Michael Jackson Does ‘Rolling Stone’ Magazine
The late Michael Jackson, who passed away a little over a month ago now, is featured on the cover and in the pages of the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine — not as a tribute issue, which was already released at the start of this month, but as a regular coverstory chronicling the last days of the King of Pop’s life … including the comeback he never got the chance to complete. Here is MJ’s coverphoto of the new issue of RS mag:
In the days just before his death, Michael Jackson was working harder than he ever had in hopes of staging “the greatest show on Earth” according to our latest cover story. Claire Hoffman retraced the pop icon’s final moments for “The Last Days of Michael Jackson” in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, and found that Jackson was well aware of how the public came to perceive him in recent years and that he had fully dedicated himself to a comeback tour that he hoped would erase that perception. “He wanted people to see his work and not just talk about his lifestyle,” AEG CEO Randy Phillips tells Hoffman in her cover story. He was also eager to finally clean up his finances and settle down in Las Vegas. “He was ready to stop living like a vagabond and settle down and earn money again,” Phillips tells Rolling Stone. And those who were inside his final rehearsals say that the show he was prepared to mount may have actually succeeded on all fronts. “He was so brilliant on stage,” tour director Kenny Ortega tells Hoffman. “I had goose bumps.” “I turned to somebody and said, ‘This is amazing,’” adds Ken Ehrlich, the longtime Grammy Awards producer who sat in on rehearsals. “For so many years I have watched Chris Brown and Justin Timberlake and Usher and the Backstreet Boys and En Vogue all imitate Michael Jackson — and now here we were this many years later, and he was going to do it again. I got chills, literally. The hairs on the back of my neck were raised. Those are the moments you hope for.”
At this point, what hasn’t already been said about the “comeback that never was”? From what I’ve gathered from this new Rolling Stone piece, there really isn’t anything new that we haven’t heard already … still, RS has a great tradition of music journalism and I’m sure MJ fans will be happy to read any stories on the late King of Pop. To be honest, I’m much more interested in finding out the results of MJ’s autopsy/toxicolgy reports — which are supposedly due for release this week. We may definitively know, very soon, what exactly was the cause of MJ’s death. Until then, tho, we wait. After the jump, check out a short video from Rolling Stone that features Claire Hoffman, the author of this MJ coverstory, talking about her article and explaining what is in store for readers — be warned, the video autoplays …
I’ll prolly pick up this issue, mainly because Rolling Stone tends to do these sort of pieces very well. Again … I doubt there’ll be any new insights into the last days of Michael Jackson but the story still holds some fascination for me.
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Tags: Michael Jackson, Rolling Stone Magazine
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July 29th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
It made me ill reading that article where his enablers say he was “out dancing” the young back up dancers he was working with. We have seen the video, no he wasn’t. I think that when people try to overly glorify what he was at the time of his death, it diminishes the real accomplishments. He was a 50 year old man with back problems. He didn’t need to “out dance” 20 somethings in order to be commended. He didn’t need enablers telling him that everything was ok, when he clearly wasn’t. When AEG and others involved with the tour try so hard to convince people that it was better than it was…it makes me suspicious about them and their motives.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Creepy cover pic.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
@Krissy — “When AEG and others involved with the tour try so hard to convince people that it was better than it was…it makes me suspicious about them and their motives.” I’m so with you on this, you’ve said it perfectly.
July 29th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
@Krissy – Yes, I agree with you as well but didn’t we only see one video of his performance? IDK. But, I doubt he could out dance the 20-something year olds. I scanned the article when I was getting some movies at Blockbuster. Has it been a month yet?
July 29th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Thanks, Trent! Chase, you are correct, we did see only one video. But when they released that I think I remember AEG saying something similar about it proving that he was “better than ever”. I guess I just don’t trust that company. From my perspective, it seems that they had to know that he was in bad shape. A person doesn’t walk around with that many drugs in their system with out someone knowing, much less a company that put them through physicals for insurance purposes. And the article makes it sound as if MJ’s doctor was hired through AEG…so they would certainly know what his medication schedule was like. I don’t think they would gamble that much money on someone so frail with out having a “back up plan”…All of the recorded rehearsal footage makes me feel like they knew he might not make it and still wanted something to sell. Just hunches, of course. But the little details just aren’t adding up to me. I will try to find the bit in the article that made me think the doctor was connected to AEG….
July 29th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Ya know his comeback was going to be huge. The concert alone would have just been enough.
But there was the new album thats been LOOOOONG in the making. Apparently his production company or one he hired was working on a new video game (yes he has released previous games for the SEGA, the Moonwalk is a GREAT game). There was the fashion label he was apparently releasing. That short film/ music video. The lot.
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Whether it all gets released or not, just the fact he made it to rehearsals and was actually ready to perform on a night we would have all remembered and would be in the history books, was enough for me.
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It proved Michael Jackson had never left and was always here to entertain us all with his legendary career. Unfort he did pass, but his music and his legend will never be taken from us. Michael Jacksons comeback, IMO, worked and he was back!
July 30th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
If they’re covering Michael Jackson, why did they put Diana Ross on the cover? LOL
July 30th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
I love the cover pic. He looks like he should be staring in “A Love Story” with Ryan O’Neil