Controversial dad turned kids into stars
Father managed legendary pop family, but was accused by some of them of abuse
Joe Jackson, the man who fathered Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 and deployed an iron will to turn his supremely gifted children into a culture-shifting musical powerhouse, died Wednesday. He was 89.
Jackson had been ill for some time with an officially undisclosed condition, and had grown increasingly frail. His most recent public appearance was at the BET Awards in 2015, when daughter Janet accepted the Ultimate Icon Award.
On June 24, a poetic tweet appeared on his verified Twitter account featuring a picture of him standing against a sunset and suggesting he was ready to die.
“I have seen more sunsets than I have left to see. The sun rises when the time comes and whether you like it or not the sun sets when the time comes,” the tweet said.
Later, Paris Jackson, daughter of the late Michael Jackson, called the tweet “sweet,” but questioned whether it reflected her grandfather’s sentiments or even if the verified account was actually his.
“This is a beautiful tweet, though it upsets me to see whoever is in charge of this account taking advantage of it. My grandfather did not tweet this. I’m not sure if he’s ever used this account,” Paris tweeted.
It was another sign of the uncertainty that surrounded the sprawling Jackson family when it comes to determining what is true, false or muddled. Still, Jackson, or his assistants, had been using his Twitter account to post news about him since January 2014.
Jackson had been healthy enough to be out and about as recently as June 6, when a video appeared on his Twitter page showing him at a juice shop in Las Vegas trying to decide what to drink while Michael’s music played in the background.
As the patriarch of the “First Family of Music,” he had published in March a picture book recalling his life and 60 years in show business, Precious Moments, and was enthusiastically promoting it in May, according to his Twitter page.
Among other memories, Jackson recalled the good old days when he and his sons were on top of the music world.
“Precious Moments with my sons. When we were all together, united as one, nothing could stop us,” his Twitter page said in April.
Website TMZ reported that Jackson’s wife, Katherine, 88, and daughter Rebbie Jackson, 68, her daughter, Yashi Brown, 40, and another daughter, Joh’Vonnie Jackson, 43, had visited him in hospital on Tuesday.
Joe Jackson wanted to be a music star, but it didn’t work out for him. Instead, he made his sons into superstars. Though his own dreams failed, his vision for his talented children made him patriarch of one of the most successful families in music history.
At the same time, he was also a controversial figure who wound up estranged from the kids — including King of Pop Michael Jackson — he set on the path to stardom.
He and Katherine had 10 children. Nine survived to have recording careers, starting with the Jackson 5, who became instant international pop sensations when they burst on the scene. Their rise lifted the family out of poverty in Gary, Indiana, and into lives of fame and fortune.
But while Jackson is credited as the driving force behind the success, he also was reviled for his abrasive manner and revelations by his children that he was a physically and emotionally abusive father.
Michael, who fired his father as his manager in 1979 and took control over his own career, talked about his upbringing on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1993, detailing the physical and mental abuse he said he endured at the hands of his father and lamenting that he missed out on a normal childhood.
“I remember going to the recording studio, and there was a park across the street, and I’d see all the children playing and I would cry. It would make me sad that I would have to go to work instead,” Michael Jackson said.
“People wonder why I always have children around. It’s because I find the thing that I never had through them. Disneyland, amusement parks, arcade games — I adore all that stuff because when I was little, it was always work, work, work.”
In 2008 interviews to promote a new album, Janet Jackson, now 52, criticized her father’s infidelities and the fact that he had a daughter (Joh’Vonnie Jackson) out of wedlock with a woman, Cheryl Terrell, with whom her father had a long affair. Janet said she found it hard to trust men because of her father’s behaviour.
But the Jackson siblings didn’t all agree that their father was abusive. Some said it happened, a few said it never occurred.
Joe managed his kids’ various careers from the beginning, but as they matured, tensions mounted. By 1983, all had broken with him and blossomed on their own.
Jackson had been dogged by ill health for years. He suffered five strokes within a five-year period, with the most recent coming during a July 2015 trip to Brazil to celebrate his 87th birthday.
A year later, he shot down rumours of his own demise on his website, proclaiming, “I am 100 per cent alive.”
A year ago, Jackson ended up in the hospital after a car crash in Las Vegas. He was a passenger in a car when it was hit by another vehicle, police said. He later tweeted and posted on his website to say he was out of the hospital, back home and feeling fine.
Though Joe and Katherine, his wife of nearly 70 years, never officially divorced (Katherine filed petitions twice, but didn’t go through with them), they lived apart. He lived in Las Vegas while she remained at the family compound in Calabasas, California. Shortly before her 88th birthday in May, he posted a video montage of “precious moments” with her on his website.
When Michael died at age 50 in June 2009, Joe proclaimed that he and Katherine would be taking care of their son’s three children: daughter Paris and sons Michael Joseph “Prince” Jackson Jr., and Prince Michael II (then nicknamed Blanket).
However, Michael’s last will and testament made it clear that Katherine was their guardian and she would share the estate with them. It mentioned neither Joe nor any of his siblings.
Joe filed a wrongful-death suit against Michael’s attending doctor, Conrad Murray, in 2010, but dropped it in 2012. Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Michael’s death (due to a lethal dose of propofol he administered to help him sleep) and served a two-year sentence. He was released in 2013.
A suit by Katherine Jackson seeking $1.5 billion US in damages from Michael Jackson’s final tour promoter, AEG Live, went to trial in 2013: After a five-month hearing, the jury found AEG was not responsible for the star’s death.
Jackson also stirred controversy at the BET Awards tribute four days after Michael’s death, for taking the occasion to promote his new Ranch Records label as he walked in on the red carpet.
In 2011, he was sued by Bravado International when he tried to launch a line of fragrances paying tribute to Michael. Bravado owned exclusive rights to sell Michael-branded products.
Joe Jackson was born in Fountain Hill, Arkansas, on July 26, 1928. He married Katherine Scruse in 1949 after a two-year courtship.