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"Disc" Magazine Interview

Date confirmed by Lisa Robinson when she said she had interviewed them “five months ago” in this March 24, 1973 interview; that interview was given October 8, 1972.

Lisa Robinson, "Disc" magazine (March 24, 1973) (archived)

A lot has happened to the Jackson Five since I had visited them at their Encino, California, home five months ago. For starters, they had seen the world; well, at least a good deal of it--Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Jermaine's solo album and single had climbed to the top of the charts, more movie and TV offers were pouring in like crazy, and they had all grown-up just a little bit more.

The electric gate wasn't working (every star in California seems to have an electric gate), so it had to be pushed open by a strong hand. Once inside, the scene was familiar, Michael came bouncing outside the main house with an Emmy Award for "Ben" in his hand, all smiles, all charm and sex appeal that belies his age. "OOOOH!", he screamed, pointing at my silver lamé sandals, "Alice Cooper shoes!!!!"

I told Michael how I had recently talked to Alice about him, and how much Alice liked the Five; also how Alice described the way the Jackson brothers looked at the Coopers when they met in the BBC-TV studio. "Oh, go on!", laughed Michael, "he's telling stories!!!" "But how come he looks like that????"

Shiny Stuff

I say I think he wants to be freaky, and he enjoys dressing-up onstage. Michael wants to know all about Alice's new stage show, and we discuss the guillotine, the magic tricks, the snake. Michael likes magic himself, and explains the levitation illusion to me. I ask him how he feels about make-up, dressing-up on-stage, glitter and all. "Well, like that Elton John", he says, "he's got all those shiny outfits--big old heels, he has this hat, it's shiny. But really--the outfit makes the show look good onstage. It makes it exciting, shiny stuff."

The other Jackson brothers start to come around. "Hey, Jermaine, this is real bad huh?", says Michael, pointing to my Pierrot clown pin bought in England... and we immediately start to talk about Europe--especially clothes.

"The clothes there were outtasight!", says Jermaine. "We went to King's Road, we didn't go to Camaby Street or anything like that. We bought some leather coats there that were outtasight, and we brought back a lot of perfume from Paris for my mother, mostly 'Joy'."

I liked Paris and Germany", said Michael. "We went to Munich and Frankfurt--they're really different. I was talking French in Paris to the maids and stuff and they started laughing because they didn't expect it. They audiences mostly were very intelligent--they listened, and then they applauded at the end. But in London they screamed and they really did in Amsterdam. Boym they had to stop the show 15 times! I swear to God, people were all over the place, some of them were falling on top of each other."

"I never get tired of concerts", Michael continued. "I like to go on tour, especially places outside of the States. We've been to most places in the U.S., so now we really want to go to Europe."

Jermaine adds: "To me, when I get older, I'd like to have a place here and a place there to live. I'd really like to have a place in London. It's just a different world--the way they think and the way they talk, I just liked it, and I hope we go back soon! "I like living here because the weather is outtasight, but my favorite place now is London, and I'll be glad when we go back. We may stop there when we go to Japan in April."

...Talking to The Jackson Five this time was just a bit different--easier, than the first time I spoke with them at their house. The changes were subtle, but they have been interviewed so many times, asked the same questions over and over, that they sometimes tend to get a glazed, detached look over their eyes--polite as they still remain, Michael, in particular, seems to want to ask *you* more questions than he likes to answer; he appears to want to just talk in general. But in talking about Europe, especially the situation at the "Churchill Hotel" in London with the Osmonds there as well, they loosened up quite a bit and we laughed and talked in a freer style than my previous "session" with them.

We talk more about the Jacksons' incredible music, and their future recording plans. Joe Jackson's Christmas present to his sons was a 15-track recording studio built right into their very own music room, yet to be completely booked up, but certain to change some of the current recording routine.

"I've done another solo album", said Michael. "I don't know the name of it yet, or exactly what songs they'll pick out to be on it. We also recorded another group LP with mostly original material that they wrote for us."

...[Jermaine says,] "Now that we're getting that studio back there we're going got do a lot of stuff there. What I want to do is write for another artist--Michael and I are writing a song for Glen Campbell, and we might write a song for Neil Diamond. Those are the kinds of singers that we want to write for--mainly because of the melodies and the words. And although we can get rocky and funky sometimes, we really like to write romantic things... like the Carpenters stuff and all."

"My album was supposed to be out in February", says older brother Jackie, "but right now since we've got a new smash single out (laughs)--called "Hallelujah Day", it's about bringing the boys back from Vietnam and it's going to brighten everybody up.

...Tito thinks that this studio in their house, even though he lives separately, nearby with his wife, Deedee, is the greatest. We talk about the possibilities as the lawyer and accountant who have flown in from New York come over to say hello to the boys before going inside the house to talk business. Are the boys involved in the business aspects of the group?

"Sure", smiles Tito, "we're all in business! We don't talk about the money, but we talk about where we can go--to make the power grow!"

Does he see a day when it may stop?

"I think that we'll keep going until one day when we'll have a billion dollars!", laughs Tito. "And then I'll give some of it away, donate it. When I get a billion dollars!"...

"Disc" Magazine (March 31, 1973) (Part Two)

Will the same thing happen with Michael [("splashed all  over many of the fan magazines here as a sex symbol]) when he gets a few years older? Does he go out with girls?

"No", smiles Jermaine. "Marlon doesn't either."

Because they're not interested, or because they're too young?

"Oh, they're interested! But I guess my mother won't turn them loose yet!" Watch out when they do...

"Yeah! Jermaine agrees, laughing. "Another thing is that when we go places we never really get mobbed unless Michael's with us", says Jermaine. "He's the one who draws a real crowd. I was at the movies the other night and people knew me--but it wasn't such a big deal, I go out a lot, because I don't like to be cooped up; I like to see what's going on in the streets."

...There were rumors that the boys were going to have their own TV show this year, but apparently it doesn't seem to be in the immediate works. "My father cancelled the whole thing", said Jackie. "It's kind of hard doing a TV show, and a lot of fans would like to see us in concerts on-the-road. There's no way we could do a TV show and be in there every day at 7 o'clock in the morning."

"And", adds Michael, "do sessions and then go on-the-road at the same time. So we decided to save the TV show until later. We were going to do another special, but we don't even have time to do that right now."

..."We are thinking a lot about acting now", said Michael. "We have had a lot of offers--especially from Walt Disney Productions. And we're thinking everything over and trying to pick out the best material so that they can do a story on all of us instead of just one. Jackie was offered a "Mod Squad" episode (weekly TV series) but he couldn't do it because he was on-the-road. And Jermaine was supposed to play a blind person in a James Earl Jones movie..."

...There's some more laughing, and some tales about what everyone was doing during the earthquake the day before. "I was in bed", says Michael, "and I woke up and forgot to stand under the door! You've heard that, haven't you? The door is the strongest part of the house, and if you've ever seen a house burn down--the door is the only thing left standing. The floor was moving like a massage table! I wasn't really scared though. Two years ago it was worse! But where we were living it wasn't too bad; we were in Beverly Hills.

"This one happened in the morning and went away, but last time trembles kept coming back all day. It struck a hospital, some people died in it, and people were sick in the street. This time, hardly anyone was killed, but it scared a whole lot of people.

And just before the sky began to turn dark with the threatening rain clouds putting an end on what had been a lovely California day, this day-after-the-earthquake, I said goodbye to the Jackson family, all six brothers about to join their father in a business meeting with the accountant and lawyer who had come all the way from New York. Another day in the life of this very incredible family who are in the business of making very incredible music.