BBC Today programme presents reaction on the day after the death of Michael Jackson
From Jackson 'was the consummate star'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8120000/8120319.stm
Michael Jackson has died in Los Angeles at the age of 50. The BBC Today programme presents reaction to the death of the pop star.
James Naughtie, Presenter, BBC Radio 4: Michael Jackson was the strangest of superstars; a singer who was one of the biggest selling artists of them all, a giant of the era of recorded music, and also a troubled and reclusive figure whose agonies seemed to be played out in weird behaviour and reflected in the nature of the devotion that caused so many fans to idolize him.
He was the child that never grew up, with a career that lurched from the heights to the depths. He was due to make another comeback this summer, with hundreds of thousands of tickets sold for a series of London concerts. His most famous album, Thriller, for which the best sales estimate is 65 million, was in 1982 a comeback in its own time.
James Naughtie: Height of his powers, Thriller, the biggest selling album we've ever seen, spent 37 weeks at number one in the American Billboard chart and included hits like "Beat It" and "Billy Jean." He began to perform when he was only 5, joined his brothers in the Jackson 5 in the '60s. After they signed up with Motown Records, their first release in 1969, Michael Jackson who was only 11, went straight to number one.
James Naughtie: The consequences of his fame and the driven nature of the family in which he was bullied by his father. Years later, he told Oprah Winfrey that he was sad he'd never been able to play like other children, while he was performing with his brothers.
Michael Jackson: Well, onstage for me was home. I was most comfortable and still most comfortable onstage; but once I got offstage, I was like very sad.
Oprah Winfrey: Really?
Jackson: Yeah. I think every child star suffers through this period, and they want to keep you young forever and little forever.
Winfrey: Who's "they"?
Jackson: The public.
James Naughtie: His personal life was indeed troubled. There were two short marriages; the first, Elvis Presley's daughter. But in the '80s, his fame was vast. He was a virtual inventor of the music video; Thriller became the biggest-selling album. MTV was launched in 1980, and at first, they wouldn't play the video for Thriller, because the network said that the music -- most of the artists were quite raucous -- just didn't suit its audience.
But through the '80s and '90s he was a dominating force, becoming though increasingly reclusive and controversial. When his Invincible album was released in 2001, he alleged that his company, Sony, had failed to promote it properly. He said there was a conspiracy against black artists. [Audio playback of Michael Jackson Interview]
Jackson: Black artists have been taken advantage of completely. And it's time now that we have to put a stop to this incredible, incredible injustice.
James Naughtie: Well, alongside his huge commercial and critical success were the eccentricities that earned him the nickname of "Wacko Jacko" -- the recreation of a childhood fantasy world at his Neverland Ranch in California, his devotion to his pet chimp, Bubbles, all the questions about his changing appearance.
One rumour Michael Jackson was always keen to scotch was that he tried to bleach his skin white.
Jackson: I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin; it's something that I cannot help. Okay, but when people make up stories that I don't want to be who I am, it hurts me. It's a problem for me, okay. I can't control it, I don't understand, I mean, it makes me very sad.
James Naughtie: Well, police raided the Neverland Ranch in 2003, and a warrant was subsequently issued for his arrest on charges of molesting a 14-year-old boy, Gavin Arvizo. The star surrendered himself to the police; it was a 5-month trial that ended in 2005.
[Audio playback of courtroom proceedings] Speaker: We the jury in the above entitled case find the defendant not guilty of a lewd act upon a minor child; that's charge in count three of the indictment, dated June 13, 2005, for person number 80.
James Naughtie: Well, for the vast numbers of fans who were mourning the death of the person they called "the king of pop" this morning -- and there are many of them, outside the hospital where he died as we heard earlier, they're now singing his songs to mark his memory. He was simply, for them, a musical performer without equal. [Song "Billy Jean"] END