No one can stop the avaricious, evil father of Michael Jackson.
In the 18 days since Michael’s tragic death, Joseph Jackson has made at least a half million dollars off his late, famous son.
This week, according to sources, ‘Good Morning America’ paid Jackson around $200,000 for a series of interviews that commence tomorrow morning.
ABC says it’s done this as part of a deal for a one-hour documentary on the Jackson family.
At the same time, Jackson is said to be arriving in London tomorrow, the day that Michael was set to start his shows at the O2 Arena. Sources tell me that the British tabloids are paying Jackson at least $250,000 plus expenses to exploit Michael’s memory.
Meanwhile, Michael’remember him? ‘ is lying in a borrowed vault in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, still not permanently buried or interred because the Jackson family hasn’t figured out which location would maximize their profits best.
The horror of Joseph Jackson is only more heightened by the fact that he’s told reporters this week that he somehow foresees exploiting Michael’s children as performers in a bid to regain his glory days of the Jackson 5.
If Michael had a grave, he’d be rolling in it.
Michael Jackson told interviewers many times how his father abused and beat him when he was a child. He said it through tears to Oprah Winfrey.
There is abundant evidence that Michael hated his father. One insider working on Jackson’s business affairs since his death, a person who hadn’t known Joseph Jackson previously, said to me last week, ‘He killed Michael. Everything he did to to him led up to this. I’ve never met a more awful person.’
Indeed, Joseph Jackson has never hesitated to try and cash in on Michael’s success after his superstar son finally broke free of him in the late 1970s with the ‘Off the Wall’ album. Joseph is famous for coming up with schemes behind Michael’s back.
To wit:’On the day of Michael’s famous 30th anniversary solo show, Joe Jackson called a news conference and invited select journalists. I was one of them. It was obvious Michael had no idea this was going on. Mr. Jackson told us he was going to start selling footage of the Jackson 5 for profit. He was eager to be a star himself, clearly.
I asked him about his parental philosophy. “You have to be strict with kids,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with punishment as long as you know how to punish.” What would be a typical punishment? “Beat his back,” Joe Jackson replied before I could even get the question out.
In 2004, before Michael’s child molestation trial began, I received a call from vulture journalist Daphne Barak. She said, ‘I have Joseph Jackson here and we want to talk to you about a project.’ I hung up.
This year, on March 26th, Jackson himself called me to say he wanted to take over the just announced concerts at the O2 Arena because only he and his partner Leonard Rowe would know how to run them. Shortly after that, Jackson and Rowe threw in with another concert promoter. The latter man filed suit against Michael to get a cut of his AEG Live contract.
And still: three days after Michael died, Joseph Jackson turned up at the BET Awards in Los Angeles with a Michael Jackson impersonator in tow. He announced that he was starting a record company on national TV.
It’s not the first time that Joseph Jackson has tried to claw his way back into the music business. A few years ago he tried in vain to launch a young female singer out of Las Vegas. The project didn’t go anywhere.
Meantime, the judge in the custody hearing next Monday July 20th deciding the fate of Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson should be aware of some things in the Jackson family history. Joe Jackson has an illegitimate daughter named JohVonnie by a woman named Cheryl Terrell. Janet actually mentioned this in an interview with Parade Magazine in 2008.
He also had at least one other extramarital relationship, with a woman named Gina Sprague. All of this has been documented in various Jackson books, including one by LaToya.
Also, Katherine Jackson filed for divorce twice during her marriage, once in 1973 and again in 1979. In each case she was persuaded not to go through with it rather than hurt the family’s reputation.