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"Earth News Radio" Radio Interview

Airdate confirmed on radio album cover (archived) (“January 1, 1979”)

MJJCollectors "Earth News Radio" album listing (archived) (interview summary/quotes)

Includes five interview segments that feature Michael…

1) Michael and Marlon Jackson talk about how they were “manipulated and controlled” (musically and socially) by Motown, but did not complain about it, and praised Motown for helping them sell 60 million records.

Marlon recalls how Motown aborted an interview with the brothers in 1975 when they were asked a question about race because there was a “certain image they wanted”.  Michael talks about how he could hardly recognize a song after Motown producers were finished with them.  He recalls that: “Someone would say, here’s the song…We would sing it and then we would go home…and they would mix it the way they wanted, cut it the way they wanted, make our voices…arrange it…It was totally different.”

Michael talks about Jermaine and if it bothered him that he was still at Motown, and no longer with the group: “Yes, it does, we wish he was still with us, but he’s happy there, and that’s where he wants to be.”

2) Michael and Marlon discuss the original Motown story of how they were discovered and the “real” story of how they were discovered.  They recall “fibbing” to reporters about how they were discovered by Diana Ross, when the true story was that Bobby Taylor and Gladys Knight brought them to Berry Gordy at Motown.  Supposedly, Motown publicist Bob Jones was the person who fabricated the story of how it was Diana Ross who discovered them at a talent show.

3) Michael discusses how, at 20 years old he hasn’t changed that much at all (“It’s still me, it’s still my heart, it’s still my way of thinking…it’s more developed and more experienced”) and that he knows he is a better performer today than when he first started singing with the J5: “it’s not a bragging thing, but I know I am”.

He talks about how he feeds off the audience reaction to their concerts, as well as the ugly side of riots, that barricades are often broken, and girls are sometimes taken away in ambulances.  He talks about a recent performance at The Coliseum where there was lots of fainting, fans getting crushed, screaming and attacking the stage.  “I love it, because it energizes you.  They really are us, we play off of them.  They make us feel…they’re excited and screaming…charges you up inside.”

4) Michael talks about how he is addicted to performing, and that he is only happy on stage where he is “more relaxed and at ease than anywhere.”  He says “I live most of my life “on stage”…in some means of entertainment…dancing around the house…in the mirror pretending there’s an audience out there.  I wish I could just wake up in the morning, jump out of bed and there is thirty dancing girls in my room…a big production number.  I wish I could sleep, have my bed on stage, really.  A stage act.”

5) In the final segment, Michael talks in detail about how he was disappointed and frustrated by the limitations placed on him in the production of The Wiz: “I know I could have done so much more, but I had to stick to what I was told…and supposed to do as the Scarecrow.  If it was up to me, I would have started the thing not on the pole, I would have been down dancing or whatever and singing “You Can’t Win”!”  He also reveals that “A lot of scenes, some of my best things I think were edited”.  He also talks about how Ray Bolger’s costume in The Wizard of Oz was “half as big as mine” and was made out of material where his was made out of plastic and that “It was hard to cut up (dance) in the clown shoes and the Scarecrow outfit”.  He also talks about how difficult it was to dance on the “yellow brick road” because it led straight up:  “It was so tiring.  When I had to do a spin, I had to do the spin crooked, tilting…because we were going up”.

Song excerpts include: I Want You Back, ABC, Ben, Blame It On The Boogie, You Can’t Win.