Roger Friedman’s Column: A New Michael Jackson Album
Roger Friedman has published the latest installment of his series about the fate of Michael Jackson’s new album. In his newest move—after Katherine Jackson, Michael’s mother (due to publishing a book about Michael, opposing some of her foundation’s actions, and suing the concert company of her son and director Kenny Ortega for what she claimed was negligence in caring for Michael’s life)—he has gone to her nephews, the three Tito Jackson sons.
While his sources for breaking such news are completely unknown, here we only quote him:
Putting together this new Michael Jackson album is not simple. It has turned into a civil war between family and friends.
As for which songs should be included on an album that is supposed to be in stores for Christmas, big problems have arisen. While you’re reading this, Sony is dealing with the parties involved in the dispute to provide details and begin production of the album.
The biggest obstacle is something known as the “Casio” songs (Michael Jackson songs recorded in 2007 at the Casio home studio, by Michael’s friends). Five of these songs are so good that they are the surest candidates for inclusion on the album.
But the bad part is that John McClain (the foundation’s supervisor and one of the people working on the album) has gotten tangled up with Katherine Jackson over the Casio family. On Monday, Mrs. Jackson insisted that the Casio songs should not be on the album.
And it’s all because of Taryl Adrien Jackson, the second son of Tito Jackson and a member of the group 3T, who doesn’t have much love for the Casio people. He spent four years trying to persuade Michael to record his songs with their group. But in the end, it turned out that Michael preferred to produce them with Eddie Casio—and the boys are not happy about it.
To make matters worse, McClain and the boys have pulled Michael’s children into the spotlight. Prince Paris has witnessed his father working on songs at the Casio home in New Jersey from August to November 2007. They saw their father, Eddie and Frank, the Casio family’s sons, and their singer Bobby Owing working in the studio.
Tito Jackson’s sons—and especially Taryl, who is very close to Michael’s children—have tried to persuade Prince and Paris to deny what they saw and to say that the recorded voice on the songs is not their father’s. At first, 13-year-old Prince had guaranteed that these were his father’s songs. But recently, a new email was sent to the Michael Jackson Foundation by 12-year-old Paris saying that the singer’s voice is not Michael’s. The only problem is that the email was sent while Paris was at school.
In the end, though, it doesn’t matter to Sony what Tito’s sons, Michael’s children, his mother, or John McClain think. They have signed a $200 million contract with the Michael Jackson Foundation, and they are so attached to the Casio songs that they even hired a voice expert to make sure the songs belong to Michael Jackson. Apparently, the Jackson family will have to respect these findings and allow Sony and the foundation to do whatever they want with the album.
Source: eMJey / showbiz411.com