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“Black & White” magazine (Summer 1996) (archived mirror) (Confirmed in Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”):

Black and White Magazine: Before the release of Brotherhood, three 3T songs came out: "You Are The Ones" on "The Jacksons - An American Dream" Soundtrack, "Didn't Mean To Hurt You" on the "Free Willy" Soundtrack, and "What Will It Take" on the "Free Willy 2" Soundtrack. Those songs are excellent and could have been on your album, especially "Didn't Mean To Hurt You". We heard you actually got signed on MJJ Music thanks to that song, is this true?

Taj: It's partly true. Actually, we got a deal with Epic Records thanks to that song. At the time, we were supposed to record an album with Epic, not MJJ Music. And if you look at the credits on the "Free Willy" Soundtrack, you'll see "3T appears courtesy of Epic Records". Our Sony biography says we were signed by Michael, but it's not true. At first, we got signed by Epic. Our uncle helped us in the sense that he made us work in a studio, which allowed us to do good-quality recording. And the song "Didn't Mean To Hurt You" which features on the "Free Willy" Soundtrack is the original version we presented to Epic, we didn't have to record it again. But Michael didn't sign us. We got a deal with Epic on our own, as everybody else. Then, after we had signed with Epic, Jerry Greenberg -MJJ Music President- insisted that we should be on his label. We thought it was the perfect way to thank our uncle for all he had been doing for us. We also wanted to contribute to the development of his label and help it become the next Motown.

B&W Magazine: Why do you call Michael "Uncle Doo Doo"?

Taryll: As you know, he's stupid (laughs). He does silly things.

Taj: It's one of the thousand nicknames he gave himself. Even when he's away, we stay in touch with him. We send him letters and he answers. He signs his letters "Uncle Doo Doo," it's just to do something silly.

B&W Magazine: So there's no real meaning behind it?

Taj: No! (laughs) I'm sorry, I wish there was one!

B&W Magazine: What's your favorite song on the HIStory album?

Taj: Gosh, I don't know. It's hard to tell...

TJ: One thing's for sure, out of all his albums, this is probably our favorite one because it has more songs on it! (laughs)

B&W Magazine: What do you think of "Money"?

Taryll: What do we think of money?

B&W Magazine: No, the song! (laughs)

Taryll: I love it. It's great. Seriously, I really love "Money". Actually, the whole album is fantastic.

TJ: I like the words of this song, they're really strong and, in most cases in America, they tell the truth.

B&W Magazine: During the Dangerous Tour, you spent a lot of time on the road with Michael. Tell us more about it...

Taryll: I think that's when we learned the meaning of the words "travel" and "do a show". At the time of the Jackson 5 and even the Victory Tour, we were too young and we had to go to school. We would only travel during our school breaks so we wouldn't miss class. During the Dangerous Tour, we had the opportunity to spend time away from home without having to go back to school. Each day, for months, we saw everything. We saw the fans, the way our uncle would act with them. He taught us lots of things. We learned a lot.

B&W Magazine: Do you see Michael as your uncle or as the King of Pop? Can you, for example, tell him anything you want?

Taryll: Oh yes! One time, during the Dangerous Tour, he'd get the words wrong during "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and show after show, he'd make the same mistake. We kept telling him but he'd always forget. One day, he finally sang the words correctly and at that very moment, he pointed at us from the stage. We have a video camera and another time we asked him to wave at us while he'd be onstage and he did so during "Heal The World," that was funny. It reminds us he's still our uncle. When we're backstage playing video games or acting stupid or joking around, he's just Uncle Doo Doo. But when he comes up onstage, even us we get stunned, he's fantastic. Anybody would get stunned seeing him perform, it's the same for us.

B&W Magazine: Will you support Michael on the HIStory Tour?

Taryll: Maybe, we haven't asked our uncle. We haven't talked about that. If he wants us to do it, we'll be happy to accept. I think anybody would do the same. But we don't think we have to do it to assure 3T's success. Whether we do support our uncle or not, we think we have a good album and the chance to make it anyway. We're not running after this tour, we don't count on it.

Michael and Janet are great dancers. Are you planning to dance in your future videos?

Taryll: We dance a little bit, but we're not as good as them. They're fantastic. It's alright (laughs). We play Baseball.

B&W Magazine: Frank Dileo is your manager. What do you think of him?

Taryll: He's great! We have fun with him. We've known Frank for a long time, our family's known him for a long time. He used to kick us out of the dressing room when Michael had to do something. He'd tell us to stop playing our video games and go do our homeworks! He's a great guy, we have fun with him!

Taj Jackson, Twitter (@tajjackson3) (archive)

Every pose in our "Anything" performance was created by MJ. He flew us to New York to help choreograph the song during his busy schedule. And of course the backpack was his idea. But originally TJ had it on, not me.

“@RobLives4Love: @tajjackson3 “There’s a performance where you throw it down angrily. Why?” Because my uncle said. Wasn't gonna disagree lol

“@seventhunicorn: @tajjackson3 what was the last thing he said to you Taj?” After this…. you and I are doing films.