I had flown out there to find out whether Jermaine would be showing up for Michael’s upcoming 30th Anniversary Celebration: The Solo Years at Madison Square Garden. Hayvenhurst was now Jermaine’s place, even though his brother’s name was on the deed. Since it was Michael who was usually canceling shows at the last minute, and scotching plans for reunions with his brothers, it seemed fitting that Jermaine, the original singer of the Jackson Five, and the second-most-talented Jackson brother, was finally getting to exert some muscle and put the planned Jackson Five onstage reunion in doubt. “The show is going forward without me,” Jermaine declared. He and youngest brother Randy had put out a press release saying that they weren’t coming. Jermaine and Randy had been battling with show promoter David Gest over money: The highest ticket prices were going for $5,000, but the brothers were being offered a mere $1,200 each to perform. Jermaine seemed so hurt, and he kept telling me that the problem could be resolved if only he could talk to Michael instead of Gest. But he seemed not to have the slightest idea of how he could even get in touch with his own brother, who, in the old days, used to share hotel beds with him on the road.
The most heart-wrenching thing I remember was Jermaine’s jeans. They were too acid-washed to be stylish. He had personally painted on them, with a childlike loopy scrawl in neon-colored rubber puff-pen, the titles of all of Michael’s biggest hits—"Thriller," "Billie Jean," "Bad." He said that he’d lost 30 pounds running around Balboa Park and drinking Jamba Juices to prepare for the big reunion; he’d bought a brand-new purple-and-silver bass for the gig. And despite this, he had no harsh words for his brother. “Michael is the most loving person,” he told me. “If you want something, he’ll give it to you. Busloads go out to the ranch all the time. If someone is dying and their last wish is to meet him, they’ll go. I try to get my kids out there, but we can’t get out there because it’s booked for underprivileged this and that. That’s what he built it for.”
