In January 1980, Michael Jackson was a superstar, and had been for 10 years. But he was not yet the King of Pop. He was a guy with his first hit solo album as an adult, enjoying the platinum success of “Off The Wall.”
That’s the framework for this interview with music writer & historian John Pidgeon, who saved the tapes from the interview and eventually allowed them to be used for a PBS web series called “Blank On Blank.” Some cool animation was added to the audio tapes, and the result is a remarkably unaffected MJ before the tabloids and gargantuan levels of success got to him.
In the interview, he’s assisted by baby sis Janet. For a while in the early ’80s, Jackson-uncomfortable with interviews but forced to do them by his record company-decided that he was most comfortable having the questions filtered to him by Janet. Jackson biographer J. Randy Taraborelli recounts a similar episode in his book Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness.
1 comment
GG says:
Sep 17, 2014
That was pretty awesome. But if Quincy called me Smelly, I might have to call him Stinky back or something.