Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days by Tanner Colby, Bill Whitfield, Javon Beard Read Free Book Online Page B

house for nobody. I shouldn’t have to run from nobody. Isn’t that what I have you guys for?”
    I said, “Sir, who are you running from ?”
    Finally he told me what was up. Raymone had received a phone call from this former security guard at Neverland, an employee that Mr. Jackson supposedly owed money to. This guy had called herup and he got real vocal and real threatening about what he was going to do to get his money. He said he was coming to Vegas and was going to climb the wall to Mr. Jackson’s house. So Raymone called Mr. Jackson and sent him into a panic.
    I said, “And that’s why we left? Mr. Jackson, you are safe in your house. We’re more than capable of protecting your family. If Raymone had told me what was going on, I would have taken care of it.”
    That caught him off guard. He seemed a little pissed off.
    We stayed at the Green Valley Ranch one more night, then packed everybody up and went back to the house. The kids were pretty worn out. Usually, they seemed to take this kind of stuff in stride; they were accustomed to the rhythm of their father’s life. Secret back doors, security alarms, panic buttons—that was their everyday. They were little troopers. But every now and then, you’d see the craziness take its toll. This was one of those times. Here they were, in a new city, living in a strange house. Then suddenly they’re leaving that house, running out in the middle of the night, popping into this hotel, then turning around and leaving the hotel. And no real explanation for any of it.
    As we drove back to the house, everyone was being real quiet in the backseat. Then Blanket looked up at his daddy and said, “Daddy, can we go back to the other house? Can we go back to Neverland?”
    Mr. Jackson shook his head and said, “No. We can’t ever go back there. That place has been contaminated by evil.”

4
    In May 1970, the Jackson 5 flew into Philadelphia to kick off their first national tour as an official Motown act. They had signed with the famous Detroit label just two years before, and their debut single, “I Want You Back,” had been released the previous fall, shooting straight to No. 1 on the Billboard charts. That feat would be matched by each of their next three singles, making the Jackson 5 the first recording act in history to have four consecutive debut songs reach the top of the charts. Through record sales and radio play, the group’s popularity had been building, and when their plane landed at Philadelphia International Airport, over three thousand fans mobbed the terminal. The following night, during their performance, a cordon of one hundred police officers was required to keep the crowd of sixteen thousand from rushing the stage.
    Michael Jackson was only eleven years old, but the script of his life had already been written. For the next four decades, massive crowds would shadow his every public move, laying siege to his hotel rooms and camping outside the gates of his homes. When Thriller was released on November 30, 1982, the adulation he’d experienced as part of the Jackson 5 was eclipsed by a level of fame unprecedented in the history of entertainment. Thriller stayed in the Billboard Top 10 for eighty weeks. Thirty-seven of those weeks were spent at No. 1. Seven of its nine tracks became Top 10 singles. The album won eight Grammys out of a record-setting twelve nominations. In its firstyear alone, Thriller sold over 22 million copies. As one Jackson observer noted, Thriller transcended its status as a mere musical album and became something more like a household appliance—it was something that everybody just had.
    Pop superstars had existed before Michael Jackson, of course. Frank Sinatra, Elvis, and the Beatles all dominated the music scene in their respective eras. But Michael Jackson appeared at a propitious—and, in hindsight, fleeting—moment in the evolution of both music and technology. Broadcast and satellite television were just cementing their hold