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Rick Segall

Rick Segall, friend, co-host during 1974 American Music Awards, CNN’s “Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell” (October 6, 2011) (archived)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And with me, here today, someone who knew Michael as a child -- that`s right -- hung out with Michael Jackson. They were both child stars. Rick Segall grew up in front of the cameras as well, most famously for his role as adorable little Ricky on "The Partridge Family". Now, there they are together, ok. Michael Jackson and Ricky, Rick Segall, who`s now all grown up. Check this out. Here is Rick is on the show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CASSIDY, SINGER: Hi, Ricky.

RICK SEGALL, FORMER CHILD ACTOR: Hi.

CASSIDY: Would you like to sing a song for us.

SEGALL: Yes.

CASSIDY: You do. Are you nervous?

SEGALL: Yes.

CASSIDY: Are you sure you still want to sing?

SEGALL: Yes.

CASSIDY: What would you like to sing?

SEGALL: How about the song we rehearsed this morning?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Rick, you were one adorable little boy. Look at that. You were very handsome. And you still are very handsome.

SEGALL: Thank you.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to thank you for being here. But first I want to play a little snippet of that very disturbing audio that was played in court yesterday. Listen, and we warn you, it is disturbing, to Michael Jackson in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL JACKSON, SINGER: I love them because I didn`t have a childhood. I had no childhood. I feel their pain. I feel their hurt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Rick, your thoughts?

SEGALL: Well, that`s not a new message. It`s just never been heard like that. He consistently talked about his childhood and how he didn`t -- for somebody who was so joy-filled, he still felt that was completely lost. And it was, to a lot of extent, because he grew up in the industry and wanted so much to have a childhood. That`s why he was attracted to children; that`s why I know that we connected early on, because there was that connectivity of wanting to recapture something of his childhood.

And that`s one of the reasons, I think, he loved children so much, because he wanted to make sure that children, especially abused children or children who came from really depraved backgrounds could be made well, so that they could have a childhood he didn`t get to have.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think the people who are not in showbiz, and who are not in showbiz as children, have no idea what it was like. I went to professional children`s school, I did go out on auditions, I just wasn`t successful at it. My feet fell out and my mom wasn`t a stage mother. She didn`t drive me hard enough. She would let me go celebrate whether I got an audition or didn`t.

SEGALL: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But there is something very painful for child actors. Tell us about your experiences when you can`t be a kid because you`re working from the age of a toddler.

SEGALL: Yes. It`s definitely that way regardless of the child actor, but to equate any child actor to the stature that Michael was as a child, and then where he went afterwards, there hasn`t been anybody.

And that`s one of the things that I think was painful for Michael was that he had no empathy from anyone, because there was no one who had reached that level of success as a child and then reached that as an adult. So there is a definite isolation that takes place.

And if you do have stage parents -- which I didn`t, thank God -- there can come this total isolation. Even at the -- like where I was, I was nationally known, but it was for a short period of time. And for the rest of my childhood, though I stayed in the industry, I didn`t have international prominence. And there`s something about that international prominence and the need to be in the spotlight all of the time, that adds a level to this that I don`t think anybody could even begin to comprehend that Michael had.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, when you`re talking about this, I remember somebody that I knew that I worked with, and we did some TV together, we shared vegetarian lifestyle. And he never shared with me that he was a child actor. He hid that from me. And, ultimately, he was also very, very depressed and came to a sad end. How did you escape the depression?

SEGALL: There, but for the grace of God, go I. I believe that completely and providential oversight, as well as a mom and dad, who even though they divorced continued to love me and continued to consistently tell me throughout my acting, if you want to stop, stop. There wasn`t this -- and I want to cast no aspersions at all upon Michael`s family or his parents -- but we`ve heard him say how there was this consistent pressure, particularly from his dad, that Michael himself was part of, though he loved to perform. There was this constant drive to be Michael Jackson, the superstar, versus Michael the son or just Michael the human.

And so for me, I didn`t have any of those pressures that Michael had.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: He has, in fact, said that his father whipped him during rehearsal, hit him with a belt if he made a mistake while he was doing a routine.

SEGALL: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: If he didn`t move perfectly, boom, the belt came down. Now, what was that like and did you ever hear that from Michael himself when you were a kid?

SEGALL: No, no. The time I spent with Michael was -- and it`s why there`s so much of this that needs to be talked about, and we need to have an answer about the case, and there needs to be something that`s done, because there are so many questions about the case. But the thing about Michael, my memories of him were only and always joy-filled; always and only him wanting to be happy, having a good time.

It was around the time of "Off the Wall, going into "Thriller", which for all of us is our favorite memories of Michael, because that`s when it was about the moonwalk and it was about his smile and it was about his brilliance and becoming the number one artist of all time.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: When you knew him, how old were you and how old was he?

SEGALL: We met -- he was 11 years my senior. So I was 4, he was 15, and we remained in contact with each other, especially in `80 and `81. So I was 11 -- from 15 until he was 20.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So you were one of his "special friends" then, quote/unquote.

SEGALL: Yes, with broken periods. We would be connected and then disconnect. And then we`d be connected. And when we were connected, there were times he would sneak out and spend time; we`d be on the phone a lot. I`d go backstage before and after concerts and talk with him.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Even though he was 11 years older.

SEGALL: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Did you ever find anything strange about that?

SEGALL: No. Never.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And this is what some people are saying about this audiotape, because I covered the Michael Jackson child molestation trial, and a lot of people would sort of, they would actually read into something, a very sinister motive, when you could read a very innocent motive into it.

And this audiotape shows that he is really concerned about kids. This is him uncensored. He`s drugged out. He could say anything. If he had a dirty thought, he could have said it.

SEGALL: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But his thoughts were pure. It was about helping kids, building a children`s hospital, helping sick kids. So do you think he got a bum rap with the whole child molestation accusation?

SEGALL: Huge. I think it was huge. My first -- obviously, not there -- and I understand human nature and that anyone, no matter how sweet and sincere they seem could do the most heinous thing. But from my experiences with Michael as a kid and maintaining my focus upon Michael, wanting to get reconnected with him, just because I wanted to be a person who could love Michael for Michael and I knew he didn`t have that. You hear it in his music. You see it in the choices he made that he didn`t have to make. He was in a position to do whatever he wanted to do artistically.

And you`re absolutely right. It`s a great observation that even in an induced state, his heart for wanting to help children and wanting to see the world a better place was right there, even in that state.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Tom Mesereau, his attorney who got him acquitted said he was just totally misunderstood. And you, being 11 years his junior, would be one of those people, if he was a pervert, he could have come after you. And you say that that`s absolutely never happened.

SEGALL: Never happened. And there`s those times when you can sense something, where you`re not trying to cast aspersions, but you get the sense that something`s off --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Creepy, yes.

SEGALL: Yes, even as a kid you can sense --

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. Of course you can.

SEGALL: -- especially around an adult, never. Always the purest of motivations and the sweetness of, you know, just hearing his, "Hey," that was just Michael.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And we have a very disturbing and sad photo, but we`re here talking about his death, so we`re going to show it to you and get your reaction. And it`s the photo that was taken of him when he was dead, the first photo. And there it is.

As his friend, as a person who cared for him deeply, the whole world is seeing this, what runs through you?

SEGALL: The same thing that ran through my mind when I first heard he had died, which was broken-heartedness, and a sense of, "That can`t be happening, please." Because it was not only the appreciation for him as the artist that was making his contributions to the world, but it was knowing Michael, the person, and wanting to get back in touch with him.

I`m looking so forward for this to be over. I bet Conrad Murray`s looking forward for this to be over. I would rather hear about Michael`s moonwalk and the stuff he wanted to do for kids and "Heal the World" and "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" rather than his urine content and his liver percentages of his gobbledygook that you referred to earlier, you know.

It needs to be done but, man, I can`t wait for it to be over. Because but I would rather see Michael moonwalking than on a slab.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to thank you so much.

SEGALL: Sure.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What an incredible interview.

SEGALL: Thank you.