michael jackson oprah interview transcript
TOURE, FORMER CNN POP CULTURE ANALYST: The sound was incredible. But in January of that year, Michael had just headlined the Super Bowl halftime show (the staging and format of which provided the template for todays artists performing at the years biggest football game) and won three American Music Awards. Oprah's Controversial Interview With Michael Jackson Was His First In 14-Years And Broke Records The interview took place at the 'Neverland Valley Ranch' back in February of 1993. Of course, in all other meetings there were a whole entourage present. BEN BROCKMAN, ATTORNEY FOR MICHAEL JACKSON: I was trying my best to get him down. LEMON: But Jackson was born to perform, and the show must go on. LEMON: Family members came to Jackson's defense. Every day, Michael Jackson showed up in one of his Captain Crunch outfits. He's trying to not affect the legal proceedings in any way. Like what are we doing? 10 best Oprah celebrity interviews of all time 1. But in this case, there is no separating the artist from the man. With all of the pieces and details put together chronologically across four hours, Leaving Neverland brings to life a man who groomed his victims psychologically into simultaneously loving him and fearing him so steadfastly that they never accepted that they were abused themselvesmuch less wanted to tell anyone about it. Oprah interviews Michael Jackson, broadcast live around the world from his home at the Neverland Ranch. Semipresencial en Aguascalientes, Maestra a distancia en Actividad Fsica y Salud, Maestra a distancia en Energas Renovables, Descubre un completo Directorio de Centros de Formacin, Mejore su italiano con solo 15 minutos al da. It just made me very, very, very sad. The interview was one of those must-watch television events that stop everyone in their tracks; it presaged the massive viral video before the popularization of the internet: if one didnt see the interview, there was nothing to talk about the next day. Long-awaited, the buzz was big. And part of my concern about Michael was the fact that he always seemed to be suffering from some form of ailment or infirmity. On the day after his death, Presley wrote on her blog that Jackson always thought he'd die early like her father. In 1994, Michael married Lisa Marie Presley. Again, the 911 tape. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the greatest moment that disco has in its entire history. I was never able to enjoy the simplest things that a child takes for granted in his life. BRAFMAN: He always appeared to either be in pain or walking with pain. Pop icon Michael Jackson sat down for an intimate chat with. "Thriller" broke records, with seven top ten singles. One of the last photographs that was taken of Michael Jackson while he was alive. In an exclusive interview, Murray's attorney tells CNN his client is upset over Jackson's death and that he plans to cooperate fully. Jackson vehemently denied the accusation on national TV. Semipresencial en Madrid, Espaa, Maestra en 'Data Management' e Innovacin Tecnolgica 100% en lnea. Oprah : Michael Jackson is the seventh of nine brothers and sisters born in Gary, Indiana to steel mill worker Joseph and mother Katherine. GORDY: When she told me about another kids' group I said, wait a minute, I got all these other stars. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need an ambulance as soon as possible. LEMON: Despite his creativity, record sales dwindled as Jackson's appearance grew stranger with whiter skin and a severely altered nose and chin. He announced his farewell tour, This Is it, in a brief press conference on March 5, 2009, in London. He filled the property with an amusement park, a private zoo, and dubbed the oasis Neverland. Of course, we're following developments out of Iran tonight. Michael Jackson talks to Oprah (1993) by Harpo Productions Publication date 1993 Topics Michael Jackson, Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, The Oprah Winfrey Show This is a UK airing of the famous interview of Michael Jackson by Oprah Winfrey in 1993. LEMON: That documentary triggered bombshell news that thrust the fated pop star back into the spotlight. And immediately I was up all night trying to think of the type of songs that would create excitement among people. BRIAN MONROE, "EBONY MAGAZINE": I was really struck by the razor stubble, all along his face. KING: Yes, but -- JERMAINE JACKSON: His whole thing is, if there's something that you feel that you want to change, and then you do that. She arranges the interviews in advance, and they are very prefabricated, but then she has the [gift] of naturalness, of making herself seem like one more member of the audience, even though she is not. Filled mostly with past hits and some new angry songs like "Scream," 1995's "History: Past, Present, and Future" could not revive Jackson's success in the studio. LEMON: Saying "Beat It" to the competition, for 37 weeks the album sat at number one and is, to this day, the top-selling album in the world. This is the final curtain call. Wonderful., Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAS USA Edition, Sign up to EL PAS In English Edition bulletin, If you want to follow all the latest news without any limits, subscribe to EL PAS for just 1 the first month. Be in the know on current and upcoming trends. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty, OK. Search the history of over 797 billion "All the times that I testified and the many, many times that I gushed over him publicly in interviewsthat was from a real place. In March, 1988, Jackson finalized the purchase of a 2,600 acre ranch. PETER CASTRO, ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: He's on the set, and he's descending a staircase. HIATT: I was looking in an old "Rolling Stone" article from a few years ago and someone said, you'll really know that Michael Jackson is broke when he announces a big European tour. LEMON: On the very next morning, Jackson was found unresponsive in his own bed. And I would record for hours and hours until it was time to go to sleep. In a March 4 special, Oprah Winfrey interviewed the two men that detailed allegations of childhood sexual abuse by Michael Jackson in an HBO documentary. Ellen: I can defnitely hang out. And another girl. The next question that followed was the most striking of the entire encounter, because it was asked of a 35-year-old man who had just claimed that he dated and had been in love. Six months and 14 days later, in the summer of 1993, the first accusations of sexual abuse were made public, and his image was tarnished forever. The interview shattered records with an audience of 90 million. It was not like watching a 50-year-old man returning to the stage. DEEPAK CHOPRA, SPIRITUAL ADVISER: I said, Michael, you don't need these drugs for that. WINFREY: And that was difficult to take, getting beaten and going on stage and performing? MICHAEL JACKSON: I would do my schooling for three hours with the tutor, and right after that I'd go to the recording studio and record. At the heart of this film are the stories of Robson and Safechuck, whowith appearances from their mothers, wives and siblingsdiscuss how they were discovered and mentored by Jackson from the ages of 6 and 9, respectively. Thus, the most uncomfortable question was forgiven. And Oprah posed a lot of difficult questions. A decade later, Jackson was so dependent on prescription drugs that he had to interrupt a world tour to go into a drug treatment program. (And who could ever forget that interview Jackson did with Martin Bashir in 2003 where he whispered "I am Peter Pan"? Who do you date? Right now, Brooke Shields. Oprah nodded and murmured Hmm. She comes to my house, or I go to hers, Michael continued. So an auction of his most personal items seemed like the answer. Highlights From Harry and Meghan's Interview With Oprah . I knew it wasn't appropriate. RODNEY JENKINS, MUSIC PRODUCER: He created things that we've never seen before, visually, in music. TARABORELLI: Michael began to sort of surround himself with young boys, and much to, I remember, the chagrin of people who were working for him. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (CROSS TALK) LEMON: The very public trials of Michael Jackson eventually took their toll. Tickets sold out within hours. He said he urged the singer to keep children out of his bedroom. Beating, Joe maintained, is something you do with a stick. Just last year, a study by the Census Bureau and Stanford University found that no matter what their parents income level, Black men are less successful than white men on average. LEMON: For pop music superstar Usher, it's the loss of a pioneer. There are many people in the past who have done many things to themselves and they're not talked about like my brother is. Simply titled "Bad." LEMON: An audition seen in this video from a documentary produced by Michael Jackson. LEMON: Rowe gave birth to their son, Prince Michael Jackson, in 1997. I mean, you couldn't stop them. The marriage lasted only two years, but when Michael talked with Oprah a year before his nuptials, everyone was wondering ifand whohe dated. LEMON: With each not guilty verdict, the crowd outside cheered. LEMON: -- so is his death. LEMON: De Passe was just starting out at Motown, working with founder Berry Gordy. Then moved back. At minute 24, Oprah posed the question that everyone was asking themselves in 1993: Did you bleach your skin because you dont like being Black?, Here, for the first time in public, Michael mentioned that he suffered from vitiligo, an autoimmune disease that destroys pigment-producing cells. I don't know him the way I'd like to know him," he said. And there's kinda buttery smell and a fragrance. LEMON: Coming up, scandal rocks the gates of Neverland. It would make me sad that I would have to go and work instead. Concerned about hunger in Africa, Richie and Jackson wrote the song "We are the World" and assembled a super group of 200 artists to perform it. LEMON: And with Neverland came the children. I suspect so. There are no reviews yet. He only comes along once. His steelworker father, Joe, turned five of his boys into a band with five-year-old Michael out front. The King of Pop was now a king in debt; a lavish lifestyle, and legal woes led him into near financial ruin. How many plastic surgery procedures have you undergone? Very, very few, Michael replied. SMITH: Neverland, which cost him around 19 million dollars in 1987, had a staff of about 150 at its peak, and all these carnival rides, exotic animals which required full-time veterinary care. This man was a universal pop icon. Then Oprah asked the question even she says was embarrassing: "Are you a virgin? LEMON: And his beloved Neverland was toxic asset number one. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Do you go out and have fun, do you date? Yes, Michael replied. When he answered no, she commented that she wouldnt be either. JACKSON: It's not sexual. Interview of young Michael Jackson at his parents' home in Encino, California. Several items were taken away. You want what you create to live, be it a sculpture, a painting, music, a composition, like Michelangelo. on July 25, 2021. Theres one other person besides Michael: portraits of Michael Jackson, painted by Ralph Wolfe Cowan on a gigantic canvas showing him as a knight in armor accompanied by his monkey Bubbles, a parrot and a cherub. You think about what the it factor is, that's what he had. By Callum Crumlish 12:25, Sun, Feb 19, 2023 | UPDATED: 09:47, Mon, Feb 20, 2023 Eight minutes into the show, Oprah posed the question that would allow her to get to the meatier questions. When Michael spoke with Oprah, he was extremely open about the sensitive subject, saying his father called him ugly, beat him and frightened him. He moved to Bahrain with his kids. And so Michael and his managers fought them and said Quincy's doing the record. He was greeted by a crush of reporters and fans. JOHN NORRIS, FORMER CORRESPONDENT, MTV NEWS: They are songs that still hold up today. The Oprah Winfrey-Michael Jackson interview 30 years later In February 1993, the talk show host landed the first live, televised talk with the singer in 14 years. Are you a virgin? Michael sighed, laughed and replied, How could you ask me that question? Ultimately, he sidestepped a direct answer with an odd response. And, worst of all, a potentially terrible father. They think Dr. Murray can answer lingering questions about Michael Jackson's death. "You said on my show, 'Yes, this was a real marriage,'" Oprah says, referring to her 2005 interview with Lisa Marie. LEMON: By 1975, the Jackson 5 had made a highly publicized split from Motown. This is the first time I really had an opportunity to be completely alone with him. They don't sound dated. Since the mid-1980s, people had speculated that Jackson wanted to become white, that he wanted to become a woman, that he had bought the Elephant Mans remains, that he slept in an oxygen chamber, that he had married Elizabeth Taylor, that he suffered from anorexia, that his best friend was a monkey, that the monkey was telepathic, that Michael was a homosexual and that he was a virgin. SMITH: He backed out of the auction. Someone created a piano. And then Oprah began her interview by saying: "This moment transcends Michael Jackson. JOANN SAMS, SECRETARY, ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL: Oh, it was just unbelievable, because they were so young, but yet they were so talented. WINFREY: Would he -- did he ever beat you? LEMON: In July, 1984, the Jackson 5 reunited in a flurry of publicity. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. As Jackson's marriage began to crumble, so did his career. They were tremendous. LEMON: The marriage collapsed less than two years after the wedding. LEMON: In a BBC interview, Joe Jackson admitted whipping Michael with a switch or a belt, but denied ever beating him. Disfruta de nuestras lecciones personalizadas, breves y divertidas. Michael showed Oprah his Neverland Ranch, and once they settled in the theater, he talked about his social work and his interest in helping children. Here the Jackson 5 won the talent contest and wowed the crowd. LEMON: But in 1993, disturbing allegations surfaced concerning Jackson's association with children. JACKSON: Because he -- he saw me -- he wanted me to -- I guess, maybe, I don't know if I was his golden child or whatever it was. So if it gets you, our audience, to see how it happens, then some good would have come of it.". ", In 1993, controversy about Michael's skin color was at an all-time high. Followed by news helicopters and a convoy of cars, Jackson rushed from Neverland Ranch to the courthouse. At the end, he talked about his mortality. On February 10, 1993, Oprah sat down with Michael Jackson for what would be the most-watched interview in television history. The Winfrey-Jackson interview was the 101st highest-rated show in television history. It could not be stopped. And sadly, he really internalized that message. LEMON: Legendary music producer Quincy Jones would produce Jackson's first adult solo album. That is why to escape death, I attempt to bind my soul to my work. By the end of the documentary, I felt an unexpected emotion: numbness. USHER, SINGER: Michael had an unseen magic to influence people, the music and the culture. After the sex. Yesterday, President Barack Obama called the recent violence in Iran outrageous. And we were so excited. And he's not breathing. ETHAN SMITH, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": After the trial, he had spent a lot of money on lawyers, and had very little coming in. Michael told Oprah that he was in a relationship with Brooke Shields. Winfrey . No word on where they were taken. As Senior Director of Editorial & Strategy, I oversee all of Oprah Daily's digital content, from editorial to video to social media. Also, two moving vans showed up today at the rented L.A. home where Jackson apparently collapsed. to Oprah" interview. DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): From child prodigy to cultural icon. BOTEACH: I said, look on the flip side of that. BRIAN OXMAN, ATTORNEY: I've talked to this family about it. JACKSON: Yes. Success at such a cost left Jackson with conflicted feelings for his father. I was previously the Digital Director of OprahMag.com, and before that, Senior Features Writer at Refinery29, where I also served as a video host and on-camera entertainment expert. There is no song, album, or memory that is worth discrediting what happened to a seven year old little boy who was so young when he was being touched sexually, he worried that his abuser would turn into the werewolf from "Thriller." In 25 years of the Oprah Show, I taped 217 episodes on sexual abuse. QUINCY JONES, MUSIC PRODUCER: I said, you know what? CRAIG HARVEY, CORONER'S SPOKESMAN: We know he was taking some prescription medications. Nobody says anything about that!, His physical appearance remained the focus of the conversation. In February, he received the Living Legend Award at the Grammys, an honor bestowed intermittently on the likes of Frank Sinatra and Aretha Franklin, which Jackson received at the age of 34. LEMON: Bahrain and back again. If, like me, you are still on the fence about what to believe or what not to believeor even whether or not you want to watch this filmI can tell you this with 100 percent certainty: Watching both Robson and Safechuck's faces as they recollect what allegedly happened to them, both in Leaving Neverland and during Oprah's interview, there is not a single doubt in my mind that these men are telling the truth. NORRIS: From the iconic look to the moonwalk to the glove, the red jacket and the zippers and glasses and the white socks. And it also broke barriers. You look like a monkey. Beginning at a place called Motown------ The craze reached a fever pitch in 1984 when a Pepsi commercial gone awry sparked even more frenzy. So Jackson was almost doomed to implode somewhat anyway. But one reason that tends to happen in particular is the fact that in this country, Black people are at a disadvantage when it comes to career success. transcript. Not that the trial was going to end badly, but that something would happen to Michael. That was the first time Jackson had given a televised interview since 1979. LEMON: Physician Deepak Chopra, a personal friend, said he knew Jackson was taking narcotic painkillers. Jackson told Oprah he suffered from a rare skin disease. In 2002, he incited world-wide outrage when he dangled his newborn son, Prince Michael II, from the balcony of a Berlin hotel. Meantime, the Reverend Jesse Jackson tells CNN the Jackson family wants answers. Just nine months after the show aired, the 13-year-old cancer patient featured in the documentary accused Jackson of sexual abuse. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael Jackson doesn't just come along once in a century or a lifetime. He was very, very controlled. LEMON: But Brockman says the superstar was terrified. And I know that it tore him to pieces. It was just incredible. Of course, the idea that Michael Jackson may have been not just an abuser, but a pedophile, was not new to me or the rest of the world before news broke about the upcoming Leaving Neverland, which documentary filmmaker Reed began production on last year. You look like you're insane. LEMON: From the high school auditorium to the big-time. Mere months later, his public image would be tarnished forever The hurt was so ingrained in each of these men, in fact, that neither of them were willingor ableto accept what had happened to them until they had sons of their own. With Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, Elizabeth Taylor. He died three and a half months later. I didnt even want to look in the mirror, my father would tell me I was ugly and I would cry all the time, he said of his adolescence. LEMON: Author and self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller was a friend of Jackson's. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LEMON (voice-over): January 16, 2004; it seemed like another classic Michael Jackson performance, surrounded by screaming fans. She began by asking softball questions. LEMON: Jackson's follow-up to "Thriller" hit stores in 1987. It's sort of like the anti- King Midas, like everything he wants to do just gets screwed up. MJ: Your're always welcome. Michael Jackson, Oprah, Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Rowe and many other people watching MJ talking to Oprah on TV in a bedroom: Link: The Mexico Deposition in 1993 and "Dangerous . While never forgetting any of the sexual details that happened between us, but having no understanding that it was abusehaving no concept in my mind that anything about Michael could ever badeverything that Michael did was right to me for so many years." Simpson, and Bill Cosby) crimes. And I was -- and I kept saying, I just hope he gets a physical trainer, someone to really work him out, to make sure he's healthy and prepared. Get updates on your favorite shows, the latest from Oprah's world and more! Michael Jackson's place it's fresh candy and there's a the fragrance in his home is like a, a cross between chocolate and vanilla. CASTRO: It showed him to be quite abnormal. Michael, a fiercely private entertainer, had refused to give an interview for 14 years. LEMON: Thomas Mesereau was Jackson's lead defense attorney, walking Jackson into the courtroom nearly every day. ORTEGA: It was awesome to watch him. BERRY GORDY, FOUNDER OF MOTOWN: He was exceptional, artistic, and original. Sometimes I do get angry. A lot of people from the Mideast love Michael Jackson. LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The buzz over Michael Jackson's interview with Oprah Winfrey continued on several fronts Friday and included a statement from the pop star's dermatologist about Jackson's much-discussed skin condition. Special effects? (COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: In November 1982, 24-year-old Michael Jackson released "Thriller." This is a UK airing of the famous interview of Michael Jackson by Oprah Winfrey in 1993. That's all tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN, live from Los Angeles. Plastic surgery was another much-talked about issue surrounding Michael Jackson in the early 1990s. It cost him around 10 million dollars to keep that up at its peak. The weight, the gravity, the way he would sing. LEMON: Michael Jackson had probably drawn his last breath by the time this 911 phone call was made from a rented home in the Los Angeles hills. So off he went to the island nation of Bahrain. Instead, it is about the millions of people in this world who never got to have a childhood because of the sexual abuse they experienced before their young brains were even developed enough to know what was occurring. The most incredible part of that whole thing was that on his being wheeled to the hospital, you know, he's waving to his fans with the glittered glove, you know, to the end a showman. LEMON: R&B superstar Usher. "The moonwalk came from these beautiful black kids who live in the ghettos in the inner cities, who are brilliant. Premiered in Feburary 10th 1993. That was the start of the plastic surgery, and probably the pain killers. I had go-to lines about being able to separate the art from the man; about how Jackson was certainly an oddball with an affinity for children because of his own troubled upbringing, but that didn't make him a criminal; about how there was never any real proof that he had abused children. BROCKMAN: We were alone in a room. In fact, in the documentary, Safechuck reveals that he only finally came to terms with his own abuseand opened up to his wife about itafter seeing an interview Robson did about his experience with Jackson on The Today Show in 2013. Every time a shot opens, we see behind him a huge, lonely room filled with expensive works of art. The Watch OWN app is free and available to you as part of your OWN subscription through a participating TV provider. on the Internet. . "It certainly was going to be the most watched interview I had ever done. Months later, Jackson partnered with Lionel Richie on an effort that was more warmly received. (Video: HBO) Comment on this story And I said, Mr. Gordy, you just have to see these kids. I'm going to miss him. Not only was I questioning why our culture would want to bring down a man who isn't alive to protect himself, but I, too, was suspicious that these accusers were coming out now, after publicly defending Jackson when he was alive. As the trial progressed, he got weaker and weaker, including that one bizarre day when he called in sick and the judge said, come in anyway. LEMON (voice-over): It was June 13, 2005. Naturally, an arena for 62 million viewers when Oprah Winfrey in 1993 interviewed Michael Jackson in today's multi-fractured media landscape simply no longer exists. LIONEL RICHIE, MUSICIAN: That soul was huge. The cost -- $19 million. And let's not forget that this wasn't just any man who was playing psychological tricks on pre-pubescent mindsthis was a global superstar, perhaps the most well-known name on the entire planet. In a new interview, Oprah discussed and reiterated her support for HBO's documentary series Leaving Neverland, which explores two allegations of child sexual abuse against Michael Jackson.The series saw two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, accusing Jackson of sexually abusing them as children, and immediately sparked intense backlash online from fans of Jackson and from the Jackson estate. LEMON (on camera): Were you worried that he might not make it? LEMON: A life and legend cut short. "He kept getting whiter and whiter and whiter, and nobody understood why," Oprah says. And he had this towering 270 million dollar debt. JACKSON: Let's face it. This content is imported from poll. TOURE: So he's doing the moonwalk. One of the first venues, the auditorium of Roosevelt High. The interview had the intended effect (many considered it a promotional ploy by the two, rather than a real interview). Not all are available yet, though Anyways, I hope you like them. BROCKMAN: I feared for Michael Jackson.
