Despite being world-famous, Michael was always very vain, and according to those close to him, this talented man wanted to build a 15-meter-tall robot in the Nevada desert that could be seen from the Las Vegas airport. However, he was never able to realize this dream.
During his tours with the Jackson 5, after the shows, Michael would often stay awake on the bus to watch James Brown and Jackie Wilson videos over and over again on a small television. His biggest dream was to reach that level of success. However, tired of not being able to sleep because of the noise, his brothers would throw away and hide the VHS tapes so Michael would stop watching them.
Incredibly, Michael Jackson almost bought Marvel Comics so he could become Spider-Man in the movie, as Spider-Man had been his favorite hero since he was very young.
His solo career began in 1972, when the King of Pop was only 13 years old. His first album was titled Got to Be There, but his real rise to fame came in 1979 with Off the Wall, which allowed him to connect with producer Quincy Jones. Jackson and Jones met on a film set when Michael played the role of the Scarecrow in the musical The Wiz, a film for which Jones worked on the soundtrack.
“Thriller” was one of his most successful songs and videos; however, it almost didn't happen, as Walter Yetnikoff, then an executive at CBS Records, doubted its potential and once said, “Who wants a song about monsters?”
To Yetnikoff's surprise, the video for this song became something unique and even qualified as a short film for the 1983 Academy Awards. The famous clip was shown for a week in theaters before the Disney classic Fantasia in 1940 and has definitely become more than a classic—it's a music legend.
His life was surrounded by eccentricity, controversy, and a few myths. Legend has it that the singer bought the bones of Joseph Carey Merrick, better known as the "Elephant Man" because of the bone deformities he suffered. However, other versions claim that Michael never actually owned them, although he did offer a million dollars to a London hospital to acquire the remains. It was also said that Michael slept in an oxygen chamber to prolong his life, but in an interview with Oprah, the singer denied it and said that someone had started the rumor based on a photo taken of him while he was testing the equipment, which a foundation had purchased with money he donated to it.
He had his own video game called Moonwalker, created by SEGA, in which the "smooth criminal" faced off against gangsters using only dance moves and screams to rescue kidnapped children.
After the autopsy performed on his body, it was revealed that his lips were tattooed pink and his eyebrows a dark shade. For several years, the artist suffered from vitiligo, so he used a lot of makeup to cover the patches on his skin.
There is no doubt that Michael Jackson not only revolutionized the music industry, but also marked a before and after in the history of humanity.
