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"Soul” Magazine Interview

Date of publication confirmed in “Soul” magazine (“August 10, 1970”)

“Soul” magazine, “What It’s Like to be Michael Jackson” (August 10, 1970) (Images 001-005)

He's the lead singer of America's fastest rising singing group, an expert dancer of current style, quipster, comic and showman.

His group has twice run the Beatles out of the number one spot on the national record charts, a feat never before accomplished; has had three hit records in four months, the first a two sided smash and the third about to become one; and has broken concert attendance records in two out of the three cities they have appeared in this year. He's also a veteran of seven years stage experience all as a professional singer.

His name is Michael Joe Jackson and he'll be ten years old on August 29, 1970. One month later he'll join his older brother Marlon in Junior High school, an event  they are both looking forward to with great anticipation.

"When we were back Gary, Indiana," Michael recalls, “we used to go to school together, I'll like doing that again."

Michael was the last of the Jackson family to join the group, but his younger brother Randy, who is seven, may force the group to change its name as soon as he gets his thing together one the bongos.

"Randy is the one I'm with all the time," says Michael, 'cause the rest of 'em--they'd rather stay home and rest with me. He's the only one I can be a big brother to.

"I help him with stuff like if he can't open is jar or figure something out, he’ll come to me.”

The older Jackson boys have earned Michael’s respect, but get him down sometimes too.

“Jackie, he keeps the group together for practice, Jermaine can really play that guitar, and Tito, he’s got heavy ways, but they don’t like comedy stuff or cartoons, they get too serious sometimes. Marlon sticks around with me all the time, I can always be with him, and Jermaine is sometimes funny, he clowns with us.”

Teasing

But the two oldest boys often tease their younger brothers.

“When Tito and Jackie really want to make us mad,” Michael laughs, “they call Jermaine ‘Big Head’, Marlon ‘Liver Lips’, and they call me ‘Big Nose’.”

Michael’s room at home contains many pictures, he loves to draw cartoons as much as he loves to watch them on television. He also has pictures of all the groups and singers he likes. Diana Ross, Lulu, the Supremes, Rare Earth, the Temptations, and several others.

He is very proud of his clothes also, mostly of the usual mod style, although he often wears silk shirts with matching sash belts. “I love silk”, or cowboy outfits complete with hat, boots, gun and holster.

Michael also collects pets of the sort a nine-year-old boy is most find of. He keeps white mice in a cage in the family room, when he’s not wearing them across his shoulders.

“I have a snake too,” he boasts, “that we found at the beach. We were out taking pictures for the “ABC” album cover and Chris Clark saw him in the bushes on the way back to the car. We caught him just before he crawled into his hole and she gave him to me.”

Girl Talk

Michael doesn’t have a girlfriend. “I don’t know if I want one.” he says thoughtfully. “The girls at school, they just play hit and run--that’s all they do, they hit me and run… I don’t know most of them though. They know who I am, they know I sing. But they treat the other boys the same. I just don’t pay any attention and when they see they can’t bother me, they stop.

“The first thing I notice about a girl is the way she acts--they’re a little bit different than the boys, you know… I mean the girls that go to my school, not the big girls. I like big girls better, big girls don’t play hit and run, they don’t act like that.”

Michael sings a line in the song “ABC” with an authority that shows he can probably handle any kind of girl: “Sit down girl, I think I love you… get up girl, show me what you can do…”

And in his life he finds that girls are very nice to him outside of school.

“In New York girls bought stuff for us; we never told them to do it, but they just did it anyway. We were at the Apollo Theater and these girls came with a bunch of stuff—a bag fulla stuff they bought us—you know watches and things. And we didn't tell them to do it. We didn’t even know they were coming, you know I didn't even know them, they were just real nice."

California Living

Since moving to California, Michael has made several changes in his life style.

"First of all I got taller, and my voice is changing a little. I have more to do at home now, and less time to play. I wash dishes sometimes, sweep, take out garbage, just help out, because we stay in a bigger house now. Oh yeah... and clean my room. I draw most of the time when we're not recording or practicing.

"I've started playing around with the drums, but I'm not real good yet, I wouldn't play on stage yet, people might laugh at me. They did that once when I fell on stage and I didn’t know what to do, so I just kept on going."

“The first two shows we did at Mr. Lucky’s in Gary, I was scared of that.”, Michael recalls laughing. "We were making eight dollars a day, and I thought it was a lot of money. We used to do a bunch of nightclubs, a bunch.

"I was afraid to go on the first time let the people see, scared they might 'boo' us or something, scared they might not like us. After the first time I was still afraid, I thought they were just being nice, but I got over being afraid.

One thing Michael has never been afraid of is forgetting lyrics--”I make sure I have it before I do it.”

Another frightening experience for the Jackson Five is being mobbed. They have only done three large concerts at this writing, but the audience has rushed the stage at every one, and even before they began recording they had this problem.

“In New York once,” Michael explains, “the girls jumped up on the stage and started tearing my clothes, but they had guards there to get them away. In San Francisco and Los Angeles it looked like the walls were falling the way hundreds of them came at the stage all together; but we have to practice getting away too, so we’re ready to drop everything and run. Jermaine dropped his guitar and took off at the Forum concert. We can always get a new guitar for him, but he’d be kinda hard to replace.

“It’s too bad really, ‘cause we can’t finish the show the way we rehearsed. We always have to run off stage, and we can’t thank the audience and stuff, you know the way we’d really like to, we just have to run away.”

Musical Learning

Michael loves being in show business, especially learning new songs. He has two methods for this: “When you do a song someone else has a record on, you already know the melody, so you just have to listen real careful and write all the words down. You have to be sure they make sense, because sometimes it sounds like a word, and it really isn’t that word at all. Then you study the words and sing it about five times over… and then you know it.

“With a new song it’s different. When I learn a new song I have the words on a piece of paper on the stand. The producer shows you how the melody goes so you can learn it. Then you practice it a lot. When you record the tune they sometimes change it a little, so after you make the record you listen to real good a lot of times before you do it on stage, ‘cause the people come to see you do your record.”

At recording sessions, Michael is trying hard to learn to read music. “I’ve learned an awful lot so far, but I still have a ways to go. We spend a lot of time recording, and it’s all work. I try to get it done as fast as I can so I can hurry up and leave, because sometimes I have other things to do--drawing or homework or getting my school clothes ready.”

Michael admires many other performers, but chief among them are Johnny Mathis--”I don’t sing like him--that's not usually my style, but I like the way he does it,"—and James Brown—"He's good. I like his records—the funky ones and the jazzy stuff.

"When we went to see a show of his, he taught me a few things he does on stage, you know, drop the mike and—catch it. It only took one about thirty minutes to learn that... Yeah, it looks hard, but it's easy."

Michael reacts unexpectedly to hearing Jackson Five recordings on the radio. "I've been asked about that a lot of times, I don’t feel any different, I just listen to It. I don't tell people, 'Hey, that's me.’ I would feel funny if I said that, you know, because there are some people I know who are jealous, and I don't like to make them be that way.”

Social Moments

In his spare time, Michael goes to parties, birthdays and other special celebrations. Most of these are family or Motown family affairs. There is dancing, food, other kids and lots of music. Michael’s favorite dance is the funky chicken and he is in the highly enviable position of being able to claim his favorite partner, Diana Ross, quite often.

There is also a lot of outdoor activity for the Jackson clan, but Michael, perhaps because he's younger than everyone but Randy, has a better time watching than playing. His favorite sport Is soccer and he plays that very well.

Another favorite sport, is one of the best reasons he has for liking California—"I can swim a lot more here. We used to swim at Diana's most of the time, but our new house has a pool now so we can swim right at home. I love swimming."

And he likes everything else about California—"I haven't seen anything I don't like yet.”

“I don’t miss Gary that much, even though I lived there all of my life.”

Michael cooks a lot of breakfast foods best. "You know, grits, oatmeal, bacon, eggs, Cream of Wheat; I like enchiladas best, but I can't cook them yet.”

On days off the family sometimes goes to movies and Michael loves them. “I’d like to be in a movie one day,” Michael enthusiastically states, “but I mainly like to sing. I want to be with the group, singing, all my life.”

There is a rumor that keeps going around that Michael and one of the other boys, has been hurt or died somehow, and these stories have reached the Jackson Five. Although many performers think of this as a sign that they achieved stardom, for the Jackson family they are a source of annoyance. “I think it’s stupid.”, Michael states. “I’d like to know who started that.”

What all that he has going for him at his young age, Michael Jackson is terribly like most other youngsters in our country. He’s concerned about his appearance, his acceptance by kids his own age and by his favorite pastimes, singing and drawing. Michael is so “normal”, as a matter of fact, that you can’t help but wonder what does bother him, what problems does he have.

“Problems?”, he asks. “I don’t have any problems--not a one. I guess the worst one would be if I was conceited, but I don’t have those kind of problems now… maybe when I get older.”