Where Did It All Go Wrong For Michael?

Childhood? Drugs? Effort To Live Up To Hype, Be Larger Than Life?

(CBS)  There seems little doubt Michael Jackson will be remembered as much for his eccentricities as his talent.

How did he go from a superstar beloved by millions to "Wacko Jacko" in such a short period of time?

A panel of experts weighed in on that on The Early Show Saturday Edition.

J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackson's biographer and a CBS News consultant, shared his observations, as did Mike Walker, gossip editor of the National Enquirer, and Fab 5 Freddy, former host of "Yo! MTV Raps" and now a television producer and filmmaker.

Jackson, Walker told co-anchor Erica Hill, "had a very controlled childhood. His father was very tough on those boys (the brothers making up the Jackson Five). That's a matter of fact; everybody knows it.

"Michael was the meal ticket. Michael, by 1972, when he was 12-years-old, was already breaking away to do his first solo album. That was not his decision, of course. It was Joe Jackson's.

"He was under great control, great constraints. He couldn't mix with other kids, he couldn't go out, he couldn't get a driver's license, he couldn't drive. For years this went on.

"But when Michael finally started to come into his own, he suddenly realized that he'd become, you know, big enough so that he didn't need to worry about Joe Jackson anymore, and you could almost see him start to come alive and realize he could do great things with this enormous talent he had. Once he got that freedom, he started experimenting just a little too much with things."

Taraborrelli pointed to the 1980s, when, as he put it, "Michael decided that he was perhaps not sensational enough in real life and he wanted to become something bigger and something more fantastic, and he started posing in oxygen chambers for publicity purposes, and lots of hype went out to the media that wasn't necessarily true at that time. And it began, sort of, like this image-making process that was more Captain Marvel than the real, organic Michael Jackson. And eventually, he started actually living up to that kind of (image)."

Complete Coverage of Michael Jackson's Death
Freddy said, "When somebody is so blessed and so many amazing things happen to someone, 750 million records sold, no matter what you do ... you're still going to be a major topic of news. Michael understood that game. He understood how to play it on all levels, and he did."

Did he really understand how it to play it?

"Absolutely," Freddy responded.

Did he see that there'd been such a big disconnect form his fans as time went on?

"I think the thing about Michael," Freddy replied, "which I think you cud look at as an example in what he did in his music (is) he created the environment on his records that he wanted to create. I think the environment that he lived in is what he wanted. I think he had a struggle to balance out what he wanted for Michael, and how we look at it from the outside world. I mean, it's just the sad nature of what we do. We have a billion dollar gossip industry that wants to stick the knife in and turn it. Seven-hundred-fifty million records sold, bottom line. That's it."

Walker appeaered to take exception to one remark from Freddy.

"To says there's a big industry that likes to stick a knife into him - the National Enquirer reported that he was intravenously taking drugs as early back as the 1980s," Walker noted. "He was, he admitted it himself, in the '90s, that he had a drug problem, he had a very severe drug problem. He was also ... trying to be something larger than life. And a lot of things were converging. Plus, he had all these sexuality problems: He didn't get married until late, the marriage was to the daughter of Elvis Presley, which was a very weird situation."

"It's just unfortunate," Freddy countered, "that people want to just spend so much time harping on the negative, not celebrating a great life. Let's celebrate that."

[Paul-Solomon]

Joe Jackson, the father of Michael Jackson, seemed rather jovial in an interview last night with CNN's Don Lemon at the BET Awards. He has a weird way of showing his grief. When asked by Lemon how he and his family were coping, Joe Jackson ignored the question in order to promote his new record company. He plugged a Blu-Ray disc of his son's music that he's selling.

Joe Jackson and the Reverand Al Sharpton held a press conference earlier today to discuss the pop star's shocking death on Thurdsday. Why Sharpton was there was not explained, but he is reportedly a family friend. As for his new record label, a way to capitalize financially on the tragedy, Joe Jackson was heavily criticized. Rev. Sharpton explained it like this: "He wanted to send a signal to the world that the Jackson family's going to continue doing what Michael did...give music and love to the world across all boundaries."

"I wish that Michael could be here to see all this," Joe Jackson said at the press conference, "instead of waiting for something to happen like this." As he spoke, he was smiling and looking over the large crowd outside his Encino residence. He could see dollar signs.

Michael Jackson's financial empire is a total mess. He made millions during his career, but he spent more. Now he's dead, and according to Amazon.com and other music news sources, his sales are going through the roof. In death, Michael Jackson has made the comeback he so much desired. Like Elvis Presley, he will surely continue to make money, and for now, bundles of it.

What Joe Jackson knows, and maybe the reason his grief seems to be tempered by relief, is that finally his son's spending habits have come to an end. You can't spend millions of dollars a month on rare animals, oxygen chambers, golden toilets and mummified bodies when you're dead. When asked about his seemingly happy demeanor, Joe Jackson told CNN: "I'm grieving on the inside." On the outside, he's making plans to cash in on his son's popularity.

"Michael is a superstar all over the world," Joe Jackson said. That much is true. He's grieving all the way to the bank. Ka-ching!

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