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Michael Jackson
1958–2009 · 51 years Tier I
The eighth of ten children, rehearsed by a father with a belt
Gary, Indiana: a steel town, a crane operator, a Jehovah's Witness, and ten children, of whom he was the eighth. His father Joe had boxed. He put the boys into a group in the early 1960s and drilled them the way he had trained, sitting through rehearsals with a belt across his lap. Michael said afterward that his father hit him and that he was frightened of him. Joe acknowledged the whippings. Some of the siblings said the account was overdrawn. By late 1965 Michael, who was seven, was splitting lead vocals with Jermaine, and in January 1970 he was the child singing on a record that held number one in the country for four weeks. He never had a job that was not this one.
Off the Wall, made with Quincy Jones in 1979, ended the child singer. Thriller, released on November 29, 1982, has sold somewhere near 70 million copies, held the top of the American album chart for 37 weeks and stayed inside the top 10 for 80 weeks running. He took eight Grammys in a single night, a record at the time. On a Motown anniversary special taped in March 1983 and broadcast that May to 47 million people, he performed a step a dancer named Jeffrey Daniel had taught him three years earlier, and within a week the whole country was trying it on kitchen linoleum. Bad, in 1987, became the first album to put five singles at number one in the United States. By any measure that existed, he was the most famous person alive.
Pyrotechnics set his hair alight during a Pepsi shoot on January 27, 1984. He had second-degree burns on the scalp, a series of reconstructive operations, and painkillers he did not come off. In 1993 the father of a 13-year-old boy accused him of sexual abuse. Investigators searched Neverland and prosecutors filed no charges, and in January 1994 Jackson settled the civil claim for just over 15 million dollars. In December 2003 Santa Barbara County charged him with seven counts of child molestation and two of giving a minor alcohol, involving a different boy, and on June 13, 2005 a jury acquitted him on every count. He never went back to the ranch. By the time he was rehearsing a comeback in 2009 he owed close to 500 million dollars.
His physician gave him propofol to sleep and he died of it on June 25, 2009, at 50. Conrad Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, sentenced to four years, and released after one year and 11 months. He was entombed at Forest Lawn in Glendale that September. The estate has since paid the debt down and sold half his catalogue to Sony in 2024 for 600 million dollars. Two men who had once testified in his defense under oath, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, said in a 2019 documentary that he had abused them as boys. A California appeals court revived their suit against his companies in 2023 and trial is set for November 2026. None of it is settled.
Lifespan
Michael Jackson's life against the full span of the corpus.
Notable works
-
Off the Wall
album
Made with Quincy Jones, and the end of the child performer 1979 -
Thriller
album
37 weeks at number one and 80 consecutive weeks in the top 10 1982 -
Thriller
film
A 14-minute short directed by John Landis that changed what a music video was for 1983 -
Bad
album
The first album to send five singles to number one in the United States 1987 -
Neverland Ranch
building
2,700 acres near Santa Ynez bought for 17 million dollars, with a Ferris wheel and a zoo 1988 -
Dangerous
album
Around 32 million copies sold worldwide 1991
Life in brief
with age at each point- January 1970 aged 11 I Want You Back reaches number one with him singing lead at 11 It stayed there four weeks.
- 1979 aged ~21 Off the Wall establishes him as a solo performer
- November 29, 1982 aged 24 Thriller is released
- May 16, 1983 aged 24 The Motown 25 broadcast puts the moonwalk in front of 47 million people Taped March 25. Jeffrey Daniel had taught him the step three years earlier.
- January 27, 1984 aged 25 Pyrotechnics burn his scalp during a Pepsi commercial shoot The reconstructive surgeries began a painkiller dependence he never resolved.
- March 1988 aged 29 Buys 2,700 acres near Santa Ynez and builds Neverland
- January 1994 aged 35 Settles the Chandler civil claim for just over 15 million dollars No criminal charges were filed. The investigation closed that September.
- June 13, 2005 aged 46 Acquitted on all ten counts in Santa Maria, California
- June 25, 2009 aged 50 Dies at 50 of acute propofol intoxication His physician, Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011.
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