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"The Jackson 5 Second National Tour" Rehearsal

Date range assessed by the fact that this occurred a month after the “Sepia” cover photoshoot (“Last month we went to Desiree Johnson’s house where her Dad, a top Hollywood photographer, took pictures of the Jackson Five in her garden while Desiree and her friend Valerie played hostess to the J-5, serving them lunch and helping in any way they could.”) which happened ~Spring 1971.

Desiree Johnson, fan, “FaVE” Magazine (1971)

Last month we went to Desiree Johnson’s house where her Dad, a top Hollywood photographer, took pictures of the Jackson Five in her garden while Desiree and her friend Valerie played hostess to the J-5, serving them lunch and helping in any way they could. This time Desiree’s adventures with the Jackson Five continue as she and Valerie go to a J-5 concert show rehearsal!

It might seem like a surprise to you when I tell you that a wealthy and famous group of guys like the Jackson Five would even think of having a concert show rehearsal on Sunday, but when it comes to Marlon, Michael, Tito, Jackie, and Jermaine, I’ve learned to be ready for anything! The J-5 never seem to think of themselves or of their own comfort or fun like most other stars do.

All the J-5 seem to care about is preparing themselves to do the very best things they can for us, their fans. And I guess that's the reason why, as Jermaine left my house where my dad was photographing the group on that Saturday, he invited me and Valerie to their concert show rehearsal in a secret studio in Hollywood the very next day! I was wondering whether my dad would even let me go because he doesn't like to have us bothering the famous people he photographs. But Dad is very observant, and he noticed that Valerie and I had really and truly become friends with the J-5. So Dad gave his OK, and the next morning we went along with him to the secret Hollywood rehearsal studio!

Dad was taking some extra, unposed photos of the J-5 that day, and Valerie and I were assigned to help him with his film and his camera equipment. Dad had taught Valerie and I a long time before how to load his cameras, and that's what we did to help.

We were the first ones at the studio at about 10:30 that Sunday morning. Valerie stayed overnight and we all got up and went to church early. We have no mom in our house, so I usually get breakfast for Dad on the weekends. But this day we had to skip it.

We were helping Dad set up his equipment when the J-5 came breezing into the big rehearsal studio, bright-eyed and full of happiness as usual. Jermaine came up to us with a large box of doughnuts in his hands and said: “Hey! Have some! There are six different kinds!"

Jermaine left the doughnuts with us and went back out to the van to get his guitar. Before long he and Tito were all plugged into their amps and were tuning up. The Jackson Five's two musical helpers, called "side men", were also getting warmed up on their instruments, drums, and organ. It was all getting pretty exciting!

If you've ever seen the Jackson Five in concert or on TV, you know that they are terrific dancers! Not only does each J-5 guy dance well, but their dance routines are super, too! This is because they have a professional choreographer (dance designer) to help them. Her name is Suzanne and is she pretty! But more than that, she is really talented, too.

The boys all love her because she is like a big sister to them. She was very busy that morning, working out a new routine with Jackie, Marlon, and Michael, but even in spite of all that, she took time to say hello to us and to talk to us. I think she is wonderful and I really hope you get to meet her sometime real soon.

Randy Jackson is eight years old. and we've all been waiting for the day that he'll become a member of the group. Well, no one but the J-5 themselves know when that will be, but Randy is going to appear in the Jackson Five's concert show sometime this summer.

He was rehearsing on the conga drums with them this day, and I'm here to tell you, it's amazing how much musical talent there is in that family. Randy was wailin' up a storm on those drums, and really enjoying it, too. And you should have seen how proud his older brothers were of him. It sure made Valerie and I wonder what other talents Randy has that that no one has seen yet!

The Big Mirror on the Wall!

Something I personally found very interesting about watching the J-5 rehearse is the way they use the great big mirror that runs the entire length of the rehearsal hall on one wall. The purpose of that mirror is so the Jackson Five can see just how they are going to look to the audience when they are doing their dances and their songs.

You should see how Michael watches that mirror when he's singing his songs. And Jermaine uses it a lot, too. The idea of having that huge mirror was a very good one, and it's a big help to the J-5. Jackie explained it to me this way.

JACKIE: "Sometimes people who see us using this rehearsal mirror like this wonder whether we are really not being sincere with our fans. They think that maybe we are trying to be too perfect or something and not really being ourselves. Well, we think of it another way. Have you ever had something really important that you wanted to say to someone that you cared about so very much that even though you knew what you wanted to say, you had trouble putting it into just the right words? Well, doing a concert performance is very much like that!

We have so many things we want to do for our fans. and we want to he sure that we're doing them the very best we can, whether it’s singing, dancing, or just having fun with them. That's why we rehearse so much, and that's why we use this big mirror. We have to see how we look so that we'll he sure we have conveyed to our audience everything we intend to, in just the best may we can!"

After about an hour or so of really concentrating on their rehearsing, The Jackson Five would take a fifteen minute break. It was then that Valerie and I got to sit down on the floor and lean against the wall and talk with Tito and Jermaine. We brought them Cokes from the machine in the hallway and we all had a good talk. Here's what I remember them saying:

JERMAINE: "Desiree, you and Valerie sure have been nice to help and look after us this weekend. I don't know what we're going to do without you once we're traveling around the country on our concert tour this summer."

TITO: “Yeah. we really are going to miss you. But don't worry. I'll be taking plenty of pictures all the time and I'll send you some of them so you can see what we're doing and how we're getting along."

JERMAINE: "I plan to be writing as many songs as I can during the traveling time when there really isn’t much to do but read or something. I have quite a few songs in my head that I've been thinking about for awhile, and something tells me I'm about ready to try to get them down on paper."

TITO: "Yes. that's the way Jermaine works with his songwriting. He'll think about them and think about them but he won’t even try to write down the music or the words until something inside him feels ready. I can understand that, too, because that's the way I am with anything I'm doing. It's best to just let these things cook until they're ready. Try it yourself!"

Tito and Jermaine and I talked for awhile longer until Michael came over to us and said: "It's time to get back on the floor!"

Well, the rehearsal started up again, and Dad said he was finished taking his photos and it was time for us to go and leave the J-5 to their hard work. We helped Dad gather up his equipment then, and as we were going out the studio doors, the familiar sounds of "Never Can Say Goodbye" booming musically all around us, sung in person by the greatest group in the world, we waved to the guys, and waves came back from Tito, Marlon, Michael, Jackie, and Jermaine, and from Randy too!

It really made Valerie and I feel that these fabulous, talented stars really are our friends, and that they have love for us as we do for them.

But that shouldn't surprise anyone, because sincerity, friendliness, talent, and above all, love for their fans are the things that have made The Jackson Five the one group that will always stay the closest to our hearts. And to yours, too!