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Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 28, 2023, marks the 19-year anniversary of Michael Jackson winning eight Grammy Awards for his sixth studio album, Thriller. While the record marked a turning point for the star’s incredible career, it was also the beginning of the end for the team he worked with each day. And it all started when they began to doubt his artistry.
Jackson’s co-executor of his estate, John Branca, told 60 Minutes that the people around the Billie Jean singer were doubting he could ever beat his previous album, Off The Wall, which hit shelves in 1979 and sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
Branca remembered: “There were many people in the industry that said to Michael: ‘You know Michael, you can’t expect this album to sell as well as Off The Wall. The industry’s changed.'”
Despite this, Jackson refused to leave the studio while he was working on Thriller with his producer, Quincy Jones. “Michael would not turn that album in until he was convinced that it was perfect,” he added. After he turned in the album and proved all his doubters wrong, he changed his environment drastically.
Branca said: “And then in classic Michael fashion, as soon as the [third] single was released, Beat It, he let everybody go from his team. There was no manager, no agent, no press agent. It was Michael, and he would give me business directives and of course the label promotion directives.”
Jackson “wanted to run his own business himself,” Branca added. And this change ended up leaving Jones worrying about the future of the star.
“I’ll never forget,” Branca recalled. “I got a call from Quincy Jones who said: ‘Branca, we have a 747 here, and there’s no pilot.’ And I said: ‘Quincy, Michael’s the pilot.’”
Branca wasn’t worried, though. Instead, he said Michael was a “marketing genius” and people didn’t understand.
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History speaks for itself. Thriller is still the best-selling album of all time, going 34x platinum and shifting more than 70 million units worldwide after releasing the album on November 29, 1982.
When the Grammy Awards came around in 1984, he earned eight wins, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year.
A year after he released the record, Jackson released the title track to Thriller, along with a record-breaking music video, as well.
But, in an unexpected turn of events, Jackson secretly wanted to destroy the Thriller music video footage after he realised its content may have promoted things that went against his religion.
Branca said Jackson called him and demanded all the footage was destroyed. “He said the Jehovah’s Witnesses heard he was doing a werewolf video. They told him that it promoted demonology and they were going to excommunicate him.”
The negatives were taken away and protected while Jackson locked himself in his room.
Director of the music video, John Landis, later said: “Bill and I kicked in the door, knocked it down, and Michael was lying there. He said: ‘I feel so bad.’ I said: ‘Michael, have you eaten?’ He hadn’t eaten. It was weird. I just said: ‘Look, I want you to see a doctor right now.'”
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