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We only worked together once. In the early days we appeared on the same Motown bill (in concert). I don’t recall where it was, but I remember that when he wasn’t on stage, Michael stood in the wings and watched everybody else who performed. He had that thirst for knowledge and wanted to see what everybody was doing. Most little kids would have been up in the dressing room or somewhere playing or doing something else. But he was watching. Absorbing.
When Bobby Taylor (who was instrumental in bringing the Jackson 5 to audition for Motown) and I used to played golf we would take Michael out there with us. Now Michael was 10 years old then, he had never played golf in his life. He didn’t know anything about it until he went out there with us. Yet he would be sitting in the golf cart watching us and when one of us would hit a bad shot or slice our ball into the woods, Michael would tell us exactly why. He would say: “Well, you were standing this way, you should be standing that way”, or, “You’re holding your club wrong”. He was something else.
He would ask me what I did for my voice; what I did to keep from being hoarse because I suffered so badly when I went on the road. He saw that I went through two voice changes. I had to explain to Michael that him being a young man he was going to go through that anyway because that’s what happens to men.
When I heard his recording of my song “Who’s Loving You”, I was amazed by how an 11-year-old kid could comprehend those lyrics, feel those emotions. After all, it’s a song about somebody who had somebody who loved them and they did the person so wrong the person left them. Then they’re sitting around feeling sorry that they drove the person away because they’re lonely now and they need that person back, but they’re wondering who loves that person now.
I sing part of it in my live concert and younger people have come up to me and asked why was I singing Michael’s song! I was in England years ago and saw Terence Trent D’Arby who’d also cut “Who’s Loving You”. He said to me, “Smokey, up until I recorded this song I didn’t know you wrote it. I thought Michael Jackson wrote it!” I yield because Michael absolutely kicked my butt on that song.
Michael Jackson was magical. He was born that way. Can’t be learned. Can’t be taught. I’m a firm believer that people are who they are in the womb and when Michael took his first breath, he already had that magic.
I KNEW
It was also a time when I could experiment with different techniques and Michael was very cooperative, fun and polite. We got along well and I had his trust.
There is an incredible variety of our photos featured within these pages capturing Michael doing karate moves, running with the background blurred, jumping, hanging out at Pink’s Hot Dog Stand, buying shoes and watching the sun go down up on the roof of my studio.
I remember seeing his “studio” at the house in Encino where he would draw and write. He also had one for music. That was Michael, creative and serious but unpretentious. What I found most exceptional about Michael was that he was aware and sophisticated beyond his years and yet shy and vulnerable. He was never the spoiled child star and he maintained a playful sense of humor.
I don’t want to make this self-serving, but prior to becoming a photographer I was a serious singer and nightclub performer for ten years. Point being, I understand singing and technique. On Forever, Michael, there is a track everyone should listen to: “One Day In Your Life”. Do yourself a favor, take some time, listen, it will blow you away. His breath control and phrasing earn him a place alongside any of the great ballad singers. His understanding of the lyric and his vulnerability are exceptional for someone that young. When I heard him sing that song, I knew he was a very special talent.
That photo session for Forever, Michael was the last solo shoot I would do with him. We did one more Jackson 5 session a little later and then I left Motown, as did Michael and his brothers soon after. I remember watching Motown 25 a few years later when Michael blew the show up with his performance. I was not surprised. I was awestruck. Michael Jackson — a pure, creative soul who redefined music and entertainment.
As a vocalist, I’m a tenor and Michael was a tenor. Growing up I would sing certain words or certain inflections like him. He has a really high voice and for all the greatest reasons as a musician, his melodies stuck with me. His approach to the microphone, too — it sounded like he was Bruce Lee or something when he sang. The way he attacked every line. He had that boogaloo. That’s what I call the energy he brought to his records. And he had a lot of power behind him. When he was younger, he had James Jamerson playing bass behind him. It sounded like James Jamerson was singing with Michael Jackson. The Funk Brothers of Motown really gave him that boost that he needed when he got to his later records like Off The Wall. That’s my favorite album — the sequence of the songs, everything. Off The Wall was definitely a template for my whole career once I started being a solo act.
He’s inspired me in so many ways. His heart as a writer, his drive — next to James Brown no one worked harder — and his live shows, of course.
I met Michael a few times, a couple in passing at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles where we were both recording. But the funniest time was in 1997 when the Jackson 5 were being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I was there with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys to induct the Bee Gees. Afterward I walked off the stage to the press booth where the Jacksons were having their picture taken. Jermaine saw me, waved me over and asked me to take a picture with him and his brothers. He put me right next to Michael who looked at me and said: “Raphael, you cut your hair off”. I was blown away. I thought, ‘Wow. Michael knows my daily’. In the photo I look like a deer in headlights because Michael was one of my idols.
I was in Tokyo when I heard about Michael’s passing. My first thought was it’s not true, it’s just a rumor. Then I walked up and down the streets and I thought about him. It was very personal, just my memories of Michael and me. In my mind I went back to the beginning. Watching him on TV as a kid. And I smiled.