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"Sky" Magazine Interview

Date of publication confirmed on magazine cover (archived)

“Sky” magazine (August 27 - September 9, 1987)

I started playing music with my brothers almost as soon as I could walk. I was playing the bongos at three, and was touring, singing, and dancing at five." He still remembers the first thing he sang in kindergarten class. "It was 'Climb Every Mountain'. Everyone got excited!"

The brothers, who called themselves The Jackson Five, entered loads of talent contests. "We won every one of them and out house was [illegible] with trophies. When we first became superstars, I just thought it was brilliant."

By the time Michael was 12, he was getting 1000 fan letters a week, his first solo records were all massive hits and he became a millionaire. Fame gradually turned him into a recluse--"My idea of your average person is someone in a crowd who's running towards me, trying to tear my clothes off"--but he was addicted to performing and being on stage.

"I love the magic that comes from facing an audience. I'm a stage addict. When I'm not on it on it for a long time, I have fits and act crazy. It's like a part of me is missing."

He reckons that being on stage is the only time he really opens up. [Illegible]

..."[Dancing is] the most wonderful thing of all time, because people communicated through bodily movement before anything."..."[For Sunday fasting,] I don't eat anything. I just drink fruit juice, it's a great feeling."

..."People should [illegible] them out of their systems. It help keep you strong. All those impurities come out of you because you're not [illegible]. It comes out in the form of pimples, or [illegible], or big pores."

Michael had to give away his pet boa constrictor Muscles, even though he thinks "snakes are sweet misunderstood creatures."

..."I'm more at home with platonic relationships", he claims.

Michael is devoutly religious, and likes to keep himself under control--"I don't want to lose sight of who I am." With that in mind, he doesn't touch drink or drugs.

"I'm not like a lot of people, who make money and lose themselves in drink and drugs and start saying, "Who am I?" and end up broken."

He claims that he's no angel, "but I've never in my life smoked marijuana and I don't want to try it. I've been offered it, but I'm not interested.

...Other things Michael would like to do include: "Being able to touch the truth inside a person--that's what a performer should be able to do. It's like a great [illegible]--it can bring you to tears, it can touch you so much." And he's committed to "a world where Mankind knows no suffering." He gives generously to charity. He'd also like to live for a very long time. That's why he sleeps in the famous oxygen tent. "When I awake, I feel like a new person!"

The much-touted Peter Pan film that Steven Spielberg was planning with Michael is never far from his thoughts. "There are pictures of Peter Pan all over the walls in my room", he says wistfully. I totally identify with that little lost boy who had eternal youth."