Joe Jackson, patriarch of musical Jackson family, dies
Joe Jackson, the domineering father and manager who molded his sons into the immensely popular Jackson 5 and helped launch his son Michael and his daughter Janet on explosive solo careers before alienating all of them because of his abusive behavior, has died in Los Angeles. He was 89.
The Michael Jackson estate confirmed the death in a statement but did not say when or specifically where he died. The celebrity news website TMZ said he died at his home early Wednesday morning.
Jackson had been admitted to a Los Angeles hospital Friday with terminal cancer, according to news reports.
A crane operator and an unsuccessful rhythm-andblues musician, Jackson was struggling to provide for his wife, Katherine, and their many children in the mid1960s when he discovered his sons’ budding talents and began pushing them into the music business. He saw music as a path out of their cramped home in Gary, Indiana.
“Something inside of me told me there was more to life than this,” Jackson was quoted as saying in “Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story,” J. Randy Taraborrelli’s biography, first published in 1991.
By 1970, the Jackson 5 was an international sensation, with four No. 1 hits — “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There” — in a little more than a year. The group, consisting of the brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael, had hits throughout the 1970s, with Michael as the lead singer and top showman before he moved on to a solo career.
Without some of Joe Jackson’s business decisions, such as breaking ties with Motown Records in the mid-1970s, Michael Jackson might never have achieved the success he had.
But the elder Jackson was emotionally distant and physically abusive. He used the Jackson 5’s constant touring as cover for extramarital affairs he rarely hid from his sons. His wife and their nine children, especially Michael, all eventually distanced themselves from Jackson.
In 1983, at Michael’s urging, they dismissed him as their manager.
“It’s not easy firing your father,” Michael said later.
To the end, Jackson maintained he had raised his children the right way.
“I got a strict raising when I was young, and I’ve been able to accomplish a lot because of that,” he said. “And my kids have gotten a strict raising, and look what they’ve accomplished. I think children should fear their parents.”