Celebrities Who Defended Michael Jackson Against Disrespectful Interviewers | Must Watch – dw

 

But, but clearly some of the stuff he did wasn’t really appropriate for a an adult man. Vlad. You know, I mean, nothing really. I mean, we played video games, you know. We we we, you know, played it at some museum park. Well, the thing is the thing is with that whole thing is that, you know, they go, “Oh, you slept in the same bedroom as him.

” It’s like, I don’t think you understand. Michael Jackson’s bedroom is two stories. [laughter] It has like like three bathrooms and this and that. So, when I slept in his bedroom, yeah, but you have to understand the whole scenario. And the thing is with Michael is he’s not very good at explaining himself. I mean, he never really has been cuz he’s not a very social person.

Vlad, are we here to use you to insult Michael? He’s a friend of mine. I love him and I don’t like people making fun of No, no, but he Michael Michael was He was the greatest entertainer ever and the biggest entertainer world, but he was the nicest guy in the world, man. He was He was just nice, man.

I would go to Neverland and I would say I like something, he would give it to me. Like For years, interviewers tried to put celebrities on the spot about Michael Jackson. Some asked leading questions. Others pushed uncomfortable narratives. When you’re talking about children, we met Gavin. Mhm. And uh it was a great privilege to meet Gavin because he’s he’s had a lot of suffering in his life.

Yeah. When Gavin was there, he talked about the fact that he shares your bedroom. Yes. Can you understand why people would worry about that? She said it is extremely rare for teenage boys to make false claims of inappropriate sexual conduct against a man in particular. Unless you’re Michael Jackson.

Some interviewers barely hid what they were actually implying, but not everyone played along. Some of the biggest names in entertainment, people who knew Michael personally, worked alongside him, or simply respected him, refused to sit quietly while his name was being dragged through the mud on camera. Over here, there’s four FBI agents waiting for me in the hotel room.

And my mom is there and she’s like, “Tell them what happened.” And I’m like, “What do you mean, tell them what happened?” And I sit down with them they all kept asking superly exploiting you know, questions, back-back sided questions, and I knew that at my age already. And I looked at all four of them and said, I said, “Are y’all crazy?” I said, “What do you think I’m going to do? Tell you that Michael did something bad so that we we can sue him for money?” They interrupted, they pushed back, they shut it down entirely. And some of those

moments still surprise people today. What are your thoughts on everything Michael’s been going through and all the accusations now against him? I think it’s stupid cuz I know for a fact he likes girls. Trust me. Okay, how do you know for a fact that he likes girls? Cuz I’ve seen him with girls.

I’ve seen him walk up to a girl, you know, and get her number, you know, and Before you can understand Michael Jackson’s later career, you have to understand the difficult situation he was living through. From the early 1990s onward, accusations, lawsuits, and media speculation followed him constantly. Very, very tragic time.

Uh I was his lead criminal defense counsel in his criminal case. And Michael took it very hard to be charged with something that horrific. And to have to go through that kind of a process was very, very difficult for him. So, I knew Michael during the worst chapter in his life. What did you think of him as a person? He was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Kind, gentle, supportive, very, very sensitive to the needs of others, uh very interested in healing the world, very interested in helping disadvantaged people. He truly was one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever met. Every time a celebrity sat down for an interview and mentioned Michael Jackson’s name, interviewers saw an opening.

They would steer the conversation toward allegations, his behavior around children, or his personal choices, often before the guest even had a chance to say something positive. One day Ramon called me and said, “Steve, Michael want to talk to you.” I said, “What’s up, Mike?” He said, “Man, I need to go to church. I just want to go to church.

” And I said, “Well.” He said, “What Can you take me to church?” I said, “Yeah, man. I’ll take you to church because Mike thought they was going to convict him.” And he said, “Steve, I didn’t do this, man. I just believe it. I just I’ve never believed that about Mike. I I know him. I’ve been around him. And that’s just me.

Everybody else would teach That last one that came out, he did it. That’s you. It became a pattern. The questions were rarely neutral. They were loaded, and some celebrities had simply had enough of watching that happen without saying anything. One of the most direct examples came from singer Akon during an interview with DJ Vlad.

The conversation had started relatively calmly with the two discussing Michael Jackson’s legacy and the legal history around him. Vlad mentioned that he had spoken to Tom Mesereau, the attorney who successfully defended Jackson at trial in 2005. Yeah, and you know, since our last interview, I interviewed Tom Mesereau, Mhm.

who was his lawyer that defended him successfully in that whole case. And I remember just going through the whole story and so forth and kind of digging into the background and everything. And I remember cuz there’s always, you know, from the outside looking in, you’re like, “Well, the allegations true? Was he really into little kids?” You know what I mean? wasn’t, man.

Well, clearly He was nowhere near that. Right. Then Vlad shifted. He began moving toward the old allegations, framing them as something to wonder about, even suggesting that while the more serious accusations may not have been true, some of Jackson’s behavior with children wasn’t really appropriate for an adult.

No, but but clearly some of the stuff he did wasn’t really appropriate for a an adult man. Vlad. I’m not going to let you start there. I’m not I’m I’m not going Vlad, listen. I live Listen, listen. No, no, I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to finish this. I’m going to finish this. Vlad.

But, Vlad, cuz I don’t want you to finish it and the go all over the internet on some negative You know how that works. Okay, fine. Mike’s legacy got to be protected, bro. The was a real He was a true soul, like pure-hearted. Yeah. Nothing negative about him. Everything that he All the love that he came towards people like kids was genuine cuz he wanted kids to progress and grow to be the best they could be.

He told the interviewer that he wasn’t going to let that framing go anywhere. Not because the conversation was sensitive, but because he knew exactly how things like that get clipped, shared online, and used to damage someone’s name permanently. Because the translation always comes out wrong. See, man, y’all been dissing Mike for years, man.

I never dissed Mike. Mike’s Y’all won’t stop that, B. Mike is the man. The next story I see about Mike that’s negative, I’m having I’m I’ll find an editor. So, you and Mike are pretty close then. That’s my dog, man. He’s a good person. He is a good person. Great person. Did you ever ask him why does he wear See? No, I’m just curious.

Keep playing. Dude. You know I’m serious, dude. I’m serious, too. I’mma handle you right in front of your show. You all right, no more Mike questions. You getting me upset right now. All right, I forget it. Akon then described Michael in terms that left no room for misinterpretation. He called him a true soul, pure-hearted, with genuine love for children that came from a place of care, not anything sinister.

In his view, Michael’s connection to kids made sense when you consider that he had been a child star himself. Someone who never really got to experience childhood freely. That shaped how he moved through the world. Wait, one quick thing. Did you ask him about Mike stuff? Since he knows the allegations. Oh, that was all See, that’s all When I met Mike Thank you.

When I like spent time with him, I understood what was happening. What you mean? I’ll explain after. Okay. So, no, but it it was all All not only but Mike had a lot of power, bro. And he owned a lot of coordinated attack, you think? Yeah, he was he was See, Mike was just a smart-ass businessman.

And he outsmarted a lot of the guys at the top. Jermaine Jackson was one of the loudest voices defending his brother during the height of the media storm. When interviewers pushed the allegations, he was direct. Michael was innocent, and he would never stop saying so. I’m a thousand percent sure because Michael was tried by a jury in person, he was acquitted on all of this because there was no real evidence.

There was nothing there. And I will say this, um our family are tired. We’re very tired. Let this man rest. He he he did a lot for the world. Let him rest. Chris Tucker, one of Michael Jackson’s closest friends, was even more direct about where the line was. We bump into each other around the world, man.

It’s like I bump into him and he’s cool cuz he call me sometimes, see how I’m doing. He’s like, “How you doing, Chris?” [laughter] And when he really miss me, he call me Christmas. “Hey, Christmas, how are you?” He calls you Christmas? me Chris. It feel good. At first, I was I was like, “Why you call me?” But then it start sounding good.

I was like, “Say that again, Mike.” He was In one interview, a host began edging toward questions about Michael’s appearance and personal life, light teasing at first, but enough to make Tucker visibly uncomfortable. Chris Tucker can’t let anyone badmouth Michael Jackson in front of him. He wasn’t someone who had a surface-level opinion about the man.

Michael Jackson was his buddy. First um first of all, I had so much fun. I was this a blessing to be able to know him. And Michael’s like Michael’s like a king. He was like a modern-day king. And we we did a lot of fun stuff. I used to just, you know, I couldn’t wait to hang out with him when when he had a chance when we had a chance to, but we would go we would do stuff like go to the movies.

And Michael was so famous, he had to disguise himself. And we would come downstairs. I’d be like, “Where’s Michael?” Michael be covered up like, “I’m over here, Chris. I’m over here.” Tucker told the interviewer that he and Michael were close, that Michael was his dog, his friend, a genuinely good person. Was he really as giving as everybody says he was? Oh, yeah, he was he was he was cuz he would like anytime that I wanted to go to Neverland, like, you know, I would just call Michael, “I want to go to I want to come up to Neverland.” He said,

“Of course, sure, come on up. I’m not there. I’m in Russia, but go on up. [laughter] The chefs are still there and everybody’s there. Go go.” So, he was nice. I mean, he was he was a joker. He liked to joke around and so, he was a he was fun. A lot of Perhaps no celebrity faced more awkward questioning about Michael Jackson than Macaulay Culkin.

The two had been close friends since the early 1990s and interviewers rarely let Culkin speak about anything without steering toward the accusations. It’s It’s like one of my friendships that people question only because of the fact that he was the most famous person in the world. Like, you know, you know, like, I’m friends you know, we’re friendly, you know what I mean? And the more we’re People wouldn’t question that cuz we’re friends.

Cuz we’re in the same age. You don’t have you don’t you don’t have you don’t have to explain that, also. You don’t have to explain your friendships to people. Like, I mean, seriously, how many friendships have you had to really explain to people? Not many. That’s what I’m saying. Like, you know, it’s just like maybe do you think the age gap is probably why they question it.

Why would an older man want want to But, only you would know. Because I what I said in the very beginning is I was a peerless person. You know, I was like, yeah, like, nobody else in my Catholic school even had like even like this much idea of what I was going through. In one widely referenced interview, the host acknowledged the discomfort directly saying they had to cover it before asking Culkin about the nature of his relationship with Jackson.

Uh, what we have to cover it, so let’s ask about it. What’s the relationship that you had with Michael Jackson? Uh, had or have? I mean, it’s You know, whatever. Uh Let’s go with had, perhaps. Listen, you know, he’s just he’s a good friend of mine and he still is. I mean, everything that’s going on, I mean, it’s unfortunate.

It’s an unfortunate situation for for everyone involved and you know, I When did you first get to meet him? Uh, I first met him he kind of called me randomly. Like out of the blue. He just kind of like, “Hi.” Culkin’s answer was calm, measured, and quietly devastating to the narrative being pushed.

He corrected the interviewer, pointing out that his friendship with Michael didn’t stop just because Michael had passed. I I don’t believe the allegations were true, if that’s what you’re asking. No. Um Cuz it didn’t happen to you. Well, well, yeah. I mean, and so I Those those people were were just dangerous people.

And the one thing that I just felt was he shouldn’t have had let those people in his life to begin with. Those are dangerous, dangerous people. And it you you can tell. And you know, after a while you you learn to sniff those kind of people out. thing is those people think that he’s dangerous. he isolated himself. Well, He described it as a real friendship built on normal things such as video games, amusement parks, and conversations.

He also pushed back on the famous claim about sharing a bedroom, explaining that Jackson’s bedroom was essentially a two-story apartment with multiple bathrooms, something the media had consistently stripped of context. Family friendly. What happened at the house? That’s what all these things are people are concerned about.

so weird, you know? did that. Nothing happened, you know? I mean, nothing really. I mean, we played video games, you know? We we, you know, played at his amusement park. Well, the thing is the thing is with that whole thing is that, you know, they go, “Oh, you slept in the same bedroom as him.

” It’s like, I don’t think you understand. Michael Jackson’s bedroom is two stories. And it has like like three bathrooms and this and that. So, when I slept in his bedroom, yeah, but you have to understand the whole scenario. And the thing is with Michael is that he’s not very good at explaining himself. And he never really has been.

Then he made the argument that stopped the interview cold. He pointed out that in the original 1993 case, the family accepted a financial settlement and moved on. His point was simple. If someone had genuinely done something serious to your child, you would want them in prison, not just a payout.

The fact that it ended the way it did tells you everything you need to know. Listen, like look what happened on the first time. The first time this happened to him. You know, if someone had done something like that to my kid, I would you know, I wouldn’t just settle for some money. You know, I’d make sure the guy was in jail.

You know, and I it just really goes to show. I mean, as soon as you know, they got the money and they ran. I mean, that’s really what happened the first time. And so Among all the celebrities who defended Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor stood apart. Their friendship ran deep and when the media came for him, she made sure the world heard exactly where she stood.

Michael, we who know you more intimately than others acknowledge the suffering you have endured because we have suffered with you. [applause] But in the midst in the midst of our deepest anguish, we have known that you would prevail through this dark hour, that you would emerge stronger, but still innocent.

Diana Ross offered a similarly fierce response when an interviewer tried to make a joke at Michael’s expense. The comment touched on his appearance and surgeries, something interviewers had been doing for years as though it were acceptable. Ross shut it down immediately. She wasn’t going to participate in humiliating a man she loved.

Oh, because he’s had it all done. I refuse to take that as I cannot. I refuse you to insult Michael. He’s a friend of mine. I love him and I don’t like people making fun of No, no, but he we agreed I see he’s a I get real serious when I talk about Michael. And I think we should really kind of look at his life with compassion.

He makes incredibly good I want to say the bad word. Good music. They did it anyway and that consistency across different celebrities, different decades, different contexts tells its own story about who Michael Jackson actually was to the people who knew him. You say that it’s lies and you don’t intend to see it.

How can you complain or challenge something that you have not seen? Don’t you feel you need to see exactly what No, I I don’t No, I I know my brother. He’s my little brother. I know my brother. He’s not like that. Michael Jackson was one of the most scrutinized public figures in the history of entertainment.

Questions followed him everywhere and after he died in 2009, they followed anyone who had ever been close to him. Michael, we know that your recent torture is not going to alter or change your compassion and love for children. You know it. There is beauty and truth in your being. But what’s striking, looking back at all of these interviews, is how many people refused to let those questions go unanswered.

Akon cut off the narrative before it could spread. Chris Tucker drew a line and meant it. Macaulay Culkin re-framed the entire conversation with quiet logic. Elizabeth Taylor spoke about him the way you speak about someone you genuinely love. Diana Ross refused to let a joke slide. Steve Harvey trusted what he knew personally over what the internet was saying.

None of them agreed to play a role in tearing down someone they believed in. If you read the GQ article that came out, uh that exposed everything they did to Michael. Even little boy came out and said his father made him say all this, blah blah blah blah blah. It’s all true. They just wasn’t doing this, brother.

Which celebrity do you think defended Michael Jackson the best and is there another memorable interview we should have included? Let us know in the comments below. If you enjoyed this video, don’t forget to like and subscribe. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in the next one.

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