When Steve Harvey, Magic Johnson & Black Legends Were Asked About Michael Jackson! – dw
Michael Jackson spent decades being interviewed, diagnosed, and judged by strangers. But a handful of legends weren’t strangers. They were asked directly what they saw when they looked at him. Steve Harvey says he personally drove him to church during the worst week of his life. Now, I love Michael Jackson.
Me and Michael personal friends. I’ve been on CNN with Michael. Took him to church one time. Michael good dude. Michael lied. Michael just different. That’s all. That’s the only thing. Spike Lee worked beside him and says crossing over cost him something the public never saw. To me, the the greatest ones, the ones that changed the landscape, a game changer. And Michael changed everything.
Jesse Jackson didn’t talk about Michael from a distance. He took his phone call hours before a verdict. I spoke. Michael called me earlier this morning. Uh I could hear in his voice the strain of the anxiety and the stress. maybe even even the fear, but even then he maintained his innocence. He maintained faith in this jury.
Magic Johnson remembers splitting a bucket of fried chicken with him on the floor. The chef bought me out the grilled chicken, but he bought Michael out a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. And I went crazy like, “Wait a minute, Michael, YOU EAT KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN?” Quincy Jones watched him memorize an entire film script out of nerves.
But he he was amazing though because he knew everybody’s lines. Every line in the movie Michael memorized it. He knew every word of dialogue, uh, lyrics, dance steps, everything. He just absorbed everything. Emanuel Lewis grew up inside his house. That’s a baldface lie. I don’t know why people make up lies, but it was a it it was one of my one of my boys back at the time, and he’s like, he just want to surprise me with something.
And years later, Oprah Winfrey admitted her own feelings about him never stayed still. And at the time really had a lot of uh compassion for him and um and those feelings about him changed over the years. Um the feelings didn’t change. I uh in terms of my sense of compassion for him, what I felt was a sense of sadness.
I never knew. Why did Harvey feel he had to defend him so hard? What did Spike Lee see that outsiders missed? Here’s what they actually said. Al Sharpton stood in Harlem and said something that cut through the noise. Before Michael, we were limited and ghettoized. He told the crowd.
But Michael put on a cutaway military jacket, pulled his pants leg up, put on a white glove, and smashed the barriers of segregated music. That wasn’t nostalgia. That was a civil RIGHTS ASSESSMENT. WE UNDERSTOOD THAT BECAUSE MICHAEL MADE YOUNG MEN AND YOUNG WOMEN ALL OVER THE WORLD IMITATE US. FROM JAPAN TO IOWA, FROM FRANCE TO SOUTH AMERICA.
BEFORE I KNOW THEY WOULDN’T PUT A BLACK LIVES ON MTV BEFORE WE WERE militant and GHETTO MILITARY JACKET Sharpton wasn’t done at the memorial. memorial service. He looked directly at Michael’s three children and said words that hit like a verdict. I want his three children to know. Wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy? He declared it was strange what your daddy had to deal with, but he dealt with it anyway.
He dealt with it for us. Us meant black people. Sharpton was framing Michael not as a curiosity, but as someone who absorbed punishment on behalf of a community. And I want his three children to know wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it. He dealt with it anyway.
He dealt with it FOR US. SO SOME CAME TODAY, MRS. JACKSON, to say goodbye to Michael. I came to say THANK YOU. THANK YOU BECAUSE YOU NEVER STOPPED. THANK YOU BECAUSE YOU NEVER GAVE UP. THANK YOU CUZ YOU NEVER GAVE OUT. Sharpton pushed the idea further in interviews. In his view, race was the engine behind the attacks. Whether you agree or not, that was his position and it reflected a sentiment many in the black community shared.
What I said was that Michael Jackson in his career, pop culture, broke down racial barriers. First black to get MTV to run blacks videos. is first black to uh get people like Rolling Stone to wear blacks on the cuff. These are facts. This is not my guess. That perspective matters because it explains why some black figures defended Michael so fiercely.
They weren’t just defending a pop star. They were defending someone they saw as targeted for being too big, too black, too untouchable. Steve Harvey took a different angle. He talked about what Michael meant to black kids watching television in the 1970s and 80s. Before Michael, the image of black success on screen was limited.
Then here came this kid from Gary, Indiana with an afro and a voice that made the whole world stop. You, brother, you have meant a lot to people, man. Thank you so much. And I want to say something to you special too, man. Cuz a lot of people don’t get this one to. But I got to tell you something.
You done meant something to black people, man. And don’t ever think you don’t. And you haven’t. But you have really, really meant something to a lot of minorities across this country. And you remember that about your music, man. You remember that about your videos. You touch us that way. And I’m giving you something, man. Just from one brother to another, that the mainstream America can’t give to you.
Queen Latifah described that same feeling. She never met Michael, but she told David Letterman what he represented to her as a young black girl, especially being a black kid. She said they had their own cartoon. They had their own variety show. For Latifah, the Jackson family proved something simple and enormous. black people could own the stage.
Huge influence. I mean, especially being a black kid, you know, it’s like this is where you realize that, wow, you can make it onto television. They had their own own cartoon. Um, they had their own variety show. I mean, I love when I think Janet Jackson was a big influence on me, too, because she would come out and do this little May West come up and see me sometime thinking.
I was like, “Wow, black people, young like me, little girls and boys, we can do this. we can do this. But it was it was fantastic cuz it was inspirational. Let you know that you can make it. Harvey’s point and Latifah’s memory connect to something deeper. Michael wasn’t just a star. He was evidence. Evidence that the ceiling could break.
Evidence that a black kid from a working-class family could become the most famous person on Earth. Spikeley knew Michael personally. He directed the They don’t care about us video. He made documentaries about his work. when he talked about Michael, it wasn’t with the distance of a fan. It was with the weight of a collaborator who lost a friend.
And I worked with Mike and And before we worked together, I had some kind of questions, but he was a down brother. I mean, let’s make no mistake, Michael never forgot who he was, where he came from, and the history of of African-Americans in this country. has such an impact on who adults grow up to be and whatever happened growing up as a child, he’s always said you didn’t have a childhood.
So, you know, that leaves scars. It Oh, it leaves scars. When critics attacked the Michael Biopic for not covering the later allegations, Spike pushed back hard. The film ends in 1988. He said, “The stuff you’re talking about, accusations, happens later. So, you’re critiquing the film on something you want in, but it doesn’t work in the timeline of the film.
” That was Spike defending the story he knew, not the tabloid version. Lee’s relationship with Michael gave him a perspective most commentators lacked. He saw the work. He saw the discipline. He saw the person behind the glove and the sunglasses. If anyone understood Michael’s craft, it was Quincy Jones. He produced off-the-wall and Thriller.
He watched Michael work when the rest of the world only saw the finished product. And what he described wasn’t magic. It was preparation. And I started to see a maturity in him that I respected him a lot in the Mottown Records, you know, of all of his stuff. ABC, you know, Dance Machine, all those great things they did, you know, great producers.
Quincy first noticed Michael on the set of The Whiz. Michael would get up four hours before everyone else to put on prosthetics. Then he’d stand there patient and focused. He knew everybody’s lines. He knew all the songs, all the steps, everything. Quincy said, “I’d never seen so much focus in my life.” That focus became the foundation of their partnership.
But he he was amazing though because he knew everybody’s lines. Every line in the movie Michael memorized it. He knew every word, the dialogue, uh, lyrics, dance steps, everything. He just absorbed everything. Quincy also revealed Michael’s humility in the studio. During their early work, Michael was so shy that he’d sit behind the couch and sing with his back turned, lights off.
The same man who commanded stadiums couldn’t face his producer in a small room. That contradiction was part of who he was. Quincy fought for Michael when Epic Records didn’t want a jazzy producer. Michael went back and insisted Quincy’s producing the album. That stubbornness paired with Quincy’s guidance created the biggest album in history.
But Quincy never described it as a solo achievement. He described it as trust. Magic Johnson stood on that memorial stage and said something that sounded strange at first. Michael made me a better point guard. Better at basketball? How? Magic explained that watching Michael perform taught him about preparation, about reading a room, about giving everything you have when the moment arrives.
Only the band, his brothers, but also the audience. I truly believe that Michael made me a better point guard and basketball player as I watched him be so great and be the greatest entertainer ever. From there, Michael called me one day and said, “I want to talk to you about being in a video, Remember the Times.
” Magic also told a story that showed Michael’s playful side. Michael called him about appearing in the Remember the Time video. Magic hung up on him twice. He thought it was a prank. When he finally realized it was really Michael, he spent an hour apologizing. Then, Michael invited him over. They ate Kentucky Fried Chicken on the floor.
You know, I was the biggest Jackson five then Michael Jackson fan. So I get a call. Magic. I did not see the voice coming. I want to talk to you. So I hung the phone. You hung up. No, no, I hung up. So the phone rang 2 minutes later. Funnier magic. This is Michael Jackson. I said this not Michael Jackson.
So I hung the phone up again. So his brother called me and say, “Magic, that was really Michael calling you.” No, no, please. I’ll call him back. How did you get him back on the phone? So I got back and I’m apologizing for an hour. I am so sorry. I thought somebody was playing a joke on me, right? So he says, “We had such a good time sitting on the floor eating that bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
He was my idol. He was everything to me,” Magic said at the memorial. Michael’s success wasn’t just his own. It created space for others. I want to thank Michael for open up so many doors for African-Ameans to be on daytime shows, late night shows. He allowed Kobe and I to have our jerseys in people homes across the world because he was already there and he opened all those doors for us.
Barack Obama was asked about Michael just days after his death. He didn’t give a political answer. He gave a personal one. I grew up on his music. Obama said, “I still have all his stuff on my iPod.” The president of the United States admitting he had Michael Jackson on his playlist. I think that uh Michael Jackson is uh will go down in history as one of our greatest entertainers.
I grew up on his music. uh still have all of uh all his stuff on my iPod. He didn’t ignore the complications. He held both truths at once. Greatness and pain, brilliance and tragedy. That was the honest version. You know, I think that his brilliance as a performer um uh also was paired with a tragic and uh you know, in many ways sad personal life.
Uh but you know I’m glad to see that uh he is being remembered primarily for uh the great joy that he brought to a lot of people through his uh extraordinary gifts as an entertainer. The White House also sent condolences to Michael’s family describing him as a spectacular performer, a music icon. Coming from the first black president, those words carried a different resonance. Michael had broken barriers.
Obama had broken the biggest one. The respect was mutual. Jesse Jackson had known Michael since the Jackson 5 days. He wasn’t just a fan or an admirer. He was a counselor and a friend. When Michael faced the 2005 trial, Jesse Jackson was there. He told the Chicago Tribune that he counseledled Michael financially and spiritually.
After Michael died, Jesse Jackson spoke about the family’s grief. He described Michael as being at the top of his art in those final months. He said Michael was a strong mind and he will remember him for his music. I saw him as strong in his business vision as on the stage. A lot of the stuff that’s out, I missed that.
I’m glad I did because I found Michael a good mind. Uh lots of joy and I remember him for his music and for for his joy. Oprah’s relationship with Michael was complicated. She sat with him at Neverland in 1993 when he first publicly revealed his vitiligo diagnosis. He told her he was proud to be black.
He said the skin disorder was something he couldn’t control. That interview became a piece of history. I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin is something that I cannot help. Okay. But when people make up stories that I don’t want to be who I am, it hurts me. So it is it’s a problem for me. Okay.
I can’t control it. Okay. Years later, Oprah’s perspective shifted. She hosted the men who accused Michael of abuse. She called sexual abuse a scourge on humanity. Her position was that the story was bigger than Michael. She didn’t defend him the way Sharpton did. She didn’t celebrate him the way Spike did.
She created space for a different conversation. This moment transcends Michael Jackson. It is much bigger than any one person. This is a moment in time that allows us to see this societal corruption. It’s like a scourge on humanity. I hope we can get beyond Michael Jackson, the icon, stop staring into the sun, and do what is necessary to heal our children and heal ourselves.
That contrast matters. Not everyone who knew Michael saw him the same way. Oprah represented the complexity of the person who once sat with him at his home and later platformed his accusers. Her story shows that the questions about Michael were never simple. Kanye West talked about Michael’s audacity.
He listed the moves that made Michael different. He kissed Elvis Presley’s daughter on MTV. Kanye said he bought the Beatles catalog. That was Mike Jackson right there. Kanye wasn’t talking about music. He was talking about power. Cat Williams took a different path. He made jokes about Michael for years. Then he said he regretted it.
Williams also mentioned that Janet Jackson told him she still loved him despite the jokes about her brother. That forgiveness, he said, was one of the most magnificent things. The Jackson family’s grace extended further than people expected. If you don’t love yourself, you don’t love me. So, um, those were the jokes of a guy that was hurt, um, you know, by an icon.
And so, I was telling those jokes. The fact that years later Janet Jackson says she still loved me despite the jokes that I told about her brother is probably one of the most magnificent things, you know, just because I say a lot of hilarious but it it it costs me. These voices don’t agree on everything. Sharpton saw a civil rights figure.
Spike saw a brother. Quincy saw discipline. Magic saw inspiration. Obama saw both brilliance and tragedy. Oprah saw questions that wouldn’t go away. Jesse Jackson saw a friend in trouble. Cat Williams saw his own failure. What they shared was proximity. They weren’t guessing. They were there. When asked about Michael Jackson, they described someone far more human than the headlines ever allowed.
