Michael Jackson: From His Tailor, Michael Bush (6)

Read part five of this article here: here.

Family and accusations

Bush says about Michael Jackson:

“He spent his whole life wishing for a family. As a stage manager and producer, he was always under the ownership of people around the world. He became a star once, and lost his childhood. Lisa Marie Presley (the daughter of Elvis) was the closest person Michael chose as his life partner. Debbie Roe (the mother of Prince and Paris Jackson) was a nurse who worked for his skin doctor, Arnold Klein. She was happy that by giving birth to her children she could bring joy to him—that she could give him something that was his own. He wasn’t chasing fame.”

Bush says about the sexual accusations against Michael: “I never saw anything—nothing at all, not even one case that had anything to do with these accusations.”

Michael’s death

Bush and Tompkins were not the main designers of the This Is It tour’s costumes, but Michael had assigned them part of the costumes to prepare. They were making outfits for seven of the tour’s songs, including the Billie Jean outfit along with sequined shoes and socks.

Michael Bush once met Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s killer doctor. In Bush’s view, he was more like a music company manager than a doctor. Bush says Michael’s behavior after hiring Murray hadn’t changed from before; the only difference was that at that stage his main preoccupation was preparing for the This Is It tour—one that his children were seeing for the first time.

The tour preparation rehearsals were held at the Staples Center hall in Los Angeles. On that fateful day, Bush went to the location with the stage costumes he had designed for Michael. Karen Faye, Michael’s makeup artist, called him and asked him to turn on the radio in his car.

“I turned the radio dial and a voice said that Michael Jackson had been admitted to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The first thing that came to my mind was that the media had made a mess again. Probably Michael had taken his child to the hospital and now they think Michael is dead. When I arrived at the Staples Center parking lot, Karen called again and said I had to join him immediately. With such speed I rushed into the center that I forgot to turn off the car’s engine, and I didn’t lock the doors either, and the tour clothes stayed in the car. Everyone’s phones were ringing like crazy. They kept us there. It was as if the world had stopped moving.”

Minutes before the news of Michael’s death was officially announced by the hospital, the tour supervisors gathered the staff at the Staples Center to inform them of the terrible news.

“The hardest part of the whole story was that only 20 minutes after they announced the news, they started packing up the stage. I know business is business. They don’t wait; they go to someone else. But they shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to do that.”

Bush returned home, but from that moment on his life had changed forever. Although he has worked with other artists too, his priority was always only Michael Jackson.

Bush went to his workshop and looked at his unfinished beaded jackets and stone-embroidered gloves.

“I thought to myself that if I finished their work, maybe he would come back to life.”

But more grief was on the way. The following December, his longtime friend and colleague, Dennis Tompkins, also passed away.

The outfit Michael was buried in was his favorite

What was Michael’s favorite outfit? A military jacket, the tour’s opening outfit… that’s right, but among all those outfits, one was different in Michael’s eyes.

Bush reveals a never-before-seen outfit of Michael Jackson. This outfit is a mystery to us, and only a small number of people saw the King of Pop wearing it. It is the outfit he was buried in.

Bush says that Latoya, Michael’s sister, arranged the sewing of this outfit. She contacted these two tailors—Bush and Tompkins:

“She asked me to prepare Michael’s outfit. She said there was no one else who could handle this job.”

Michael’s body was being kept in a cold storage room at Forest Lawn. Bush thought he had gone there, delivered the outfit to the Jackson family, and would return, but this famous family had other plans.

The mortician tells Bush that he must enter the mausoleum because there are matters that the Jackson family doesn’t want anyone else to know about.

As he says these words, Bush’s eyes fill with tears again.

“They guided me and Karen into that room. They forced us to sign papers stating that in the future we would not complain about their performance, because seeing the body hurts the soul. I will remember that room forever. I sat there while Michael’s fans were mourning outside. The smell of formaldehyde filled everywhere. Outside, the media’s antenna-equipped vans were lined up. They were there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Helicopters were flying over our heads too.”

Fighting back his tears, he continues: “Karen and I were alone in the room with the mortician. He stood back and said, ‘I know you accepted this because of Michael, but if you can’t bear it, you don’t have to say anything. Just raise your hand and I’ll come and finish the job. You have to feel comfortable while doing this.’”

This was the wish of the Jackson family—that Bush, his old friend, would dress Michael’s lifeless body. Karen Faye also did his makeup for the last time.

When Bush put Michael’s favorite military jacket on him, the mortician helped him return Michael into his coffin.

Bush says: “I’m happy about this experience. It’s the last memory among many memories I have of him… Some people believe he is still alive and living somewhere next to Elvis. But that day, in the cold storage room, I saw the truth… He was my best friend, and I sent him on his journey.”

But what was that outfit… can you guess?

Although Michael said that among all those outfits he didn’t have a special choice, Bush knows his favorite outfit. The white beaded jacket that Michael wore at the 1993 Grammy Awards ceremony. That night, Michael received the Legend award from his sister, Janet.

Michael fell into eternal sleep in the jacket that had been reconstructed from this white jacket.

In the end, Bush says that the creator of the legendary white glove did not have the white glove in his hand inside the coffin… that was Michael’s own wish. But why?

Michael loved his white sequined gloves; they had their own special life, they were symbolic, and they were fitting tools for the King of Pop’s unmatched performances. Anyone anywhere who sees a sign of these gloves will have Michael Jackson’s name come to mind, but still… the stage’s ruler…

“I used the glove only for work.”

In private, Michael never wore the glove.

This article continues...

Source: eMJey.com / Reuters & Associated Press