One of my fondest memories of Michael Jackson is the first time he and I sat down to write out a set list for his ‘This Is It’ tour. Michael showed me a computer printout of what the fans voted as the songs they most wanted to hear and then he showed me his own hand written list of what he wanted based on that information. He asked me my opinion and I told him I liked it so far but he didn’t have any J5 or Off The Wall stuff on the list. He said ‘I don’t?’
MJ grabbed the list, looked at it, balled it up and threw it away. LOL…we had a very difficult time trying to get that list together. If we did all of his hits, he would have been on the stage for about 2 weeks. What was great about the time we had together that day was seeing the love and passion he had for pleasing his fans and wanting to make sure they were getting what they wanted from our show, first hand. I don’t think I have ever worked with an artist that loved his fans more, Ever!
When I found out I was on the short list of music director hopefuls for MJ’s tour, surprisingly I was somewhat reluctant. I had been the music director for so many big stars in my career and wanted to pursuit other musical endeavors closer to home. However, when it’s Michael Jackson calling you have to at least explore the possibilities.
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I first met with the ‘This Is It’ director Kenny Ortega. We had a great meeting and he invited me back down that evening to meet with MJ. I asked that there be keyboards in the room when MJ and I met. When they finally brought MJ in to see me I was already playing around on the keyboard, he walked in smiling broadly with pep in his step. Instantly, he started dancing and swaying to me playing ‘workin day and night.’
We hugged and began talking about what he was looking for and I told him what I was looking for. I interrupted him several times to have him sing songs as I played them. To his credit he did and we had a great bond immediately. We did a concert for about a half hour just me and him.LOL. As I was leaving I asked him for the set list and he just laughed. They were looking at a few more guys after me. He said god bless you and I left the room. I wasn’t even home good before I got the call to be his musical director. My life was about to be transformed forever.
I will never forget my last moments with MJ. I was with him most of the day going over many different elements of the show with him and Kenny. Travis (choreographer) was busy working with the dancers and tech people. He had a little light dinner as we looked at the video elements that were being prepared for the show. The meeting was serious as all of the money people were there and MJ was giving his final approval on everything.
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He still found time to be silly while all of this was happening. He leaned over to me at one point and whispered in my ear, ‘who’s your favorite 3 stooges’? I was cracking up because we were supposed to be concentrating on the business. I told him as he was talking to the people about the video and then he would lean over and whisper, ‘Yeah, I like him too but my favorite is…’..LOL…that was MJ.
After that meeting we hit the stage. It was late. We went to around 11:30 or so, maybe a little later. MJ was amazing that night! He had full command of the stage and he seemed to be able to will his feet to do whatever he wanted. At one point he looked back at me as if to say yeah, I’m Michael freakin’ Jackson! I got this! We’re about to take the people on a journey they’ve never been on b
