Interview with The Guardian (3): The Jackson brothers talk about memories from the past

You read the second part of the interview with the Jackson brothers in here. Now we draw your attention to the final part of this interview:

The four brothers of Michael have been together for some time now, and they have brought the Unity Tour to the stage. Back when they were teenagers, they made girls swoon—but now what? Are they still getting attention? Marlon says: “For me, everything is still the same, and beautiful women are still surrounding me, asking for photos and autographs.” Jackie adds: “Kids—like we’ve been having photo sessions with them the whole time, right?”

Marlon remembers a flight to London in 1971, during which the pilot warned them that ten thousand fans were waiting for them at the airport. When the plane landed, beautiful British women rushed at them.

Tito doesn’t have a good memory of that day: “I got trapped outside the limousine. While everyone else was so scared they completely forgot about me and ran into the car. I jumped onto the roof of the car.”

Marlon: “I was saying, ‘Tito’s on the roof! Tito’s on the roof!’ Michael had a scarf around his neck, and people were pulling it from all sides—he was almost going to choke. They were grabbing our hair just to take a piece of us as a souvenir.”

But Jermaine is the one who has better memories with girls, and Marlon and Michael witnessed many of these stories when they were children.

Marlon complains: “Jermaine made me, and Michael, hide under the bed. We were so small that we did what we were told.”

While the brothers were heading to their hotel rooms to rest, people were sleeping in the hallway. Some—those with more guts and, of course, crazier—climbed up through the air-conditioning ducts between floors and poured into their rooms.

Jermaine: “When Tito entered the room, he would go straight to the bed to lie down, and then he would realize that people were already lying on his bed. Every evening, the group’s security officer would turn our room closets upside down looking for people who had hidden there.”

But one night, Jermaine managed to bring a girl into the room.

Jermaine: “I was stuck to her and trying to get even a small kiss from her.”

The memory of that room—and the unpleasant experience—comes back to life for Marlon. That night, he and 12-year-old Michael were hiding under the bed at Jermaine’s instruction.

The Guardian asks them whether the fever of today’s young fans—like Justin Bieber or One Direction—has the same intensity as the Jackson 5 fever in the past. Their answer is no; in their view, Bieber or One Direction mania doesn’t have the depth or breadth.

Marlon recalls a time when they had gone to African villages. There were no trees and no water, but the people there knew Jackson 5. Jermaine has a similar experience. After Obama became president, he went to Senegal. While people didn’t know anything about the first Black president of the United States, Jermaine says that the moment children’s eyes fell on one of the members of the royal family of music (the Jacksons), they started shouting and running after him.

The Jacksons’ story is one of the biggest examples of victory—though it hasn’t been short of controversy and difficulties. But the presence of very successful brothers and sisters like Michael and Janet at the forefront means that the controversies were directed more toward them, while the rest of the family was kept safe. They take this statement the wrong way. Jermaine says, as always:

“No, no. The Jackson 5 laid the foundation for everything. Without Jackson 5, there would have been no Michael and no Janet.”

Although, according to most people, the legend of Jackson 5 doesn’t exist without Michael.

And Marlon, who confirms Jermaine, has questions: “What is Janet’s last name? What is Michael’s last name? What is Jermaine’s last name? This is about the Jackson family.”

The brothers aren’t shy or afraid; they have shocking things to say. Tito talks about his love for cars and the huge amounts of money he spends on his collection, and Jermaine brings up women again. He has been involved with many women since his teens and has many children. Since he is Muslim, he says his new wife has agreed that he can also have a second wife.

This interview also touched on the family dispute that took hold of the Jacksons this summer. Jermaine and Randy, along with their sisters Rebbie and Janet, after the fake reading of Michael’s will and the publication of a letter against his foundation, drove their mother Katherine—who was the only legal guardian of Michael’s children—out of the house and to an unknown location, which was later revealed to be Arizona. Paris announced her grandmother’s disappearance on Twitter, and the story spread to the media. After several days of pressure from the media, the brothers and sisters finally brought Katherine—who had been unaware of everything—back home. After that, it was then that Prince revealed that these people were intentionally preventing the grandchildren from contacting their guardian, and he warned that if they continued their lies, he would expose more truths. Jermaine, Randy, and Janet also tried, by going to Michael’s children’s home, to take their mobile phones. On that day, their father’s cousin Trent Jackson—appointed by Michael as Katherine’s right-hand man—stood up to these three and drove them out of the house. It was rumored that on that day Janet slapped Paris, which of course wasn’t true. It’s likely that Katherine was moved in order to control her, as a way to counter the Michael foundation. All of Michael’s wealth is managed by his foundation until his children reach legal age, and Michael’s sisters and brothers don’t receive any share of his fortune.

The Guardian asked the brothers about this as well. Jermaine, as before, blamed Trent Jackson for the mistakes:

“That man is too independent. At first he was just a driver, and now he’s gotten involved and is choosing a lawyer. My mother went to Arizona to rest, and she reported her missing person case to the police. And about Janet… look at these little kids—they were constantly working with Twitter. So Janet tried to take Paris’s phone, the one she used to tweet, and tell her she shouldn’t use it for a while.”

During these events, Paris wrote on her Twitter that it had become clear to her why her father had distanced himself from the other Jacksons. After this, at the children’s request, Jermaine, Randy, Janet, and Rebbie were banned from entering their home. But are they in contact with Michael’s children?

Marlon, who had no role in these events, stresses: “I’m in contact with all my nieces and nephews.”

At some point in this conversation, when the interviewer talked about women who follow the tour group everywhere to become their lovers, Jermaine used a word that is considered very ugly and condemnable in Western culture. Jermaine said:

“We love women. We’re not men who sleep around.”

Marlon corrected him: “We’re not gay.” Jermaine replied: “Sleep around, gay, whatever!” This time Marlon said: “(Being gay) isn’t a problem—some of my friends are gay.”

eMJey: In his youth, Michael had said in response to a question related to this that he was aware that many of the group’s fans are gay men. Although he himself isn’t gay, he respects them, recognizes their rights, and acknowledges them. Years after Michael, Jermaine insulted the gay fans of the Jackson 5 who pay money for attending concerts and buying their songs. Perhaps Jermaine, as his relatives said, blames Michael for his lack of popularity and the failure of his career—but if his fans distance themselves from him because of his insults toward gay people, then in his view, who is to blame?

Source: eMJey.com / Guardian