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David Gest

David Gest, friend, “The Telegraph” (August 27, 2008) (archived)

Michael Jackson [recorded a] pop album of Robert Burns poems. Gest, the former husband of Liza Minnelli, said they recorded the album at Jackson's studio in California with top recording artists, giving a 21st century twist to the Bard's lyrics.

Gest, a concert promoter and television personality, said that Jackson is in love with the poetry of Burns and helped pay for it to be put to music.

Scotland's national bard died in 1796 and his poems were described earlier this month by Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman as "sentimental doggerel".

But Gest, 55, believes his works are as relevant today as ever.

He said: "Our favourite poet in the world is Robbie Burns.

"Michael and I were originally going to do a musical on his life with Gene Kelly directing and Anthony Perkins as executive producer - but they both died.

"So Michael and I put all the poems to contemporary music in his studio in Encino.

"We did Ae Fond Kiss, Tam O'Shanter and all that. We turned his work into show tunes. It is beautiful and I still have the recordings.

"I am thinking more and more about bringing Red, Red Rose back to life because I went on that bridge when I was last in Scotland looking for Tam O'Shanter.

"I felt like I was a little kid looking for all those things Burns wrote about and the curator let me lay on the bed Burns slept in at his family home. The alarm went off. It was really surreal because Michael and I think of him as one of the most brilliant minds ever."

Paxman sparked fury after he dismissed Scotland's national bard Robert Burns as "no more than a king of sentimental doggerel" in the introduction to the new edition of Chambers Dictionary.

Paxman's derogatory description of the poet incensed Burns experts, with one leading scholar describing him as being both wrong and ill-informed.

But Gest, a former I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here contestant, said: "He was great with women and writing great poetry."

Jackson turns 50 on Friday, August 29 and to mark the occasion, an album, King of Pop, has been released this week.

“The Guardian” (December 13, 2009)

The first time I met Michael he was 11 and already really famous – the Jackson Five were the hottest act in the world. I lived down the block from them in Encino. I became close friends with Tito and Michael after I was introduced to them by my friend Mike Merkow at Walton School in Panorama City. Michael was making a pâpier-maché giraffe when I first met him. We talked about art and he told me how he loved painting and being creative. Right away I knew we had something in common – and it was not painting!

I started dating his sister, La Toya. It was puppy love, nothing serious. One day she was sick and Michael asked me if I could take him to a memorabilia show in Glendale. I said, "What's memorabilia?" and he said, "You've got to get into it, David, you'll love it." So I drove him to a show where they were selling lots of old rock and soul posters, gold records, Beatles items and signed items by Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison and the Doors. Michael loved the Doors and their music. He also loved anything Motown as well as real, heartfelt soul. To both of us, James Brown was a god and Jimi Hendrix was his brilliant pupil. After that, we started hanging out three or four times a week and it turned into a best friendship. We were inseparable for the next six years.

One night, when he was in his late teens, we went to The Roxy on the Sunset Strip to see the Four Tops. We went backstage with Stevie Wonder, and Michael says to the lead singer of the Four Tops, Levi Stubbs Jr, "I learned everything from you Levi, everything." Stevie picked Michael up, threw him against the wall and went, "Who did you learn everything from? Who's the greatest?" and Michael said, "You, Stevie! Stop! You!" It was so funny. It was also typical of the Michael and David friendship that would last more than four decades. We would take trips together every weekend just to get away from the house, our parents and be on our own.

We'd get in the car and sing songs together. He used to tell me I was the worst singer he'd ever heard! He always made me laugh. Michael had a great sense of humour which most people never saw. We loved to go antiquing for furniture and paintings as well as memorabilia. Our favourite thing to do was walk into a store and go, "Do you have any John LeCockah paintings?" The antique dealer would respond, "We've just sold the last one for $100,000." I'd say to Michael, "Oh no, he's just sold the last John LeCockah painting." We would plead for him to get another in and he'd respond, "They are just too hard to find." We'd walk out and go, "We'll never buy from that dealer because there's no such painter!" Michael would be laughing so hard. He had a laugh that was like a cackle: Hhk hhk hhk hhk hhk.

We'd do very normal things. We went to KFC a lot. Michael believed that if you took off the skin of the chicken, it was organic. I never quite got what that meant. We'd go out for pancakes and French toast and I'd drive his Rolls-Royce. When we stopped for gas, I'd ask him to fill the tank. He'd say, "I'm the star here. I can't believe you're making me put gas in the car." And I'd tell him, "When we're together, there's only one star." That was the reason our friendship was so good. I never treated him like he was a big deal.

Once, in the 80s, he dressed up as a sheikh and we went to Disneyland to see Captain Eo, this 3D film he was starring in. I watched him doing the Moonwalk, and on the way out I said, "You know, you are really good." He was like, "Are you just figuring it out?"

He was never one to mince words. In the early days, he ran his own career and was in total control. He'd call up the president of Sony and say, "I want a billboard here. In Chicago. In New York in Times Square." He was on top of everything from the marketing to the promotion of every one of his releases and he was sharp. He wouldn't be one to hold back when he got mad. Also, he never talked in that high-toned voice. He was always very masculine, very much a man.

It all changed after the fire incident in 1984. He was doing a commercial for Pepsi and his head caught fire when a stunt went wrong. He was never the same after that. When you have a concussion and are constantly in pain everything in your world changes. Trust me, I know this from personal experience. It's not surprising that he got addicted to pills. I just wish he'd had the right people around him. The truth is that some of the doctors around him were more interested in being his friend than making sure he was OK medically.

...When the trial came up in 1993, I was one of the few people who went on every TV show in the USA and said he was innocent. I knew he was innocent. Was it the smartest thing to have all these children on your bed watching TV? No, and I said that to him. But did he do anything wrong? No. Michael wouldn't harm a fly. He wasn't into that.

Michael had a heart of gold. I wish people could know all the kids he helped. Kids who needed prosthetic arms and legs, but whose families couldn't afford them. He paid for hundreds of cancer treatments, but he didn't go around boasting about it. Nobody realised just how wonderful he was until after he died.

He was a very strict father. He believed his kids should be highly educated and have respect for adults. He wouldn't put up with any crap, but he also gave them so much love because he'd been very hurt as a child, not by his mother whom he loved very much, but he was never close with Joseph. He was afraid of him.

I've never been much of a crier, but I cried when I heard the news about Michael's death. I'll remember Michael as one of the funniest people I've ever met and as someone who looked for the good in everyone. What a great quality to have. He was never one to put anyone down. He always made you feel like a million dollars.

I really believe he was the greatest entertainer of all time. I am glad that together we formed a company and I produced the highest rated television music special of all time at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2001, Michael Jackson – 30th Anniversary Celebration. This was our crowning achievement as best friends. They were the two highest-grossing concerts, "non-charity", of all time.

His death has brought people together to remember what great music he gave us, what great dancing he gave us and how versatile he was as an artist. He was able to change with every decade and still be contemporary. He could sing anything, but the song I always made him sing in the car was "Man In The Mirror". For me, that was his greatest. Not only could I deeply relate to that song, but also for Michael it was more than a reflection.★

“The Daily Telegraph” (January 15, 2012)

David Gest, a music producer who collaborated with Mr Jackson on the project, said he has offered the album to the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Ayrshire during a recent visit to Scotland.

He said the… King of Pop was a huge Burns fan and was delighted to make the recordings, which see the works of Scotland’s Bard transformed into show tunes.

Their existence was revealed the year before his death in June 2009 but they have never been released.

Mr Gest, the former husband of actress Liza Minnelli, even claimed that Mr Jackson’s smash-hit Thriller was inspired by the supernatural elements of Burns’s Tam O’Shanter.

In an interview with BBC Alba, the Gaelic TV channel, Mr Gest said: “Both being fanatics, I said to Michael, let's do a play Burns's life and he said he would help me with the music.

“Michael believed in the project so much. He said: 'I'll give you the studio (in Los Angeles) and I'll pay for all the music’.

“We went to his recording studio at the family house in Encino, where all the Jacksons grew up and we took about eight or 10 of Burns's poems and we put them to contemporary music, things like A Red Red Rose and Ae Fond Kiss and the story of Tam O'Shanter.”

The songs were originally intended to be part of a musical, directed by Gene Kelly and produced by actor Anthony Perkins. The death of both men meant it was never staged.

Mr Gest, a former contestant on the reality show I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here released a film on Jackson's life last year. In 1996, he staged a show called Red Red Rose, which was based on Burns's life and starred the actor John Barrowman.

A spokesman for the National Trust for Scotland, which runs the Ayrshire museum, said, confirmed Mr Gest was a recent visitor.

“We understand there was some discussion about the donation of some musical materials. If it goes ahead it will be an exciting addition,” he said.

Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

Despite Gest selling the story convincingly, he denied it was the case later on Sky News:

“I had said in an interview that years ago that Michael had put the poetry to music for a show I had been working on.”

Gest said he spoke to Michael about the story:

“Do you know you’re going to be doing an album of poems?” to which Michael apparently laughed and joked about it.”