Jermaine Jackson memoir tinged with regret.

**Roberta75** · 10-05-2011, 02:20 PM

http://detnews.com/article/20111005/...ed-with-regret

**randy_russi** · 10-05-2011, 02:31 PM

Interesting!

**BayouMotownMan** · 10-05-2011, 02:42 PM

So far I am about 3/4 through the book and I have to say I've learned very little new information. It just seems that Jermaine is cashing in on Michael's tragedy, like so many others are doing.

I would love, just once, for some member of the Jackson clan to outwardly admit that it was inappropriate for a 40+ year old man to be having sleepovers with young children. Jermaine continues to try to defend what Michael himself could not defend. I'm not saying MJ had sex with these kids, but somebody, somewhere should have intervened to make this talented yet disturbed man realize that this was a litigious mistake. He didn't learn anything from the first charges against him.

Also, to have custody of three kids with that kind of serious drug addiction alludes me. Jermaine, in the book, maintains that certain parties kept Michael sequestered away from his family. So far, I am wondering why MJ himself never returned family members phone calls. Was he distancing himself for more than the addiction problems? I don't understand why at least this man's parents couldn't get some sort of court order to intervene, seeing that they were aware that MJ was addicted and his actions questionable.

As usual, Jermaine makes things worse by speaking out.

**Roberta75** · 10-05-2011, 04:46 PM

[QUOTE=BayouMotownMan;70270 I would love, just once, for some member of the Jackson clan to outwardly admit that it was inappropriate for a 40+ year old man to be having sleepovers with young children. Jermaine continues to try to defend what Michael himself could not defend. I'm not saying MJ had sex with these kids, but somebody, somewhere should have intervened to make this talented yet disturbed man realize that this was a litigious mistake. He didn't learn anything from the first charges against him.[/QUOTE]

Only God, Michael and the kids knows what really happened during those sleepovers but after the first case was settled out of court, it was very, very foolish of Michael to continue to have children over for sleepovers. I'm sure he heard this from his attorney, hopefully his family and his close friends, but when you are as big as Michael Jackson you probably listen to no one.

Michael's biggest mistake was announcing to Martin Bashir that there was nothing wrong with sharing your bed with children. I cringed when Michael went on to say "It's very sweet" or words to that effect. That's when the Santa Barbara DA got involved and the 2nd trial started and his legacy was forever tarnished.

It's obvious that Michael was in the chronic stage of drug addiction during this time.

**jobeterob** · 10-05-2011, 05:25 PM

Good posts Bayou and Roberta.

I bet all of the Jackson's were afraid to cross Michael; he appeared to have little use for any of them besides his mother which is why they were all left out of this will. And Michael was their only path to some bit of money, so they wouldn't want to get on his bad side.

From all I have read and heard, I also suspect Michael wasn't doing anything sexual with these children. But as you've stated, he was beyond naive and stupid to put himself at such risk by sharing a bed with them. Any member of the public that tried such a thing would be instantly investigated and their own children would probably be removed from their home during the investigation.

Jermaine has to be one of the most thick headed, stupid clingers of all time; I see him sit in front of Piers Morgan a couple nights ago and continue to say Michael wasn't an addict ~ despite all the evidence, despite slurred phone calls and tapes; and despite Pier's unbelieving prodding and open mouth which clearly read: "Are you daft?".

I am wondering if this stupidity runs in the family - Joe, Michael and Jermaine. So many show business people get in so much trouble and make the worst decisions about business and money.

**captainjames** · 10-05-2011, 07:36 PM

Don't be too hard on Jermaine, he can't help it.

**jobeterob** · 10-05-2011, 09:49 PM

.Last Updated: October 05. 2011 1:52AM .Jermaine Jackson's memoir tinged with regret
Susan Whitall/ Detroit News Music Writer
He was billed as the heartthrob, the Jackson brother who stood to the right of Michael Jackson onstage with the Jackson 5, the one who had to dance and play bass at the same time. Jermaine Jackson has also been the brother who stepped forward as the family spokesperson in recent years, during Michael's trials, and after his June 2009 death.

Now, just as the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's doctor, proceeds in Los Angeles with daily revelations about the King of Pop's sad, final days, Jermaine's memoir "You Are Not Alone, Michael Through a Brother's Eyes" [[Touchstone) has been released, giving some insights on Michael's personality from a close family member.

Jermaine, older than Michael by four years, hasn't always agreed with his siblings or mother in the years since Michael's death. Most recently, he and brother Randy objected to the Michael Jackson tribute concert slated for this Saturday in Cardiff, Wales, that siblings Tito, Marlon, Jackie and LaToya supported [[and will participate in), along with mother Katherine.

The timing of the tribute concert was problematic for Jermaine, since it falls right in the middle of Dr. Murray's trial for involuntary manslaughter. But his siblings argued that when they planned the concert, they couldn't predict when the trial would finally start.

Jermaine's tone in "You Are Not Alone" is, alternately defensive, furious and, at times, deeply nostalgic. He writes with regret at how fast his years of high-flying fame with Michael and the Jackson 5 flew by in a blur of rushing from the stage to a limo to the hotel, to the point where it's hard for him to remember details he'd like to relish [[and even relive).

He gives Motown Records credit for its famed Artist Development department as particularly helpful to the five talented but rough-hewn boys from Gary, Indiana. "If America's brains went to Harvard," Jermaine writes, "America's talent went to Motown."

"'You're entering the finest finishing school in the business," founder Berry Gordy told the Jacksons. "Motown," Jermaine writes, "trained artists to be stars; it groomed, prepared and educated them for the big time. The likes of Diana Ross & the Supremes or the Temptations weren't born with silver spoons in their mouths, but when you saw them on TV, you thought they were kings and queens … it was all about the class, finesse and elegance of a performing artist and Diana epitomized the true superstar."

He gives unending credit to Gordy for helping the boys understand song structure, a skill Michael honed to perfection. "Every song should tell a story, the song dynamics should build and at the vamp, go through the roof…Mr. Gordy's telltale signature [[was to) go out with the hook so the last thing people remember is the title."

Facts, not myths
As a document of the Jacksons' early years, and Michael's rise and fall, the book is more valuable than Michael's myth-making reminiscences, or the tabloid-ish tell-all books of recent years.

He draws a stark picture of the family's early poverty and tough times before father Joseph managed to secure an audition at Motown in 1968. The family's much-vaunted closeness came about because their parents told them not to trust outsiders, or have anything to do with them.

An early meeting with Smokey Robinson at the Regal Theatre in Chicago shows how star-struck the Jacksons were. After meeting Smokey, the boys marveled at how soft his hands were. "No wonder," Jermaine said, "He ain't done nothing but write songs."

Crammed with his eight brothers and sisters in the tiny house in Gary, supported by their father's back-breaking work in a steel mill, Michael grew up loving cartoons, candy, the Three Stooges and practical jokes.

Family rebel
He was, according to his brother, far different from his somewhat fey image. At some point, Michael turned from being a hyper-compliant child to the family rebel who refused to obey his father [[and stole money from his wallet), even when he knew it would end with a whipping. Later, business associates underestimated Michael's sharp mind at their peril, and his tough-mindedness extended to his three children, whom he punished if they misbehaved.

Jermaine also describes his brother's dogged work ethic — he had that in common with Gordy — and thirst to learn. Michael was "a master studier of people and never forgot a thing, filing it away in a mental folder he might well have called 'Greatest Inspirations & Influences.' He defends his brother's innocence on charges of child molestation that began in the '90s, and details the effect of that time on Michael and the family.

Although Michael isolated himself for about eight years from his family, he and his siblings would always find their way back to each other. The later chapters of "You Are Not Alone" don't resolve the mystery of Michael's last days, but Jermaine does raise some troubling questions, especially when he describes Michael's fears that his life was in danger.

Dispelling myths
Jermaine Jackson set out to correct some misconceptions about his brother Michael [[although, arguably, he promotes others). Among the more interesting revelations:

Michael's fetish for cleanliness came directly from mother, Katherine, who insisted her children [[and house) were scrubbed from top to bottom daily.

A lot of the myth-making, such as Michael's "Elephant Man" fixation and photos of him lying in an oxygen chamber, were leaked to the press by his then-manager. Jermaine says he complained, to no avail, that it made his brother look freakish.

On father Joseph's harsh discipline: "Here's one irrefutable fact," Jermaine writes, "our father raised nine kids in a high-crime, drug-using, gangland environment and steered them toward success without one of them falling off the rails."

While Michael complained about that discipline, he came to accept his father more in his later years. Jermaine quotes Michael from a 2001 speech he gave at Oxford University: "I have begun to see how my father's harshness was a kind of love, an imperfect one, but love nonetheless. With time, I now feel a blessing. In the place of anger, I have found absolution … reconciliation … and forgiveness."

The inspiration for the "gang fight" in Michael's video of "Beat It" were fights that the family witnessed right outside their tiny two-bedroom house in Gary, Indiana.

Diana Ross didn't discover the Jackson 5 — that story was put forth by Motown PR. According to Jermaine, Michael never lived with Ross either [[a myth perpetuated by Michael in his 1988 book). When they first arrived in L.A., the Jacksons lived with their boss, Berry Gordy Jr., but spent many afternoons and evenings at Diana's house nearby — enough to ruin her shag carpeting, and for Diana to teach Jermaine and the boys how to swim in her pool.

Michael was actually 10, not 8, when the Jackson 5 were "discovered." Making him younger added to the cuteness appeal.

The group's Detroit fans were particularly hysterical. The fire marshal shut down one show because fans wouldn't sit down; another time, fans rushed the group's airplane on the tarmac.

Employees and advisors of Michael's kept the family at a distance. During an attempted 2002 intervention by the siblings [[they feared Michael was abusing drugs), when they were turned away at the gates of Neverland, one of the brothers had to scale a wall and open the gate for the others.

Michael admired his father's protectiveness. During his troubled last few months, when he felt he was being treated harshly by promoters for his "This is It" concerts, he remarked to an associate, "If Joseph were here, they wouldn't dare speak to me this way."

About the book
What: "You Are Not Alone, Michael Through a Brother's Eyes" by Jermaine Jackson [[Touchstone, 442 pages)

Available: In stores now

swhitall@detnews.com

[[313) 222-2156

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From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20111005/...#ixzz1Zxih2E2c