Jaafar Jackson’s Childhood Memories With Michael Jackson That Will Melt Your Heart – dw

Jaafar Jackson’s Childhood Memories With Michael Jackson That Will Melt Your Heart

What are your memories of your uncle? I remember just growing up and we would have family time, you know, there he Michael would come over to where I was growing up at Havenhurst and we’d have some some days where we’d all get together, play family game day. We’d have wonderful times at Neverland and and just had playing hide and go seek, eating as much candy, going on rides, watching movies. It was all fun.

Your bedroom was Michael’s bedroom, correct? Um not growing up, but I grew up in the same house. Yeah. Okay, it’s the same house, but not the same bedroom. Not the same bedroom. Well, I had a few years where I did sleep in that same bedroom, but my main bedroom was I think it was my Auntie Janet’s old room where where I Yeah, yeah.

My family grew up always wanting to continue that bond and to have it have that support and feel it on a night like this it couldn’t be more special. Oh, 100% absolutely. It was It was really a surreal a spiritual moment at the same time. You know, spending all those hours in the makeup chair and and thanks to the incredible Bill Corso who’s the head of makeup on the film, just that process of of seeing me slowly transform into Michael was it was emotional.

Ever feel Michael’s presence? Absolutely. How so? There’s a few moments there’s a song in particular where I felt it the most. I I I I started to get very emotional started crying before performing the song. Um and I I just felt something. I was like, why am I so emotional right now? And I just felt I felt his presence in in that moment.

Most people knew Michael Jackson as the King of Pop, the greatest entertainer who ever lived, but Jaafar Jackson knew him simply as Uncle Michael, the man who played hide and seek, the man who let you take as much candy as you wanted, the man who made every family gathering feel like the best day of your life.

Years later, those childhood memories would carry more weight than Jaafar ever expected because one day he would be asked to become the very person he grew up loving, not on a family day at Neverland, but on a movie set in front of the entire world. This is the story of those memories and why they mean everything.

Or did you get to know the the family man that we got to see in this film? Definitely had those moments where I I got to experience the the family man. The just the ordinary uncle who just loved to have fun and wanted everyone to have fun around that that was around him and just it was so driven in joy and that purity that just just having a blast.

So, all of my memories were like playing hide and go seek, eating as much candy as I can possibly handle and watching films and just having fun. That was that was all those memories that I I can get drawn to that I really cherish. Long before Jaafar Jackson understood what fame even meant, he was already living inside one of the most iconic families in music history and he had no idea.

Well, when I first saw my father and uncles perform, it was the 30th anniversary of the Jacksons. They performed in New York and that was the only time I got to see my Michael perform. Just seeing the fans reactions and everyone’s the energy. That really inspired me to want to be in the music even though I was in golf at that time, but I knew it would lead to that eventually.

In his own words, Jaafar has recalled being around three or four years old sitting in the living room completely transfixed by footage of Michael performing on the Dangerous World Tour. He would watch it again and again. His family members would walk in, look at him and ask half jokingly, “Why are you studying his moves?” Jaafar’s answer was simple.

He was trying to copy them. Talk about what it was like to play your uncle. It’s funny cuz as a child I would watch his tours all the time every day and trying to mimic his moves. Then came a moment that Jaafar had described as one of the most powerful moments of his childhood. Around the age of five or six, he attended Michael’s 30th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in New York alongside his father Jermaine Jackson and his uncles.

It was the first time he saw Michael perform live. He had described it as overwhelming. The crowd was so loud it hurt his ears. He was covering them with his hands. I was I was around five or six in in New York for the 30th anniversary. Yes. It Madison Square Garden. I just remember it being incredibly loud.

Hearing all the fans screaming and I was covering my ears and seeing my my father and uncles on stage. That was my very first time seeing a performer. And that’s I feel like that’s when I first realized that they’re incredibly important and their music means a lot to the to the world just by hearing and seeing the fans reaction.

What makes Jaafar’s memory so touching isn’t just what he saw, it’s what he felt. He has described Michael as someone whose presence you could feel the moment he walked into a room. There was an energy that was impossible to ignore, even in a private setting. But alongside that powerful aura was something completely unexpected, an ordinary, playful, joyful uncle.

Coming from my own memories of him, there were a few cherishable memories that I have that it was more so the emotions that come out of them that more so than observing him with his mannerism and things like that, but the effect he had, you know, if you were to walk in a room and how palpable that was, you’d be able to feel it.

But for me it was really looking into his own his personal writings, his personal journaling, and that was truly informative to allow me into his mindset of how he was feeling, of what he wanted to achieve, you know, some goals he had written down and and it was such a a blessing for me really to have access to that.

Jaafar grew up in Hayvenhurst, the Jackson family compound, and Michael would visit for family days. More than 40 family members would sometimes gather at one place. Cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, and Michael would be right in the middle of it all. Not performing, not being a celebrity, just being family.

What I What I most is just really those tender moments of having fun with my uncle. And it was it was my uncle Jackie and my uncle Marlon, but my uncle Michael when he would come over to Hayvenhurst where I grew up and we’d have family day and it was just so fun. We’d play board games, we’d just play hide and go seek, we’d have a lot of candy, watch movies.

So it was always a lot of levity and fun. My uncle’s tours on on footage where we where we were watching Charlie Chaplin. Yeah. So being in those rooms I grew up there at Hayvenhurst. I lived there for 15 years. And the fact that we were able to shoot there and had so many memories going through my mind.

And when we were shooting in certain rooms in that house I stayed there in the during the preparation cuz I wanted to feel like I was back at home but also but through Michael’s eyes. So sometimes I’d sleep there and I’d be be shooting that morning. As Jaafar has put it in his own words, Michael was the ordinary uncle who just loved to have fun and wanted everyone to have fun around him.

Pure joy, pure warmth. That was the version of Michael Jackson that Jaafar got to know first. He inspired me in that way and just creating the the videos he did, just his humanitarian work with charity and giving back to people and just spreading the message of unity and love and that’s I think that’s very important in today’s world.

If you ask Jaafar about his favorite memory with his uncle, he doesn’t hesitate. He’ll tell you about hide and seek at Neverland Ranch. Few that I have is playing hide and go seek. Aw. At Neverland and just really such a joy and as a kid I was I was looking at just having fun with my uncle.

He was around 10 years old. The whole family was there. Cousins, siblings, everyone running around the property laughing completely free. And Michael wasn’t watching from a distance. He was right there with them. Running, hiding, laughing, letting his inner child run free. The one I cherish the most I would probably say is the last time I saw him.

Is when I uh we a big family dinner with my grandparents. It was their anniversary, actually. And uh I just remember him hugging me right before he was leaving and just saying, “I can’t wait to see you in July.” Cuz that’s when he was going to London to do even more rehearsals for the This Is It.

And uh we were excited to go see him and um I I just remember him singing and and and just asking me some questions of how things I was doing at that time, but I really cherish that memory so so much. Yeah. But the part of this story that always gets people smiling is the candy machine.

At Neverland, there was a candy machine, and one day, young Jaafar walked up to his uncle and with complete sincerity asked if he could take it. Not just a handful, but the whole machine. According to Jaafar, Michael’s response was, “Of course. Yeah, take it.” Jaafar went home with an entire candy machine that day.

And yes, he had a terrible stomach ache afterward. But the memory, he still cherishes it deeply. Watching Michael Jackson. What is your favorite memory that you shared with your uncle? It’ll probably be playing hide-and-go-seek up at the ranch, and I was around 10 years old. It was just just so fun and and and and freeing and just eating as much candy as I can possibly possibly handle.

I remember at that time, I remember asking him, “Can I take Can I take the candy machine?” Like, I asked for the whole machine. [laughter] He said, “Of course. Yeah, take it.” So, I actually went home with a full candy machine, and then I had a bad stomach ache after, but just those fun uh normal moments just having a fun time with with your uncle and These were not grand gestures.

They were small, human moments, and that’s exactly what made them unforgettable. Michael created a world where kids could be kids, where there were no rules about how much candy you could eat or how many movies you could watch back to back. The only goal was joy. It has a lot of energy, this house. It really does.

I feel a at times the presence of Michael at different times that I wouldn’t expect it, you know? It just It comes. And I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have this, you know? I really don’t. It all happened at the time it was supposed to. And I always say it’s divine timing. And um I just feel incredibly blessed that I grew up the way I did and that I am doing what I am doing now with true purpose.

Beyond the candy and the hide-and-seek, something deeper was being planted in Jaafar during those years. And create this re- research room where I put everything I can find on Michael. All of his dislikes, all of his likes, what he what he loves, what he loves to eat, what he doesn’t like, you know? So, it I just wanted to familiarize myself with everything about Michael uh in a place where he lived and where I grew up as well.

It’s a timeline from 1962 all the way until 1996, which is the year I was born. He has recalled watching the Thriller music video as a child and being so frightened by Michael’s transformation into a werewolf that he ran and hid under the dining room table. But, something kept pulling him back. He couldn’t stop watching.

And the moment the dance sequence began, he was completely captivated. That was the spark. My first experience, I ran underneath the dining table cuz I was scared after watching him transform into the werewolf. That’s my first memory. Yeah. Seeing Smooth Criminal live, watching the lean, that impossible physics-defying lean, convinced young Jaafar that his uncle genuinely had superpowers.

Smooth Criminal, hands down. That was the first one that I felt like I was watch- I don’t know what I was watch- I just knew it was it was magical especially when he he does the lean. That blew my mind seeing him do the lean and I always thought he had superpowers. You know, as an as an uncle and and until I really thought until I had the knowledge of it was trick it was a trick with the shoes that he had.

Those early impressions didn’t just shape Jaafar as a fan. They shaped him as a performer. The way Michael commanded a stage, the precision of every move, the emotion behind every song, these weren’t just things Jaafar admired. They became part of who he is. Years passed.

Jaafar grew up and then came something no one could have predicted. Out of thousands of people who auditioned to portray Michael Jackson in the official biopic, Michael’s own nephew, Jermaine Jackson’s son, Jaafar himself was chosen for the role. I grew up you know, surrounded by music and obviously listening to Michael’s music then fast forward years and years I got a call from Graham King that he wanted to meet and discuss Michael what he was working on at that time.

And one conversation led to the other and ended up happening as I started working with the acting coach and I didn’t know anything about acting and it was first really understanding what that is before even trying to dive into Michael. His uncles have spoken publicly about the first time they saw Jaafar perform as Michael.

Jackie Jackson described the moment in just a few words. Tears started falling. They all began crying because standing in front of them wasn’t someone doing an impression. As Marlon Jackson put it, Jaafar didn’t imitate Michael. He became him and that’s the difference. I I couldn’t believe it. I had I got so emotional. Cuz he became Michael on that screen.

And it brought tears to my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. But Jaafar wasn’t imitating Michael. He Michael, and that’s the difference. saw him for the first time, we saw a piece of him and really tears came down our eyes. We all started crying as we thought we were looking at our brother. We couldn’t believe That’s how good he was.

He was so close. Yeah. He was he called me, “Uncle Marlon, did I do I said, “You did great, Jafar.” Yeah. When interviewers asked Jafar if there was a specific personal memory that helped him bring Michael to life on screen, he didn’t talk about studying concert tapes or analyzing interviews. He talked about that last family dinner.

The way his uncle played hide-and-seek with him. The way his uncle randomly started singing just because he felt like it. Having those close personal family ties definitely gives you a bigger responsibility going into it, but also allows me to I think trust my instincts even more knowing that I have that same blood in in in my we share the same blood, but at the same time wanting to also separate myself where I put the hat on as as an actor and how to take it serious and really learn what is

acting and going on set like how do I carry that and not look at it as I’m just a family member playing another family member, but look at it as really breaking down the character of who Michael was as a human being. So, it was definitely a combination of both and it was just really balancing the two with each other and using it to my advantage.

Those memories never left him and now through his performance, they never have to leave us either. Michael Jackson may have been the King of Pop to the world, but for Jafar, he was always just Uncle Michael. The one who said yes to the candy machine, who ran through Neverland laughing, and who hugged you tight before leaving and promised he’d see you soon.

If you could ask Jafar Jackson one question about his memories with Uncle Michael, what would it be? Let us know in the comments below. If you enjoyed this video, don’t forget to like and subscribe. Thanks for watching. I will see you in the next video.