Exclusive interview: new album, new cause, new outlook

by Roger Friedman, Fox 411.com, November 2000

Forget about the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync. The King of Pop is back. This reporter was lucky enough to have an exclusive audience with Michael Jackson last night.

The world’s most successful and controversial performer held court at the cozily elegant Fifth Avenue home of public relations wizard Howard J. Rubenstein. About 30 people were in attendance. The occasion? To launch the Time with Kids Initiative, an outgrowth of Jackson's Heal the World Foundation.

Before we get into the details of the new program, let’s talk about Michael the Superstar. He’s finishing up his new record, is ambivalent about touring, will make an album with his brothers in the near future and has been taking his kids to synagogue lately. (More on that last bombshell below.)

"My new album should be out in March," he said, crossing his fingers. "I played six songs for Sony Music today and they were walking on air. They applauded. They really loved them. Now I just have to come up with five more." That shouldn’t be a problem. He has dozens to choose from.

The album is still untitled. But Michael told me that the songs are written and produced variously by him with Teddy Riley, R. Kelly and Rodney Jerkins. "But you know I’m in charge," he said, laughing. No butterfly, Michael Jackson is very much his own boss.

How did he look, you want to know. Extremely normal, or normal for him. Jackson - who is much taller and lankier than you’d think - wore a simple black velvet shirt, untucked, over black jeans and simple boots. He wore aviator sunglasses, but no wigs, masks, epaulets or other paraphernalia. He spoke clearly and decisively, although he’s something of a "low talker," as they might say on Seinfeld.

"I wear the sunglasses because I cry so much," he said, in all seriousness, and true enough, he did seem to tear up a couple of times. "You know I’m very shy," he said. "And I’ve just gotten more shy over the years."

Was he always shy, even when he first started to perform with his brothers, I asked? "No, onstage is where I can be me. Then it goes away."

He did not seem so shy last night. He sat on a beautifully appointed sofa in a regular (by luxurious Fifth Avenue standards) living room and chatted with total strangers. He was affable and warm. He wasn’t frail, didn’t ask for the Elephant Man’s bones, or do anything peculiar. There was no entourage. He came only with his assistant, a very nice, well-spoken young man named Frank Tyson (absolutely no relation to Mike from what I could tell).

I did ask Michael about a rumor floated a couple of years ago by an executive of the now defunct A&M Records. The story was that Jackson would leave Sony Music and reunite with his brothers, the Jacksons. It never happened, of course. Now Michael says, "First I’m producing an album for my nephews, the group 3T, and then I’ll record with my brothers again." So you heard it here first.

Jackson also has designs on becoming a movie star. He’s looking forward to filming The Nightmare of Edgar Allen Poe, which should start next spring with William Malone (House on Haunted Hill) directing. Ironically someone at Sony told me yesterday, before I left to meet Jackson, that the company is trying to dissuade him from this acting bug. But if Mariah Carey can give it a try, why not him? It’s not like his reputation can’t take the hit. It’s withstood the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune already.

"You know I’m a real person," Jackson said responding to a question from the New York Daily News columnist Mitchell Fink, who had joined us. "I have feelings." This was in reference to all the weird stuff that’s written about him. And let’s face it, some fraction of it is true.

But last night what I have dubbed the Michael Jackson Reclamation Project began in earnest. This was an effort to show a couple of press people (me, Fink) that Michael is not Jacko, but a real guy, not some weirdo. Hey, it worked.

Jackson has hooked up of late with Rabbi Shmuel Boteach, a 40ish self-described former Oxford University instructor and "preacher," who’s American but is very popular in London. Boteach is an Orthodox rabbi (which is not Hasidic, but just means extremely religious) who calls himself "The Love Prophet." Because he’s authored some unconventional books, like one called Kosher Sex, he’s been ostracized by the Lubavitcher sect (the very, very over the top religious) of Judaism. (Please, no letters on this subject, folks, I beg you.)

"Shmuley," as he is affectionately called, spoke to our little group passionately. First, it was about Michael, whom he’s been defending recently everywhere and anywhere people will listen. "He had a Jewish tutor when he was a child. Her name was Rose Fine," he informed us. He then recounted how Michael had been maligned in the press unforgivably for the last several years. Did we know about his humanitarian efforts? How his Heal the World Foundation had come to the aid of children everywhere.

Shmuley told us: "He loves children so much that he insisted on speaking to mine by phone before we came here tonight. He is not a germ freak, either. I’ve sat on the floor eating with him, his kids, and my kids. You should see it."

Shmuley also recalled a now oft-told tale that when Michael met a terminally ill child at a celebration the rabbi was throwing for the Make A Wish Foundation, the King of Pop just started crying. (Hence the omnipresent shades.) "This was the poster child for leukemia and when Michael heard about it, he just was overwhelmed." He wound up paying all her medical bills.

Jackson and Boteach have clearly bonded even though Jackson was raised in - and is still a member of - the Jehovah’s Witnesses. "I believe in learning about all religions," he told me. "And I want my children to learn about them too." And even though little Prince and Paris Jackson are technically JW’s, Michael has apparently shown them Boteach’s world. "We took them to synagogue," the two men told me. "Right here in Manhattan. It was wonderful."

I did not get to ask Boteach, who professes a devotion to Michael’s song, what he thought of Jackson’s use of the "k-word," in a song on the album HIStory, a word that denigrates Jews just as the "n-word" jolts and offends Blacks. I guess they’re working on that.

Boteach (his writings can be found on something called beliefnet on the web if you’re interested) works in New York through the L'Chaim Society, a highly reputable charity than can be reached at 212-792-6255.

He and Michael have some very ambitious plans. Next month they’ll participate in a panel discussion with Larry King, Dennis Prager and others in Los Angeles. Following that, Jackson is planning to speak at Oxford University on the subject of children. And in the winter, Jackson will host a fundraiser at Neverland Ranch for up to $50,000 a pop with the likes of Nelson Mandela and Elizabeth Taylor in attendance - among others.

Heal the World/Time with Kids is all about raising parents’ awareness of how important it is to spend time with your children. Boteach, the son of divorced parents, spoke eloquently about his experience. He said - and I’m paraphrasing here - that he was addicted to seeing his name in print and only recently realized that his name should instead be imprinted on the souls of his loved ones, where it matters.

As for Jackson "God only knows what went on in that house" we are all aware he had no childhood. He lived it in front of us, on television and on the radio.

Jackson, of course, is the subject of much hissing and skepticism when it comes to children. But let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Time with Kids has partnership programs with the United Nations, Save the Children, and the Points of Light Foundation.

It’s obviously been thought out, and is not just a whim on the part of a pop star. They’re also starting a book club, à la Oprah, in which Jackson will endorse a new book of the month for parents to read with their kids. There’s nothing wrong with that.

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