The Writing Was On The Wall: Talking About Dying Young

Shmuley Boteach: So would you say the best thing that's ever happened to the Beatles is the fact that they broke up, and that's why they had this longevity, because suddenly, kaboom!, they weren't around anymore, so you could never get bored of them? They never fizzled?
Michael Jackson: Yeah, Marilyn Monroe died young. You didn't get to see her grow old and ugly. I mean that's the mystery of James Dean.
SB: And people say about the Beatles, "I wish they were together."
MJ: Yeah, yeah.
SB: And you (the fan) become part of the wish then. The public keeps them going because they so badly want them back together.
MJ: Absolutely, or else they'd be funky and old now and you wouldn't care.
SB: So is that an argument, Michael, for you to say one day, "That's it," and quit?
MJ: Yeah, I would like some kind of way to disappear where people don't see me anymore at some point, and just do things for children but not be visual. To disappear is very important. We are people of change. We need change in our lives. That's why we have winter, spring, summer, fall.
SB: Okay, but you want a long life and a healthy life. You don't want to disappear like, God forbid, the way some of these stars have disappeared, the way Marilyn Monroe has. You don't want to die young?
MJ: Um, your asking me an interesting question. You sure you want my answer?
SB: I do.
MJ: Okay, I'll give you my honest answer. Okay, um. My greatest dream that i have left-I have accomplished my dreams with music and all that and I love music and entertainment-is this children's initiative, is this thing that we are doing. But, um, 'cause I don't care about (anything else), I really don't, I don't care about (career), I honestly don't Shmuley. What keeps me going is children, or else I would, I would seriously... I've told you this before, I swear to god I mean every word. I would, I would just throw in the towel if it wasn't for children or babies. And that's my honest (answer)...and I've said it before, if it weren't for children, I would choose death. I mean it with all my heart.
SB: Choose death the way Marilyn Monroe chose death?
MJ: Some kind of way. I would find a way to go away off the planet 'cause I wouldn't care about living anymore. I'm living for those babies and children.
SB: You see them as really a part, a spark of God here on the earth?
MJ: I swear they are.
SB: So for you it's the most spiritual thing in the world?
MJ: There is nothing more pure and spiritual to me then children and I cannot live without them. If you told me right now, "Michael, you can never see another child," I would kill myself. I swear to you I would because I have nothing else to live for. That's it. Honestly.
SB: So do you want to have a long life?
MJ: Let me take back that word swear, 'cause I don't swear to God. I take that back. I don't want to sue that word. Say this question again?
SB: You said you want to disappear. Do you think its important to disappear?
MJ: I don't want a long (life)... I don't like, I don't. I don't. I think growing old is the ugliest, the most, the ugliest thing. When the body breaks down and you start to wrinkle, I think it's so bad. I don't, that's something I don't understand, Shmuley. And I never want to look in the mirror and see that. I don't understand it. I really don't. And people say that growing old is beautiful and it's this and that. I disagree. I totally do.
SB: So you would die before that happens?
MJ: Um... I don't want to grow old. I would like to get...
SB: What if you could stay young in spirit Michael?
MJ: Yeah, that's important to me.
SB: You may have wrinkles, but don't you want to see Prince and Paris grow up?

(SIDE NOTE FROM ME: WHEN THIS INTERVIEW WAS CONSTRUCTED, PRINCE MICHAEL THE 2ND AKA BLANKET, WAS NOT BORN YET.)

MJ: Yes, I do.
SB: Don't you want to see their children?
MJ: I just don't want to look old and start forgetting. I want to always be youthful and have the energy to run around and play hide and seek, which is one of my favorite games. I wanted to play so badly at your house the last time we were there 'cause you have a nice big house for it. Um, I have to see people grow old, Shmuley.
SB: Haven't you seen people who grow old but keep their youthfulness. They behaved like they were still young?
MJ: Yeah, when they have a youthful heart, I love that. When they start to forget and wrinkle, (and) their body parts break down, it hurts me. Or when they get...
SB: Who has that happened to among the people you've loved? Does your mother grow old on you? Your father? Any entertainers that you know in the industry who grow old?
MJ: Yeah, people I love very much that died and I don't understand why. I was in love with this man, in love with him. And he was my friend, Fred Astaire, and I don't understand. You see Fred, since I was a little, a kid, Fred Astaire lived very close to our house and he used to talk to me all the time when I was little and you know he would teach me things, he would tell me you know, I was gonna be a big star and all this stuff that I didn't even think about when I was little. And to see him dance in movies, I was like amazed. I didn't know anybody could move so beautifully, you know? And, um, when I see him get to the point... One day he said to me, "You know Michael, I, if I was to do one spin right now, I would fall flat on my face. My equilibrium is totally gone." And when he'd answer the door when I'd come to his house, this is how he (walked), just like this Shmuley. Little tiny steps and it broke my heart. It hurts me, and the day he died, it killed me, it killed me. I destroyed me. And that's...
SB: But what happened to (Princess) Diana, that was a great tragedy, Michael.
MJ: That was a great tragedy. That killed me. That killed everybody, I think.
SB: It's not good to die young. It may make you into a myth, Michael. But life is to precious, no?
MJ: Life is beautiful and precious.
SB: So you think one day you're going to become just a myth.
MJ: See, why can't we be like the trees? That come, you know, they lose their leaves in the winter, and come back as beautiful all over again in the spring, you know? It's a sense of immorality to them, and the bible says man was meant for immortality. But through sin and all this, we get death.
SB: But maybe you go to a different place, to a higher place, and your soul, will suddenly unrestricted, can actually move closer to people. Think about it. God is here right now, Michael. We both believe that, even though you can't touch him or feel him. Are the souls of our loved ones very different?
MJ: I would love to come back as, as, as a child that never grows old, like Peter Pan. I wish, I wish I could believe that that's true, that I keep coming back. I hope that's true, I would like to believe that, Shmuley.
SB: In reincarnation? You keep on being reincarnated as a baby?
MJ: Yeah, even though our, my religion (the Jehovah's Witnesses Church), talks against it, that there's no such thing as (reincarnation)... When you die, the soul dies and it's like a couch, the dead, you know? But there's the promise of the resurrection and all that.
SB: But for the Hindus, they believe you come back.
MJ: I'd like to believe that, and I like what the Egyptians and the Africans do, how they bury (their dead)... I'd like to see, we would all like to see, what the other side looks like. Don't we?
SB: We wish we knew what lies after life, what heaven is like.
MJ: Yes, because there are so many concepts.
SB: Do you think there are children playing in Heaven?
MJ: Oh, God, I pray that that is what it is like.
SB: Are there adults playing, too?
MJ: I would think so and I would think that they are very childlike. Like Adam and Eve, it is just a happy garden, a perfect peaceful place. I pry that it is like that.
SB: Are you afraid of death?
MJ: Yes.
SB: We all are.
MJ: I always said I want to be buried right where there are children, I want them next to me. I would feel safer that way. I want them next to me. I need their spirit protecting me. I always see that in my mind and I see myself and I hate to see it. I see myself and I see children lying there to protect me.



That is the end of that part of the book. Tomorrow I will post Part One: CHILDHOOD FAME and JOE JACKSON. The first section is Childhood, Loneliness, Cartoons and Brothers. There are 7 sections in Part One. Normally I will post a section a day, but one of the sections is short, I might post another one.

Thanks for reading... whoever is reading.

XOXO
Rachel Roo
*Its all for the LOVE. L-O-V-E