Michael Jackson

Some Lesser Known Facts About Michael Jackson

• Did Michale Jackson smoke?: Yes

• Dis Michael Jackson drink alcohol?: Yes

• Michael Jackson was an average student, was bad with spellings and grammar and was considered creative, shy and best dressed.

• His father was strict and abused Michael Jackson physically (beating) and emotionally. Joe has admitted that he used to whip the children, taunted Michael for having a fat nose and hit them with a belt if they didn’t get it right during practice.

• All the Jackson kids agree that whipping was common at the time and it set them straight and made them capable.

• Although Michael agreed that his father’s strict discipline helped him succeed, he also explained that his insecurities about his looks, insomnia, nightmares, hyper-compliant behavior and his childlike adulthood are due to child maltreatment.

• The costumes used in the video of Thriller were from Salvation Army.

• He loved children, probably because he missed his own and the abuse he suffered as a child. The black band that he wore was a reminder of child abuse.

• Beat it made it to the studio because of the guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen, which Eddie played for free.

• He bought an Oscar! The Oscar that David O. Selznick won for the Best Picture for Gone With the Wind in 1999.

• He won eight Oscars in 1984.

• Scream has been the most expensive video costing $7,000,000.

• He loved pets and had a python (Crusher), 2 llamas (Louis & Lola) and a chimpanzee (Bubbles).

• Michael invented special boots that he used for his ‘leaning forward’ step in ‘Smooth Criminal’. The lean step is patented by MJ.

• He had a meeting in the twin towers the day 9/11 incident took place. He missed it because he overslept.

• Macauley Culkin, the Home Alone star is the godfather of two of his children.

• The director of the video ‘Bad’ was the famous and creative Martin Scorcese.

• Wikipedia, Twitter and AOL’s Instant Messenger crashed the afternoon MJ died.

• He lived in an oxygen tent for long life and beauty.

• He was literally a King! He was given a royal title by the people of Goban, a village in the Ivory Coast.

• Michael Jackson made his debut with his brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon, as Jackson 5. Michael initially started singing with his elder brother before he started solo.

• MJ’s Thriller was the first album that had five number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 list. Thriller is also the highest selling album of all times, selling over 65 million copies.

• Michael Jackson named the dance move Moonwalk that he had borrowed from the street dancers outside his hotel.

• Guinness World Records crowned him as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time.

• MJ has been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is the only artist from Rock and Pop genre that has been inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame. He is an inductee of the Songwriter Hall Of Fame too.

• Other than multiple entries in the Guinness World Records, Michael Jackson has 13 Grammys, a Grammy Legend Award and a Grammy Lifetime Award.

• He has the highest number of American Music Awards and number one Billboard Hot 100 (13 top positions). He also received the Artist of the Century Award.

• The King of Pop has sold over 400 million albums.

• He had a top ten entry in the Billboard for five consecutive decades, making him the first person to achieve this milestone in 2014 with his song “Love Never Felt So Good”.

• One considerable Guinness World Record that MJ holds is the record for supporting 39 charities. No one else has shown such humanitarian efforts.

• Michael said that he has had only two plastic surgeries i.e. for his nose and chin. He claims both of them were for health reasons. His nose broke practicing a complex dance move, he explained. It is believed that he had several surgeries.

• When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, MJ promised to release a song to raise charity. He worked on the project with other artists but the song never eventuated.

• His bodyguard said that people tell the girls that they have a dog and MJ goes like, “I have a Zoo”. He did have a zoo at his Neverland Ranch in addition to a theme park.

• Michael Jackson was a book worm. He would spend thousands of dollars in just one visit to a book-store.

• Once, he came across a second-hand book shop and bought it for $100,000 and had the books brought over to his home.

• He had two secret affairs with girls from overseas and called them Friend and Flower. Nobody knew about them except his bodyguards.

• MJ did not meet anyone from the family without an appointment except his mother. She would drop by anytime and he would welcome her, and his siblings would have to return even if they managed to clear the security at the gate.

• MJ was always under the radar and would have his bodyguards to check the room he occupied in the hotels. He was bugged by the bugging. It wasn’t paranoia; his private conversation with his sister was recorded without his knowledge and sold to the media.

• He had to make his kids wear masks in the public and also gave them code names to keep their identity hidden and secured.

• Michael Jackson seemed to be really worried about his life as his bodyguards carried guns that could be enough to take down an FBI raid. They were armed with semi-automatic Glock pistols, Teasers (1.2 million volts), MP5 (Fully automatic submachine guns), military style AR15s and 12-gauge automatic shotguns. They had extended magazines and around 3000 rounds of ammunition.

• He was invited to Bahrain by the Sheikh of Bahrain after his child abuse accusation in 2005.

• Michael was a responsible father and had his children home-schooled and had a room dedicated for their schooling. The private tutor would start the classes sharp at 8 AM and the kids had to wear uniforms. He would keep a check with the teacher and help the children with the homework. He would quiz them to check what they have learned.

• The King of Pop did his and kids’ laundry by himself.

• MJ’s mother used to play clarinet and piano and wanted to be a country-western artist.

• Also, his father was not estranged with music and played with The Falcons, a local rhythm and blue band.

• He was the first artist to sell one million downloads and that too after his death.

• Michael Jackson’s voice ascends from high tenor to boy soprano.

• It’s not a surprise that MJ has a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.

• Billy Jean was the first video by a black guy that was aired on MTV.

• Michael Jackson felt that he sounded like Minnie Mouse when he listened to his older music.

• He was the godfather to Lionel Ritchie’s daughter Nicole and Bee Gees singer Barry Gibb’s son Michael.

• Thriller stayed on the Billboard 200 for 122 weeks!

• Michael Jackson cut off from all the sources from the media. No newspaper, no cable TV and no internet. He only read The Wall Street Journal because it would not have crazy stories about him.

• After the police raided his Neverland Ranch, he could never go back and live there because it never felt like home again and he could not feel safe anymore. MJ and his children lived in hotels and rented homes. He never touched anything after the raid.

• MJ was awarded two honorary degrees. One was Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from United Negro College Fund and another was Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Fisk University.

• Michael Jackson’s funeral was watched by 2.5 billion people worldwide.

• In August 2022, before the release of a new documentary titled ‘TMZ Investigates: Who Really Killed Michael Jackson,’ it was reported that he used 19 fake IDs to score drugs. In 2009, after Michael Jackson was found unresponsive in his Los Angeles home after suffering cardiac arrest, Jackson’s physician Conrad Murray, who, reportedly, routinely administered anaesthetic propofol to Jackson, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to four years in prison. ^[1]The Print