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Undated "Bad Tour" Stories
Michael Jackson, “Entertainment Tonight” special transcript
This ‘87-’88 tour began in Japan and the reactions were wonderful. People are so sincere and hospitable (there). Thank you, Japan.. We were scheduled to do nine concerts, but there was so much demand [that] we did fourteen. I wanna go back to Australia. The people are so much fun there, especially the young people.
Nile Rodgers, later guitarist of song “Money”, Konbini (August 27, 2018)
[Michael] did something wonderful for me.
There was this little girl who was dying of brain cancer and she contacted me to tell me that her last wish was to meet Michael Jackson. I did not know how he would react, but I called him anyway to say, "Michael, there's this little girl, she has a brain tumor, and can she meet you?"
He said to me, "Of course she can meet me. That was before I made the record. It was, you know, it was the beginning of Michael Jackson's solo career. I think it was his first solo concert. I took her to the concert. Michael Jackson went down in the audience, took us by the hand and he took us backstage.
When we returned to our seats, all the celebrities present on the spot came to her. Everyone, Mike Tyson gave him his watch. He said, "But who is this girl? And I explained to him, you know ...In America, we have an association called the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I told him that Make-A-Wish had called me and it was his wish.
I did not mean she was dying, you know ... Anyway, two or three days later she wrote me a letter. And I still have the letter, it's one of the most important letters in my archives.
She said, "Dear Mr Rodgers, I would like to thank you and Mr Jackson too. And I would especially like to thank God for giving me brain cancer. Because if I had not had this cancer, I would never have attended this concert that night.” She died, I believe, two days later.
After that, my love for Michael went crazy. Remember, we knew each other when we were teenagers, we were already friends. But after he did that, I loved him and I could not refuse him anything.
Ricky Lawson, drummer, “Rhythm” magazine (July 2010)
"I was doing a session up at Tito's house", says Ricky, talking about his invitation to be Michael's live drummer on the "Bad" tour. "They found out the guy who was playing drums couldn't get back in time and they asked me if I could cover. I said, 'Sure, no problem whatsoever. I'll work it into my schedule." I wound up doing the whole tour, and then Michael took a break and did the "Dangerous" album. I did that tour, and wound up being Musical Director".
The additional responsibility of being Musical Director sat comfortably on Ricky's shoulders as, when he took over, the show was already a well-oiled machine. "You know what you have to do, I know what he wants", says Ricky of working for Michael. "He'd say, 'Hey Rick, I need you to get this' 'Okay, we're going to make it happen.' You've got staging, all the choreography, lighting, sound, you've got him, pyros, and all this stuff, it's a lot of people involved, so you can't get too crazy, because the chain is so long in regards to what can happen when Michael adds things to the show. Usually, he'd just add some new dance steps. Once we leave town, it's pretty much set and is not going to stray too much, because there is not a lot of time to rehearse the way he likes to rehearse. You go in there, do what you have to do, rehearse real hard, and it pretty much runs itself."
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According to Ricky, the rehearsal process was not for the faint of heart.
"Back in the 'Bad' and 'Dangerous' days, Michael was real hungry, so he could never rehearse enough. We would do three shows a day, with the lights, the pyros, wardrobe, because he wanted to make sure that everything worked and nobody got hurt", he says. "We would rehearse seven hours a day and then you had technical rehearsals, because you have to program all that stuff was necessary to play those songs. The rehearsals were harder than the gig. They pay you half of the gig salary, but you work harder. There were pretty intense rehearsals, because there were so many people involved in the different aspects of the rehearsals, lights, sound, staging, being in the right spot so you don't fall in a hole, making sure you don't get blown up by some pyro, because you're standing in the wrong spot. So, the rehearsals were pretty intense. I enjoyed it because it's good work, but you got home, by the time you get home, you've got another world you've got to deal with. Taking kids to school in the morning, homework, paying your bills, all that, and then you've got to start all over again."
A key to live performance was replicating the drum sounds from the original studio recordings. Michael was able to access the master tapes, so the musicians had direct access to the source material.
"I had a rack full of samplers made by Akai and what would happen is that we would sample the original sounds and I would play them from either an acoustic drum with a trigger or a pad", says Ricky.
In the live situation, Michael Jackson "wasn't a face-to-face kind of a guy", but didn't need to be, because, says Ricky, "he had one of the best keyboard players on the planet, Greg Phillinganes. Greg knew the music better than they did. We knew what time it was."
Ricky says the music itself was, "not that elaborate, but to see Michael in front of you, it would mess you up. A lot of times I'd be watching him and I'm supposed to be playing. He did such a phenomenal job."
Ricky's touring kit was a Remo and despite the prevalence of triggers and samples, for certain tracks, he would just be playing the acoustic drums. "Human Nature" would be the real drums, all of the old Jackson 5 stuff would be the real drum set, 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', I figure a good half of the show was real drum set, then the other half was triggers and things like that. 'Thriller' was real drums. That was one of my favorite tunes to play, that, and 'Rock With You'."
LaVelle Smith Jr., dancer, Christina Chaffin interview (August 4, 2018) (archived)
Christina Chaffin: What was it like when you started performing on the Bad tour? What are some behind-the-scenes memories you can recall?
LaVelle Smith Jr.: When we started the Bad tour, I was 21. When we did 'Smooth Criminal', I had just turned 20. (We were supposed to start a few months earlier, but then we started after Christmas).
Well I remember getting called to audition for the Bad tour and it was just 'Go to this place, pick a song you like and freestyle dance.' They put us on tape and I had no idea who else they were looking at to be a dancer, but he obviously had picked me to audition based on my dancing on 'Smooth Criminal'. Later on, he told us dancers, 'The moment I saw you guys dance, I wanted you guys to be on my tour.'
Once we auditioned, a couple of weeks went by. Then I got a call one day at my apartment. I’ll never forget it. [I lived] on Hollywood Blvd and I got a call that said, 'Michael Jackson wants you to do the Bad tour.' I think I hung up the phone because, you know, I thought it was somebody playing a prank because I told everybody, 'I have this audition.' I went through this little thing where they shot me dancing and Michael would get the credentials, and I thought somebody was playing a practical joke on me. But, they called back and said, 'No, this is not a joke. These are all the details. He wants you to be on his Bad tour.' So then, we started rehearsing for the tour at Old Hollywood Studios. But yeah, it was amazing.
Christina Chaffin: What are some classic memories you have of something he did for you, or something that was really special that spoke to his character?
I remember getting our first version of the tour schedule for the Bad tour because the city I was born in, Louisville, Kentucky, was on the schedule, and I thought, 'Oh, this is gonna be great. My family gets to see the show.' They would have come anyways, but I thought, 'How nice is it that it’s going to be in Louisville, Kentucky where all of my family is.'
LaVelle Smith Jr.: Well, a couple weeks later, we got a new version of the tour schedule and Louisville had been taken off, and Michael was watching my face as I was thumbing though the dates and everything, and I let out a verbal 'Aww!' Michael said, 'What?'
LaVelle: 'Louisville, Kentucky’s not on here anymore.'
Well, a few days later, it was back on there. The schedule had been edited again and Louisville was back.
I thought, 'This had to be him.,' and, 'How amazing is that?'
So when we finally came to Louisville, Kentucky, Michael gave me 52 tickets for my entire family. I was going to pay for them, but he wouldn’t let me. He wanted to personally make sure that my entire family could come and see me perform with him on the Bad tour.
Christina Chaffin: You never hear anything like that. That’s an amazing story.
LaVelle Smith Jr.: Yeah, it’s one of my favorite stories ‘cause you don’t believe that an artist is going to do that for just a dancer. I would say to him while backstage, 'Wow, you can hear everybody from back here with all the screaming and chanting. Oh my gosh, they love you!' He would always say, 'No, LaVelle. They love us.' I always thought, things like that. He didn’t have to say things like that, but he spoke how he felt and I always thought, 'How kind is that?' You know, he could have taken all that glory for himself, but he'd say, 'They’re here for us. They’re screaming for us.,' and I thought that is beautiful. But you know, there were so many moments like that, that I hope people hold on to. There were just so many kind things that he did for us that he just did not have to do. But, that’s who he was.
You know, saying hello to my mother after he’d met her before. You know he’d always say, 'Tell your mom I say hello.,' and 'Tell your family hello.' You know, little things like that.
He signed a really nice picture for my grandmother. Just little things like that. He didn’t have to do those things, but that’s who he was.
Christina Chaffin: You know, I’ve talked to many people and the one consistency I hear is just how much he not only cared for them, but what he really did for them and how he went out of his way for them.
LaVelle Smith Jr.: Yeah, that’s who he was. He did anything he could for anyone. He just wanted to make sure people were happy and that they were okay, and I saw this from him so many times in-person with others over the years. He wanted to make sure things were fine with everyone and really checked in with them. Just generally a good person and you knew he was coming from a great place.
He would always say, “Make sure you say hello to your mom for me.” Just really sweet, caring things.
“People” magazine (October 12, 1987) (archived) (original article scan archived)
From all appearances, he has complete control of what he has described as the only solo tour of his career. While the 150 crew members of the Jacksons’ 1984 Victory tour felt chaos around every corner, Michael alone directs the 90 members of his solo show. He approves every photo and backstage pass, and he personally signed off on every detail of a 100-minute, 16-song show that costs about $500,000 a week to produce and includes lasers, explosions and a breathtaking magic trick that levitates him across the stage. (After Japan, Jackson plays Australia and New Zealand before returning to the U.S. in December.) His own performance—as a singer and dancer whose moves seem to defy the laws of both physics and aerobics—has been worked and reworked to perfection, and with a repertoire that includes only two songs from Bad and lots of old favorites from Thriller, he has thoroughly wowed his every audience in Japan. Sheryl Crow, who duets with Jackson on the ballad “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”, says, “I have a hard time keeping my eyes off him. When he’s onstage, he just keeps drawing you in.”
Evaldo “Eddie” Garcia, dancer, Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”
Speaking to Christina Chaffin in September, 2012 Eddie Garcia described Michael’s method of auditioning for the BAD tour as “unique.”
“Michael sat in the back of a limo and watched the dancers audition and they would all have to dance to ‘On Broadway’ by George Benson.” Michael said, ‘If you can dance to that, you can dance to anything.’”
Garcia joined LaVelle Smith Jr., Randy Allaire and Dominic Lucero as backing dancers on the tour.
Frank Dileo, manager, “Nashville Scene” (November 22, 2007) (archived)
“It was a headache,” Dileo says—a grand understatement to be sure. “You were moving 213 people every three days. In London, we played Wembley Stadium seven times in a row, 72,000 people a night. And we could have probably played it 10 or 12 nights, but at the time they only had seven available.”
Greg Phillinganes, lead keyboards, synthesizers, musical director, “Keyboard” magazine (July 2012) (archived)
“Keyboard”: Then recording with Michael Jackson led to touring?
Phillinganes: I’ll never forget the way Michael asked me to tour with him. We were working on the Bad album, and from time to time he’d say, “Um, you really enjoy performing, right?” And I’d say, “Yeah. It’s great.” I didn’t really think anything of it. Time would pass, and he’d say to me, “Um, you like performing live, right?” I’d reply, “Yeah, it’s great.” More time would pass, and he’d then say to me, “Um, you really like live audiences, right?” This went on and on, until it finally dawned on me. I said to him, “You want me to tour with you, don’t you?” And he said, “Yeah.” The next thing I knew, I was the musical director for the Bad tour, which was huge.