Michael Jackson by J. Randy Taraborrelli Read Free Book Online Page A

treated Michael, speculated, ‘The father's infidelity would
     certainly have hit the youngest child exposed to it the hardest. [In this case, that would have been Michael, since he was
     the youngest member of the group privy to Joseph's indiscretions. It would be years before his younger brother and sister,
     Randy and Janet, would know about their father's philandering.] He would have thought that by not telling the mother he had
     betrayed her the most. Of course, this would have impacted him in many ways, and lying about it at such an early age obviously
     just taught him, simply, that it was okay to lie.’
    ‘I may be young,’ little Michael used to say while introducing the Smokey Robinson song ‘Who's Lovin' You’ in the group's
     act, ‘but I do know what the blues are all about.’ Though the line was just a part of the group's stage patter, the truth
     of it was more accurate, and more painful, than anyone in the audience ever could have guessed.
    *
    The Jackson family was ecstatic over the boys' tremendous success at the Apollo Theater, and with good reason: this success
     marked a defining moment for them in terms of their future. ‘I'm so damn happy, I could fly to Gary without an airplane,’
     Joseph said afterward, his grin wide. Elated at their performance and proud of their determination to be the best, Joseph
     was determined to continue doing whatever was necessary to ensure his family's fortune in a tough, competitive business. To
     that end, he decided to work only part-time at Inland Steel so that he could devote more time to his sons' careers.
    In 1968, Joseph would earn only fifty-one hundred dollars rather than his usual eight to ten thousand. He would give up relative
     financial security in order to gamble on his family's future. However, the gamble quickly paid off; the boys started making
     six hundred dollars per engagement. With the influx of money, Katherine and Joseph were able to redecorate their home and
     buy their first colour television.
    Now flushed with success, the Jacksons continued to work on their performance in daily rehearsals that would often become
     emotional. Once, when Joseph tried to convince Michael to execute a dance step a certain way, Michael refused. According to
     Johnny Jackson, Joseph smacked Michael across the face. Michael fell backwards.
    ‘Now, you do it the way I told you to, you hear me?’ Joseph hollered at the nine-year-old.
    Michael began to cry, his right cheek red and sore. ‘I ain't doin' it that way,’ he said.
    Joseph glared at him and took one step forward, his hand raised to strike again.
    Michael scrambled up off the floor. ‘Don't hit me,’ he warned his father. ‘'Cause if you ever hit me again, it'll be the last
     time I ever sing, and I mean it.’ Father and son exchanged angry stares. However, Michael must have said the magic words because
     Joseph turned and walked away, muttering something about his ‘ungrateful’ son.
    Michael has recalled that as Joseph got older, he became more violent. It became a running theme in his young life: his father
     was a bully, and he would have to live with it. ‘If you messed up during rehearsal, you got hit,’ Michael would remember,
     ‘sometimes with a belt, a switch. Once, he ripped the wire cord off the refrigerator and whooped me with it, that's how mad
     he was at me.’ It was a vicious cycle: the more his father beat him, the angrier Michael became at him. The angrier he became,
     the more he antagonized him…and the more he got beaten by his father. The beatings were fierce, recurring and traumatizing.
     ‘I'd try to fight back,’ Michael would recall, ‘just swinging my fists. That's why I got it more than all my brothers combined.
     I would fight back and my father would kill me, just tear me up.’
    Once, Michael was late arriving at rehearsal, and when he walked in, Joseph came up from behind and shoved him into a stack
     of musical instruments. Michael fell into the