Michael Joseph (Smiley) Jackson, the angelic-voiced lead singer of the world famous vocal quintet of Jackson brothers, is a handsome young man whose onstage magnetism and magic are exceeded only bởi his offstage majesty and meek heartedness.

Born the fifth of six talented sons of Joseph and Katherine Jackson in Gary, Ind., nearly 21 years cách đây (Aug. 29, 195 , he is a Virgo, whose trait is unselfishness, and is moved bởi magnetic forces which draw so many admirers into his life that tình yêu is his for the taking. And his love-struck những người hâm mộ often do strange things to hiển thị their affection for him.

When one beautiful Black teenager recently boarded a packed plane and spotted him seated with his brothers, she stared in disbelief, began breathing heavily and became so excited that she started wetting in her panties and froze in her tracks as urine trickled down her legs.

At the arrival gate where girls had gathered to meet the Jacksons, a blonde teenager squeezed through the crushing crowd, slipped past security guards, pulled Michael toward her and tried to make him Kiss her.

Returning recently from a world tour celebrating their 10th anniversary in hiển thị business, Michael, the only Jackson son who has reached the age of consent and is still unmarried, waded through a room full of mail, sorting out those proposing marriage. Bashful Michael answered them the same: “Thank bạn for the beautiful letter. It’s very nice. And we will always tình yêu you. Love, Michael Jackson and the Jacksons.”

Mild-mannered Micahel makes it clear that he gets no satisfaction nghề viết văn the same letter to all of those female những người hâm mộ who want him for a husband. But he responds in brief dignity because he actually fears love-sick fans.

Sitting in the living room of his family’s trang chủ located on a parcel of land in Encino, Calif., purchased form the sprawling estate of the late lady-killer actor Clark Gable of Gone With The Wind fame, the young and eligible bachelor talked about marriage, dating and a wide range of topics which deeply concern him.

“I don’t like to break hearts,” he đã đưa ý kiến solemnly and shyly, shifting his 5-foot, 9 ½ -inch body in a sofa chair. “I don’t really know these people and, gosh, it’s a weird thing.” He continued:

“That, I think, is the weird part about hiển thị business. bạn portray an image. And those people are into bạn so long, buying your records. You’re all over their walls. They wake up seeing you. They wake up thinking about you. You’re totally on their mind. And when they meet bạn in person, they feel they have been knowing bạn for a long time. But I don’t know them. bạn see, that’s the painful part of hiển thị business—the breaking of the hearts. Do bạn know what that does to them? God, some of them go to the point of committing suicide because they get real serious. That’s what I don’t know how to handle.”

For the young female bubblegum crowd whose voices are now turning from no to yes, he is especially fearful. About them he says, “You have to be careful because sometimes tình yêu can reverse on you. They feel they can’t get bạn and they’ll go to the point of plotting and planning terrible things on bạn hoặc do terrible things to hurt you. That’s why it’s important to be nice, but sincerely nice.”

He recalled the nasty rumor that surfaced last year, falsely claiming that he had undergone a sex change. The rumor is not dead yet and he đã đưa ý kiến his encounter with a love-crazed blonde at the aforementioned airport helps to revive it. “This beautiful girl with blonde hair was trying her hardest to pull me into her to Kiss her,” Michael remembers. “She said, ‘You’re so sexy, Kiss me.’ When I showed no kind of interest in her, she said, ‘What’s wrong, bạn fag?’ and walked off.”
He laments that he still has to tell people: “There’s a reason why I was created male. I’m not a girl. And what kills me the most and makes me want to break down in tears is when little kids, seven and eight, come to me asking me that. I say, no, and please tell all your other little Những người bạn it’s not true.”
What disturbs Michael thêm than the rumor is the kind of mail he receives from some of the bubble gum set. “You wouldn’t believe the mail I get. I mean some of it gets real vulgar,” he revealed. To him, such mail is as shocking as seeing a priest at a movie house watching The Devil And Mrs. Jones hoặc Deep Throat. “Some of the mail gets real funky, not polite at all,” he says. “They tell bạn the stuff they want to do to bạn and everything, and how they’re going to do it. I just read and go, ‘Oh my God, these girls.’

There’s not much charm in girls anymore, like the guy used to always pick up the phone and call the girl. She would never call the guy. She would sit there all ngày until the phone would ring for her. But now the girls bother bạn to death….You see girls today 11 years old with bags and lipstick and eyeliner and lashes as well. They feel they’re women and they’re not.”

Don’t get the impression that the soft-spoken singer is a saint hoặc square. Looking like the cliché description—tall, dark, and handsome—Michael is very much aware that he can now do at age 20 what he used to sing about when he was 10. One well-known witness is Oscar-winning actress Tatum O’Neal, teenaged daughter of actor Ryan O’Neal.

A reporter for Modern People two years cách đây quoted Miss O’Neal as once saying she couldn’t wait to have her first affair. If she followed up the widely publicized bình luận with action involving manly Michael, he is not the kind to Kiss and tell. He declined to discuss intimate details of dating Tatum, but was anxious to set the record straight about their romance. First, he readily admits the parallels in their lives: Both have protective parents. Tatum is a daddy’s girl and Michael is a mama’s boy. Both are attractive and wealthy. She rides in a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce and millionaire Michael drives his own Rolls. Both are very shy. Michael is one of the brightest stars of the future and Tatum is, too.

“I want all those people who read JET to just know that we’re mainly good friends,” Michael assured. Admitting that there have been criticisms about their relations, Michael mused: “People take it to crazy means and crazy extents and I just tell them we’re really, really, really good friends. That’s all I say. They say, ‘Well how good Những người bạn are you? Is there any romance going on?’ I say, yes sometimes but not all the time.”

Although dating is part of his lifestyle, he is thêm interested in developing a new lifestyle around his family’s trang chủ which is now undergoing extensive renovations. Emphasizing that he is not ready to di chuyển out on his own like his four married brothers (Jackie, Jermaine, Tito and Marlon), Michael explains:

“I’ve always wanted to do this for my mother. She loves homes and everything and I do things bởi feeling and force. I don’t feel that it’s time for me to di chuyển away yet. There are so many things I want to do just staying here.

“If I di chuyển out now, I would die of loneliness. Most people who di chuyển out go to discos every night. They party every night. They invite Những người bạn over and I don’t do any of those things. I would really die of loneliness.”
Michael’s renovation plans will include the addiction of a quần vợt court, a remodeled swimming pool, a gym room, a movie room, a rehearsal studio and a library.

Living at trang chủ with his mother, Katherine, father Joseph, brother Randy, and sisters, Janet and LaToya, the young entertainer explores his many talents and grapples with social and religious concerns.

Uppermost among his concerns are religion and racism. A devout Jehovah’s Witness, like his mother, he says: “I believe in the Bible and I try to follow the Bible. I know that I’m not an Angel and I’m not a devil either. I try to be as best as I can and I try to do what I think is right. It’s that simple….I don’t just pray at night. I pray at different times during the day. Whenever I see something beautiful, I say, ‘Oh, God, that’s beautiful.’ I say little prayers like that all through the day.”

To cope with the stresses of hiển thị business, Michael says he turns to his deity, not drugs. “As corny as it sounds, natural highs are the greatest highs in the world,” he attests. “The stars, the mountains, children, em bé smiling are just magic,” he happily beamed.
The one thing that dims this glow is the pervasive racism that’s rampant in the world today, especially in America, the world traveler observes. Recalling how badly the hát Jacksons have been treated in southern cities, he đã đưa ý kiến that it was difficult to believe.
“The people told us just deal with it (racism) because that’s how the South is,” he đã đưa ý kiến and added: “That’s ignorance and it’s taught because it’s not genetic at all.

“I’m really not a prejudiced person at all. I believe that people should think about God thêm and creation because if bạn look at the many wonders inside the human bodies—the different màu sắc of organs…and all these màu sắc do different things in the human body—why can’t we do it as people?

“That (racism) is the only thing I hate. I really do. And that’s why I try to write, put it in songs, put it in dance, put it in my art—to teach the world. If politicians can’t do it, poets should put it in thi ca and writers should put it in novels. That’s what we have to do and I think it’s so important to save the world.”
As widely read as he is traveled, Michael, a private high school graduate who once quit public school because girls were always screaming and pulling on him, said: “I tình yêu to read. I wish I could advise thêm people to read. There’s a whole new world in books. If bạn can’t afford to travel, bạn travel mentally through reading. bạn can see anything and go anyplace bạn want to in reading.”

Traveling and đọc have greatly influenced his religious and racial views. About his travels, Michael explains: “Wherever bạn go, man-made things are man-made, but you’ve got to get out and see God’s beauty of the world.”
Reflecting upon America’s racial problems, he said: “I wish I could borrow from other countries, say, like Venezuela hoặc Trinidad, the real tình yêu and color-blind people and bring it to America. When bạn travel, bạn realize how different America is. God, I hate to say this but our people are brainwashed.”

Of all his travels, he says his most emotional and moving experiences came in travels in Dakar, Senegal. “I’m going to raise my hand (to God) on this one,” he lit up like a light. “I always thought that Blacks, as far as artistry, were the most talented race on earth. But when I went to Africa, I was even thêm convinced. They do incredible things over there….They got the beats and the rhythm. I really see where drums come from. It makes bạn think that all Blacks have rhythm….I don’t want the Blacks to ever forget that this is where we come from and where our âm nhạc comes from. And if we forget, it (Black history) would really get lost. I want us to remember.”