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Introduction to THE KING OF POP


I've always wanted to be able to tell stories, you know, stories that came
from my soul. I'd like to sit by a fire and tell people stories - make them
see pictures, make them cry and laugh, take them anywhere emotionally with
something as deceptively simple as words. I'd like to tell tales to move
their souls and transform them. I've always wanted to be able to do that.
Imagine how the great writers must feel, knowing they have that power. I
sometimes feel I could do it. It's something I'd like to develop. In a way,
songwriting uses the same skills, creates the emotional highs and lows, but
the story is a sketch. It's quicksilver. There are very few books written on
the art of storytelling, how to grip listeners, how to get a group of people
together and amuse them. No costumes, no makeup, no nothing, just you and
your voice, and your powerful ability to take them anywhere, to transform
their lives, if only for minutes.
As I begin to tell my story, I want to repeat what I usually say to people
when they ask me about my earliest days with the Jackson 5: I was so little
when we began to work on our music that I really don't remember much about
it. Most people have the luxury of careers that start when they're old
enough to know exactly what they're doing and why, but, of course, that
wasn't true of me. They remember everything that happened to them, but I was
only five years old. When you're a show business child, you really don't
have the maturity to understand a great deal of what is going on around you.
People make a lot of decisions concerning your life when you're out of the
room. So here's what I remember. I remember singing at the top of my voice
and dancing with real joy and working too hard for a child. Of course, there
are many details I don't remember at all. I do remember the Jackson 5 really
taking off when I was only eight or nine.

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