I posted a link to the GearSlutz community yesterday...with lots of comments and anecdotes shared by music engineers who worked with Michael over the years. (GREAT stuff there, if you haven't read it!). On that community was a link to this site call CY Interview:
http://www.cyinterview.com/2009/07/industry-bigs-music-michael/
That page is a VERY long interview with Chris Apostle and Cory Rooney. Apostle was a VP of Special Recording Projects at Sony beginning in 1993; and he became known as Tommy Mottola's "right hand man." Rooney is a producer and songwriter, who also became Epic's VP of A&R, and he knew Michael.
This is an extremely long interview, so I hesitate to post it here in its entirety. But it is so worth the read. They talk about how Michael really didn't get his due in the music industry. They blast those who knew of Michael's innocence of the allegations against him and yet never publicly rallied to support him. They talk about their experiences with Sony. They talk about what they learned of and from Michael himself, his feelings on touring, his work ethic, his genius. They talk about everything that happened with Invincible, and why Michael had every right to feel the way he did about Sony. They spoke of one day being called into an office at Sony to watch an unedited 2-1/2 hour live concert DVD of Michael performing in a stadium in Brazil. They talk about how it sucks how everyone wants to say something nice about MJ now that he's gone--just to get the spotlight for themselves, or to be "relevant." They talk about the idiot Bashir. They talk about TII. They talk about Michael's legitimate health issues and what Michael himself told them about plastic surgery. They talk a lot about what a true musician and talent Michael was...especially compared to a lot of today's artists...how they are very different and there's just really no comparison.
They also say in the interview that Michael owns and had all the footage for the Victory tour. Here's that snippet:
CR: “The one thing that I’m looking forward to coming out is Michael had been sitting on all of the footage of the Victory Tour because he owns all of the footage of the Victory tour. I used to beg him all the time please. As a matter of fact, I do have a DVD unedited. It’s the straight footage for you.”
CA: “Maybe Cory will play it for you some time.”
CY: Or he’ll let me borrow it and I’ll promise I’ll return it later.
CR: “It’s amazing. The guy did not lip synch. His voice sounded so amazing. It’s ridiculous. He did all the dancing. He did all the stuff like that. It’s just that he conditioned himself to be able to do that.”
Here's another particularly nice snippet I thought I'd share:
CR:My heart is completely broken. My inspiration, the light of inspiration that I once had from a kid is completely dim at this point for me. I don’t know because I was not one of the disciples or whatever that followed behind Christ and had to look at him being crucified and hung from a cross.
But I’m sure their hearts were just as broken as well and my heart is broken. Moving forward with this business, all I can say is that I’m happy that there is a time we live in where we can kinda do things independently and we don’t have to deal with the hypocrites as much, but we are surrounded by hypocrites in this business. It’s just a tragedy. I always wondered what it would be like if something God forbid happened to Michael. I don’t think I ever really wanted to feel it. I just always kind of wondered like my goodness, what would happen? Well, here we are. And so far everything that’s happened is pretty much exactly what I thought what was going to happen.”
CA: “Cory and I speak countless times every day. We have basically for the last 20 years.”
CY: I can tell.
CA: “When this happened as I was emailing Cory and at one moment I got his wife on the phone but that was it. I didn’t hear from Cory for three days. Emails, phone calls, no answer. I knew that he was mourning and I was distraught about this.”
CR: “Because I cried for three days.”
CA: “He called me up Monday morning and I think it’s a very appropriate quote here, ‘Ok, it’s Monday. We gotta go back to work because Michael would’ve gone back to work.’”
CR: “And that’s the truth.”
CA: “Very poignant to me.”
CR: “Michael would’ve gone back to work. Like I said, he took his bumps, he took his bruises. He was one of the toughest men I ever met, and that’s the truth. He was a rugged tough guy. There was nothing timid about Michael Jackson.”
CY: You’ve told me a different story that the mainstream media is totally not focused on. What you’re saying to me is the industry is not totally focusing on really how important this guy was as a whole?
CR: “Nope.”
CA: “Nope. Not even close.”
CR: “They’re not even scratching the surface.”
Again, these are just snippets because it's a very long interview. If you have interest, please read it and share your thoughts.
http://www.cyinterview.com/2009/07/industry-bigs-music-michael/
That page is a VERY long interview with Chris Apostle and Cory Rooney. Apostle was a VP of Special Recording Projects at Sony beginning in 1993; and he became known as Tommy Mottola's "right hand man." Rooney is a producer and songwriter, who also became Epic's VP of A&R, and he knew Michael.
This is an extremely long interview, so I hesitate to post it here in its entirety. But it is so worth the read. They talk about how Michael really didn't get his due in the music industry. They blast those who knew of Michael's innocence of the allegations against him and yet never publicly rallied to support him. They talk about their experiences with Sony. They talk about what they learned of and from Michael himself, his feelings on touring, his work ethic, his genius. They talk about everything that happened with Invincible, and why Michael had every right to feel the way he did about Sony. They spoke of one day being called into an office at Sony to watch an unedited 2-1/2 hour live concert DVD of Michael performing in a stadium in Brazil. They talk about how it sucks how everyone wants to say something nice about MJ now that he's gone--just to get the spotlight for themselves, or to be "relevant." They talk about the idiot Bashir. They talk about TII. They talk about Michael's legitimate health issues and what Michael himself told them about plastic surgery. They talk a lot about what a true musician and talent Michael was...especially compared to a lot of today's artists...how they are very different and there's just really no comparison.
They also say in the interview that Michael owns and had all the footage for the Victory tour. Here's that snippet:
CR: “The one thing that I’m looking forward to coming out is Michael had been sitting on all of the footage of the Victory Tour because he owns all of the footage of the Victory tour. I used to beg him all the time please. As a matter of fact, I do have a DVD unedited. It’s the straight footage for you.”
CA: “Maybe Cory will play it for you some time.”
CY: Or he’ll let me borrow it and I’ll promise I’ll return it later.
CR: “It’s amazing. The guy did not lip synch. His voice sounded so amazing. It’s ridiculous. He did all the dancing. He did all the stuff like that. It’s just that he conditioned himself to be able to do that.”
Here's another particularly nice snippet I thought I'd share:
CR:My heart is completely broken. My inspiration, the light of inspiration that I once had from a kid is completely dim at this point for me. I don’t know because I was not one of the disciples or whatever that followed behind Christ and had to look at him being crucified and hung from a cross.
But I’m sure their hearts were just as broken as well and my heart is broken. Moving forward with this business, all I can say is that I’m happy that there is a time we live in where we can kinda do things independently and we don’t have to deal with the hypocrites as much, but we are surrounded by hypocrites in this business. It’s just a tragedy. I always wondered what it would be like if something God forbid happened to Michael. I don’t think I ever really wanted to feel it. I just always kind of wondered like my goodness, what would happen? Well, here we are. And so far everything that’s happened is pretty much exactly what I thought what was going to happen.”
CA: “Cory and I speak countless times every day. We have basically for the last 20 years.”
CY: I can tell.
CA: “When this happened as I was emailing Cory and at one moment I got his wife on the phone but that was it. I didn’t hear from Cory for three days. Emails, phone calls, no answer. I knew that he was mourning and I was distraught about this.”
CR: “Because I cried for three days.”
CA: “He called me up Monday morning and I think it’s a very appropriate quote here, ‘Ok, it’s Monday. We gotta go back to work because Michael would’ve gone back to work.’”
CR: “And that’s the truth.”
CA: “Very poignant to me.”
CR: “Michael would’ve gone back to work. Like I said, he took his bumps, he took his bruises. He was one of the toughest men I ever met, and that’s the truth. He was a rugged tough guy. There was nothing timid about Michael Jackson.”
CY: You’ve told me a different story that the mainstream media is totally not focused on. What you’re saying to me is the industry is not totally focusing on really how important this guy was as a whole?
CR: “Nope.”
CA: “Nope. Not even close.”
CR: “They’re not even scratching the surface.”
Again, these are just snippets because it's a very long interview. If you have interest, please read it and share your thoughts.
