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"Los Angeles Times" Newspaper Interview

Date range assessed by the fact that Michael mentions “[‘The Dating Game’ winner] got to go to New York to see our concert”, which occurred on June 30, 1972. The article’s publication date was on August 20, 1972.

"Los Angeles Times" (August 20, 1972) (archived)

On stage, Michael Jackson is up front, a flashy, with-it product of contemporary Motown hip. The slick Temptation choreography highlights showmanship and performance emphasis, while the good-time music gets you to the party. For Michael Jackson, it's a gas, and he does the job like Godzilla was next door bangin' to get in.

Where success under the spotlight can sometimes equal prima donna, M.J. is out of it. Remarkably, the charm does not relocate to pain once the act is over. Offstage, the Jackson Five is still very together.

Natives of Gary. Ind., the Jackson family (nine kids plus parents) moved to Los Angeles three years ago. They have recently settled in Encino. Their own curving road behind iron gates and shrubbery (Lady Bird would be proud) leads somewhere out of view from the street. German shepherds, romping and basking, obviously well-fed, discourage interlopers or high hurdlers. No Greyhounds full of frenzied teenies are anywhere in sight. For all the hype, it's a modest home. No Maserati motor cars or musical fountains, no panhandling degenerates lurking in the shadows. All very pleasant indeed.

Past the sentries, the immediate impression is one of organized compatibility. Chores are issued out and rotated, with only the traditionally American amount of procrastination. This is a family pulling together without individual hassles, making a nice living on top-40 soul, stage presence, and the music of adolescent energy.

No moaning and groaning bluesies, just sounds sans Novocain or anvils. Professional, tight and optimistic, the Jackson family precedes Michael, without overlooking his contributions or his obvious following. Like most people who get along without the amphetamine dream or without neurotic personal pronoun fixations, a balance is in evidence, and so also is a harmony of purpose.

What can you say about a wonderfully well-adjusted 14-year-old package of entertainment dynamite? Well, he's now the front man for four brothers, collecting gold records like they were baseball cards, selling out concert halls the size of the Ukraine and sending the blood pressure of scores of ageless females off the charts. The Jackson Five story is your happy show-biz phenomenon, and now Michael steps forward with his first solo album, ready to challenge the reigning matinee idols in what looks like a rout.

"Got to Be There" is a collection of 10 songs polished to a fine gloss, shining with slick Motown production; mostly mellow, easy tunes sitting in their jackets waiting to mount up sales to get another gold disc.

Michael's solo album was not unexpected, nor does it indicate anything calamitous as far as the family situation is concerned. Every member of the group will eventually have his own album. Jermaine is next. Michael will talk about it. He'll talk of just about anything. But he never sets himself apart from the family. And he doesn't like to sit still and simply answer questions, especially when he feels he can get it all said at the piano.

His musical tastes run right down the middle of the road, eclectic and fun. On his own, he listens to Bread, Three Dog Night, the Temptations, Diana Ross, Jethro Tull. He draws the line at grand opera. The music is his real communication and he is uneasy in set-up artificial situations. He is too much a natural.

His favorite place in the house is the garage, now a curtained rehearsal hall crowded with instruments and microphones and the accessories of performance. He putters around there, and in the corner at the upright, takes his piano lessons.

"I'd like to be a good piano player," he says. "I've been playing by ear and now I'm learning the notes. When you know the notes, you learn faster. I never thought about having lessons. I used to borrow the neighbor's piano.

“Hey,” he asks, “you ever heard this song? It's an Elton John thing that was on the radio for only a day or two, then it was gone. Bet you never heard it.” And without knowing the notes, he sits and plays, tromping on the loud pedal like a grapevine trucker wailing on the clutch and never losing a gear. M.J. gets there on time and in tune, right at home.

No small accomplishment, this, in an industry now in the grasp of dials and switches, filters and frenetic engineers. Michael would like to learn the mechanics of the studio, but the roots are in the music, not in electronic logarithms.

"I've been thinking about going to college. I want to produce and write, too. I want to learn everything in the studio. They're teaching me now. I watch. I'd like to produce kind of slow, easy music. Really soulful like."

The art is fun and the essence of pleasure is enjoyment. M.J. just digs the gig. And the gig is still a family thing.

"I only did one show by myself," he smiles. "That was the Dating Game. It was fun. I won number one. She got to go to New York to see our concert."

The concerts are something else. "They scream all the time,” says Michael. “Sometimes we have to stop the show because they break down the barricades. Sometimes they sneak by the security guards and run up on stage and give Jermaine a kiss. When I'm on stage, I really can't see because of the lights. I just hear. The only time I see is when they have to stop the show, like they did the last time we were in Detroit."

It's all fun, but the J5, and Michael in particular, know that even if it's God-given talent, it has to be honed.

"When it's time for us to go out on the road, we rehearse from about 6 to 9. Other times, when we don’t have to go on the road, we just relax. In Gary, we stayed in a small house, two bedrooms and a big living room. All five of us stayed in one room in bunk beds. I slept with Marlon, Jackie stayed at the bottom and Jermaine slept with Tito. We'd come home from school, practice 'til 9, go to bed, go to school, practice, and every day we learned more. Our father put it in our heads that practice makes perfect. We did a lot of talent shows in Gary. Other groups were coming along, too, but they'd have a group for a week. Someone would go away and get married. Or get a job.” The Jackson Five never had that problem, No one thought of quitting the family.

The mayor of Gary brought them to the attention of Diana Ross, who took them to Motown, where they fit in like they were type-cast. Coincidentally named, Jackson Street ("our house was the last one on the block”) has now become Jackson Five Blvd.

Throughout it all, Michael maintains his adamant unexceptionality. He goes to school where his buddies are either in show business themselves or are movie star derivatives. Nobody faints when M.J. makes it to class, and that's just fine with him. His neighbors, in the well-to-do but not ostentatious neighborhood, are his pals. He insists, I'd rather be treated like an ordinary person."

The fans who find him get conversation and an autographed photo. No belligerence here, no malice intended. Again, he is just 20% of the group, and a smaller hunk of the family.

The unifying force is always the music; floating from pushbutton radio sets and trading stamp portables to exotic sound systems in the homes of the most discriminating. Despite rumors to the contrary, there are no groups like the Jackson Five.

There are the inevitable comparisons with the Osmonds, and Michael says diplomatically, "I think there's room for everybody.” He admits a certain similarity in style: bubble-gum music, like school-type songs." His differentiation: the J5 does bubble-gum soul.

"There's a difference in the sound,” he says, and can't describe it beyond, It's really the feeling you get into what you're singing and in knowing what you're doing.” The knowing comes from rehearsing and the circle is complete.

Models for Blocks

There is no doubt that the Jackson Five, and Michael in particular, are models after whom young blacks pattern themselves and take great pride. "We meet kids all the time at our concerts, they’re our age and starting a group and we talk to them and tell them to keep trying, keep up the good work, keep rehearsing, and that all it takes is practice, a lot of practice." For the Jackson Five that is all it takes.

The philosophy transfers into more immediate situations. Personally, Michael doesn't care for complicated situations and he is quick to notice the differences between projected talent and accomplishment. Say you can fix the TV and you'd better come through, ‘cause if you don't, you're gonna hear about it for a while. He's loose, and at ease with himself, however, once he decides he's not going to get ripped off or misquoted. Michael Jackson is nobody's patsy, and regardless of his photogenic image, he can hold his own in just about any social exchange. Anyway, if things get tough, there's the rest of the clan to back him up, and then all those dogs. Right now, Michael Jackson would just like to enjoy being 14, which is what it's all about. And this Friday he's performing at the Hollywood Bowl, which he likes.