Pop father Creator of Jackson Five dies at 89
Domineering patriarch who created the Jackson 5 and whose son Michael became a megastar
Joe Jackson, who engineered the transformation of pop music through his children, has died aged 89. The Jackson family was often riven by legal battles, Joe’s philandering and unproven allegations of child molestation against Michael, who died nine years ago this week. Joe Jackson, who created The Jackson Five, was taken to hospital earlier this month with terminal cancer.
JOE JACKSON, who has died aged 89, failed in his ambition to become an R & B star but found ample compensation in managing the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons, the wildly successful soul and disco groups comprising his own children; with the transformation of his son Michael from child star to the most famous musician on the planet, however, came accusations that he had been an abusive patriarch who bullied and terrified his children in the pursuit of success.
Michael Jackson himself publicly discussed in his later years the violent discipline which he and his brothers suffered at their father’s hands. In a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Michael claimed that as a child he had been whipped with a belt and taunted for having a supposedly large nose, which some commentators thought accounted for his subsequent obsession with plastic surgery.
Joe Jackson “practised us with a belt in his hand”, Michael told the journalist Martin Bashir in the 2003 documentary Living With Michael Jackson. “If you didn’t do it the right way, he would tear you up.” In 2008, a documentary on the television channel VH1 titled Michael Jackson’s Secret Childhood alleged that the senior Jackson had forced his sons to endure long and exhausting rehearsal sessions, harsh punishment and verbal viciousness, adding also that his wife Katherine’s religious beliefs as a Jehovah’s Witness had “confused” Michael.
After Michael Jackson’s increasingly bizarre behaviour culminated in his being tried and acquitted on charges of child abuse in 2005, his fans, mostly unwavering in their affection for him, were happy to see Joe cast as the villain of the story. He became fixed in the minds of the public as one of the most egregious (if successful) examples of the pushy showbusiness parent who forces his children to achieve the stardom he never attained, with scant attention to the toll taken on their mental well-being.
Michael Jackson died aged 50 in June 2009 from an overdose of anaesthetic medication administered by his personal physician, Conrad Murray, who later served two years for involuntary manslaughter. Joe Jackson did not improve his image by taking the opportunity to promote his latest record label in the course of paying tribute to his son.
The senior Jackson defended himself robustly, if not always plausibly, against his most famous son’s accusations of cruelty. In an interview with the BBC documentarymaker Louis Theroux in 2003, he declared: “I whipped him with a switch and a belt. I never beat him. You beat someone with a stick.” When Theroux pointed out that Michael’s fear of meeting his father often led him to “regurgitate”, Jackson replied: “He regurgitates all the way to the bank. That’s right.” After Michael Jackson’s death, Joe told Larry King of CNN: “The media keep hollering about saying that I beat Michael. That’s not true … Michael was never beaten by me, I’ve never beaten at all.”
In 2001, addressing the Oxford Union, Michael Jackson had spoken about the “positive” side of his father’s professional approach, crediting him with training him as a showman and doing his best to save his children from the life of demeaning poverty that he had himself experienced – while conceding that he struggled to express affection. “My father was a managerial genius,” he said, “and my brothers and I owe our professional success, in no small measure, to the forceful way that he pushed us.”
Joseph Walter Jackson was born on July 26 1928 in the small settlement of Fountain Hill in Arkansas, the first of five children of Samuel Jackson, a school teacher and strict disciplinarian, and Chrystal Lee King. A sister, Verna, contracted polio and died aged seven. His parents, who struggled financially, separated in 1940 and young Joe, a loner as a child, moved to Oakland, California, with his father.
His mother and three other siblings relocated to East Chicago, Indiana, and six years later he rejoined them. After failing to graduate from high school, Joe found a job at the Inland Steel Company and took up boxing.
After annulling a short marriage to his first wife, Jackson married Katherine Scruse on November 5 1949. She remembered him as handsome and “on the quiet side, kind of cool-acting”. The couple moved to 2300 Jackson Street in Gary, Indiana, and their first child, Maureen, was born the following year. Katherine had a further nine children over the following 16 years: Sigmund (aka Jackie, 1951), Toriano (aka Tito, 1953), Jermaine (1954), La Toya (1956), twins Marlon and Brandon (1957; the latter died at one day old), Michael (1958), Steven (1961) and Janet (1966).
In his autobiography Moonwalk (1988), Michael Jackson recalled: “A part of my earliest memories is my father’s job working in the steel mill. It was tough, mind-numbing work and he played music for escape … Because of my father, and because of my mother’s own love of music, we heard it all the time at home.” Joe Jackson played guitar with a blues band called the Falcons, but their best efforts did not secure them a record contract and they split after one member, Thornton “Pookie” Hudson, left to form a more successful group, the Spaniels.
Jackson began to teach his sons to play the guitar. Michael recalled one occasion on which his father was late home and his mother was preparing to give him a tongue-lashing – “something we boys didn’t mind witnessing once in a while, just to see if he could take it like he dished it out” – but he was redeemed when he appeared with a gleaming red guitar for his sons to share.
In 1962 the three oldest boys, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine, formed a group called the Jackson Brothers, with Joe as their manager. Michael and Marlon later joined the group, and Michael was six when they won their first trophy at a talent contest. To their mother’s displeasure, Joe secured them a regular gig at Mr Lucky’s, an Indiana nightspot, to fund their trips to take part in amateur contests in Chicago almost every weekend. After a name-change to the Jackson 5, the group signed a deal with Steeltown Records in Gary, scored a hit with the song Big Boy and played at the prestigious Apollo Theater in New York.
A crucial signing to Motown Records in Detroit came in March 1969, and in October that year the group broke into the mainstream with the first of many huge-selling singles: I Want You Back. Including their first four singles and a debut album titled Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5, the band sold more than 10 million records and moved as bona fide pop stars to California, where they became the focus of Motown’s marketing attention. Jackson 5 merchandise such as stickers, posters and a board game rapidly became popular, and a television cartoon series helped to establish the brand.
In 1971 Michael Jackson commenced a parallel solo career with a single, Got To Be There; the following year, his ballad Ben – about a rat, the star of the horror film of the same name – was a success. Jermaine Jackson also released solo material, followed in the Eighties by Janet and La Toya.
Joe Jackson managed the group for the remainder of their career, as well as running his Ivory Tower International record label. He navigated the Jackson 5’s switch from Motown to the Epic label in 1975, a deal which gave the group a much larger percentage of royalties. Randy Jackson replaced Jermaine, who remained signed to Motown, having in 1973 married Hazel, the daughter of the label’s owner Berry Gordy.
The group, renamed the Jacksons for legal reasons, declined in commercial stature from the early Eighties, partly due to a change in musical fashions but also because of the phenomenal individual success of Michael Jackson, whose 1982 album Thriller enjoyed unprecedented sales. It remains the biggest-selling LP of all time, with at least 50 million units sold, and has received 33 platinum awards and eight Grammys.
Michael formally left the Jacksons in 1984 and, although several attempts were made to reunite the group in subsequent years, public attention remained focused on his solo career as well as on the lesser individual successes of his siblings. The group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999, as well as being named as BMI Icons at the annual BMI Urban Awards in 2008. Joe himself was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame and was awarded the Rhythm & Blues 2015 Humanitarian Award.
Before receiving his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer Jackson had previously suffered a stroke and heart troubles. He is survived by his wife Katherine and eight of their 10 children, as well as Joh’vonnie, his daughter by his long-term mistress Cheryle Terrell.
Joe Jackson, born July 26 1928, died June 27 2018
The senior Jackson defended himself robustly, if not always plausibly, against his famous son’s accusations of cruelty