Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Leading music industry figures have spoken of their shock and sadness about the sudden death of Michael Jackson on the eve of what was being billed as one of the greatest live comebacks of all time.

Jackson, who passed away last Thursday following a suspected heart attack, was due two weeks from today (Monday) to play the first of what would have been a record-breaking 50-date residency at The O2 Arena in London in front of 750,000 people.

“It’s very sad,” says artist manager Richard Griffiths who worked closely with Jackson on Dangerous and HIStory in the 1990s while he was president of Epic Records US. “He was only 50 and he was going to make this tremendous return.”

Former Sony Music executive Jonathan Morrish, who spent two decades working alongside Jackson, describes the news as “such a shock. It’s just extraordinary,” he says. “I spoke to someone [involved in the concerts] after I heard the news and it appeared all the rehearsals were going okay.”

Speaking on the morning after Jackson’s death, one-time Sony Music UK chairman and CEO Paul Burger described it as “a sad day, a momentous day”. He adds, “My reaction is one of sadness, though I have to say in many ways we lost Michael Jackson more than 10 years ago.”

Sony Corporation chairman, CEO and president Sir Howard Stinger paid tribute to Jackson as “a brilliant troubadour for his generation, a genius whose music reflected the passion and creativity of an era”. Sony/ATV chairman and CEO Marty Bandier saluted him as “an incredible recording artist, an insightful businessman, an unmatched performer and a true icon”.

The impact of Jackson’s death reached the circles of government with Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw hailing him as “a superb artist and musician who inspired and brought joy to millions around the world”.

Jackson’s death is being put in the same context as those of Elvis Presley and John Lennon and it was being anticipated as Music Week went to press last Friday that it would provoke a mass buying of his records. As early as last Friday morning the entire Top 10 of Amazon UK’s rolling albums chart was made up of his albums, while his presence on iTunes’ albums and singles charts was also rapidly growing.

Ahead of the singer’s death, it had been anticipated that the planned O2 residency would at long last put the spotlight back on Jackson’s immense talents as a music artist and live performer and away from a private life dogged in recent years by controversy. But the run-up to the concerts has been plagued by health stories and questions about whether the dates would actually happen.

However, for those who worked with Jackson and knew him, their thoughts have largely been about the unprecedented influence Jackson had both musically and on the business itself.

“He was undoubtedly in my mind the most creative, innovative and revolutionary artist whose collaborations with Quincy Jones created the most complete pop star ever,” suggests Burger, who believes the events of Jackson’s life over the past decade should not distract from the real story about him as an artist. “He made three sensational albums in Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad and for me this is a time to go beyond the tabloidisation of Michael Jackson and get back to what was so great about him.”

Morrish, who first got to know Jackson in the Seventies when the Jacksons signed to Epic and toured the UK, says, “My view is that Thriller created the modern music industry. It came at the time MTV was exploding and that was one of the factors that propelled the record to stratospheric levels.”

Songwriter Don Black, who became close to Jackson when he co-wrote the song Ben, puts him up there with the very greats. “It depends on what generation you are from,” says Black. “For my generation it was Frank Sinatra, the next generation Elvis and then it was Michael Jackson. They were the big three,” says Black.

Griffiths remembers finding himself in the strange position of trying to offer advice to someone so incredibly successful.

“I always liked him a lot,” he recalls. “He was always very polite and funny and charming and always very interested in everything, particularly what was going on at radio. He was obsessed about charts and I always felt when I was giving him ‘words of wisdom’ there he was thinking, ‘I’ve sold 100m records and you’re the eighth president of Epic Records I’ve had to deal with’ and that was fair enough.”

Among many anecdotes Burger recalls flying out to St Louis to meet Jackson and his then manager Frank DiLeo to discuss a forthcoming European tour. “I remember sitting in a hotel lobby just waiting for DiLeo and sitting across from me was Bubbles and I’m sitting there thinking, ‘This bloody chimp is dressed better than I am”.

Griffiths also observes the huge influence Jackson has had on a current generation of artists, including those among Griffiths’ own roster of artists at his company Modest Management. Alexandra Burke, Lemar and JLS were among the many who sent him texts in the wake of the news about the singer’s death in Los Angeles breaking late last Thursday night.

“There’s a new generation of artists who are inspired by him,” he says. “For JLS, Michael is their absolute hero and there are a lot of younger artists influenced by him, too. I can tell you about the number of acts who perform a Michael Jackson song at X Factor auditions, the number of Jackson songs on American Idol or X Factor live shows. Everybody was hoping he was going to be incredible in those live shows.”

Source: MW