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Barry Gibb

Barry Gibb, personal website (June 27, 2009) (archived)

Michael was my friend, the only recording artist I truly knew and who truly knew me. He was the Godfather to my son Michael. We have lost a dear member of our family, we are devastated. Michael you will live forever in our hearts. Fly away butterfly take it to your journeys end. We will always love you.

“The Roxborogh Report” (July 2009 interview) (archived)

TR: The feeling I get is that Michael Jackson held you guys in the highest regard, that he was really inspired by the late 70s work and maybe took a bit of solace in coming to see you in Miami to escape everything. Is that how it was?

Maurice, MJ, Barry & Robin – circa 1985.

BG: Well not always, but most of the time he stayed at my home when he came to Miami. And most of the time he would have a hotel room, but he wouldn’t be there. So everyone thought he would be there and he’d be at my place and we’d have the most fun. And the fun that he had, the Michael I saw was happy, cheerful… I never saw a dark side of Michael. I never saw an unhappy Michael. He’d swim with the kids, he’d go water-skiing and it was all a very, very natural situation. Just a natural situation and he’d have a great time.

TR: I’ve been listening to some of his songs again, songs like Stranger In Moscow, incredible songs and you realise there’s a synergy between the Gibbs and what he was doing.

BG: Well he has said so and songs like Love You Inside Out in particular struck him as him, saying that that’s what he wanted to do. The Spirits Having Flown album, yeah…

“Rolling Stone” (July 4, 2014) (archived)

“He would come to Miami and stay in our house,” says Gibb. “He’d sit in the kitchen and watch the fans outside his hotel on TV, just giggling – ‘Hee hee!'” He lived upstairs for a while, right before his child-molestation trial. “We never discussed the case,” says Gibb. “We would just sit around and write and get drunk. Michael liked wine – there were a few nights when he just went to sleep on the floor.” Gibb nods to a spot on the rug a few feet away. “I look at that floor, I remember that.”