview.
“Butterflies” recording details
: Author interview with Natalie “The Floacist” Stewart.
“By the time it came out, it was dated”
: Smith interview.
“
good, but by no means Michael’s best work”
: Mottola,
Hitmaker
, p. 349.
“There were some songs that we loved”
: Mason interview.
Twenty to thirty outtakes per album and “Every time that he recorded”
: Brian Hiatt and Steve Knopper, “Michael Jackson’s Unheard Music,”
Rolling Stone,
August 6, 2009, p. 49.
“Tommy said things” and “very inappropriate”
: Aubrey interview.
Billboards and bus-stop signs along MJ’s route
: Author interview with Mike Tierney.
“All you heard were radios,”
MJ in Sony’s Santa Monica offices, and “Oh no, they’re not videos” exchang
e: Author interview with Cory Llewellyn.
Favorite songs
: MJ interview on Yahoo! and GetMusic, October 26, 2001.
“been through hell and back,” “I spend a lot of time in the forest,”
and “There are these two sweet little kids”
: Ibid.
“He was basically bankrupt”
: Author interview with Ron Konitzer.
$45 to $2,500 tickets
: “Michael Jackson Gets All-Star Tribute in New York,”
Jet,
October 1, 2001, p. 59.
MJ’s $7.5 million cut
: Randall Sullivan,
Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson
(New York: Grove Press, 2012), p. 17.
Elizabeth Taylor’s $250,000 necklace and “requests and demands”
: Frank Cascio interview,
Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon
(David Gest Productions, 2011).
$1 million for Marlon Brando
:
F. Marc Schaffel vs. Michael Jackson,
Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles, February 16, 2005.
Jermaine and paparazzi
: Author interview with Henry Aubrey.
“
Good” and “It’s like LeBron James”
: Usher interview for
Rolling Stone,
courtesy of David Browne.
MJ wasn’t around by 8:30
: David Gest and Cascio interviews,
Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon
.
Karen Faye and “sleeping aid”
: Karen Faye testimony,
Katherine Jackson, et al., vs. AEG Live, et al.,
California Superior Court, July 19, 2013.
“He’s sleeping” exchange
: Gest and Cascio interviews,
Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon
.
“I could tell he’s out of it”
: Cascio interview,
Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon
.
“I usually come to the show”
: Adrian Grant,
Michael Jackson: Making HIStory
(Exclusive Distributors, 1998), p. 16.
“Whenever he wanted to make a movie”
: Author interview with Howard Rosenman.
Sony catalog paid $6.5 to $14 million, Mijac paid $2 to $9 million
: William R. Ackerman testimony,
Katherine Jackson vs. AEG
, August 12, 2013.
“You couldn’t just confront him”
: Konitzer interview.
“Michael gave him all kinds of ability”
: Author interview with Zia Modabber.
Myung-Ho Lee background
:
Union Finance & Investment Corp. (Republic of Korea), et al., vs. Michael Jackson, et al.,
Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles, April 2, 2002.
$150,000 to the Mali bank for Baba
: Maureen Orth, “Losing His Grip,”
Vanity Fair,
April 2003, pp. 420–48.
Every Last Inch
and
Tomorrow Always Comes: Schaffel’s alter ego, Marc Frederics, listed on
imdb.com
.
“Bag man,” “difficult for Jackson to spend,” and payments for custom cars
:
Schaffel vs. Michael Jackson
, February 16, 2005.
Arby’s bag
: Tanya Caldwell, “Jury Views Jackson Deposition in Lawsuit,”
Los Angeles Times,
July 7, 2006, p. B6.
“He liked his french fries”
: Author interview with Howard King.
“We all had large amounts of cash on us”
: Author interview with Marc Schaffel.
$
2 million diamond watch and “Hello, sir”
: Frank Cascio,
My Friend Michael
(New York: HarperCollins, 2011), pp. 217, 222.