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"Tiger Beat Spectacular" Magazine Interview

Date confirmed in Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

"Tiger Beat Spectacular" magazine (August 1973), from Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro” (article summary/quotes)

Michael was preparing to do an interview for Right On magazine when the editors of their sister magazine Tiger Beat Spectacular caught a spare moment with him.

Unusually for Michael he was extremely quiet on this particular day; he wasn’t the bouncy talkative self of past interviews.

For the first time during his conversation with the Tiger Beat Spectacular editor, Michael showed the first signs of his concerns with the trappings of being famous. At first appearing as though he didn’t want to speak, as the editor began to walk away he suddenly rustled in his seat to say:

“That’s what I’ve been thinking about lately – what is your business or mine? I mean, I was thinking, some of our fans know us better than we know ourselves! Interviewers ask questions and the answers are printed all over the world. I have no privacy”.

Michael accepted that perhaps he would never have a private life, but he was concerned about the attention he would have to cope with when the day came when he would begin dating or raising his own family.

“Why can’t people in show business keep part of themselves private – I’m not sure I’d want everyone to know everything about me. After a while, I’d feel like running when I saw someone coming.”