Hello all. I post over at MJFC and took it upon myself to translate the interview this morning. I realize many people cant' stand Joe Jackson. That is their prerogative but I also submit that many people are not giving Joe Jackson
a fair shake. We are taking words the media edited for us to make us hate a man Michael loved and grew to understand. We are also talking the words of the media to help them demonize one of Michael's staunchest supporters who's determined to get to the root of this tragedy. And no I do not work for Joe or any of the Jacksons thank you. My interest is only in seeing justice for Michael.
Anyway, thank you all for loving Michael.
Respectfully,
Cassandra /aka CassandraM here since someone beat me to the name.
I could have saved Michael, Joe Jackson - Bild Interview
Sept 20, 2009
His mourning hat is always on, he won't remove it, not even when he's eating. Otherwise, the man is amazingly open - nevertheless he is used to people dancing to his tune. Joseph "Joe" Jackson (81) is on short trip to Germany, in the North Sea resort Carolinensiel.
BILD's Sunday edtion: He gives his first extensive worldwide newspaper interview about death of his son Michael († 50). For two hours, the man the public sees as a cold-hearted father talks about his feelings in a low and hoarse voice.
BILD am SONNTAG: Mr. Jackson, how are you three months after the death of your son Michael?
Joseph Jackson: My heart is crying.
In public, but you always come across as pretty stoic.
I'll tell you something: Shortly after Michael's death the whole family sat together Everyone was crying buckets. Except me. There were no tears. I couldn't even cry when my father died. I am crying inside. When I hear Michael sing, I can't stop the tears.
You were violently attacked when you promoted your new music project three days after Michael's death at an awards show in Los Angeles.
It came across completely wrong. I had honestly given information about my feelings to three reporters there but there was a fourth who wanted to know what I'm planning professionaly, so after answering the first three, I gave the fourth reporter an honest answer. Unfortunately, my answer to the fourth was the only thing that made the news.
Where and how you did you learn the bad news?
Before anyone else. I was in Las Vegas, one of his security people called me and said, something is wrong with Michael. I asked: What's going on? He said Michael had collapsed and was not moving anymore. Then I screamed into the phone: Move your ass and call an ambulance immediately, immediately, immediately! A little later the call came that Michael was dead.
And you immediately flew to Los Angeles?
No, I did not want to see Michael dead. I didn't want to see him in the coffin later on either, even though Randy and Janet had dressed and made him up beautifuully. I want to remember him alive- dancing and singing. I can't look at people I know and love lying in a coffin. Not even my own my father when he died.
What is the most tender memory of your son?
In the late sixties, when the "Jackson 5" were about to become the biggest attraction in the American showbiz, a newspaper made up a story that Michael was a 49 year old midget and not a 9 year old boy. That hurt him and he wept bitterly. I went to him, got on my knees and said: "Look, I'm the 42-year-old dwarf". Then he hugged my neck, and his tears gave way to laughter.
But Michael didn't have happy memories of his childhood - quite the contrary.
I know! He even claimed that he had ever had no childhood. This is not true. It is true that I did not let my kids play with the kids in the neighborhood. But that's because we lived in a bad neighborhood. All the neighborhood children from our past have either become drug addicts or they're in prison. My most important task was protecting my children. Michael had eight brothers and sisters, with whom he could play. They horsed around, played basketball. And now I'll tell you another story. . .
We're curious. . .
Once we had a time a pit bull, and from one day he escaped from his kennel. When Michael was 6 years old, he and his younger brother Randy were playing in front of the house; the dog ran directly toward them. Michael managed to jump on the roof of the car, Randy was bitten on the Achilles tendon, which still has problems to this day. It was so clear that Michael could move like nobody else.
Wsa Michael, from a young age, the most talented of the brothers?
Jermaine sang beautifully but Michael was phenomenal: each tune he heard, he could immediately sing perfectly, every dance step that he saw, he was immediately on it. Imagine: He tap-danced, and he didn't just try to but he could! And just from seeing Fred Astaire do it once on television.
Michael complained that he and his brothers were beaten to success.
I came down hard on the boys, that's true, but I also promised them I would make them the biggest stars in the world. That was the plan. And they agreed. I whipped them a few times but not constantly. How could I have? I was hardly at home. I worked two jobs in order to get enough money together to feed them, buy their instruments and take care of an eleven-member family. I didn't abuse any of them, I insist. Back then, you beat your children when they didn't do what they were told - even the teachers at school did that. Today, the methods of discipline are different, and today I would do it differently.
Nevertheless, it seems that the relationship between Michael and you never really have recovered.
It was difficult because I wasn't just his father, but I was also his manager. That made it difficult to draw the dividing line. You know, we were black in a White-dominated business. I knew Michael could be bigger than Elvis Presley, but the Whites would never allow that. I led them through a shark tank. And if you ask me: "He was bigger than Elvis.
Do you remember your last father-son conversation?
It was about business. It was a few weeks before his death. Michael told me they were going to pay him for his London concerts in dollars - and not in pounds or euros. I thought: That can't do that; they have to pay you in the local currency! I took care of that for him.
I went to the AEG people (the contractor for the "This-is-it" concert series in London). The thing that bothered me was who knew if the dollar would be higher than the pound or the euro when Michael completed his shows. Well, I said, you're going to do it this way: On the day of the last concert, Michael will be paid in the currency that has the highest value. They agreed and changed the terms.
Would Michael would have endured the fifty concerts?
What are you thinking?
A maximum of ten! And let me tell you something: it was only supposed to be ten concerts. That was the deal. He told me that he had total horror of the London shows, the pressure to get ready, he was betrayed. And more than ten performances he didn't want to and he couldn't peform.
Did you know about his dependence on painkillers?
I knew that he took strong painkillers. He started a long time - since the accident 25 years ago, when he was so severely burned shooting a commercial. I had my suspicions that he was letting himself get injected with hard stuff.
((need help with the exact translation please))
How did you learn this?
Prince, his eldest son, told me on the phone that Michael had punctures on the inside of both elbows..
Why didn't you speak with Michael and try to help him, to prevent something worse?
I tried it. But
in the last weeks before his death they no longer allowed me to see him. I was standing outside his house, and security (the concert organizer's security) blocked my way. I tried, even went to the police. I tried everything. I went so far that I was thinking about going home, getiting my gun and shooting my way to free Michael. I told my wife, Katherine, we have to get that boy out of there or he'll be dead in a week. A week later he was dead.
You mean you could have saved him?
My God, yes.
This haunts you?
What haunts me is that people used a thoroughly good man like Michael; he was destroyed by people he trusted and whom he showered with gifts.
Is there anything you would want to say to him, and now can not?
Kick them in the ass and remember their names!
http://www.bild.de/BILD/unterhaltung/leute/2009/09/20/joe-jackson/vater-von-michael-jackson-im-interview-teil-2.html