Diane Sawyer's Live Interview with Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley- Jackson took place at the old MGM set at Sony Pictures in Hollywood, California on June 14th 1995 It was broadcast live on ABC in the US and on television stations around the World.

Introduction

Diane Sawyer: Make no mistake about it, for all that fantasy and flash, Michael Jackson is serious business. Ask anyone in this town. Ask the people at Sony Music who say his next album and videos alone could bring in close to one billion dollars worldwide. So it's not hard to understand why the shockwave of those allegations two years ago registered like the last earthquake out here. What everyone wants to know, is he really on his way back? This is the old MGM set at Sony Pictures where all those dreams were put on film. Seemed like a good place to begin this hour. Because whatever you think about Michael Jackson, you cannot ignore what he achieved, a little boy with all those dreams in his voice. It's the once upon a time story that we all know by heart. Out of this tiny house in Gary, Indiana, where among the nine children of a crane worker at the steel yards, came the raw talent that rocked Motown.

This is the audition, which Michael Jackson charms, glides, and spins his family into stardom. But we've also heard the other side of this fairytale. The brothers claimed that their father drove them brutally, beat them. This is the man Michael said made him nauseous with fear.

Joe Jackson: I don't know anything about him being sick but, regurgitating but if he, did 'gurgitate, he, he 'gurgitated all the way to the bank.

DS: But on stage the little boy felt invulnerable. Wielding the voice that would enchant for the next twenty-five years. Even as the singer radically changed. We sat down a week and a half ago to talk only about music. We looked at the Ed Sullivan Show, 1970. He remembers exactly what he was thinking.

Michael: [taped at a recording studio] That the whole world was like watching me. My father used to always say, Don't mess up, you know, and I felt I knew every part and if something went wrong, I felt I could cover it.

DS: But by adolescence a private price was being paid. He said it was agony. That people stared, clearly wishing that he was still that cute little boy. At the time, his mother worried that he was withdrawn.

Katherine Jackson: Michael is quiet now. When he was younger he wasn't that quiet. And I don't know I think the stage might have done that to him.

[footage of an interview with Sylvia Chase, taped in the late 70's]

Michael: Bein' around, you know, everyday people and stuff, I feel strange, I do.

Sylvia Chase: Shy?

Michael: Yeah.

DS: 1979, . 20-20. He told Sylvia Chase people won't let him be just, normal.

Michael: They won't talk to me like their, well, their next door neighbour.

DS: But somehow Jackson used isolation to sharpen his sense of what was exotic and new. By 1983, the 25th anniversary of Motown, another Michael Jackson emerged. His own creation. From the music, to the muscle. To the magic. It was a triumph. But, he still sees only what he missed.

Michael: I wanted to, do the five spins and, go on the toes and, freeze there, and just hold it, and stay there, you know. And I didn't, but, they didn't know.

DS: It's the doubles bargain. A perfectionist trying to give the audience more. A chameleon, whose changes are more and more extreme. Making you wonder if it's all still part of his plan, or like thoust, his prison. Because even today Jackson obsesses over every word, every note, every sound. Listen.

What you're hearing is not an electric drum machine, it's a hard-wired, 48 track, digitally-mastered human. [tape of Michael's voice box, mimicking various instruments is playing]

Michael: ...You know what I mean. I'll take that and use that as the main foundation for the track, and build, all the sounds around that. You know what I'm sayin'?

DS: So, whatever the future, the music will always be inside the man, who says soon he'll be back, where he's most at home.

DS: Are you really anxious to get back onstage?

Michael: Hmmm, I miss the fans. That's my chance to get to really, you know, see them and, feel their presence. When we do a concert, and there's like a hundred thousand people out there, and you see a sea of people singing there, all in unison, holding up candles, and, you go, wow! You know it's, it really makes your heart happy and that's what really makes me feel like everything's OK.

DS: But as we said, two years ago that, this shy man faced some grave accusations that he had molested a young boy. As the headlines raged, a lot of people wondered if what had seemed merely eccentric was in fact something sinister. And the children always around him, were they lured by a seducer? The lingering question was, was Michael Jackson guilty? Or had he been put through two years of unequalled injustice? And hell. For parents, a warning it's an adult topic. This was the allegation. A twelve year old boy, said that over a period of four months, while repeatedly sleeping alone in the same bed with Michael Jackson, there was kissing, then fondling, then masturbation. The boy said he had protested but Jackson had wept, saying that it was alright other boys had done it with him. That was the allegation. But, for the prosecution there were problems. The boy had spoken at the urging of his father, who was also seeking custody. And the father had talked to the Jackson camp about money, twenty million dollars according to the Jackson team. This is the father talking to someone he knew on tape.

Father: [from a taped phote converstation] - So, if I go through with this, I win big time. There is no way that I lose.

DS: But, whatever the circumstances of the disclosure authorities say they believed the boyÕs story. The investigation of Michael Jackson was set in motion and within days hit the airwaves.

Reporter 1: Tonight, a police investigation into allegations that Michael Jackson sexually abused a young boy.

Reporter 2: The pop star Michael Jackson under investigation for alleged child abuse...

DS: It was a tabloid feeding-frenzy as people who worked for Jackson shopped stories, all claiming to belating knowledge of what they called, the special friends. And even when some of JacksonÕs young friends tried to defend him, they raised other troubling questions. This is eleven year old boy Brett Barnes talking to a TV interviewer.

Interviewer: When you'd have sleep-overs and you'd stay in the same room or the same bed would that seem unusual to you at all?

Brett: No. 'Cuz I slept on one side of the bed, he slept on the other, and that was that.

DS: After several months of headlines, Jackson, on tour, and then, reportedly in treatment for addiction to pain-killers, returned to the United States and submitted to a series of police photographs. Sources say, to see if they matched his accuser's description of identifying marks, on what authorities called his private parts. December 22, Jackson went public.

Michael: Don't treat me like a criminal, 'cause I am innocent. I have been forced to submit to a dehumanizing and humiliating, examination by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff Department and the Los Angeles Police Department earlier this week. They served a search warrant on me, which allowed them to view and photograph my body, including my penis, my buttocks, my lower torso, thighs, and any other area that they wanted.

DS: One month later, January 25th, 1994, Michael Jackson settled the civil suit filed by his young accuser. How much? Reportedly in the neighbourhood of fifteen to twenty million dollars. After the settlement, the boy refused to testify in the criminal case. So, after thirteen months of headlines, the prosecuters said, it was over.

Gil Garcetti: We must decline prosecution, involving Mr. Jackson.

DS: They had no other children who would come forward in court. And none of the employees who claimed to have seen questionable things, had a story that could be confirmed by a child. To this day, a number of investigators remain convinced that glamour and money are so attractive, they can produce loyalty and silence. While Jackson's team insists that it ended, because nothing happened in the first place. When we come back, Michael Jackson and Lisa-Maree Presley, their chance to speak.

The Interview

DS: And with me, of course, Michael Jackson and Lisa-Marie Presley. Welcome to Prime Time.

Michael: Thank you.

DS: Glad you're here. It occurs to me, looking at the two of you, I have got to start, by asking, how this marriage took place, how it began. Let me guess that it was not over miniature golf and a hot dog, or something. When did it start? When was the dating?

Michael: Well, we first met, she was seven years old and I was seventeen. This was in Las Vegas. She used to come and see my show all the time. We had the only family show on the strip, the Jackson 5. And, she used to come, as a little girl, and sit right up front. She came quite often. She came with a lot of bodyguards. And . . .

DS: Had you stayed in touch with her?

Michael: Sure, sure. And then she'd come backstage, then I'd, you know, talk and say hi and then she'd come again. And I thought she was sweet, and loving, and I hoped , I always hoped I'd see her again.

DS: And who first talked about marriage?

Lisa Marie: We didn't stay in touch...after that.

Michael: We didn't stay in touch after that, no.

Lisa Marie: He, he...go ahead, you wanted to say it. Go ahead.

Michael: No, you can say it. You can, you have a good memory.

Lisa Marie: Well, you said you were going to say it.

DS: Our first argument here, um, this hour. Who, who proposed? I mean, how did marriage actually get discussed?

Michael: Well, well, at first this is what happened. When she was 18, I used to tell my lawyer, John Branca: do you know Lisa-Marie Presley? He'd go, well, I represent her mother. I'd go, well, can you get in touch with her, 'cause, I think she's really cute. And he'd laugh everytime. He goes, I'll try my best, that's what he'd say. Then he'd come back and I said...well did you find out? He said, no, there's nothing. So I would worry him about this all the time. The next thing I noticed, there was a picture on a magazine cover where she's married, which really tore me to pieces, because I felt that was supposed to be me, I really did.

DS: And what, what was the countdown to your marriage? Tell me, who said the word marriage first?

Michael: I did.

Lisa Marie: He did.

DS: When? Where?

Michael: When, where?

Lisa Marie: On the telephone.

Michael: Oh yeah, oh yeah on the telephone.

Lisa Marie: He first asked me, we were dating now for four months, . . .right? Four months?

Michael: I don't remember.

Lisa Marie: Anyway, we were spending a lot of time together. I don't know how it didn't manage to get in the press, because we weren't hiding it. I was in Las Vegas, we were in...

Michael and Lisa Marie: We were everywhere together.

Lisa Marie: Everywhere.

Michael: Went to bookstores...

Lisa Marie: To bookstores. We were not hiding it.

DS: And you said yes right away?

Lisa Marie: I was separated for four months now, and he said: What would you do if I asked you, to marry me? And I said, I would.

Michael: A big I would, you were really enthusiastic! [giggling]. . .

DS: I have to ask you this, because I can only imagine there are a number of lawyers involved in a pre-nuptual agreement, between these two fortunes. Is there one? A careful one?

Michael: Well, we've worked out things and we've signed certain things but, of course, that's very confidential.

Lisa Marie: We agreed, we made agreements prior, yes.

DS: As you know, the reaction to this marriage, and I know you feel strongly about it, but the reaction to this marriage has been across the spectrum, everything from astonishment, to delight, to...suspicion. That it was somehow...too convenient. Lisa, did you ask Michael about the charges? Did the two of you think about the impact, of the marriage, on the allegations?

Lisa Marie: Absolutely not. He called...I was in touch with him through the whole process of this, charges going on. I was talking to him when he disappeared. I was actually supposed to go to Santa Juan, Puerto Rico, when he left and disappeared, and I got a call that he wasn't going to be there, and I was actually part of the whole thing with him, by talking to him on the phone. So...

DS: Did you say to him: Are they true?

Lisa Marie: No, I didn't. No..I actually did not.

DS: I want to take a minute here, and I'm gonna come back to the marriage...

Lisa Marie: Could I just...sorry. He, he, went on and on and on about it, so I didn't really have to say, Are the allegations true? He was gggrrr [imitating Michael's outrage] on the phone, you know, and...

DS: Over and over.

Lisa Marie: Just constant, yeah.

DS: Well, [turning to Michael] because I know that you've wanted to express similar sentiments for a long time, I want to ask a few things about the charges. But first I want to establish for the viewers here, there are no ground rules. You have said to me you are not afraid of any questions. So, I wanted that understood by everybody before we proceed. I think I want to begin by making sure that the terms are clear. You have said you would never harm a child. I want to be as specific as I can. Did you ever, as this young boy said you did, did you ever sexually engage, fondle, have sexual contact with this child, or any other child?

Michael: Never, ever. I could never harm a child, or anyone. It's not in my heart, it's not who I am. And it's not what I'm...I'm not even interested in that.

DS: And what do you think should be done to someone who does that?

Michael: To someone who does that? What I think should be done? Gee...I think they need help, in some kind of way, you know.

DS: How about the police photographs, though? How was there enough information from this boy about those kinds of things?

Michael: The police photographs?

DS: The police photographs.

Michael: That they took of me?

DS: Yeah.

Michael: There was nothing that matched me to those charges, there was nothing.

Lisa Marie: There was nothing they could connect to him.

Michael: That's why I'm sitting here talking to you today. There was not one iota of information that was found, that could connect me...

DS: So when we've heard the charges...

Michael: ...there was nothing...

DS: ...markings of some kind?

Michael: No markings.

DS: No markings?

Michael: No.

DS: Why did you settle the...

Michael: Why am I still here then?

Lisa Marie: You're not going to ask me about them, are you? [laughing] Sorry. About the markings?

DS: You volunteered.

Lisa Marie: No, I'm just...the point is, is that when that finally got concluded that there was no match-up, then, it was printed this big [showing a tiny area], as opposed to how big it was, what the match-up was supposed to be.

Michael: Because it isn't so!

DS: Why did you settle the case then?

Michael: The whole thing is a lie.

DS: Why did you settle the case? And, it looks to everyone as if you paid a huge amount of money...

Michael: That's...that's, most of that's folklore. I talked to my lawyers, and I said, can you guarantee me, that justice will prevail? And they said: Michael, we cannot guarantee you that a judge, or a jury will do anything. And with that I was like catatonic, I was outraged!

DS: How much money...

Michael: Totally outraged. So, I said...I have got to do something to get out from under this nightmare. All these lies and all these people coming forth to get paid and all these tabloid shows, just lies, lies, lies, lies. So what I did, we got together again with my advisors and they advised me. It was a hands down, unanimous decision - resolve the case. This could be something that could go on for seven years!...

DS: How much money was...

Michael: We said, let's get it behind us.

DS: Can you say how much?

Michael: It's not what the tabloids have printed. It's not all this crazy outlandish money, no, it's not at all. I mean, the terms of the agreement are very confidential.

DS: I want to ask...

Lisa Marie: He's been barred to discuss it. The, the...

DS: The specific terms...

Lisa Marie: The specific terms

DS: Of the agreement.

Lisa Marie: The specific amounts.

Michael: The idea, it just isn't fair...what they put me through. 'Cause there wasn't one piece of information that says I did that. And anyway, they turned my room upside-down, went through all my books, all my videotapes, all my private things, and they found nothing, nothing, nothing that could say Michael Jackson did this. Nothing!

DS: But let me ask you a couple of questions...

Michael: To this day, nothing. Still, nothing.

DS: Let me ask you...

Michael: Nothing, nothing, nothing.

DS: Nothing. We got nothing. As you may or may not know, we have called everyone we could call, we have checked everything we can check, we have gone and tried to see if what we heard before is in fact the case...I want to ask you about two things. These reports that we read over and over again, that in your room they found photographs of young boys...

Michael: Not of young boys, of children, all kinds of girls and...everything.

DS: And that they found photographs...books, of young boys who were undressed.

Michael: Noooo.

DS: It didn't happen?

Michael: No. Not that I know of, unless people sent me things that I haven't opened. People send, people know my love for children, so they send me books from all over the world. From South America, from Germany, from Italy, from Sweden, I...

DS: So people say, that they found those things, that there's an indication, let them come forward. Let them produce them, right?

Michael:Yeah, because I get all...I get all kinds...you wouldn't believe the amounts of mail that I get. If you say to somebody, you know, if I let the fans know that I love Charlie Chaplin, I'll be swarmed in Charlie Chaplin paraphanalia.

DS: What about...

Michael: If I say I love children, which I do, they swarm me with everything pertaining to kids.

DS: Any other settlements...in process now or previously with children making these kinds of claims. We have heard...that there is one, not, not a case that the prosecutors would bring in court...

Michael: No.

DS: ...but, but once again, you're talking about shelling out...

Michael: No. That's not true. No. It's not true. I think, I've heard everything is fine, and there are no others.

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