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Tough Love Part 96; Part 5 (2)
Chapter 96; Part 5 (2) *Motown University & *Jackson-mania So I wouldnâ??t have Jermaine waiting, I decided to wait off calling Grandma. She would be asking details about my trip in Hawaii and I doubt she knows about the horse incident. Wouldnâ??t want to spoil Grandmaâ??s birthday before it barely even got started. Jermaine and I met up again by the pool. Though I didnâ??t want, I wore my red bikini again. This leg thing is really embarrassing me right now. â??Hey!â? he smiles. â??Hey Jermaine.â? I accept his hug before I sit down. â??Already ordered you something. Like mangos?â? â??Theyâ??re tolerable,â? I smile and sip real quickly before taking another breath. â??Ready?â? â??More than ever.â? I shrug. â??Hey, but before we do, I just remembered something.â? â??Yeah?â? â??I wanted to ask about your boyfriend. Whatâ??s his name again?â? â??Marvin, but we call him M.J.â? â??Yeah him. Whatâ??s his deal?â? â??Um, heâ??s just my opposite. In so many ways, where Iâ??m silent, heâ??s the loud one. M.J. is the dominator.â? â??Oh. I could see that at the party after â??The Dating Gameâ??. He must really like you.â? Jermaine smiles. â??Iâ??d say.â? â??But anyways back to usâ??back to the Jacksons.â? â??Yeah, back to yâ??all,â? I sling my wrist his way. â??Well you know good things donâ??t last forever and single families are fractioned off.â? â??What do you mean? Rebbie gets married.â? â??Exactly! In 1968, right around the time we finally convinced Mr. Gordy that we had IT.â? â??So how did it go? What did the families say when they saw six brothers with developing afros as groomsmen?â? â??Thatâ??s the thing Lyric, and thatâ??s whatâ??s probably hurt Rebbie the most. Her wedding was in November, but Joseph mustâ??ve purposefully scheduled for us NOT to be there. We were performing at the Regal instead of being at our sisterâ??s wedding.â? I almost said it out loud, but damn. â??I donâ??t know how â??family comes firstâ?? in that scenario, but I guess Joseph was proving his point that by marrying, Rebbie was breaking up the JACKSONâ??S family by becoming a Brown.â? â??Oh. And there was little â??ole Randy at six or seven. He was doing his best to make Joseph notice him. Randy was learning instruments such as the piano and guitar. He was going to be a Jackson 5 member soon. And there was Janet. She had to be three at the time with her little pigtails. But I donâ??t have much memory of my little sister while we were in Indiana. She was so young.â? â??Oh but she canâ??t be forgotten anymore! Janet is somethinâ?? else, and sheâ??s going to be thirteen soon. Youâ??re sister is going to be a teenager.â? â??Donâ??t remind me,â? Jermaine smirks. â??But I remember when we performed at the â??Boston Houseâ??. It was Berry Gordyâ??s mansions in Detroit. He had us perform at an annual party he was holding. You know this is the first time Michael met Diana.â? Both of us smile. â??While we were happy about witnessing the Temptations, the Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye and the Four Tops, and for Michael, Diana, it was JACKIE ho was the worried one. This is the event youâ??d think Joseph would be backstage with us, but he wasnâ??t. We killed it, to say the lease. But what hurt us was that Rebbie or Mother wasnâ??t there. Theyâ??ve sacrificed so much and here we were enjoying it. But what made us feel better was that Mother, LaToya, Janet, and Randy would come to Los Angeles two months after us. That, we COULD handle. â??And guess what?â? â??What?â? â??Joseph got us our colored T.V. in 1969. Even he knew we deserved it. â??But we were finally free from the reality of Gary. With our tight t-shirts on and our flare jeans, we were exposed to the exciting natures OF Hollywood.â? Jermaine laughs, â??I remember me and Michael hanged out the windows and gave our afros the chance to breath! â??Those first couple of days in July of 1969â??â? â??Same time I moved here,â? I beamed and he smiles back. â??We just wanted to have fun. We went to Disneyland and the L.A. Zoo. Michael loved Mickey AND animals.â? â??Much hasnâ??t changed,â? I say honestly. â??We even went to San Francisco.â? â??Yeah, San Francisco is nice.â? â??Our first motel was in West Hollywood. Itâ??s called the Tropicana Motel since we were the newbies in town. All we did at the time was swim. In the meantime though, we were looking for a rented home, which Motown would be paying for us. Before our home base was settled, we would either live with Berry or Diana. She was his next-door neighbor. You remember at this time she was outgrowing the Supremes?â? â??Yeah, I remember.â? â??She had this spotless home on the Hollywood Hills. I recall her house was all white; veeery bright! She had these shag carpets. You can bet our asses that we werenâ??t planning on messing up her carpet. She was right underneath Mr. Gordyâ??s house. He named it â??The Curzon Houseâ??. Michael and I were fascinated by the basement level. There was a window would look into the swimming pool. I felt like it was an aquarium! There was also a basketball court. Mr. Athletic Guy, Jackie was happy about that. And Michael started to get annoying because heâ??d find a way to make the shots go in the baskets. He was short but his audacious techniques were accurate.â? I laughed as I did my best to imagine a short Michael shooting baskets. Forwards I know, Michael is taller than me now. Heâ??s probably always been. â??But we never just stayed in one house. Sorry to say that that was another marketing myth.â? â??So Michael never stayed with Diana?â? â??No. It was more like we were *â??between two homesâ?. But we DID spend a lot of time with Diana. And she even taught me how to swim. â??And another thing that helped that Dianaâ??s brother, Chico was fourteen like me also. He looked JUST like his sisterâ??from the similarities of their mouths, to their wide eyes, and their big smiles. Then we had Gordyâ??s sons, Berry, Jr., Kerry, Terry, and Kennedy to play against us. Chico would be their ringer. While the Gordys had a sports-crazy mentality, I guess they didnâ??t think the Gary boys would be any good because weâ??d cream them!â? â??Oh really? Well where did that put Hazel?â? â??I was getting there,â? he smiles. â??The good thing about that, well the BONUS anyway was that I got to shine in-front of Hazel. I liked her the moment Suzanne introduced us in an elevator in Motown. I felt she had it all! But whenever youâ??re going up against the bossâ??s daughter, you have to behave yourself.â? Boy donâ??t that sound familiar right about now? â??I tried hiding my feelingsâ?¦but then thereâ??s Michael. Heâ??d say *â??Erms in love! Erms in love!â? Embarrassing stuff like that. But I liked Hazel because she was honest and wasnâ??t snobby. Sheâ??d even told me she and her brothers played hide-and-seek with Stevie Wonder.â? â??How do you do that?â? â??She said heâ??d take off his belt and start swinging around the room. Whoever says ow is caught.â? â??Heâ??s gained even more respect from me.â? â??Yeah, and other than swimming or playing hide-and-seek, Michael loved painting. I give Diana that credit. I thank Diana though. She HAD to be the perfect person for Michael to look up to at this time. While she was special to all of us, her bond with Michael was the most unique. He was our front man but the shiest, so he NEEDED that bigger personality than any of us. But one thing she DID teach us was to have a thick skin and reliable people around us because Hollywood could turn its back on us.â? â??So Iâ??ve heard.â? Try convincing your family you actually want to take part in it. â??But Michael didnâ??t see how. He even said once *â??Diana Ross has told me that people in show business can get hurt. I donâ??t see how, to tell the truth. Maybe one day I willâ?¦but I doubt it.â? Once the end of August came, we had our rented home. It was at 1601 Queens Road. We stayed there as we worked on our first album for Motown. â??To be honest, I donâ??t think anyone could have boldly proclaimed our success, but I have to say that Berry Gordy was precisely on track. He was the one to say he was going to make us stars. He would have us slip out to the public THREEâ??not one, you can FORGET two, but HTREE number ones. Theyâ??d be back-to-back. But weâ??d keep ourselves hidden, which would intensify peopleâ??s curiosity about us. Then BOOM, weâ??d be on tour! But we knew that he would keep us hidden while nabbing peopleâ??s attentions, because when the moment was right, weâ??d be revealed. â??But we knew Mr. Gordy was a reliable source. Our own father talked about how Berry Gordyâ??s background was like oursâ??his precursors were slaves just as wellâ??but he was willing to leave a car assembly line job in Detroit in order to start Motown. He only had $800 with five employees, but he had a natural ear. Thatâ??s all that mattered.â? â??1959?â? Jermaine looks me over and smile, â??See youâ??ve been doing your homework.â? â??Well at my house, Motown was playing just as much as Gospel.â? He smiles again and gives a small chuckle. â??I mean itâ??s hard to say what Mr. Gordy CANâ??T do. He can write. He plays the piano. He also manages and producesâ?¦but most importantly, the man knows how to INSPIRE.â? â??And he was innovating music during a time America was FINALLY dealing with its ugly actions. I mean the â??60s were cool but they were wild too. With the Civil Rights Movement and the race riots here, there, and everywhere, it stills kick my butt to know that Berry was able to let a new wave of music to THRIVE in this hurting nation. Then Martin Luther King, Jr.â??s assassination,â? I pause then to catch my breath and wipe a tear. I always get myself worked up when I talk about something I was too young to understand, â??And it wasnâ??t JUST himâ?¦I mean JFK, Malcolm X, RFK. I mean I donâ??t know what the HELL America was thinking at the time, but just the fact that Berry could make music which Blacks understood and make it appeal to Whites, then everyone else of the shade inside and out gets me. I didnâ??t understand it then Jermaine, but I want to THANK you and your family for easing that kind of pain from America. Iâ??m sure that watching yâ??all made it seem like that some of those terrible events never happened. Yâ??all EPITOMIZED the Golden Gates of California.â? Jermaine grabs my hands then. They began to shake but he calmed me. â??No THANK YOU for telling me all of this. And Iâ??m glad you understood the bigger picture from a whole angle which is coming from a young girlâ??s eyes who was too young to remember all of this.â? â??No,â? I shake my head, â??I have a GOOD memory Jermaine. Plus do you really think my DAD was skipped through this whole thang? You donâ??t become a cop whoâ??s Black in the â??60s without a hitch. That just DOESNâ??T happen.â? â??But you still get the big picture so thank you.â? â??Well thank my APUSH (A-PUSH) teacher.â? â??Whatâ??s that exactly?â? â??One of the HARDEST Advanced Placement classes to take. It kicks everyoneâ??s ass sooner or later,â? I smile. Plus I canâ??t believe Iâ??m letting my lips flap like this in-front of the Patient Jackson! â??But it stands for,â? I take an exaggerated breath of air, â??Advanced Placement United States History.â? â??Damn.â? â??I know boy.â? I giggle then. â??But thatâ??s how much I paid attention. Plus you KNOW we had to talk about the JACKSONS in our history class. Even if it WAS informal and yâ??all were too new to be put in the history books.â? Jermaine just beams. â??But at the same time, Mr. Gordy was always humble. He couldâ??ve been on Time or Life but heâ??d say it was about his artists. And heâ??d hangout with us like Joseph. What Michael yearned in an affectionate father was what he got out of Berry. I mean I remember once he said *â??I donâ??t care what you all eat or what you do, just clean up behind yourselves.â? We almost couldnâ??t BELIEVE that came out of his mouth! That was foreign to us! But we took him up on his word. We Jackson boys raided the fridge and watched T.V. â??We learned things like the chorus is your â??story arcâ??. And going out with the hook will help people to remember the title of the song. Take â??I Want You Back â?? or â??Iâ??ll Be Thereâ? as example. We even had lessons about the etiquette of being stars. We didnâ??t have to worry about Josephâ??s van anymore or carrying our own luggage, or having Joseph manage everything on his own. We even had our own professional wardrobe, and learned how to deal with the PR and the public. â??We learned how to avoid saying the wrong things to the media. We even had our own marketing myths! Some of that Iâ??ve already told youâ??like Diana discovered us, or that Michael lived with her, or that Michael was eight when he was really ten!â? â??So it WAS true. My dad could tell Michael was a little older than what they were saying. Heâ??d just always say he was a little boy once.â? â??We even had our own identity within the group. Jackie was dubbed the *â??athleticâ? brother; Tito ended up being *â??the mechanicâ?, Marlon was *â??the dancerâ?, Michael was *â??the super-talented babyâ?, and yours truly was *â??the heartthrobâ?.â? I rolled my eyes with a smirk. â??Oh yeah, I owned it! And â??J5â?? became our new logo. But although we had all of these new things to make our lives seem better, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael were brothers within this whole process. We never let that waiver.â? I smiled. That was apparent whenever I saw them together. I always felt like they were this close-knit bubble of brotherhood force or something. I remember feeling like a loner or a left out because I wanted SO MUCH to meet them! â??Suzanne de Passe became our manager from day-to-day. She had this blonde hairâ?¦man she was gorgeous!â? â??I always wanted to meet herâ?¦.â? â??Who, Suzanne? Sheâ??s good people.â? â??I always thought she was so lucky because sheâ??s so darn pretty and she got to hang around the five most wanted boys in America.â? I giggle. â??Yeahâ?¦only someone special like Suzanne can handle us. But Berry Gordy told us *â??stick together, work hard, be loyalâ?. It was important for us to be decent at heart and not be irresponsible. In fact itâ??s STILL that way. â??I mean we still had to go to school. Weâ??d get out at 3:30, go home to eat, then get to the studios at about 5:30 and leave at 10:30â?¦.Sounds like an exhausting day to you?â? To seem like a badass I say, â??Hit me with your best shot. I go to California High. A liberal arts magnetâ?¦continue.â? â??Uck, cocky,â? he jokes. â??Well Iâ??m glad youâ??re not like â??Oh my Gosh thatâ??s a long day!â?? I mean to some it may seem that way, but we were so young and eager. It didnâ??t matter to me or my brothersâ??. We were just so happy to do the job.â? â??Michael had an amazing range at that time too. Heâ??d always mimic his idols while making it his own. The only thing out of his reach had to be that darn microphone. Heâ??d be standing on an apple box to reach up to it.â? I smiled just as well. â??One of our producers, Hal Davis would have us other brothers stand closer together. While singing, heâ??d tell us to get closer, but what got us was when heâ??d move his arms around and it reminded us of a ballerina. Michael would chuckle, Hal would get impatient. The more Hal got impatient, the more Michael would laugh, and once he got the infectious laughter, so did the rest of us. We never did that with Joseph, so I guess it exploded once he wasnâ??t in the picture as much. But the team never really had a problem with us because we were hard-working and could feeel the music. Thatâ??s something Joseph taught us from the beginning, and that lesson was just being reiterated. â??It was when we made â??I Want You Backâ?? that we were so happy that we were making what I would call our â??own soundâ??. Surprisingly enough, Mr. Gordy wasnâ??t impressed, but we were used to repetition. But he really knew how to DISSECT a song and make it spot-on perfect. But since he made perfection out of â??I Want You Backâ??, he made the final product worthwhile. Since heâ??s done that for us and taught us that music was mosaic as while, Iâ??ve had the idea to write on the sleeve of my future albums *â??Thank you Mr. Gordyâ??youâ??ve taught me well.â? â??We first performed â??I Want You Backâ?? at the Daisy Disco. It was a nightclub in Beverly Hills. Then a few days later we opened for the Supremes. But I KNOW you remember our television debut.â? He smiles suddenly. â??That I do.â? â??Well let me take that back, we performed at this telecast for the Miss Black America Pageant in the Madison Square Garden. But we hit the prime-time on ABCâ??s The Hollywood Palace Show one Saturday night. We had our own full page advertisement. Our album name became â??Diana Presents the Jackson 5â?? because of the vibe and hype we were getting. â??Mother, Rebbie, Toya, Randy, and Janet were already watching it, and anyone else that could fit in our living room was watching it as well. BOTH times that night, Diana introduced us as â??Michael Jackson and the Jacksonâ??. Joseph didnâ??t like it that though because we were always just the Jackson 5. The only one that was singled out the least was Johnny, our drummer. Sometimes itâ??d be â??The Jackson 5 with Johnny Jacksonâ??. We met Sammy Davis, Jr. that night too.â? â??That mustâ??ve been something!â? â??And that night he called Michael â??the little midgetâ??.â? â??I bet Michael didnâ??t get mad that time!â? â??He didnâ??t. And Sammy sensed Michael knew waaay too much for his young age, so things were fine. Then we had our other T.V. performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. One thing I know people remember from this performance was Michael pink hat, the blue waistcoat, and his brown-patterned shirt. But people never knew about the panic we went through to nab that costume choice. By now, Michael had gotten into the hat thing just like Johnny. He, Jackie, and Marlon was supposed to wear them for that performance but someone had forgotten them, so poor â??ole Suzanne had to get what she could get from the Greenwich Village Market. All she could find was that damn pink hat for Michael. Michael looked at himself through the mirror with his brown, blue, and then pink. He said he liked it. That thing with standing out in a crowd never scared him. He likes to stand out crowd. â??When the rest of our family arrived to Los Angeles, the rest of us had our own little welcome party for them. And we were happy to present our new home. It was three-story. It was a detached house, and it had a zigzagged front path way to the front door. Right below us was Sunset Boulevard. What had to make me happy, I think, was when Mother got to her new master bedroom. They basically had a near-panoramic view of L.A. She almost cried of joy. â??I guess that backyard of ours full of bricks was worth it, huh?â? â??Damn right,â? I smiled. â??And before the madness in America started, our love of exotic animals began at Queens Road. This was when Michael finally got the rats for his pets,â? both of us smiled, â??nine years after he got in trouble for having the initial rats. And it was Hazel who got me a boa constrictor on my sixteenth birthday. We named it Rosieâ?¦.â? â??â?¦.After the stripperâ?¦or what?â? Jermaine laughs, â??Thatâ??s the thing. We either named it as that deliberate reminder, or it was just a coincidence. But Michael allowed his rats to hang onto his shoulder blades, or scurry over his body. Now you can see why â??Benâ?? was so special to him: art imitating life. He loved his rats.â? â??Yeah?â? â??He had rats running all over the house. But unknown to us, Michael began breeding his animals.â? I burst out laughing. â??Two and three became a tiny colony, then eight to ten of them. They were EVERYWHERE! Through our closets, shoes, in our clothes. It irritated Mother, and if he didnâ??t stop breeding them, Michael would have to lose all of themâ?¦.So we started feeding them to Rosie.â? â??Eeew!â? â??Hey itâ??s just the circle of life. Anyways, Michael would say *â??Weâ??re getting ready to feed Rosie!â? A bunch of footsteps would follow to see this â??great eventâ??. *â??Poor rat.â? Michael would say. And in truth, we didnâ??t admit to our neighbors about our pets. We werenâ??t willing to alarm them in that way. Our noise from our rehearsals, so Motown moved us to another rented home at Bowmont Drive. It was one level with twelve rooms. But I liked it, James Cagney was our neighbor.â? â??Ohâ?¦the legend!â? â??Yeah, him. It was like having Frank Sinatra as a next door neighbor. I really felt like we were in Hollywood then! â??But soon our life in L.A. was a matter of this in this order, *â??school, studio, sleep, school, studio, sleepâ?. We were just busy at work working on our album, while doing the basics to live. Early 1970 was â??ABCâ??. Then three months after that was â??The Love You Saveâ??. Right about then youâ??d have to say we were ready to tour.â? â??Is that when the Jackson-mania started?â? I was cheesing. â??Thatâ??s when the Jackson-mania started!â? I get a large sip of my drink while I let Jermaine rest his mouth for a few seconds. â??We knew things werenâ??t right when we began feeling what felt like a small earthquake.â? â??Not an EARTHQUAKE!â? â??YES an EARTHQUAKE! We were at the Spectrum area in Philly. Michael kept doing what he was doingâ??which was performingâ??but what was in-front of him was a massive amount of fans. They were going MADâ??screaming, crying, and pulling at their hair. The girls were teens and preteens. There were 16,000 in a crowd, but hundreds of them had gotten out of their seats to get to the stage. The first hint that there was trouble was then the tremors started. Michael looked at m as he sang for a sign. Then the stage began to slant and it was beginning to buckle underneath us. Next thing you know, my bass amplifier fell, Johnnyâ??s cymbals crashed, and five mic stands swayed as well. â??We looked at Joseph, Suzanne, and Bill Bray. They yelled for us to get off the stageâ?¦so thatâ??s what we did. I left my bass there, while Michael and Marlon were already lost in the crowd. Every man for himself,â? he smiled. â??So we bolted to our limo while the crowd gave chase. We ended up as a heap on as we threw ourselves in the limo.â? We laughed. â??Michaelâ??s only word for it was â??wildâ??. But he complained that we hadnâ??t gotten the chance to finish our song. We were only on our fifth song but had a 15-song set. But that day, we learned how determined and for real our newfound fans were because they were still sprinting after our limo. *â??BILL! THEYâ??RE STILL COMING! THEYâ??RE RUNNING! THEYâ??RE RUNNING!â? thatâ??s what Michael was saying. I remember one of us said, *â??Look at how fast that girl is running!â?, and Michael was chuckling. Guess what he said,â? Jermaine could barely hold his composure because he was laughing so hard. â??What?â? â??Itâ??s going to embarrass Michael a little I think, but he said, *â??LOOK at that girlâ??s titties wobbling!â?, I burst out laughing myself. Then I covered my own chest then leaned down on the table. â??This is probably why us girls are now insecure about our boobs. Yâ??all are always the ones critiquing them.â? Jermaine just laugh, but I must admit, I was too embarrassed to face Jermaine again, but I know I had to. â??I mean we did hella great before that performance at Philadelphia with our records, and even being the first child group to achieve the status of selling more than a million recordsâ??â? â??Hella good, Jermaineâ??â? â??But by us being *â??hidden awayâ?, that made fans want to make things tangible even more because they kind of had no idea how we looked or who we were BEFORE the concert. In T.V. studios, weâ??d only get moderate applauseâ??â? â??Psshâ??â? â??Even at our schools, nothing seemed like it was going to change. But at Bancroft Middleâ??which is where I, Marlon, and LaToya attended school. Kids were asking for autographs, but in so many words, we became the â??cool kidsâ??. Know any like that?â? â??Pssh, donâ??t I?â? I rolled my eyes. â??But to be honest, weâ??d go home and laugh about it. The two older brothers were at Fairfax High, while Michael and Kerry, Mr. Gordyâ??s son, went toe Gardner Elementary.â? â??Aww,â? I chuckled. â??But it only became real once we got on onstage. And it showed once we were at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, and Inglewood Forum in L.A. We set a record for the highest attendance AND we had *â??a near riotâ?. â??Those darn Jacksons!â? â??Yeah, those darn Jacksons. But the chaos was something weâ??d only have to get used to. At first it felt weird because we were familyâ??just five brothers from Indiana who had hit it big. So weâ??d look at girls like whatâ??s up with you acting this way? I mean when it was us meeting Smokey or someone else, we were able to stay calm, but after a little, we got used to it because it was an everyday thing. But I mean, we never thought about those four lettered words â??fameâ?? or what it could do to us. We never really thought being adored or than from someone we really knew because our eyes were ALWAYS on the prizeâ??being the best and success. â??While Mother, Janetâ??who was probably the only four-year-old in America to fall asleep while one of our concerts, Papa Samuel, and even Rebbie who came from Kentucky to watch us perform, Rebbie wondered how could the girls even enjoy the music if they were yelling over the music. Even Joseph couldnâ??t argue with the massive approval. He said the last time he saw something like that was at his Baptist church when he was a kid. So thatâ??s MASSIVE approval. â??And from state-to-state, man I tell you Lyric, the records just kept soaring. I know you remember when â??Iâ??ll Be Thereâ?? hit the shelves.â? â??Yeahâ?¦that summer of 1970.â? â??Yeah. And by then we were the only group to have released four number one hits consecutively. It was amazing then and itâ??s still amazing to me now. But by the time we had our fourth concert at the Boston Gardens in Bostonâ??â? â??Of course.â? â??We were SURE to have more security personnel. We even had our own *â??exit strategyâ?. Weâ??d rehearse them during the sound checks. We got so good at it that it took us only 30 seconds to get from the stage to the limo. And the roadies told me not to dump my bassâ?¦ever again, so it Titoâ??s and my job to learn how to get to the limo with our instruments still attached to us. What an art that was, Iâ??ll tell you that!! â??But Michael NEVER comprehended why these girls would take off their under wear so they could throw them onstage to us.â? â??Probably reminded him of Rosie.â? â??Thatâ??s what I was thinkingâ?¦.â? â??Wellâ?¦what about yâ??all? What were the rest of yâ??all thinking?â? â??Well we didnâ??t mind,â? Jermaine says matter-of-factly. â??I have to say I began losing count of how many bras or panties I had hanging around the neck of my bass while I was playing.â? I grab Jermaineâ??s hands real quick, â??Uh Jermaine, *still a girl here, still a GIRL.â? â??Sorry,â? he laughs. â??But we learned that a fan could just pop up while we were performing. But the real CRAZY thing and the IRONY I have to say is that at the end of our concerts were when we really had to run for dear life. The fans got smart and began leaving early to go to the exits so they could, as I put it, â??mobâ?? our car. They were the scariest times because it was as comfortable as rolling around on sharp pinsâ?¦.I mean one time we TRIED to ease the pain by slipping an autograph. Ten hands grabbed at it, I swear it was a piranha scene. Bill Bray, our security man, told us to never repeat that action because if we did, basically weâ??d be armless. Theyâ??d just pull it off. â??It could be a damning situation trying to get through those crowds at time because we could get bruised up. Everything we had would get pulled at. I know youâ??ve heard this beforeâ??â??I love my fansâ??â??but sometimes that love becomes a struggle. Understand where Iâ??m getting to?â? â??â?¦Yeah, I kinda know where youâ??re getting at.â? â??Oh you know what I mean. Itâ??s okay to flatter yourself.â? â??Just trynna stay modest,â? I smile cutely real quick. â??How Michael would handle it was that heâ??d just keep low and made sure to duck away from the crowd. Then when we got back to the hotel, weâ??d compare our bruises, which became our souvenirs as a reminder of which city they happened in. Weâ??d tease yâ??all too.â? â??Huh?â? â??When we talked our way through the madness, Iâ??d do the â??play-deadâ?? impression that many girls did so they could stay stuck longer to us. We even tried a decoy with the Volkswagen to get awayâ??whatever we could do to escape to some safety. Detroit of 1971 was when fans tried catching us unaware, like rushing our planes!â? â??What did yâ??all do?â? â??Weâ??d jump to the ground, haul ass to the limo, and zip away.â? My eyes were big. â??Well we couldnâ??t hang around. But more fans got even clever and began sneaking up on us in waiting cars to follow us at our hotels. They just followed us everywhere. The weirdest thing though was when weâ??d call our own mom and we were told that fans were camped out by our house. Sheâ??d invite them in. Now you can understand while Mother said that we should respect our fans; they helped make us who we are because they love us so. We didnâ??t mind that they followed us. It showed us we were accepted and doing something right. What ruffled his feathers, though, was that our finale would be cut short on most nights. But Michael understood the craziness and just accepted it. But he loves yâ??all. He loves his fans.â? By now Michaelâ??s twelve. Jermaine is telling me how his brother really had something special even then. He came from studying his idols to studying his OWN performances. He went over their early hotel days when they were so energized at night, so they couldnâ??t sleep. But itâ??s not like Michael Jackson, or Marlon Jackson, or Tito Jackson, or big bro Jackie, or the heartthrob Jermaine could take a quick sprint in the hotel halls because once the fans spotted Bill Bray, then they KNEW they were close to the Jacksons. â??Heâ??d be sitting in a chair outside our door.â? He said. And since there was not much room, there would be seven boys with this pent-up energy, so theyâ??d be bouncing off the walls. â??Whoa, sounds like a fun sleepover,â? I grinned. I KNOW I wouldâ??ve been hell if I ever attended one of those. I knew Iâ??d be getting on their nervesâ??Iâ??d be in Jermaineâ??s ear saying, â??And you BETTER not be on that phone with Hazel!â? Or Iâ??d act all sensitive and â??shyâ? around Michael to keep us on good terms. And when he told me Tito and Jackie had to be the most bothered by this, since they were seventeen and twenty-one, I was thinking, Oh yes, I knew I wouldâ??ve been hell on their hands. I probably wouldâ??ve been in their faces asking â??Why arenâ??t you DOING anything? Why arenâ??t you having a good time?â? â??Weâ??d play games and Michael would have his â??amazingâ?? booby traps. And Bill was amazing because he could take a joke and was like our uncle. Weâ??d call him *â??Shack Pappy.â? I laughed. â??Hereâ??s something true about my brother, he loves classical music. Get him in a bad mood, and play some classical music: see how that goes. His favorite isâ??lâ? â??â??The Nutcrackerâ?? or Beethovenâ??s Symphonyâ??better yet his MANY symphonies.â? â??No, you were right the first time.â? â??Ooh lucky guess.â? â??Yes, see you know a little something about him. â??The Nutcracker Suiteâ?? by Tchaikovsky. With us being co-leads, Michael and I were the most likely to share a room together. Michael couldnâ??t bear Joseph trying to make an adjoining room. While Mike was the prankster, I became interested in girl. â??And be careful if youâ??re ever on the phone or something. Michael just might take a glass cup to the wall and to his ear so he can listen to whatâ??s being said. Heâ??d do that even when we were asked to leave a room when we were at Motown.â? Donâ??t I know that now??? â??Michael just gets the nosy trait from Mama Chrystal. He always wanted to know what was going on, or what Joseph had planned next. We would even listen-in on what the fans were saying in our hotel rooms. â??And with Joseph having the connecting rooms, heâ??d have a group of girls right by our beds in the mornings.â? â??See, un-uh, somebody wouldâ??ve caught my foot in their mouth if they hada pulled the covers off of me. Iâ??m rarely an early bird. I like to catch my â??beauty sleepâ??.â? â??Michael even locked the door once, but Joseph wasnâ??t having it. And we couldnâ??t say anything out loud. We had to respect. Thatâ??s just how things went. During these times, Michael and I spent the most time together. He looked up to me while I did the duty of looking out for him. When I didnâ??t know if he was fine, I wasnâ??t fine. And I never really had any fights with my brothers. Things with me and Tito would get out of hand sometimes when a play-fight turned real, but thatâ??s about all. And Jackie was the one to instigate it sometimes.â? â??Wowâ?¦see, I use to think it was Michael and Marlon that was the closest because theyâ??reâ??â? â??The closest in age.â? â??Yeahâ?¦.â? â??Trust me; youâ??re not the only one. I know more people were thinking the same. But nopeâ??it was twelve-year-old Michael and sixteen-year-old Jermaine. Only thing Michael and I fought over was the mirror in the bathroom.â? â??Oh how modest.â? â??Ever brother had to make sure his afro was lookinâ?? fly! Iâ??d say I had the thickest and biggest â??fro while Michael would say that he was the front man and girls wanted HIS hair the most to grab on.â? â??Both is true,â? I nod. â??But he was also a devil about the room service thing. Heâ??d order food for other people and have it sent to their rooms. So if you ever woke up in the middle of the night with random food service, it was probably Michael. â??But all jokes aside, one city that didnâ??t welcome us was Mobile, Alabama.â? â??â?¦Wowâ?¦isnâ??t that right up the road from where Katherine is from?â? â??Doesnâ??t matter. Our fans were loyal, but like you were saying earlier, America has came too damn far for us as a nation to not be accepting of one another. It was that feeling, you know that vibe Lyric,â? Jermaine was looking me dead in the eyes to make sure I was paying attention, â??that we got OUTSIDE of the arena to understand that things werenâ??t the same. I mean weâ??re not from the Southâ??and Iâ??m talking about the Jackson kids. Mother and Joseph warned us about the infamous prejudice that went on in the Deep South. They told us how black communities were still aroused by the boycotts in the â??50s and the white supremacists actions from the KKK. I have to say though, we never really KNEW until we had our own firsthand experience until we reached Alabama in January of 1971. â??First hint was that our limo driver, who was white, was cold and abrupt with us. He wasnâ??t friendly like our other ones, and he wouldnâ??t open our doors for us once we got to the hotel. I mean Iâ??m not saying weâ??re kings or anything, but as a limousine driver, isnâ??t that your JOB to open doors for those youâ??re driving to-and-from places? And employees at the hotel refused to help with our bags. We didnâ??t have the mentality of a spoiled kid, but we just observed the sharp contrasting treatments thrown at us.â? For the first time, I saw Jermaine put his arms to the table and let his head rest there. At first I thought he was just wiping his face off or something, I really didnâ??t know. But once it felt like a minute had passed and I was looking around us, that I noticed something was wrong. â??Jermaine,â? but he didnâ??t move. I nudged him. He still didnâ??t give much of a response though. So when I tried grabbing for his hand underneath his head, he finally raised it, but he had a tear rolling down his face. â??Whatâ??s going on?â? Thatâ??s when he let me get both of his hands. â??We were pulling bags out of the trunk when we saw a KKK paraphernalia. Obviously, it was intended for our eyes. We froze. It was that sinister. But we just kept quiet and had our heads down. But the same ignorance faced us when we got to the hotel reception. He was saying, *â??We donâ??t seem to have got any rooms booked for you.â? So Suzanne or someone else had to tell him that indeed, our rooms were a long-standing booking. *â??No mistake. We have no rooms booked.â? So after basically having to beg for our room, Michael couldnâ??t reason out WHY this was happening to us. He understood that we had black AND white fansâ?¦.â? Once Jermaine brought up the Ku Klux Klan paraphernalia, I stopped breathing. A warm tear dropped from my own eye. Itâ??s just that I donâ??t get itâ??how could a person hate an entire race? Iâ??ve had friends, crushes, and everything you can think of that has been out of my race. When I was little, OF COURSE I noticed Black and White/White and Black, however you want to phrase it because itâ??s all the same, has it differences. But that never dissuade me from becoming friends with a white kid. To be honest, I thought the difference was cool. Even meant to be because God WANTED his children to be created in a way to coexist with each other. So now you can kinda see how that has shaped me as a person. â??But I have to say it made us more determined to kick some butt onstage too! We had to identify with our black fans that have dreams. Itâ??s like what Sammy Davis, Jr. once said in 1965â??â? *â??Being a star has made it possible for me to get insulted in places where the average Negro could never hope to go and get insulted.â? Jermaine just stared at me in shock. I shrug. â??My dad used to mumble that to himself anytime he came home from a tough day at work.â? He nodded. â??And he made me memorize itâ?¦I remember I cried,â? I smiled a little from that fond memory, â??because though I didnâ??t UNDERSTAND it then, it sounded sad and so serious. Even scary. But he made me learn it and told me it would make more sense later in life.â? Jermaine just silently smiled in support of me this time. â??But once we got on the plane to leave, we had bad weather. We were ALL nervous flyers, I think. But we always had a concert a few days apart so we had no choice. This flight however petrified me and Michael because the plane took a sharp drop and it began violently shaking. We were gripping the armrests tightly. And Michael was crying. â??But things got worse in 1972 with the flying experience. A little later on when we were to leave this cityâ??canâ??t remember the nameâ??we couldnâ??t find Michael. But things eventually became clear because back in Gary, Michael would hide under the bed from Joseph. Bill found him there. Michael refused until Bill had to carry him out there. This only happened a few times when he felt unsafe, and heâ??d call for our mother. And yes, lots of candy helped too. â??After it was proven that the Jackson 5 was successful in the States, there was a demand for us to go across the world as well. I have to say, life was beginning to come at us fast. So we had to keep it up with two more albums being released. By this time we got our own dolls, clothes, hairspray. The man who helped us with that was Fred Rice. He worked with the Monkees and the Fab Four. But then there was talk of having our own cartoon show. â??But you know ONE PLACE we were welcomed was our Gary. We did two home concerts in early â??71 at the Westside High School. We hadnâ??t been there in fourteen months. This became our T.V. especial, â??Goinâ?? Back to Indianaâ??. It was sweet how people looked at us with joy. *â??We were of them.â? Jermaine told me how there was a temporary street sign named â??Jackson 5 Boulevardâ? once they saw they original home. Then there was a huge sign on their lawn that read â??WELCOME HOME JACKSON 5â??KEEPERS OF THE DREAMâ?. â??We even found our friend, Bernard Gross. â??Life had moved us forward to Cali. But it was like having an old pair of shoes, but not wanting to get rid of them. We left friends behind but had fans around the world. Now we had friends everywhere. I told Michael that as he mused over the memories we left behind.â? Jermaine finished off with how his family was hugely honored by their mayor, Richard Hatcher, and they had put Gary on the world map; kinda like what Iâ??d like to do with Valdosta one day. They even had a theater named after them! Instead of it being the Palace Theater, they changed it to the Jackson 5 Theater. â??We STILL have the house on 2300 Jackson Street. It still looks the same on outside and our parents still own it.â? â??Well Jermaine,â? he looks at me, â??that only seems like the right thing to do.â? (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*) Wow. Whoa! That was A LOOOOOT. And it some parts it was pretty heavy/serious. I know and Iâ??m sorry. So donâ??t rush yourselves with reading this part if you donâ??t want. The Jacksons have a lot of history :). Just stick in there with me pwease -Aariyan P.S. when I read about the â??Shack Pappyâ? statement, it reminded me of a scene from their 1992 movie when the water was dumped on Bill Bray and I remember Michael called him something, but now I believe it was â??Shack Pappyâ? :)â??now it makes sense. And with the statement when Lyric says â??sheâ??s still a girlâ? to Jermaine, one of my teachers have said that more than once and it just seemed to naturally fit.
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