Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (93 page)

Although no one has successfully linked Martin sexually with Michael,
the Puerto Rican singer did shock his fans in December of 2005 when he
bluntly told American Blender magazine that he "loved giving the golden
shower" to his partners. Martin later posted a message on his website, claiming that he "regretted his frankness and wished I had kept quiet."

As Michael's looks deteriorated after 2000, Martin was named by People
magazine as one of the "Fifty Most Beautiful People in the World." In 2006
People en Espanol bestowed the same honor upon this handsome man.

One of his most ardent fans posted this message on a website: "Ricky
baby, you can piss on me in the early morning, before lunch, twice in the afternoon, and all night long. But why waste it down the bathtub drain? It's my
favorite cocktail. Better than cerveza."

In a startling report in La Cuarta Diario, under the head (translated into
English) VICTOR GUTIERREZ PLANS HIS REVENGE, the journalist is
quoted as saying, "This time, the Neverland ranch will be mine." It is not clear
how Gutierrez planned to take over as the chatelain of Neverland. Perhaps by
counter-suing Michael?

Despite these legal woes, Michael continued to plan public appearances,
the release of a new album, and a major upheaval in his private life ... and
not one that revolved around a boy.

During the declining months of his relationship with Lisa Marie, Michael
seemed less concerned with his wife than he was with his latest album.

Released in the summer of 1995, HiStory: Past Present and Future, was
divided into two different segments-HiStory Begins and HiStory Continues.
The first collection featured Michael's all-time hits such as "Billie Jean,"
"Beat It," "Bad," and "Black Or White." The songs on HiStory Continues
were new, including "Scream," "Smile," and "Tabloid Junkie." Some of these
songs were autobiographical, a musical and poetic record of what had overtaken him during the previous two years. Executives at Sony were clearly
worried about sales during the week leading up to the release of the album.

Michael launched his HiStory world tour in Prague in the Czech Republic
on September 7, 1996, ending it in Durham, South Africa, on October 15, 1997. He performed a total of 82 concerts to some four and a half million fans
in 58 cities, 35 countries, and 5 continents. This was the first album in which
Michael showcased his instrumental talent, playing keyboard and synthesizer,
guitar, drums, and percussion on the album.

Fans who bought his HiStory album confronted a more aggressive
Michael, especially in the single, "They Don't Care About Us." In the song,
Michael laments, "I'm tired of being the victim of shame, you're throwing me
in a class with a bad name, I can't believe this is the land from which I came."

One of his finest compositions, "Strangers in Moscow," was also on the
album. The first single from the album, "Scream," was a duet with the other
successful sibling in the family, Janet. In "Scream," Michael laments, "Stop
pressuring me, stop pressuring me." Janet also made an award-winning video
of the song with her by now-notorious brother.

The most controversial song from the album, "They Don't Care About
Us," brought angry protests from the Anti-Defamation League because of its
anti-Semitic lyrics. "Michael Jackson has an anti-Semitic streak," claimed
Abraham Foxman, the director of the Anti-Defamation League. "It seems
every time he has a problem in his life, he blames it on Jews."

"Jew me, sue me, everybody do me, kick me, kike me," Michael sang.

The reaction of Jews was so hostile that it forced Michael to apologize.
He changed the lyrics, claiming most unconvincingly that "the song was
intended to fight prejudice." Considering the original lyrics, virtually no one
bought the defense. Michael would later solicit but not receive-Louis
Farrakhan's support following the outcry raised by his song.

Privately, Michael wanted the Islamic minister to launch a "holy war"
against Jewish music executives in the industry.

Astonishingly, Michael claimed that Jews objecting to his anti-Semitic
lyrics were, in fact, "persecuting me" for his tirades. This showed an amazing lack of sensitivity on his part. The Jewish community, of course, had a
legitimate right to attack the anti-Semitic lyrics. But nonetheless, Michael
seemed to want revenge for the Anti-Defamation League's attacks on his
lyrics.

Farrakhan wisely opted to sit out this dispute. "If Jackson wants to take on
the Jews, let him," the minister said. "I'll battle them in my own way, without
getting involved in Jackson's music wars." On October 16, 1995, Farrakhan
had denounced Jews as "financial bloodsuckers" at his "Million Man March."

With HiStory, Michael-at least in initial sales-showed that he could
still "cut it" at the age of 40. The album sold 18 million copies before tumbling from the charts. It appeared that the mind-boggling sales associated with
his Thriller days during the 1980s were over.

Much of the reaction from the press was unfavorable. Julene Snyder, a San Francisco based freelance writer said. "Thus far, outrageously expensive
promotion (a reported $30 million) for HiStory: Past, Present and Future,
Book I,' has been characterized by remarkably poor judgment by people who
really should know better. The deeply disturbing neo-fascist trailer for
HiStory-rife with screaming children, fainting girls, marching soldiers, helicopters and explosions-climaxes with the unveiling of a huge statue of the
singer, and a young blond boy's dewy look as he shouts, `Michael, I love you!'
As if that weren't peculiarly creepy enough, the next shot follows a helicopter as it flies through straddled-apart legs of the statue-fairly ambiguous
imagery, given the circumstances. Jackson, who clearly craves adulation as
much as any junkie needs a fix, has announced a tour of 40-foot statues of
himself, starting with one floating down the Thames in London. Can you say
overkill?"

Many other artists would have considered HiStory a smashing success,
but Michael was bitterly disappointed in its sales, hoping again for another
Thriller. Critics in the music industry said that Michael's most loyal fans
already owned the hits on the album and didn't want to buy the same music
twice. "Not only that, but the new songs weren't strong enough to offset the
added cost of the album," or so wrote critic Bob Griffith.

Michael faced yet another disappointment when he learned that Eagles:
Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 was threatening to catch up with Thriller's
record-breaking sales.

An American rock music group formed in Los Angeles in the early 70s,
The Eagles, were among the most successful recording artists of that decade.
Two of their albums, Eagles. Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 and Hotel
California, rank among the ten best-selling albums of all time. On December
7, 1999, the Recording Industry of America honored the group with an award
for the "Best Selling Album of the Century" for their Greatest Hits album,
which chronicled the high-flying 70s with what they called "life in the fast
lane" and the pursuit and unraveling of the American dream.

While touring with HiStory, Michael released a mini-movie, Ghosts, a
horror story. In the plot, Michael is appropriately cast as a "weird man" who's
living in a haunted house on the hill. Directed by Stan Winston, Ghosts had a
mixed reaction. As one reviewer noted, "I think commercially his best days
were behind him but this is still an excellent video and far exceeds a lot of crap
put out there today."

In 1997 he also released a "remix" album, Blood on the Dance FloorHIStory in the Mix, featuring five new songs, two of which had heard featured
in Ghosts. The other eight songs were remixes from the HiStory album.
Ironically, even though many of its songs were re-releases from earlier
albums, Blood became one of the biggest remix albums ever, selling seven million copies globally.

Michael's onstage behavior, meanwhile, had
become increasingly imperial and in some cases,
bizarre, so much so that Michael sometimes suffered from the outrage these acts seemed to catalyze
in the minds of competitors. In 1996, in London at
the Brit Awards, Michael selected "Earth Song," as
his big number. At the end of "Earth Song,"
Michael in dazzling white was hoisted over the
stage in a crucifixion pose and was then surrounded
onstage by children and a rabbi yearning to touch
him. As one former fan put it, "Jackson rose to
Grace amidst the steaming pile of sub-Disney doodoo."

Jarvis Cocker

The quasi-religious assumptions of the choreography proved to be too
much for Jarvis Cocker, the outspoken lead singer of the British band, Pulp,
who immediately raced onto the stage and in front of millions of onlookers,
shook his ass derisively at Michael. Michael did not conceal the look of shock
on his face when he registered that his "big number," in front of millions of
onlookers, wasn't going off as had been previously planned. At no point did
Cocker ever threaten Michael. But in a rock-hooligan kind of prank that was
permeated with comic, or absurdist, relief, Cocker, who was joined at some
point onstage by his friend, Peter Mansell, made it abundantly clear that he did
not wholeheartedly approve of Michael's act. In quick reaction, Michael's
security forces chased Cocker across the stage and eventually, out of the range
of the cameras.

Cocker later admitted that the prank had been conceived as a protest
against Michael's "quasi-religious pretensions." Cocker went on to say that
because of the accusations of child abuse still swirling around Michael, he
found Michael's inclusion of under-aged performers "distasteful."

Later, Michael's guards falsely asserted that Cocker had injured a child dancer during his on-camera escapade. Partly as a result of that, Cocker was
hauled to a nearby police station where he was questioned in an hours-long
interrogation that began at lam. Subsequently, Cocker was released, and no
charges were filed against him.

Pulp

Michael later told the press that he felt "sickened, saddened, shocked,
upset, cheated, and angry" at the caper, calling Cocker's behavior "disgusting
and cowardly." On hearing that, Cocker countered, "My actions were a protest
at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure
with the power of healing. The music industry allows him to indulge his fantasies because of his wealth and power. People go along with it even though
they know it's a bit sick. I just couldn't go along with it anymore. It was a
spur-of-the-moment decision brought on by boredom and frustration. But
also, I find it very insulting to be accused of assaulting children."

Ironically, the protest generated headlines worldwide. Sales of Michael's
single, "Earth Song," soared, as did the Cocker album, Different Class. And
despite the somewhat childish way in which Cocker had protested Michael's
self-portrayal as an object of religious veneration, Cocker had a point. A video
later showed that in their denunciations of Cocker's protest, Michael's staff
had lied. "It was the bouncer's arm, not Cocker's, that went up and accidentally thumped a child in the face," a report concluded. The March edition of
Melody Maker even suggested that Cocker should be knighted.

Just when it seemed that Michael had run out of surprises for the press, a
new woman, a "motorcycle mama" who was anything but demure, entered his
life.

Michael had known her for some time, ever since as an assistant to
Michael's dermatologist, she had applied Benoquin, a bleaching cream, to his
scrotum, trying to make the pink spots on dark skin even out into a harmonious whole.

Michael evoking Christ.