When I first saw the cover of
THE MICHAEL JACKSON TAPES: A TRAGIC ICON REVEALS HIS SOUL IN INTIMATE CONVERSATION, with the ominous shadow of Jackson's face above the bold byline of Rabbi Schmuley Boteach, I thought there had to be some kind of mistake. Was this some sort of joke? You know, where a rabbi, a king of pop and a kid with cancer walk into a bar? (No, that's not quite right, but the three of them did walk into Neverland Ranch together. Perhaps the trio isn't as unlikely as I first suspected.)
Turns out, the rabbi was Jackson's mentor for nearly two years in 2001 and 2002, just a year before the singer's accuser, Gavin Arvizo, came forward with allegations of child molestation. The first of many shockers in the book is that the rabbi and his family were staying at the ranch the night the first instance of alleged abuse happened. One gets the sense that Boteach doesn't believe Michael is guilty, but then again, he did catch him in a few lies during the tapings.
Ironically enough, the rabbi was in Jackson's life to help him rebuild his character after the devastating scandals from the '90s rocked the entertainer's kingdom. (Jackson had settled that case, but claimed he was innocent and just wanted to avoid a long, lengthy trial and public opinion.)
Innocence. Now there's a word you see repeatedly throughout the book. The JACKSON TAPES of the title refer to the recordings of interviews that Boteach conducted with Jackson to gain a better understanding of the man behind the myth, in order to steer him in the right direction. For anyone familiar with the rabbi's work, he does this via counseling and his best-selling books. I've been a fan of the rabbi since I first saw him on OPRAH years ago. Heck, if anyone could've helped Jackson, Boteach was the guy to do it.
First, the rabbi told Michael that he needed to place emphasis not on the children he wanted to help, but their parents, and that way he could still help the children, but it wouldn't be, well, creepy. After all, Jackson had a lot of ground to gain to win back good favor. The parent initiative did gain momentum, and Jackson was on board for talks and high-powered meetings until his management thought Boteach was trying to soften him too much and making him too accessible.
This book was literally unputdownable. The only section that steered toward boredom was the interview with Michael's mother, Katherine. It wasn't so much the soft questions (the tough one about Joe, her husband and the father of their children, was answered with the recorder off), but because Katherine answered with a lot of yes/no responses and didn't seem to want to discuss much other than that Michael was a sensitive child, that he loves children and that she wished he hadn't left the Jehovah's Witnesses church.
The rest of the interviews, with Jackson himself, were fascinating. Seriously, did you think the singer had much of a brain? I guess I always thought of him as the scarecrow in
THE WIZ, with his only passions as music and dancing, not worldly or spiritual matters. But the book reveals his philosophical leanings, his extremely distorted body image, his honesty about the ugliness of aging and how he'd prefer to die young vs. old, and his feelings toward women. He was attracted to them, yet didn't trust them.
Boteach believes Jackson's aversion (practically repulsion in my opinion) toward sexuality came from going to strip clubs as a child and seeing women as sex objects who used men for money, period. He hated for women to see him as a sexual conquest. He got embarassed just thinking about it. I'm not even certain Jackson ever had sex. Yes, he was married twice, but so what? The rabbi wanted to set him up and believed Jackson needed the stability of a family, a wife and a mother to help raise his children. Jackson could only think of a couple of suitable "types" of partners: people like Mother Theresa and Princess Diana. Seriously.
Regarding idolatry, Jackson didn't think it was necessarily a bad thing that he was idolized since his intensions were pure. Like Jesus. Same goes for people daring to think he could ever harm children. He loved kids and wanted to be surrounded by them, like Jesus. If people had perverse thinking, it was their own problem. In fact, he says it killed him inside that people could ever think he could harm a child, ever.
Yet, he uses the words "I'm in love with innocence" repeatedly. If "in love with" isn't sexual, then I'm not sure what he meant by that. Perhaps he felt less judged by children and he did want to "heal the world," which is very believable throughout his conversations. One can sense he carries a great deal of pain, and perhaps knowing all that he has been given, he did want to give back by healing those who are hurting.
Yes, we get that stardom and fame screw people up — even worse when your father is beating your naked body and nothing you do is ever good enough. Jackson would feel ill anytime he knew his father was approaching. That
has to mess a kid up.
One thing I never understood in the book is why Jackson kept calling his mother an "angel and a saint," except that he must have idolized her, too. She knew about Joe's abuse, so I can't imagine Michael not being angry at her for not doing more to stop it, beyond telling Joe not to be so hard on them. The children asked her repeatedly to divorce him, yet because of her faith, she wouldn't.
Additionally, Michael said he didn't see his mother that much growing up. However, he did live at home until he was 27, and even went door to door during his
THRILLER fame in disguise so he could talk about his faith. Impressive.
Kudos to Boteach for trying to help, at least. If Jackson had listened to him and heeded the advice, he might still be alive today and a whole lot less "weird" in our minds. That advice was:
1. Let his kids know their mother and have a relationship with her.
2. Never be alone with a child,
ever.
3. Get married.
4. Get back into a church and stick to a schedule.
5. Not let the wrong people influence him and spend his money.
As we know, Jackson didn't heed
any of it, slipping deeper into his prescription-medication addictions as he got back into the limelight, due to financial pressure more than anything.
From TAPES, one will learn many more interesting things about the singer's thinking, spirituality and relationships. Yet, it's just as good a read for any of us to take the rabbi's advice on how to heal our own relationships and live healthy inner lives, whether or not you give a flip about the King of Pop.
—Malena Lott
Buy it at Amazon.
Malena is the author of DATING DA VINCI and THE STORK REALITY, and runs our sister site, www.BookEndBabes.com.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
On Michael’s Birthday (August 29th), I sent out a massive eblast telling whoever I could that the media continues their slander by spreading the vicious lie that MJ was addicted to narcotics, but the TRUTH is, he simply needed to sleep.
Please note that no narcotic prescription medicine like Xanax, Demerol, and Oxycotin, nor alcohol and no pills were found his stomach. All of that was media lies and quickness to make the King of Pop look like the worst drug addict the world has ever seen.
Just like before, the media owes Mr. Jackson and his family a huge apology!
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MJ had a huge amount of medication given to him the night he died, which he apparently tolerated well enough to still be awake.
That level of tolerance indicates chronic and frequent use of the drugs as one does not build tolerance without repeated use of the drugs.
Whether one calls him an addict or dependent on the drugs, he took too much and he took too often.
That is addiction. That is what killed him.
I would simply like to say this :
I do not believe anyone should judge Michael in this addiction matter. Now taking things that are presented to us by the media as fact, let’s just go along for a minute, we have no idea how the addiction started and we certainly did not walk Michael’s shoes so we cant say either what we would have done in his place.
I am going to admit some personnal stuff here in hopes that maybe some can just begin to comprehend or maybe I will simply be classified as an odd ball for opening up on this. I have MS and it is a well known fact that people with MS are more likely to have ups and downs and are prone to get depression and more than once in their life. So I’ve been severely depressed, you know when it hurts so bad that your almost entire upper body is in pain, it really hurts. So then starts the very fun cycle of it, you get insomnia, you are exhausted both mentally and physically so everything that happens seems to be amplified like at least 10 times. Then goes all you mental clarity, it’s hard to even think and entirely resolve any issue, by the time you are able to figure out a plan you no longer have the energy required. That’s when all breaks loose, it is so difficult to get back up there when you are down so low and dont have the energy to make all the efforts required. That being said I want to point out that I have a lot less to be concerned about than Michael Jackson did so I would find easy to believe that when you know you just cant seem to do it on your own and so much is at stake you might start considering your doctors recommendations and be tempted to take the meds. However many times they omit to mention that they can be addictive, they probably have valid reasons to do so and are well intentionned, nonetheless fact is fact. Considering as well the fact that some people are more prone to get addicted to different things I think it is fair to say that some get hooked and become dependant and the irony of it all is that the more meds you take the resistent you become and the more you need to take to obtain the same initial effects. When you become dependant you basically feel like you need it to function wich becomes in the person’s mind a bare necessity. At this point as anyone with a good strong addiction to drugs you will do what it takes to obtain your drugs wich have become bare necessities for you to make sure you are able to function everyday. And when you are able through your connections, money or power to get what you want as a drug addict, you will do. I think anyone who is disagreeing here either has very little knowledge about addictions or is just plain refusing to give Michael the benefit of the doubt. I am sorry if I offend anyone here as it is in no way my intention and I say this in all honesty. I do not like to judge people as it is not my place, I’m pretty sure god will take care of that when the time comes. I am simply putting down here the basics of drug addiction and it is what it is. An addict does not think like the average person with a clear mind and therefore in my honest opinion they are no longer acting and thinking as they would if they were ABLE to be there real inner person before the entire addiction problem started. It is not as easy as we all can put it “well all he has to do is get him self clean and get off it”. That takes an enourmous amount of courage and grounding wich is often obtained on a voluntary basis and usually requires a lot of help from close people around the person. To my understanding, wether it was Michael’s fault or not and I am not going to start a debate on that, Michael had nobody close enough to him on a regular basis other than his children to fit the role. As much as he loved his children it was a battle between the drugs and himself and the drugs always seem to come out on top if you dont have those close grounding, people to you. And as I said already, addiction is what it is. Who does not have a child, parent, uncle, friend or co-worker who has never had to fight this battle? We all know how it goes if we dare think about it and admit it to ourselves and let’s please not forget Michael was before anything else a human being, beyond the fame, beyond the king of Pop, beyond the money, and beyond anything else one could think of here. Someone needed to put aside their personal fears of being alineated from Michael’s life and grab the bull by the horns and get through to him if he was on such a bad path as most say he was. There was a life to be saved here, it was no time to be thinking of a big pay check or the pride of being seen with such a superstar or of being able to say Michael was a good friend or an acquaintance. I want to say here as I am done trying to explain this addiction here that I KNOW it dont mean Michael could have been saved, you see it all the time, the drugs are powerful and too often win. What saddens me is I have not heard from one single person yet that they have tried to that extent to help Michael, those who did try as far as I heard so far sure backed off in a hury when they felt the relationship being threatened by their insistance on the issue. I do not condemn those people either we are all only human and we all face these difficult choices and decisions and fear is powerful whether we like to admit it or not.
All this being said, yes I know it is a very long reply, I want to make it very clear here that none of this reflects my opinion on wether Michael was a drug addict or not. As I mentionned at the very beggining this reply is based on assuming one goes along with what has been presented to us by variousl different people. I am going to save my opinion for myself, I simply wanted to inform people a little about drug substance abuse cause I know to well first hand what can lead you to such a problem. My father is an AA and my brother is a cocain addiction survivor so I’ve seen a lot. I myself do not take drugs other than the ones prescribed by my physician from time to time and my daily MS injections, I do not have an alchool problem either only a few drinks a year at the very most. I feel kinda duhh having just mentionned this stuff on my drug/alchool use but at the same time I felt it was so necessary if I didn’t want people to judge me as a basket case and not take my words seriously thinking that I am a junkie deffending another junkie.
I just hate when people judge people, we dont have the right to do it and we dont know what goes on between closed doors, more importantly it is none of our business what goes on behind other peoples closed doors unless a crime against someone is being committed. Before anyone even wants to get started on the completely different issue here of child molestation I simply want to say I am not debating that issue here but rather sharing my knowledge and personal experience on addictions.
Please everyone, Michael was discussed and judged more than enough when he was in the limelight, please give him so peace and respect now. It is all in god’s hands now and we are not changing anything that has already been done nor are we helping in anyway. So bottom line, to continue spreading Michael’s dirty laundry all over the place for the world to see or to keep judging him, nothing good is or can come out of this judgemental behavior agains Michael.
It’s all for love and peace.
These were, as the book cover suggests, intimate conversations. They weren’t meant for public consumption – that’s why Shmuley never published this book whilst Michael was alive. How despicable that someone Michael trusted and confided in to such a huge degree has simply abused that trust. Michael had enough people around who abused him in life, and now they’re doing the same at a time when he can’t answer back. Shame on you, Boteach. I refuse to call you a ‘rabbi’. ‘Rabbi’ means ‘teacher’, but you are just a so-called counsellor who has gravely abused your client’s trust. You were and are in no position to judge someone who was clearly on a much higher spiritual plane than you will ever be.
Rabbi Boteach is a person searching for the limelight. How could he betray the trust of a friend. Michael was a shining light of hope and opportunity to millions around the world suffering from neglect of soul and spirit. His musical genius will live on forever in our hearts and minds. Michael was a good man who healed the world with his loving ways and words. His O2 concert would have been the final memorial to his prodigious talent; the rehearsal movie just released showed him to be in top form. All the lies and inuendo of recent months will eventually be washed away when the guilty are brought to trial and justice prevails for the untimely death of our living legend.
Honestly….this book brought me closer to Michael. It took me 2 days to read it and I have read it 3 times already.
I thought it was beautifully written. I cried while reading the book. I knew MJ was hurting but, not this much. I always wanted to meet him….to hung him and say “I love you for compassion and kind-heart, not your celebrity.”.
Mr. Boteach expressed that he will give (profit made for the book) to charity.
He also stated, this was MJ’s wish.
True or not….hasn’t this book brought you closer to Michael Jackson?
If you read the book you will hear Michael begging for this bood to be released.. he recorded it special for this reason and wanted the world to see the other side of him. i read the book and it changed my view of Michael and made me judge him way more favorably… as he wanted…. how sad for people who judge an author before they read his book…….. This book was Michael’s dying wish being kept…. honoring the dead.
He was a legend, he will be missed.
If I did not misread you, miss Lott, you said that Mike for you was a scarecrow , an empty head creature, WHAT AN IMPACT CAN DO A SCARECROW IN THE WHOLE WORD! I want to be one. What about you? don’t you want to be one, dear? to be missed, to be cried, to be idolized but overall to be LOVED as he was or I should say as He is???
I bet you are thinking since he died OMG the world is so wrong, why that 10 years old is crying for michael jackson if he never sow him performing, why in many countries were mobs for mike? they don’t even know him! Why are those beautiful young girls crying over him? why in youtube there are millions of people searching and honoring him? They are crazy, definetively there is not other explanation. Is it what you saying, right?
Ines, yes you did misread me.
I just finished reading The Michael Jackson Tapes…no matter what, MJ is the kindest person that has ever lived. He loved his children, his fans and the whole world.
If I saw him walking down the street for any reason – even to talk to someone, I would hug him, tight and tell him “I am here. I am here.” Not because he was The King of Pop, because he was Michael.
I love MJ the singer but, I LOVE Michael the person. When he passed, he took a piece of me with him.
I will and always remember Michael as a humanitarian & a wonderful soul we had the honor to have in our generation.
I would love to visit his grave site (w/permission of the Jackson Family) to touch the tombstone and say “I miss you Michael. I am here for you. You are not alone. I love you.”.
I HAVE READ THE BOOK AND FOUND IT TO BE REMARKABLE. I , TOO, HAD AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE AND CRIED ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE BOOK. IT’S SO SAD THAT SOMEONE THAT WAS SO GIVING, AND LOVING, AND KIND, COULDN’T FIND LOVE FOR HIMSELF. THANK YOU SCHMULEY FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL ACCOUNT OF MICHAELS LIFE. I KNOW IT HAD TO BE HARD FOR YOU TO WRITE THE BOOK. MANY TEARS I’M SURE WERE CHOKED BACK. I WISH I COULD HAVE KNOWN SUCH A BEAUTIFUL SOUL. I WILL ALWAYS LOVE HIM FOR HIS HEART. I WISH I WOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE STREET WHEN HE WAS LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO TALK TO. I WOULD HAVE BEEN THERE FOR HIM. I LOVE YOU MICHAEL AND YOU ARE GREATLY MISSED!
i read this book, i thought the questions that were asked were great questions, questions im sure every reporter has died to try to ask him, shmuley was very fortunate to have michael as a friend as was michael was fortunate to have shmuley as a friend in some ways
reading this book there were things i found very annoying, i felt like shmuley was creating the answers for michael, shmuley would ask a question many times and it seemed like michael would answer and would be cut off and shmuley would create an answer and michael would agree. even if that is how michael felt, i would like to hear michael say it
another thing that really bothered me was how shmuley would seem in awe of michael in the interview, but in his own little narrative he was so critical and almost extremely judgemental, i was in shock of some of the things shmuley said, almost as if there weren’t more than right answer or belief to something, for instance, michael believing hitler couldve been changed, i actually agreed with that even before i read the book, i have always believed that if something can be learned, with time, it can be ‘unlearned’, and shmuley even said that michael was thinking, or was thinking that he was like, the messiah, because he believed he could help change someone? really?
i understand drug addiction, and i understand bad money spending, but shmuley made michael out to be a complete lost soul, when he actually had a great soul, with good intentions, there was one part of the book where shmuley said “he was just another self-absorbed celebrity” and another part was talking of his extreme generosities, and went on to say how humble he believe michael was
i know he did say his reasoning behind creating the book, he said that this was FOR michael, but i did feel like so many parts of this book were against michael, i felt some parts were pretty slanderous, and the question always sticks in my mind why it was released just in time in michael’s height of his death
I am glad that I read this book because I was able to read the transcripts of the interviews with Michael. I take significant issue with Boteach. I do believe that he betrayed a confidence in releasing this book now after Michael’s death. Why did I buy it then? I guess it was purely my desire to know more about Michael, the person, vs the performer and on that plane, the book did not disappoint. Boteach continually refers to Michael as a “celebrity” and he mitigates Michael’s accomplishments and his worldwide impact. He does not acknowlegde that this man was a phenom, the likes of which we might not see again for some time. Michael was a moral man who felt the pain of others and wanted to help those he did not even know. He helped so many. I have no doubt that Michael suffered greatly after false accusations were made against him and that this coupled with unfair media treatment, led to his untimely death. Boteach though, seems to think that he has the right to judge Michael (I thought only God could do that), so in addition to betraying his confidence, he puts his own spin on Michael’s words. Spin, which I, wholeheartedly disagree with and at times I needed to re-read Michael’s words because I just could not understand how Boteach could draw some of his conclusions.
You lack!