George Michael On Michael Jackson

[Dilan]

Just found this article where GM spoke about MJ
http://www.guyspy.com/an-evening-with-george-michael-jackson/

One part of the article that stuck out for me.

“Was Freddie trying it on with him? Who knows? But it wouldn’t surprise me, knowing Freddie! Anyway, a meeting was arranged at the Jackson family compound in Encino. Michael had just bought Neverland but we’d heard that no adults were allowed there, except staff. It took ages to get there; a really long drive in a stuffy car from LA and I’m really hot and sweaty. When we arrive at the house, we’re shown into the porch by the front door and told that Michael will be down to see us shortly. I was standing there for 20 minutes. Then Michael arrives, in full-make up with shades on, inside the house! He’s accompanied by his manager Frank DiLeo, and I have my manager with me, so there’s the four of us standing in the hallway, and Frank does all the talking. Not once does Michael ever shake our hands, take his shades off or speak directly to us. I try to engage him in conversation but he just turns his head and looks at the floor. All questions to him have to go through his manager, even when you’re standing right in front of him. Unbelievable rudeness!" This pretty rude but hilarious I can just imagine that

 

[analogue]

I love Mike but if what George is saying is true then i can't defend him on this. Mike was a rude a-hole here and saying ''Oh he was just being shy'' is no excuse

 

[Lil]

hmm after reading the entire article I'm not so sure about how close to the truth this actually is.. but if it's true he was being pretty rude..! Ah well I guess even Michael get's to be an a-hole sometimes..:laugh:

 

[qbee]

I have my doubts this is all factual and it's so different from what anyone has ever stated about meeting MJ. The article is weird and say George has a hash stash next to him and shared joints with the People who were interviewing him for a public article ??

Plus they state George was Highly upset about Michaels not guilty verdict and stated No Way .. someone was paid off. If Michael treated him like that then I'm glad. He doesn't sound like a very nice person here. If it did happen Maybe MJ didn't get good vibes from George right off the bat. Just seems too odd. Just the opposite how anyone else has described meeting Michael. He was probably pissed MJ was found not guilty so wanted to bad mouth him. and it's really quite Lame .. Oh my MJ treated me rude he didn't offer me a chair or something to drink bla bla bla... after reading below I say GOOD. He should have sicked the dogs on him LOL

George sits at the dining table with two packets of Silk Cut and a large stash of hash and starts to roll a joint for each of us. We watch the Not Guilty verdicts come in. After the first one George is incredulous. “No, ****ing way!” he cries. Then the next: “I don’t ****ing believe it. This is a travesty. Just how many people have been paid off?” It goes on and on, and I can see George’s rage building up. He’s as red-faced as ***** is white. He clearly believes the court have reached the wrong verdict. But why’s he so sure? He obviously knows stuff but doesn’t want to elaborate just yet, so I ask him if the two of them have ever met.

Then he tells the story of MJ being rude to him ..
I'm also thinking Michael didn't want to do any duet with George as it was stated that meeting was set up per Sony. They are the ones that wanted it. So thats probably why they dealt with the situation as they did, not to sit and get too comfy in order to get rid of them asap... I realy dont belive they were standing there speaking for over an a hour though.

LOl Charles Thompson replied on that Article

 

[analogue]

''Someone was paid off''

Ah yes! The stupidest and weakest argument ever. When people make such dumb statements then i have no time for them

 

[HIStory]

I read the whole article, not just the quoted part. MJ might have been rude (if true) but George Michael comes across like a jerk to me. Maybe that's what MJ felt in him right away. And no, Michael and Freddie did not fall out, they just did not have time to finish the duets. And I can't imagine of Freddie "urging MJ to come out of the closet" - he seemed much more of a gentleman to me. Plus why would he urge him to do that when 1) he did not know whether MJ was in the closet or not as I don't think they spoke about their sexuality with each other (their relationship was professional, not a private friendship), 2) Freddie himself wasn't exactly this gay posterboy. I mean people around him knew he was gay, but he did not go around advertising it in the media. He valued his privacy, and as such I'm sure he would not stick his nose in someone else's privacy either. He was just not that kind of person in my opinion.

So if George really said these things he's a total jerk. Don't even get me started on his rant about MJ's not guilty verdict. Totally ignorant.

 

[Lil]

I have my doubts this is all factual and it's so different from what anyone has ever stated about meeting MJ.

I was thinking the same thing, you always hear people who've met Michael or worked with him have nothing but nice things to say about him. They always say he was 'the nicest person I've ever met'. This story is 100% opposite.. but in this case there was supposed to be a duet, which never happened. You can only guess what happened but who knows, maybe Michael declined and George's toes got stepped on a little.. and he came up with this exaggerated story about how Michael was rude and that's why they never worked together.
Also, the article says: "He [George] clearly believes the court have reached the wrong verdict. But why’s he so sure?" which is followed by the 'Michael was rude to me' story.. so George came to the conclusion Michael was guilty of child molestation, because he didn't offer him a chair and a drink.. seriously?

 

[HIStory]

I have my doubts this is all factual and it's so different from what anyone has ever stated about meeting MJ. The article is weird and say George has a hash stash next to him and shared joints with the People who were interviewing him for a public article ??

To me it seems like GM met this guy not as a journalist, but as a casual sex partner through some gay website:

It’s Monday 13th June, 2005, and after being cruised by George Michael on a well known gay website, I am finally invited to visit him at his palatial Georgian home in deepest Highgate.

Plus they state George was Highly upset about Michaels not guilty verdict and stated No Way .. someone was paid off. If Michael treated him like that then I'm glad. He doesn't sound like a very nice person here.

Yep, same sentiments. I don't care if MJ was rude with him after I heard what GM said about the verdict. Although one might argue that GM held that opinion about the verdict because he was still pressed about that meeting and might have reacted differently if MJ had been nice to him. But then he's a very small person for wanting a guilty verdict on someone just because the guy wasn't nice to him some 20 years before.

I'm also thinking Michael didn't want to do any duet with George as it was stated that meeting was set up per Sony. They are the ones that wanted it.

Yes, that's what I think too. It was Sony's idea and Michael didn't want it.

BTW, MJ always considered Prince his rival, not George Michael. Sorry, George, but you weren't on Michael's radar that much...

Oh, and who told George Neverland was not allowed to be visited by adults? Just another untrue thing in what he said (IF he really said these things)...

 

[analogue]

George Michael is now on my s**t list along with Gene Simmons and Nikki Sixx

 

[morinen]

The situation itself is not hard to believe. I remember a similar story about Springsteen who tried to socialize with Michael during WATW, and Michael made zero attempt to support the conversation. Even the guy from Winans in Bad 25 talked about their first meeting with MJ when he communicated with them only through Quincy Jones. Idk, I guess he felt awkward in the presence of other talented people.

That can be read differently. Rudeness, shyness, eccentricity... If this was the only encounter these guys had with Michael, and he never warmed up to them, I imagine the are pretty disappointed.

 

[Lisha]

MJ was a rather intuitive individual, it seems. ...It is true when one puts the squeeze on someone and then sits back and watches how they respond, that too often the true colors of that person they are observing will surface. I think in that brief meeting in the hallway there, MJ sized George Michael up pretty well, and reading through this article to the part of how George Michael's attitude towards MJ truly was, while watching the verdict of the 2005 trial, one would tend to think MJ sized him up very well indeed. ...(Although I don't know many who would have done well with that "test" that George Michael was experiencing during that meet up at Hayvenhurst. My response to that kind of treatment might have had me drop-kicked out the that lovely property within minutes! haha. If someone is not going to look me back in the eye, openly and with honesty...me no play. But I do understand MJ's need at times to be....um...strategic and wise. And I think this is a part of that.)

 

[AtlasAir]

Oh, I totally believe this to be true.

Yes, MJ is an incredibly kind, nice, etc., but we all know he donned the whole superstar-diva-sunshades A LOT. Being shy is different than totally closing off and letting your manager talk.

George has no reason to lie about his own encounter with the guy (and I've heard about other encounters with people, too).
Even in Bad 25, one of the guys who worked on MITM even said he thought it was weird that MJ was talking through another person and someone had the balls to say "can you talk?".

And of course, some of you are letting the fandom blind you by excusing the rude behavior.
Can you imagine being called up for some meeting of sorts and the person your meeting is hiding behind shades and talking through another person. Not a good look.
Just substitute MJ's name with another celebrity, and I'm sure you'd feel the same way.

MJ was a rather intuitive individual, it seems.
...It is true when one puts the squeeze on someone and then sits back and watches how they respond, that too often the true colors of that person they are observing will surface. I think in that brief meeting in the hallway there, MJ sized George Michael up pretty well

Yes. In the 80's, Michael CLEARLY was sizing George up and thinking "one day, he's going to think I'm guilty of something..."
:smilerolleyes:

MJ might have been rude (if true) but George Michael comes across like a jerk to me. Maybe that's what MJ felt in him right away. And no, Michael and Freddie did not fall out, they just did not have time to finish the duets.

Then why would he even invite him to his home at all? Why be cold from the get-go? In the 80's, I'm sure nothing like that was going through his mind. He was just doing his superstar shtick.



Anyhoo, I still love you MJ!

 

[MjsLovelyOne88]

Oh George, George... honestly, I couldn't expect less... not even Elton John who was Michael several times and is a nagging old "lady" has spoken this badly/bitterly about him, just ridiculous :sigh: Ok, so what if Michael didn't like him and let Frank do all the talking? He apparently was a nice, easy-going person most of the times but heck he could dislike people too, he probably just read George from the get-go & didn't like what he saw. It doesn't matter if he was being "diva" or not... Plus, why would he act as an obnoxious rock star with GM specifically? he met lots of famous people during his lifetime and although some of them might define their encounters with him as "awkward" given his personality, I've never seen a more obvious case of bitterness, the verdict part says it ALL. Next, so done with GM.

 

[analogue]

Yes, MJ is an incredibly kind, nice, etc., but we all know he donned the whole superstar-diva-sunshades A LOT. Being shy is different than totally closing off and letting your manager talk.)

I wonder if MJ did that to keep the mysterious image about himself.

 

[AtlasAir]

in private tho ??

 

[analogue]

in private tho ??

I think that Mike enjoyed the whole mysterious shtick he had going on the 80's. I can see him having a lot of fun with it but sometimes he would take it way too far and this is one of those instances

 

[mj_brainiac]

I would take this story with a grain of salt. It wasn't 1988 or at Neverland that they met in talks about a duet. It was 1986 at Hayvenhurst

 

[IMWhizzle]

I still adore George Michael's voice though. He has a one of a kind voice. Beautiful tracks were released by him, like 'Father Figure'. Too bad he stopped making music like that.

I take this story with a grain of salt. We don't know the truth, so I won't judge

 

[HIStoric]

Adults not allowed at Neverland ? That explains why there's so much footage of adults at Neverland...

 

[HIStory]

Then why would he even invite him to his home at all? Why be cold from the get-go? In the 80's, I'm sure nothing like that was going through his mind. He was just doing his superstar shtick.

From the article it seems it wasn't MJ's idea to invite GM. GM was forced on him by Sony.

He was doing his superstar shtick, but he only did that to people whom he didn't like. Freddie Mercury and his assistant Peter Freestone got a total warm and friendly treatment when they visited him. MJ personally led them around his home. Freestone even commented how MJ did not treat him any differently than he treated his supperstar friend, Freddie. Because Michael liked them. He obviously didn't like George Michael for some reason. And IMO he did not want to do this duet and this was his way to say "no". LOL.

I think most people said in this thread that if this is true (and let's not forget that this is just GM's/his gay lover's side of the story) it was rude by MJ. But I couldn't care less about how he treated this jerk, after seeing his true colors.

 

[HIStory]

I would take this story with a grain of salt. It wasn't 1988 or at Neverland that they met in talks about a duet. It was 1986 at Hayvenhurst

Yeah, that's another thing. This story was told apparently by a guy who once had a one-night stand with GM and we can spot many inaccuracies in his story (NL was not allowed to be visited by adults, Freddie and MJ fell out etc.) So it went through at least two subjective filters before it was told to us: GM's own subjectivity and this guy's who is telling it. So yeah, grain of salt.

 

[SheilaMJFan4Ever]

Adults not allowed at Neverland ? That explains why there's so much footage of adults at Neverland...

IKR! As for those that think Michael was "rude", so what if he WAS? Where is it written that he had to bend over backwards being nice to everyone, especially those that he got bad vibes from? George Michael probably felt entitled to that meeting, to doing a duet with Michael and he WASN'T. He should have been upset with Sony, not Mike. He probably felt he was on an equal level with him, which he wasn't (check your misguided ego at the door, George).

It's a VIRGO THING: you wouldn't understand...

 

[Bubs]

I wonder if MJ did that to keep the mysterious image about himself.

I cannot remember where I read it but there was an occasition where MJ was interviewed by someone and he didn't want directly reply to interviewer's questions, so Janet had to ask the questions and MJ replied to Janet, which in turn repeated the replies to interviewer. I'm not sure if this story is true, but I was thinking if Mike was purposely doing something like that to get headlines or something?

 

[SoCav]

The situation itself is not hard to believe. I remember a similar story about Springsteen who tried to socialize with Michael during WATW, and Michael made zero attempt to support the conversation. Even the guy from Winans in Bad 25 talked about their first meeting with MJ when he communicated with them only through Quincy Jones. Idk, I guess he felt awkward in the presence of other talented people.

That can be read differently. Rudeness, shyness, eccentricity... If this was the only encounter these guys had with Michael, and he never warmed up to them, I imagine the are pretty disappointed.

Was it Springsteen? I only remember reading this account of Michael and him meeting backstage at a Victory Tour show. They seemed to have a somewhat awkward (though that also seems to be the angle the author wants to push) but friendly conversation.

Bruce certainly did not seem to have had a problem with MJ:

"You know," he said, spitting an ice cube back into his cup, "He's just a real nice guy."

http://kingofpopmj.tripod.com/people.htm

 

[HIStory]

^ Incidentaly I just watched my Making of WATW DVD and it does not seem like Michael and Bruce have any problems with each other. They have a friendly greeting of each other, smile, I think they even hugged each other or had a very warm shaking of hands. Michael was pretty shy during all of that session, he was certainly not one of the guys who liked to be in the centre of attention, nor was he very communicative or chatty, I think he wasn't very comfortable around so many people, but I don't think he was rude or disrespectful to anyone. He was just shy.

 

[Bubs]

Was it Springsteen? I only remember reading this account of Michael and him meeting backstage at a Victory Tour show. They seemed to have a somewhat awkward (though that also seems to be the angle the author wants to push) but friendly conversation.

Bruce certainly did not seem to have had a problem with MJ:

http://kingofpopmj.tripod.com/people.htm

Here at MJJC had a post up about Bruce and MJ:
http://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/threads/66494-Bruce-Springsteen-on-Michael-Jackson(great-read)

 

[Dilan]

I'm surprised with some of the factual errors in the article because other then being famous for his music he's also well known for no BS approach from all of the public interviews he gives. This must be one of those exceptions - he probably had a lasting grudge against MJ after that visit to Hayvenhurst or Neverland.

 

[Treasure]

I never know what to believe in...and I guess I never going to find out either.
Not that it really matters to me ..Michael will always be my number 1 and yes I am a fan og GM also...both did great work back in the 80s ...maybe jealousy was part of their behavier that time?? Of course Michael was bigger , but those GM did well to and no one could tell in for hand how much further he will grow.
Also I think Michael got protected by his mangers(s) who told him not to speak...I really can't imagine Michael being a A$$hole and being rude, but if so, he probably got his reasons for it.

Thank you all for your input here people...I always asked myself how Michael felt about George..Now I finally know

 

[8701girl]

Adults not allowed at Neverland ? That explains why there's so much footage of adults at Neverland...

And adults working at neverland.... lol

 

[Ashtanga]