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"Superstars" Magazine Interview

Date of publication confirmed by Chris Cadman

"Superstars" magazine (May 1973) (archived)

So what's going on with the Jacksons? You've been wondering, and so was I and made the most of my recent trip to Los Angeles to find out exactly what the fantastic five are up to.

When I first got to their house in Encino, just outside of L.A., I asked Mr. Joe Jackson exactly that question. "What are my boys up to? Right now they're up to their necks in confusion. None of us can figure out exactly what we ought to do next."

I knew exactly what I thought they ought to do next —— the same things that have been knocking fans out all over the world for the last three years! It seemed pretty simple, but Mr. Jackson sat me down and explained why it wasn't very simple at all.

"We always talk about these things in family conferences, and what really worries the boys right now is getting stale. We first started to worry about six months ago, but even before that it was in the back of our minds. It's funny, a lot of our fans have been anxious about us splitting up. I guess they first started worrying about it when the boys began doing their solo albums.

DIDN'T GET STALE

"But one of the reasons they started doing them was to make sure that we didn't get stale. It's good experience, because when you do things on your own, you can see exactly what the rest of the group means to you, and also “but you mean to the group."

I had to agree with Mr. Jackson. For one thing, he knew a lot about music before I was ever even born! He'd taught Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Michael and Randy everything they knew at first. And for another thing, the J5 had gotten better in the last months.

But I wanted to find out about what they had on tap for the next couple of months. Michael and Jackie bounced into the room just then and greeted me. "Has Dad been telling you about the mess we're in? We can't figure out what to do. We got so many irons in the fire, someone's sure to get burnt." The news didn't sound good, but Michael's laugh as he told me about the mess told me more than his words! In fact, he and Jackie both were bursting with things to tell me.

"You remember that T.V. show we told you about at couple of months ago?” Of course I did, so I told them. "Well, we aren't going to do it! We thought about it and originally did plan to do it. But then we found out exactly what it would mean to us.

First of all, starting work every weekday morning at seven in the morning. So Michael was dead against that right away!” Mike laughed at Jackie's jibe and continued. "But it's not just that. One of the things that we all dig the most is doing live concerts. If we had to stay in L.A. all the time to film a regular show, we'd have to cut down on the number of gigs we do. And no one wanted that.

Especially not our fans! When we got a chance to talk to the people that went to our concerts, they had already reckoned that any T.V. show we did was going to cut into our concert schedule, and they were dead against it. So we scrapped that idea pretty quickly!"

I can tell you, I was stunned! I had more or less hoped to see the J5 live on telly. But I also knew that if they didn't want to do the show, I certainly didn't want them doing it either! But I wasn't prepared for the next enthusiastic burst.

Jackie began. "But guess what? We're maybe going to do a film!! We've all been impressed With films like "Shaft" and “Superfly", and I'd really like to do a film that lets us explore a different part of ourselves, something that would show a different side of ourselves."

Michael continued, "The one thing that none of us really wants to do is do something just for the sake of doing it! That would be worse than getting stale."

So the Jacksons, from Poppa Joe to Randy are a bit confused right now. But as I told them just before I left, I wasn’t too worried and neither are most of their fans. The last thing I worry about is the quality of the Jackson 5. They've given us such good music and entertainment that I trust them to make the right decision.