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Hiring Frank Dileo

Date confirmed in Adrian Grant’s “Michael Jackson: A Visual Documentary” (“March 20 [1984] Michael Jackson hires Frank DiLeo”)

Michael Jackson, “Moonwalk” autobiography (1988)

One of the people who helped me with Thriller was Frank Dileo. Frank was vice president for promotion at Epic when I met him. Along with Ron Weisner and Fred DeMann, Frank was responsible for turning my dream for Thriller into a reality. Frank heard parts of Thriller for the first time at Westlake Studio in Hollywood, where much of the album was recorded. He was there with Freddie DeMann, one of my managers, and Quincy and I played them “Beat It” and a little bit of “Thriller,” which we were still working on. They were very impressed, and we started to talk seriously about how to “break” this album wide open.

Frank really worked hard and proved to be my right hand during the years ahead. His brilliant understanding of the recording industry proved invaluable. For instance, we released “Beat It” as a single while “Billie Jean” was still at number one. CBS screamed, “You’re crazy. This will kill ‘Billie Jean.’ ” But Frank told them not to worry, that both songs would be number one and both would be in the Top 10 at the same time. They were.

Frank Dileo, manager, “Jet” magazine (April 9, 1984) (archived)

[Article mentions April 2, 1984 as the date for DiLeo officially starting manager duties]

I think I’ll miss all the action in the record business. But I think working with Michael, I'm going to get over that fast.

“Rolling Stone” (September 24, 1987)

"I'm gonna sue!", cries michael Jackson's manager, a 220-pound, five-foot-two cigar-chomping cross between Colonel Tom Parker and P.T. Barnum. Frank Dileo is standing in his Encino office, an oversize cabana facing his swimming pool, just a short distance from his roomy ranch house, fuming about the previous night's Late Show, on the Fox network. The show featured a twenty-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator named Valentino Johnson, who had spent $40,000 to have his features cosmetically altered to look like the star. Dileo is infuriated that the subject of Michael Jackson and plastic surgery has again been raised in the media.

"I can't understand why people keep bringing that up," he says, settling into the sofa before his desk: a large, uncluttered coffee table. "So many terrible things have been written."

Unwrapping a cigar, he places it in his mouth, unlighted. Dileo hasn't shaved this morning; his longish brown hair is slicked back, tied in a ponytail. "Okay, so he had his nose fixed, and the cleft – big deal. I got news for you, my nose has broke five times. It's been fixed twice. Who gives a shit? Who cares? Elvis had his nose done. Marilyn Monroe had her nose done, had her breasts done… everybody's had it done."

Michael calls Dileo Uncle Tookie (now also the name of the stuffed frog in Michaels Pets). The Bad song "Smooth Criminal" opens with the sound of Michael's heartbeat and Dileo breathing heavily; on the Bad inner sleeve Michael put a photo of himself and Dileo in silhouette with a caption the reads, ANOTHER GREAT TEAM. "Elvis and the Colonel are in our minds a lot … the Beatles and Brian Epstein … Abbott and Costello," Dileo explains. Michael and his manager talk on the phone constantly (Dileo has said "eighty-two times a day"), spend most of their days together, live less than five minutes apart. Dileo plays understanding father to Michael's impetuous ten-year-old.

Dileo hesitantly claims some responsibility for Michael's"new look," noting that "I bring a street attitude to Michael" He proudly recounts teaching Michael about Al Capone, "me explaining to him about all those type of people. Whether Capone was a good guy or a bad guy is yet to be determined in my mind. But nobody had more style." Dileo becomes animated when he mentions that Martin Scorsese wants to cast him as a gangster in the upcoming film of Wiseguy.

At thirty-nine, Dileo is self-assured, loud, excitable and prone to hyperbole. "Frank is explosive," says a music-industry source who has worked with him. "If he's pissed, you'll know it He's not a real stickler for details, and he's not really a long-run planner. His forte is the immediate wallop."

To watch Dileo in action, laying on the charm, slipping and sliding his way around tough questions, blustering about his sole client, it's easy to understand why Michael has hired him as his liaison with the world. "Michael knows that if I tell him something, it's the truth," says Dileo. "I don't have to agree with things if I don't want to. In other words, 'cause I know this is eventually going to come up in this interview anyway, the hyperbaric chamber. I'm 100 percent against that I don't want it It's coming on the road with us on tour. I don't want it around. I've spoken about it publicly. Some managers couldn't have that conversation with their artist They'd be too afraid. He respects my opinion. He doesn't always listen…. " (According to one source, "cooler heads have since prevailed," and it now looks like the tank stays home.)

Dileo once declared his goal as being "to keep [Michael] as popular and in demand as anyone can be." But what about the price of fame, he has been asked. Might all this hoopla damage the singer's already fragile psyche?

"It's too late, anyway," Dileo responded. "He won't have a normal life even if I stop."

“Nashville Scene” (November 22, 2007) (archived)

Jackson, who had been without a manager for eight months, asked Dileo to fill the position on a Monday in March 1984 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Two days later, when Dileo accepted, the music industry was abuzz. One unnamed source in Dannen’s book says, “Everyone turned fucking green when Frank pulled that one off.”

...The fourth [photo] in Frank Dileo’s office is of Frank and Michael Jackson, from behind, standing at urinals in a public restroom. Above Michael’s head, in Michael’s handwriting, are the words, “This water sure is cold.” Above Frank’s head, he wrote, “It’s deep too.” [(This is in reference to a Richard Pryor joke.)]