Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder & More Pay Tribute To Michael Jackson
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Time Magazine
Time magazine’s tribute issue to Michael Jackson, June 29, 2009
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Michael Jackson: The Life Of An Icon
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FIRST PUBLISHED: June 28, 2009 6:31 PM EDT
LAST UPDATED: June 28, 2009 6:59 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES, Calif. --
A number of stars have penned touching tributes to Michael Jackson for a special issue of Time magazine, on stands on Monday.
Quincy Jones, Michael’s producer on his hit albums “Off The Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad,” looked back at the focus Michael had when they met on the set of “The Wiz.”
“He knew everybody’s lines, he knew all the songs, all the steps, everything,” Quincy wrote in the magazine. “I’d never seen so much focus in my life.”
Stevie Wonder, himself a former child star and a fellow Motown legend, remembered seeing Michael’s potential as a young boy leading the Jackson 5.
“He would always come into the studio curious about how I worked and what I did. ‘How do you do that? Why do you do that?’ I think he understood clearly from seeing various people do the music scene that it definitely took work. He must have been around 9 or 10 then, and I definitely felt that he would be someone,” Stevie wrote. “You hear the voice, and all he could do is grow. And that’s what he did.”
Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, who won his fourth NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this month, told the mag that Michael had encouraged him to be driven.
“One of the things he always told me was don’t be afraid to be different,” Kobe wrote. “He’s saying: ‘It’s OK to be that driven, it’s OK to be obsessed with what you want to do. That’s perfectly fine.’”
But Kobe also remembered the musician as a “genuinely nice person” who offered to open his home for the basketball star’s wedding.
“I remember my fiancee and I telling him we were getting married, and him just being really excited, and actually just offering up the ranch to have our wedding there, because privacy was going to be an issue,” he said. “We wanted to get married in a church, so that’s what we wound up doing. But he made the offer.”
JC Chasez, who performed with Michael several times during his days in *NSYNC, remembered Michael as a musician who, even as a superstar, spent hours preparing for his performances.
“He was doing vocal drills for an hour before he went out,” JC wrote. “It’s not something that magically appeared on him, the guy worked hard for it. 40 years old, and the guy is warming up for an hour before every show. He wanted to give that audience the best he had.”
And John Mayer, who wrote about growing up in the ‘80s watching Michael’s superstardom, called “Thriller” the benchmark for greatness.
“As a musician, the man was one of the purest substances ever in music,” he wrote. “But it’s frustrating, and somewhat pointless, to ever try and figure out how Michael Jackson arrived at an album like ‘Thriller’ and how you could arrive at something like it. It’s impossible. I mean it’s one of those things you actually don’t want to bring up to musicians because they don’t want to remember that that kind of greatness is achievable, because it skews the entire bell curve completely.”
Copyright 2009 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Stevie just sings love for Michael
By David Collins 2/07/2009
Stevie Wonder altered the lyrics to one of his bestknown songs to honour Michael Jackson at a show.
I Just Called To Say I Love You was given a rewrite in the same way Elton John changed Candle in the Wind for Princess Diana.
A fan at Montreal's international jazz festival said: "He was upset. His voice cracked a few times."
Wonder, 59, sang: "Michael knows that I'm here and I love you...
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"By playing and buying your music to show your family we mean it from the bottom of our hearts.
"Sure we mean it from the bottom of our hearts."
An emotional Wonder also talked about his friend before Tuesday's show.
He said: "Don't get hung up on the negativity of what's being said. Keep him alive by celebrating his music and his legacy."
Ｍ・ジャクソンさん死去：東京ディズニーに数回来園
日本各地を公演途中、東京ディズニーランドに招待されたマイケル・ジャクソンさん（中央）＝１９８７年９月２９日撮影
マイケル・ジャクソンさんは８７年のツアーなど５回の来日公演のほか、プライベートを含め何度も来日している。
８７年の来日時には東京ディズニーランドでマイケルさんを主人公にした３Ｄ立体映像アトラクションが話題を呼び、閉園後にアトラクション体験を楽しむ姿を報道陣に披露。以降、数回来園した。同ランドを運営する「オリエンタルランド」（千葉県浦安市）は「ディズニーの大ファンであったマイケルさんが亡くなられたことを大変残念に思います。謹んでお悔やみ申し上げます」とのコメントを出した。
０６年の来日では東京・渋谷のパチンコ店を閉店後に訪れ、０７年には閉店後の東京・ビックカメラ有楽町店にもお忍びで来店。０６年の来日時の様子について、成田国際空港の関係者は「爆発的ヒットを飛ばしていたころに比べると、随分影が薄くなった印象だった」と振り返る。
訃報（ふほう）を受け、全国６６店舗やネットでＣＤなどを販売している「ＨＭＶジャパン」（東京都港区）や、約１８０店を展開する「新星堂」（杉並区）は一部店舗で追悼コーナーを設け始めた。「従業員にもファンが多く『信じられない』という声がもっぱら。『キング・オブ・ポップス』としての活動や功績も伝えたい」（ＨＭＶ）、「訃報は残念だが誰もが知る８０年代の音楽を支えた人。その偉大さを伝えたい」（新星堂）。
マイケルさんをまねたダンスパフォーマンスでテレビ番組などにも登場している物まね芸人のマイコーりょうさんは「小学生のときに初めてスリラーを見て感激し、ダンスを習い始めた。彼は僕の人生の師匠。ショックで言葉にもならない」と衝撃を隠せない様子だった。【松谷譲二、市川明代、山田泰正、工藤哲】
追悼 マイケル・ジャクソン ８７年、チンパンジーとともに大阪市役所を表敬訪問
公演で関西入りし、ペットのチンパンジーと一緒に大阪市役所を表敬訪問するマイケル・ジャクソンさん＝１９８７年９月１８日撮影
米ロサンゼルスで２５日午後（日本時間２６日午前）亡くなったポップス界のスーパースター、マイケル・ジャクソンさん（５０）は１９８７年９月18日、日本ツアーの際、ペットのチンパンジーとともに大阪市役所を表敬訪問していた。
当時、ジャクソンさんは前作のアルバム「スリラー」が空前の世界的ヒットとなり、人気絶頂期。東京、大阪、福岡の球場４カ所で計１４回のコンサートを行った。
大阪市役所への訪問は当時の報道によると、当初「お忍び」の予定だったが、深紅のシャツに黒のサングラスの姿がすぐに目にとまり、あっと言う間に市役所周辺は女性を中心に約７００人の人だかり。「きゃーっ」という歓声に包まれながら市長室を訪れ、大島靖市長と面談した。
当選１期目の議員として同席した舟戸良裕・同市議会議長（６０）は「そりゃ、格好良かった。普段は冷静な女子職員がどんどん市長室に集まってきて、こちらがびっくりしました。ジャクソンさんはスーパースターなのに向こうから握手を求めてきて、その手が女の子のような小さかったのが印象的でした。今朝、自宅で訃報を聞いて、えーっ、ウソだろとびっくり。まだ若いのに残念です」と語った。【毎日新聞大阪メディア室】
MJ: I want to go out like Elvis
Tags: Jackson, Chopra, Michael Jackson, Grace Rwamba, Elvis
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'If the media calls me weird, what word would the media have for so many things going on around us,' Michael Jackson [ Images ] once asked his friend, the holistic guru and best-selling author Deepak Chopra. 'People think my behavior is weird. Isn't the world more weird?'
Chopra had introduced the poetry of sufi poet Rumi and Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore [ Images ] to Michael Jackson, not to forget meditation.
He had also helped the pop star produce Dancing the Dream in 1992. It was a collection of poems and essays that discussed issues like world hunger, homeless children and world peace. He introduced Grace Rwamba to Jackson, who would become his children's nanny and surrogate mother.
Chopra says he cannot forget the anguish in his friend's voice as Jackson discussed the word 'weird.'
"He talked about what was happening in Sudan," Chopra continued. "He talked about global warming. He felt the cruelty in Sudan, the degradation of the environment, and he was convinced that those things were far more weird than his own alleged weirdness.
"He was a very delicate person, a very innocent soul," added Chopra whose advice is sought by some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Nicolas Cage [ Images ]. "I have never seen him get angry and say a bad thing about anyone."
But Chopra also watched, with certain amount of helplessness, the self-destructive side of the singer. His son Gotham Chopra had traveled at the age of 13 with Jackson as a roadie on his Dangerous tour.
'Will it matter that Michael behaved with discipline and impeccable manners around my son?' Chopra mused in a blog. 'It sends a shiver to recall something he told Gotham: 'I don't want to go out like Marlon Brando. I want to go out like Elvis.''
Chopra's admiration for Jackson included the performer as well.
"As a performer and singer, Michael was unsurpassed," said Chopra. "He took millions of people, including my children and me, into an ecstatic state. He had many great qualities as an individual and I have always felt he was greatly misunderstood, and many people were not fully aware of a Jackson who really cared for his fellow beings."
Since Jackson's death, Chopra has been besieged by the media. In an exclusive interview with Rediff, he talked at length on how some people, who lead complicated lives, resist holistic advice.
Chopra also spent quite a bit of time looking at the positive side of Jackson. "He was very concerned about nature and ecology and thought deeply about man's relationship with nature," Chopra said, adding that he had given Jackson a copy of Tagore's Gitanjali.
Chopra remembers how, many years ago, after an exhausting performance in Bucharest, Jackson sat backstage with Chopra chatting about Sufi poetry. Tagore soon joined the list of writers Jackson admired. "He was reading a poem by Tagore when we talked the last time, just about two weeks ago," Chopra said
Recently when Jackson and Chopra chatted at the former's request to discuss the lyrics for a new composition, the singer and performer talked about creating a spiritual relationship with the nature. "It was like, we ought to look at the world as the extension of ourselves," Chopra mused.
And yet Chopra confesses, he had watched with sadness, Jackson's inability to overcome his deep psychological problems, and even as he remembers Jackson for his humanity and exuberance, he adds that he had felt the tragedy lurking behind the singer for a long time.
"And that is why I wrote in my blog my heartfelt feelings," Chopra added. He wrote: 'Michael Jackson will be remembered, most likely, as a shattered icon, a pop genius who wound up a mutant of fame. That's not who I will remember, however. His mixture of mystery, isolation, indulgence, overwhelming global fame, and personal loneliness was intimately known to me. For 20 years I observed every aspect, and as easy as it was to love Michael -- and to want to protect him -- his sudden death yesterday seemed almost fated.'
He sees in Jackson's troubles life lessons for celebrities. Jackson, he says, became a victim to the image the media crafted, and fell prey to doctors who were merciless in the pursuit of their high living. 'He was surroundered by enablers,' Chopra writes on his Website, 'including a shameful plethora of MDs.'
"Addiction is the number one disease of the civilization," he mused, as he discussed Jackson's dependence on painkillers. "You can't blame the addict but instead, we ought to look into the complex situations that create addicts. Addictions have cost the lives of many people in the entertainment industry. Jimi Hendrix and Heath Ledger [ Images ] among them. Addiction cost Michael dearly. And the ravages of addictions just won't stop unless we seriously address the root causes, and make sure the medical establishment won't make the situation worse by its prescription drugs.
"With hindsight, one could say this could have been done or he could have behaved differently or sought different advisers. But the situation (with Jackson) was incredibly complicated," he added.
Recent studies have shown in the case of adults who were physically or sexually abused as children, a number of intense psychological problems lead to trauma and illnesses, he added. In some cases, the pain is in the mind but the victim feels as if he is undergoing intense physical pain. Often, people like Jackson, who had a traumatic childhood, undergo a lot of self-loathing and shame, he added. 'They think of all the bad things that happened to them in their childhood and in adult life, and they ask themselves, what did we do to deserve this?'
Even success cannot help them overcome the self-loathing and shame, unless they go for holistic healing. But it has to be done consistently
Chopra's children, Gotham and Malika, adored Jackson, and in return, he responded in a childlike way. Jackson had also visited the Chopra home near San Diego.
'He declared often, as former child stars do, that he was robbed of his childhood,' Chopra wrote in his blog. 'Considering the monstrously exaggerated value our society places on celebrity, which was showered on Michael without stint, the public was callous to his very real personal pain. It became another tawdry piece of the tabloid Jacko, pictured as a weird changeling and as something far more sinister.'
Was Jackson's compulsion with cosmetic surgery a form of self-mutilation, Chopra wondered. "And then the media calls this compulsion bizarre," he added. "The behavior (of the person under media scrutiny) then becomes even more bizarre It is a very tragic situation."
'Unbounded privilege became another toxic force in his undoing. What began as idiosyncrasy, shyness, and vulnerability was ravaged by obsessions over health, paranoia over security, and an isolation that grew more and more unhealthy,' Chopra wrote in his blog. 'When Michael passed me the music for that last song, the one sitting by my bedside waiting for the right words, the procedure for getting the CD to me rivaled a CIA covert operation in its secrecy.'
The most tragic thing that ever happened to Jackson was getting trapped in a web of prescription drugs, Chopra said.
Chopra, trained in Western medicine, has for many years criticized the medical establishment for doling out prescription drugs. He was reminded of an interview with India Abroad over 20 years ago where he had declared that the drug problem in America was not created by Colombians or Mexicans but doctors who liberally doled out prescription drugs.
"That continues today, and even very young children are given loads of prescription drugs," he said. "This is very shameful. Michael became a victim to this phenomenon.
"Some doctors are clearly narcissistic," he said. "Some of them develop codependency with the patients." He called them 'designer doctors' who 'just won't let their patients go.'
And the patients in turn start believing that not getting the prescribed drug 'would be suicidal,' Chopra added "In fact, the drugs make your condition worse and this was also the case with Michael."
Jackson's dependency with prescription drugs could have started over a decade ago when he had been sued for sexual molestation of a young boy. Though he would be exonerated in the court, he suffered quite a bit of trauma, and began believing he was physically suffering too. He even asked Chopra for prescription drugs in 2005 and the holistic guru flatly refused. When Chopra pressed him over the dependency, Jackson became quite agitated, and then very defensive.
"I brought up the subject of drug use as recently as six months ago," he said.
Does he feel bad that he could not do more to help Jackson? "With hindsight, one can feel and say so many things," he said with a sigh. "In a way, this was coming, and it's frustrating that we couldn't do anything about it. But it is the person, who is suffering who should take the initiative and the people around him, the doctors who let him have the prescription drugs should have acted honorably."
He said in another interview: 'The problem has been going on for a long time but we didn't know what to do. There were attempts at intervention, and it didn't succeed.'
He also said Grace Rwamba, the nanny of Jackson's children repeatedly contacted him with concerns about Jackson's drug use but Jackson avoided his calls whenever the subject came up.
As many times as Jackson would candidly confess that he had a problem, the conversation always ended with a deflection and denial, Chopra said. As Chopra was writing his blog, the reports of Jackson's drug abuse were spreading across news channels. 'The instant I heard of his death this afternoon,' he wrote, 'I had a sinking feeling that prescription drugs would play a key part.'
Chopra and his family are trying to remember the humanity and music of Jackson but they are not glossing over his troubles and the price celebrities often pay. Chopra's thoughts are also very much with people who were close to Jackson and who are also known to Chopra.
'His children's nanny and surrogate mother, Grace Rwamba, is like another daughter to me,' he remembers in his blog. 'I introduced her to Michael when she was 18, a beautiful, heartwarming girl from Rwanda who is now grown up. She kept an eye on him for me and would call me whenever he was down or running too close to the edge. How heartbreaking for Grace that no one's protective instincts and genuine love could avert this tragic day.'
What were the closest moments Chopra has had with the late Jackson? Jackson wanted to produce a book to sell primarily as a concert souvenir, Chopra said, going back to the 1990s. "It would contain pictures for his fans but there would also be a text consisting of short fables," he recalled. "I sat with him for hours while he dreamily wove Aesop-like tales about animals, mixed with words about music and his love of all things musical. This project became Dancing the Dream after I pulled the text together for him, acting strictly as a friend. It was this time together that convinced me of the modus vivendi Michael had devised for himself: to counter the tidal wave of stress that accompanies mega-stardom, he built a private retreat in a fantasy world where pink clouds veiled inner anguish and Peter Pan was a hero, not a pathology."
Chopra introduced Jackson to his editor at Doubleday which published the book in 1992 with an impressive pressrun of 150,000 copies. The book was a success but Jackson felt it could have become a bigger success.
"There is renewed interest in the book now that he is gone," Chopra said. "The book could soon be reissued. There was a feeling that people did not really understand at the time what Michael was trying to show through the poems and reflections. It requires a higher consciousness to appreciate the thoughts in the book This time around people may look deeply into the book -- and into themselves."
Arthur J Pais
King of Pop's pal: Michael Jackson raised his children with 'loving discipline' - like he never got
Wednesday, July 1st 2009, 1:12 AM
Green/AP
Fans pay their respects at the modest childhood home of Michael Jackson and family in Gary, Ind.
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Whatever biology and genetics may or may not say, there is no disputing what the three children considered Michael Jackson.
"They called him, 'Daddy,'" Mike La Perruque, his long-time confidant and head of security, said Tuesday.
And, in La Perruque's experience, Jackson's primary goal was to be the very best daddy he could be in all the ways so much more important than any biological particulars.
"The kids were Michael's life," La Perruque said. "If there is anything that can be said about Michael, he was a very good father."
Jackson's father had been inordinately harsh, and he took this as a guide of how not to be.
"He thought a father should be what was opposite of what he received as a child," La Perruque said.
At the same time, Jackson understood that children need limits to help them find themselves and their place among others.
He guided them not
Tags:
Michael Jackson,Music,Deaths,John Mayer,TV One,CelebritiesPRINT
Buzz up!
on Yahoo!
ShareThis
enlarge
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Time Magazine
Time magazine’s tribute issue to Michael Jackson, June 29, 2009
hottest galleries
The Latest Star Sightings
Access the day’s hottest photos!
Michael Jackson: The Life Of An Icon
Check out pictures of Michael Jackson’s ‘thrilling’ life from his Jackson Five days to his last moments….
Farrah Fawcett: From ‘Angel’ To Icon
Check out recent photos of the lovely Farrah Fawcett
more galleries
FIRST PUBLISHED: June 28, 2009 6:31 PM EDT
LAST UPDATED: June 28, 2009 6:59 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES, Calif. --
A number of stars have penned touching tributes to Michael Jackson for a special issue of Time magazine, on stands on Monday.
Quincy Jones, Michael’s producer on his hit albums “Off The Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad,” looked back at the focus Michael had when they met on the set of “The Wiz.”
“He knew everybody’s lines, he knew all the songs, all the steps, everything,” Quincy wrote in the magazine. “I’d never seen so much focus in my life.”
Stevie Wonder, himself a former child star and a fellow Motown legend, remembered seeing Michael’s potential as a young boy leading the Jackson 5.
“He would always come into the studio curious about how I worked and what I did. ‘How do you do that? Why do you do that?’ I think he understood clearly from seeing various people do the music scene that it definitely took work. He must have been around 9 or 10 then, and I definitely felt that he would be someone,” Stevie wrote. “You hear the voice, and all he could do is grow. And that’s what he did.”
Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, who won his fourth NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this month, told the mag that Michael had encouraged him to be driven.
“One of the things he always told me was don’t be afraid to be different,” Kobe wrote. “He’s saying: ‘It’s OK to be that driven, it’s OK to be obsessed with what you want to do. That’s perfectly fine.’”
But Kobe also remembered the musician as a “genuinely nice person” who offered to open his home for the basketball star’s wedding.
“I remember my fiancee and I telling him we were getting married, and him just being really excited, and actually just offering up the ranch to have our wedding there, because privacy was going to be an issue,” he said. “We wanted to get married in a church, so that’s what we wound up doing. But he made the offer.”
JC Chasez, who performed with Michael several times during his days in *NSYNC, remembered Michael as a musician who, even as a superstar, spent hours preparing for his performances.
“He was doing vocal drills for an hour before he went out,” JC wrote. “It’s not something that magically appeared on him, the guy worked hard for it. 40 years old, and the guy is warming up for an hour before every show. He wanted to give that audience the best he had.”
And John Mayer, who wrote about growing up in the ‘80s watching Michael’s superstardom, called “Thriller” the benchmark for greatness.
“As a musician, the man was one of the purest substances ever in music,” he wrote. “But it’s frustrating, and somewhat pointless, to ever try and figure out how Michael Jackson arrived at an album like ‘Thriller’ and how you could arrive at something like it. It’s impossible. I mean it’s one of those things you actually don’t want to bring up to musicians because they don’t want to remember that that kind of greatness is achievable, because it skews the entire bell curve completely.”
Copyright 2009 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Stevie just sings love for Michael
By David Collins 2/07/2009
Stevie Wonder altered the lyrics to one of his bestknown songs to honour Michael Jackson at a show.
I Just Called To Say I Love You was given a rewrite in the same way Elton John changed Candle in the Wind for Princess Diana.
A fan at Montreal's international jazz festival said: "He was upset. His voice cracked a few times."
Wonder, 59, sang: "Michael knows that I'm here and I love you...
Advertisement - article continues below »
"By playing and buying your music to show your family we mean it from the bottom of our hearts.
"Sure we mean it from the bottom of our hearts."
An emotional Wonder also talked about his friend before Tuesday's show.
He said: "Don't get hung up on the negativity of what's being said. Keep him alive by celebrating his music and his legacy."
Ｍ・ジャクソンさん死去：東京ディズニーに数回来園
日本各地を公演途中、東京ディズニーランドに招待されたマイケル・ジャクソンさん（中央）＝１９８７年９月２９日撮影
マイケル・ジャクソンさんは８７年のツアーなど５回の来日公演のほか、プライベートを含め何度も来日している。
８７年の来日時には東京ディズニーランドでマイケルさんを主人公にした３Ｄ立体映像アトラクションが話題を呼び、閉園後にアトラクション体験を楽しむ姿を報道陣に披露。以降、数回来園した。同ランドを運営する「オリエンタルランド」（千葉県浦安市）は「ディズニーの大ファンであったマイケルさんが亡くなられたことを大変残念に思います。謹んでお悔やみ申し上げます」とのコメントを出した。
０６年の来日では東京・渋谷のパチンコ店を閉店後に訪れ、０７年には閉店後の東京・ビックカメラ有楽町店にもお忍びで来店。０６年の来日時の様子について、成田国際空港の関係者は「爆発的ヒットを飛ばしていたころに比べると、随分影が薄くなった印象だった」と振り返る。
訃報（ふほう）を受け、全国６６店舗やネットでＣＤなどを販売している「ＨＭＶジャパン」（東京都港区）や、約１８０店を展開する「新星堂」（杉並区）は一部店舗で追悼コーナーを設け始めた。「従業員にもファンが多く『信じられない』という声がもっぱら。『キング・オブ・ポップス』としての活動や功績も伝えたい」（ＨＭＶ）、「訃報は残念だが誰もが知る８０年代の音楽を支えた人。その偉大さを伝えたい」（新星堂）。
マイケルさんをまねたダンスパフォーマンスでテレビ番組などにも登場している物まね芸人のマイコーりょうさんは「小学生のときに初めてスリラーを見て感激し、ダンスを習い始めた。彼は僕の人生の師匠。ショックで言葉にもならない」と衝撃を隠せない様子だった。【松谷譲二、市川明代、山田泰正、工藤哲】
追悼 マイケル・ジャクソン ８７年、チンパンジーとともに大阪市役所を表敬訪問
公演で関西入りし、ペットのチンパンジーと一緒に大阪市役所を表敬訪問するマイケル・ジャクソンさん＝１９８７年９月１８日撮影
米ロサンゼルスで２５日午後（日本時間２６日午前）亡くなったポップス界のスーパースター、マイケル・ジャクソンさん（５０）は１９８７年９月18日、日本ツアーの際、ペットのチンパンジーとともに大阪市役所を表敬訪問していた。
当時、ジャクソンさんは前作のアルバム「スリラー」が空前の世界的ヒットとなり、人気絶頂期。東京、大阪、福岡の球場４カ所で計１４回のコンサートを行った。
大阪市役所への訪問は当時の報道によると、当初「お忍び」の予定だったが、深紅のシャツに黒のサングラスの姿がすぐに目にとまり、あっと言う間に市役所周辺は女性を中心に約７００人の人だかり。「きゃーっ」という歓声に包まれながら市長室を訪れ、大島靖市長と面談した。
当選１期目の議員として同席した舟戸良裕・同市議会議長（６０）は「そりゃ、格好良かった。普段は冷静な女子職員がどんどん市長室に集まってきて、こちらがびっくりしました。ジャクソンさんはスーパースターなのに向こうから握手を求めてきて、その手が女の子のような小さかったのが印象的でした。今朝、自宅で訃報を聞いて、えーっ、ウソだろとびっくり。まだ若いのに残念です」と語った。【毎日新聞大阪メディア室】
MJ: I want to go out like Elvis
Tags: Jackson, Chopra, Michael Jackson, Grace Rwamba, Elvis
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'If the media calls me weird, what word would the media have for so many things going on around us,' Michael Jackson [ Images ] once asked his friend, the holistic guru and best-selling author Deepak Chopra. 'People think my behavior is weird. Isn't the world more weird?'
Chopra had introduced the poetry of sufi poet Rumi and Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore [ Images ] to Michael Jackson, not to forget meditation.
He had also helped the pop star produce Dancing the Dream in 1992. It was a collection of poems and essays that discussed issues like world hunger, homeless children and world peace. He introduced Grace Rwamba to Jackson, who would become his children's nanny and surrogate mother.
Chopra says he cannot forget the anguish in his friend's voice as Jackson discussed the word 'weird.'
"He talked about what was happening in Sudan," Chopra continued. "He talked about global warming. He felt the cruelty in Sudan, the degradation of the environment, and he was convinced that those things were far more weird than his own alleged weirdness.
"He was a very delicate person, a very innocent soul," added Chopra whose advice is sought by some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Nicolas Cage [ Images ]. "I have never seen him get angry and say a bad thing about anyone."
But Chopra also watched, with certain amount of helplessness, the self-destructive side of the singer. His son Gotham Chopra had traveled at the age of 13 with Jackson as a roadie on his Dangerous tour.
'Will it matter that Michael behaved with discipline and impeccable manners around my son?' Chopra mused in a blog. 'It sends a shiver to recall something he told Gotham: 'I don't want to go out like Marlon Brando. I want to go out like Elvis.''
Chopra's admiration for Jackson included the performer as well.
"As a performer and singer, Michael was unsurpassed," said Chopra. "He took millions of people, including my children and me, into an ecstatic state. He had many great qualities as an individual and I have always felt he was greatly misunderstood, and many people were not fully aware of a Jackson who really cared for his fellow beings."
Since Jackson's death, Chopra has been besieged by the media. In an exclusive interview with Rediff, he talked at length on how some people, who lead complicated lives, resist holistic advice.
Chopra also spent quite a bit of time looking at the positive side of Jackson. "He was very concerned about nature and ecology and thought deeply about man's relationship with nature," Chopra said, adding that he had given Jackson a copy of Tagore's Gitanjali.
Chopra remembers how, many years ago, after an exhausting performance in Bucharest, Jackson sat backstage with Chopra chatting about Sufi poetry. Tagore soon joined the list of writers Jackson admired. "He was reading a poem by Tagore when we talked the last time, just about two weeks ago," Chopra said
Recently when Jackson and Chopra chatted at the former's request to discuss the lyrics for a new composition, the singer and performer talked about creating a spiritual relationship with the nature. "It was like, we ought to look at the world as the extension of ourselves," Chopra mused.
And yet Chopra confesses, he had watched with sadness, Jackson's inability to overcome his deep psychological problems, and even as he remembers Jackson for his humanity and exuberance, he adds that he had felt the tragedy lurking behind the singer for a long time.
"And that is why I wrote in my blog my heartfelt feelings," Chopra added. He wrote: 'Michael Jackson will be remembered, most likely, as a shattered icon, a pop genius who wound up a mutant of fame. That's not who I will remember, however. His mixture of mystery, isolation, indulgence, overwhelming global fame, and personal loneliness was intimately known to me. For 20 years I observed every aspect, and as easy as it was to love Michael -- and to want to protect him -- his sudden death yesterday seemed almost fated.'
He sees in Jackson's troubles life lessons for celebrities. Jackson, he says, became a victim to the image the media crafted, and fell prey to doctors who were merciless in the pursuit of their high living. 'He was surroundered by enablers,' Chopra writes on his Website, 'including a shameful plethora of MDs.'
"Addiction is the number one disease of the civilization," he mused, as he discussed Jackson's dependence on painkillers. "You can't blame the addict but instead, we ought to look into the complex situations that create addicts. Addictions have cost the lives of many people in the entertainment industry. Jimi Hendrix and Heath Ledger [ Images ] among them. Addiction cost Michael dearly. And the ravages of addictions just won't stop unless we seriously address the root causes, and make sure the medical establishment won't make the situation worse by its prescription drugs.
"With hindsight, one could say this could have been done or he could have behaved differently or sought different advisers. But the situation (with Jackson) was incredibly complicated," he added.
Recent studies have shown in the case of adults who were physically or sexually abused as children, a number of intense psychological problems lead to trauma and illnesses, he added. In some cases, the pain is in the mind but the victim feels as if he is undergoing intense physical pain. Often, people like Jackson, who had a traumatic childhood, undergo a lot of self-loathing and shame, he added. 'They think of all the bad things that happened to them in their childhood and in adult life, and they ask themselves, what did we do to deserve this?'
Even success cannot help them overcome the self-loathing and shame, unless they go for holistic healing. But it has to be done consistently
Chopra's children, Gotham and Malika, adored Jackson, and in return, he responded in a childlike way. Jackson had also visited the Chopra home near San Diego.
'He declared often, as former child stars do, that he was robbed of his childhood,' Chopra wrote in his blog. 'Considering the monstrously exaggerated value our society places on celebrity, which was showered on Michael without stint, the public was callous to his very real personal pain. It became another tawdry piece of the tabloid Jacko, pictured as a weird changeling and as something far more sinister.'
Was Jackson's compulsion with cosmetic surgery a form of self-mutilation, Chopra wondered. "And then the media calls this compulsion bizarre," he added. "The behavior (of the person under media scrutiny) then becomes even more bizarre It is a very tragic situation."
'Unbounded privilege became another toxic force in his undoing. What began as idiosyncrasy, shyness, and vulnerability was ravaged by obsessions over health, paranoia over security, and an isolation that grew more and more unhealthy,' Chopra wrote in his blog. 'When Michael passed me the music for that last song, the one sitting by my bedside waiting for the right words, the procedure for getting the CD to me rivaled a CIA covert operation in its secrecy.'
The most tragic thing that ever happened to Jackson was getting trapped in a web of prescription drugs, Chopra said.
Chopra, trained in Western medicine, has for many years criticized the medical establishment for doling out prescription drugs. He was reminded of an interview with India Abroad over 20 years ago where he had declared that the drug problem in America was not created by Colombians or Mexicans but doctors who liberally doled out prescription drugs.
"That continues today, and even very young children are given loads of prescription drugs," he said. "This is very shameful. Michael became a victim to this phenomenon.
"Some doctors are clearly narcissistic," he said. "Some of them develop codependency with the patients." He called them 'designer doctors' who 'just won't let their patients go.'
And the patients in turn start believing that not getting the prescribed drug 'would be suicidal,' Chopra added "In fact, the drugs make your condition worse and this was also the case with Michael."
Jackson's dependency with prescription drugs could have started over a decade ago when he had been sued for sexual molestation of a young boy. Though he would be exonerated in the court, he suffered quite a bit of trauma, and began believing he was physically suffering too. He even asked Chopra for prescription drugs in 2005 and the holistic guru flatly refused. When Chopra pressed him over the dependency, Jackson became quite agitated, and then very defensive.
"I brought up the subject of drug use as recently as six months ago," he said.
Does he feel bad that he could not do more to help Jackson? "With hindsight, one can feel and say so many things," he said with a sigh. "In a way, this was coming, and it's frustrating that we couldn't do anything about it. But it is the person, who is suffering who should take the initiative and the people around him, the doctors who let him have the prescription drugs should have acted honorably."
He said in another interview: 'The problem has been going on for a long time but we didn't know what to do. There were attempts at intervention, and it didn't succeed.'
He also said Grace Rwamba, the nanny of Jackson's children repeatedly contacted him with concerns about Jackson's drug use but Jackson avoided his calls whenever the subject came up.
As many times as Jackson would candidly confess that he had a problem, the conversation always ended with a deflection and denial, Chopra said. As Chopra was writing his blog, the reports of Jackson's drug abuse were spreading across news channels. 'The instant I heard of his death this afternoon,' he wrote, 'I had a sinking feeling that prescription drugs would play a key part.'
Chopra and his family are trying to remember the humanity and music of Jackson but they are not glossing over his troubles and the price celebrities often pay. Chopra's thoughts are also very much with people who were close to Jackson and who are also known to Chopra.
'His children's nanny and surrogate mother, Grace Rwamba, is like another daughter to me,' he remembers in his blog. 'I introduced her to Michael when she was 18, a beautiful, heartwarming girl from Rwanda who is now grown up. She kept an eye on him for me and would call me whenever he was down or running too close to the edge. How heartbreaking for Grace that no one's protective instincts and genuine love could avert this tragic day.'
What were the closest moments Chopra has had with the late Jackson? Jackson wanted to produce a book to sell primarily as a concert souvenir, Chopra said, going back to the 1990s. "It would contain pictures for his fans but there would also be a text consisting of short fables," he recalled. "I sat with him for hours while he dreamily wove Aesop-like tales about animals, mixed with words about music and his love of all things musical. This project became Dancing the Dream after I pulled the text together for him, acting strictly as a friend. It was this time together that convinced me of the modus vivendi Michael had devised for himself: to counter the tidal wave of stress that accompanies mega-stardom, he built a private retreat in a fantasy world where pink clouds veiled inner anguish and Peter Pan was a hero, not a pathology."
Chopra introduced Jackson to his editor at Doubleday which published the book in 1992 with an impressive pressrun of 150,000 copies. The book was a success but Jackson felt it could have become a bigger success.
"There is renewed interest in the book now that he is gone," Chopra said. "The book could soon be reissued. There was a feeling that people did not really understand at the time what Michael was trying to show through the poems and reflections. It requires a higher consciousness to appreciate the thoughts in the book This time around people may look deeply into the book -- and into themselves."
Arthur J Pais
King of Pop's pal: Michael Jackson raised his children with 'loving discipline' - like he never got
Wednesday, July 1st 2009, 1:12 AM
Green/AP
Fans pay their respects at the modest childhood home of Michael Jackson and family in Gary, Ind.
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Whatever biology and genetics may or may not say, there is no disputing what the three children considered Michael Jackson.
"They called him, 'Daddy,'" Mike La Perruque, his long-time confidant and head of security, said Tuesday.
And, in La Perruque's experience, Jackson's primary goal was to be the very best daddy he could be in all the ways so much more important than any biological particulars.
"The kids were Michael's life," La Perruque said. "If there is anything that can be said about Michael, he was a very good father."
Jackson's father had been inordinately harsh, and he took this as a guide of how not to be.
"He thought a father should be what was opposite of what he received as a child," La Perruque said.
At the same time, Jackson understood that children need limits to help them find themselves and their place among others.
He guided them not
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