When I got the book, Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson In His Final Days, that was basically written by New York Times writer, Tanner Colby, I did not want to read anything about the book until I read the whole book myself. I was really focus on reading the book and expecting this book to do "justice" for Michael. However, the more I read the book, the more it became more about the two former Bodyguards, Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard, wanting to get their money that Michael owed them, telling his family business, sacrificing a lot of things to protect Michael and proclaiming the the 2009 Memorial was a "show" and not a send off to Michael. After I read the book, I started to view these men differently and once I read the other former bodyguard, Mike Garcia's statement about the book, it made more sense to me. This is my review of the book and I will not hold anything back. I hope that if anyone is going to buy the book that they should read this review before making their own decision.
After reading the book, I was left dumbfounded by the things that were stated in the book. I decided to focus my review on certain things that bothered me from the book. As we all know by now, Raymone Bain was Michael's publicist from 2003 to 2007/2008 and probably the worse publicist he ever had. She was a terrible speaker, made some of the lamest press releases ever and seemed to do everything 30% instead of 100%. You would think that someone as successful as Michael would have the best of the best working for him. As you know from my expose on his former make up artist, Karen Faye, Michael had a slew of employees who were terrible, unprofessional and down right pathetic. The bodyguards talked about Raymone a lot mainly because she handled the money. (Keep in mind that the whole point of their book is money. You will see as you read this blog post.) The things that the men stated in the book does not surprised me one bit about Raymone because back in 2005, I was warned about her that she and other women in Michael's camp were harming him. That can mean anything and after Michael's death, I am convinced that the person who told me that was correct.
Raymone was also a fraud and in the book, the bodyguards described one incident about her ways that was so horrible, I really do know how this woman got away with this. On page 192, Bill Whitfield stated that Michael found out that Raymone was not doing things he thought she should be doing. Bill stated,
As you can see, Raymone created a front to Michael that she was together, reliable and responsible but she was the complete opposite. If you have been following Michael's career during the time that woman was his publicist, you would know that just by reading her terrible press releases. You did not have to know that from a bodyguard. There were plenty of incidences that shows that Raymone was basically an employee who is used to playing upon Michael's ignorance to do whatever she wanted to do instead of doing what she was supposed to do. When she sued Michael for $44M in 2009, it was comical because why did she think that she did work for Michael that was worth that much? Pathetic.
The Bodyguards putting Raymone out there was the best thing in the book. When I first read that, I was waiting to see who else these men were going to put out there for not doing right by Michael. I soon learned that my yearning for that possibility was more of a trick than an actual reality.
The Bodyguards talked about the time Michael went to visit his so called "second family", The Casicos, at their home in New Jersey. The Casicos, as the MJ fan community should know, consist of Dominic and Connie Casico and their children Frank, Eddie, Dominic Jr., Aldo and Marie-Nicole. Frank later worked with Michael in the late 1990s up until 2003 when he was let go. That will be discussed in detail in a future blog post this year. In the book, Tanner Colby, one of the writers (or the main writer, whichever you prefer) describe how the family treated Michael on pages 205-206,
Interesting. If you are a person who is now starting to research on Michael, you would think that the Casico family were great people and compared to Michael's actual family, seemed to be normal and reasonable. The thing that people need to understand when it comes to Michael's life is that looks can be deceiving. It seems like Javon and Bill were falling for the Casicos act when they described how Michael was like when he was around them. Javon stated on page 217,
I see. Bill stated about Michael's reaction with the Casicos on pages 219-220,
Interesting.
The truth is around the time that Michael was visiting the Casicos, Roger Friedman, a gossip reporter, wrote on his former column, Foxnews.com, that Michael was staying with the Casicos at their home. Here is the article to that story.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/11/19/jacko-lived-with-new-jersey-family-for-three-months/
In the article, Friedman said that the sources to his story were not from the Casico family. That is not the case because no one really knew Michael was there at the time except the Casico family. When Friedman posted his column, that was the first time many fans and the public even knew that Michael was in New Jersey. Also, in the book, Bill or Javon stated that there was no paparazzi at that neighborhood so pictures were not taken of Michael in New Jersey. The only people that knew Michael was there were the Casicos. Friedman and Frank Casico are very good friends and I believe that Frank was the source to that article. I do not think Michael wanted people to know his whereabouts that that time of his life. I would think that the Casicos would keep his whereabouts to themselves and not let the world know that Michael was in New Jersey with his children trying to be "normal". However, the Casicos did not know when to keep things about Michael private.
Fast forward to 2010 and the Michael album was released. Three songs from that album: "Breaking News", "Keep Your Head Up" and "Monster" were not Michael's vocals and it is now believed that these songs were recorded by a fraud name Jason Malachi in Eddie's music studio. This betrayal was something that the Bodyguards never mentioned in their book and anyone that is reading their book without knowing the true history of Michael, would never know that or that Michael's nephew, Taryll, stated this on his twitter account after the three songs from the Michael album was revealed,
What kind of betrayal was Taryll referring to? Was it when Michael's privacy was invaded when Frank went to Roger Friedman to tell him that Michael and the children stayed with him for months in New Jersey? Why wasn't this mentioned in the Bodyguards book?
Frank did a book on Michael, which I was not going to waste any time caring about, which basically stated tales about his friend and even made up some lies in the book so it can sell. Even up until today, Frank is still betraying Michael. Here is a link to a item of Michael's that is going up for sale at the auction house giant, Sotheby's -
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/rock-roll-history-presley-to-punk-n09160/lot.69.html
A military jacket that Michael wore in the past that he probably gave to Frank to keep as a gift. Frank saw another opportunity to cash in on his friendship with Michael. However, these Bodyguards and Tanner did not seem to let the public know what the Casicos were really about. Yes, the Jackson family are not better but letting the public know about the Jackson family issues and ignoring what others have done to him, particularity the Casicos, isn't fair. The family have gone out of their way to get what they wanted in regards to Michael and because the Jackson family are not popular with the MJ fan community, what the Casicos have done to Michael, does not get mentioned in the book.
Speaking of the Jacksons, the men talked about Michael's complicated relationship with his family in the book and I believe all of what they stated. Let's face it, his family, some of them, are crazy. However, like millions of people who have issues with their own families, what was the point of stating this? What benefit would this give to Michael's legacy? Everyone knows this about his family so what was the point of talking about it? There was one thing that Grace stated about Joe Jackson to Bill and Bill's reaction to it that bothered me. On page 223 it was stated,
Why would Bill feel that way? Just because Michael had his issues with his father that his father could have stolen from him and since he did not, that shocked him in a way? I do not get why Bill would feel that way but Bill felt all kinds of ways when it came to Michael's finances. However, going back to the Jackson family, I did not understand why Bill needed to ask Grace about Michael's family when she was an employee and Michael's issues with his family was none of her's or Bill's business. If it bothered Bill so much, why didn't he just ask Michael what was the deal? Michael never stated that they could not ask him about his issues with his family. Bill and Javon decided not to ask him. So, if they decided not to ask Michael about his family problems, then why discuss it in the book? Was the men discussing Michael's family woes in the book done to "humanized" him? Wasn't he a human being already? Didn't he get angry, happy, sad or excited like every single human in the world? I am not trying to defend Michael's family but I want to get to the point of why it was discussed in the book if the men were not willing to find out about Michael's issues with his family from the man himself. Also, weeks before Michael passed away, the family had a reunion in May of 2009 and the whole entire family was there. It is possible that Michael killed his beef with his family members and vice versa but once again, if you got the book and you did not know about what was going on with Michael's life at that time, you would not have known that.
Michael's children, Prince, Paris and Blanket were discussed a lot in the book. It was almost as if I was knowing all about what they were doing for that period of time. I have always been against knowing about what three minor children are doing in the lives and when I was reading up some things regarding the book, I stumbled upon some information that was interesting. The information was posted on the amazon.com reviews section that later posted on the All for Love blog.
http://www.allforloveblog.com/?p=9183
You could not make this up, people. You just could not. Oh, and it gets better. In the book, Bill and Javon stated to speculate about the paternity of Michael's children. I thought this book was about the final days of Michael's life and their "protection" of Michael and his family. Why are their paternity being discussed in a book that is released all over the world? When the men did their first interview with Good Morning America back in 2009, they were asked about the children's paternity, which was none of the business of that ignorant "reporter" and it was not the place of Bill and Javon to even comment. Here is what both of the men stated in the book about the children's paternity on page 200,
Then, Bill added his two cents,
If there was really nothing else to state, why even bring it up in the book or in the interviews? Why even allow people to make you question Michael's manhood? Here is the thing, I am not going to waste any time talking about this tired subject about the paternity of Michael's children. I will state that when it comes to Javon, this man has so many children with so many baby mothers that it is trifling. Now, why can't we talk about that? Because what Javon has is "normal" in the black community? Why hasn't Javon married any of his baby mothers yet? However, Michael married Debbie Rowe to legitimized both Prince and Paris and even though I thought the marriage was fake from the beginning, I understood, for the sake of the children, for Michael to marry that woman. Bill has a daughter and not one time Bill mentioned the mother of his daughter. I wanted to know why Bill did not talk about the mother of his child, but felt the need to comment on a grown man and his children as if he knew what he was talking about. As for Blanket, when Michael revealed him in 2002, People magazine talked to Gary Pudney, a producer for the World Music Awards and was asked about Blanket. Pudney stated that Michael told him that Blanket was a surprise to him and he also told the same thing to Access Hollywood. Now, if Blanket was a surprise, why are these two men assuming otherwise? Like I stated before, if you are reading the book for the first time and you are not familiar with Michael's history, you would believe these two without questioning them. Now, let a family member state the very same things that these two men have stated, and it would be an all out war.
Grace Rwaramba was viewed in the book as one of the few people in Michael's life that Michael can somewhat rely on. However, an important part in the book that both men overlook confirms to me that maybe Grace was doing more harm than helping Michael. On page 74, Bill discusses John Feldman, an former assistant of Michael's, and Grace being at odds with one another and on page 75, Bill describes what John Feldman told him about Grace's ways.
The sad thing about it is that if you read it closely, you will ask yourself a couple of questions like 1. Why would John Feldman state that about Grace if he did not think she was capable of poisoning Michael? 2. Why would John go out of his way to make sure that wine was not given to Michael? Just because they fought about everything, does not mean that what John was claiming was far fetched. Bill thought it was and never looked into why John would go through all of that trouble with the wine. Keep in mind, in my Q&A, I did asked the men what was Michael's favorite alcoholic drink because we all know that Michael liked to get his drink on. However, it was not like Michael was a big drinker; he just drank occasionally. When I read that part in the book, I was concerned that maybe John might have been on to something with Grace.
After Michael's death, there were rumors about Grace poisoning Michael and I did mentioned it a few times on my blog. I do not know what to really think about that but when the AEG trial happened last year, depositions were done on the people who were going to testify in the trial. Prince and Paris did their depositions and even though Paris did not testify during the trial because of her breakdown, her deposition was played in court. Let's just say that the things that she had to state about Grace was very telling.
In pages 190-191, Michael noticed that Bill and Javon looked sad and upset and he did not know why. When Michael asked them, they both told him that they have not gotten paid and it is taking a toll on them. Michael stated to them that he told Raymone to pay them and proceeded to tell Bill to get Raymone on the phone. Once he did, Michael let her know that she must pay the men for their work. Raymone told Michael that the men will be paid on a certain day and when that day came, the money did not come. Michael apologized to the men for the delay of their money. Keep that in mind when you read the other things that the Bodyguards stated about Michael and his money.
On page 193, Bill continues to talk about Michael's money and how he overheard Michael speak to Peter Lopez on the phone regarding the location of his money.
Is there a reason why Bill is stating this? Talking or discussing what a grown man does with his own money is a private thing and is not anyone's business. Was Bill stating this because he wanted to make a point that Michael was stingy with his money and that he had enough to pay both Bill and Javon? Was he trying to imply that Michael purposely did not want to pay neither of the men? Remember, Raymone was assigned to pay the men, not Michael. I do not care of Michael was not on top of that, one of Raymone's responsibilities was to make sure that Michael's employees needed to get paid. Michael should not have to be on top of that if he hired reliable, professional people to do the job that he paid them to do. Sadly, Raymone did not do the job that she was paid to do and Michael had to find a way to make sure that Javon and Bill were getting paid. Bill knew that the money that Michael stashed away was not going to him or Javon so the reason for him to tell the world in a book what Michael did with his own money was to what exactly?
That quote was from page 193 which explains Michael asking Peter Lopez to help him locate his money. Michael probably did that because he wanted to find the money so he can pay the Bodyguards and maybe former employees, their money.
On page 214, Bill and Javon finally got paid but it was not the whole paycheck. Both men where not happy about that and did not want to show that to Michael because Michael was happy that the men got paid. When Javon saw Raymone at the Carlyle, that was his chance to confront her about their money situation, but instead he did not.
When reading the information about Michael's finances, people would think that Michael Jackson was broke and could not pay his employees. However, Michael sold millions upon millions of copies and co-owned the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalogue and if one would understand how music publishing works, there is no way in this world that Michael was even close to being broke. So, let's breakdown a few things so that people can understand music publishing. It can also explain when you read on why Bill wanted to beat up Michael during a Christmas Shopping Spree.
Michael and now his estate, was/are co-owners of the Sony/ATV Music Publishing Catalogue. Michael owns the rights to songs from various artists such as the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Beyonce, 50 Cents, Bob Dylan, etc. You can check out the list of artists under the catalogue by clicking on the link -
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony/ATV_Music_Publishing_artists
Everytime those songs are played on the radio, sampled in a song, used in a music video or used for a television commercial, Michael would get paid a certain percentage. When a company or a television show wants to use the songs in the catalogue for their use, they would ask Michael for permission because he owned the publishing rights to the songs. We also have to add in Michael's very successful music career and the millions upon millions of albums that he sold worldwide. Michael sold 750M records worldwide before the era of social media. So, for Bill and Javon to imply that Michael could possibly be broke because they were not getting their full pay is laughable to me.
If you get a chance, please listen carefully starting at 7:00 minutes in, on what comedian, activist and friend of Michael's, Dick Gregory had to state about Michael's co-ownership of the Sony/ATV Catalogue. I am telling you, Michael made the smartest deal in the history of the music business. No wonder this man was being threaten.
Another thing that was laughable to me and which made me start to look at the book a different way was the reactions that Bill and Javon had when Michael was shopping for Christmas presents for his children. On pages 242-243, Michael asked Bill a question that really angered him,
This part angered me because Michael did what he can to make sure that Bill and Javon were paid. He was not going to get on top of things that were not his job description. The fact that this man wanted to beat Michael up, knowing the situation that he was under, angers me to no end. I would have never guess that I would read this in the book because no where in their promotional trial where Bill ever utter the thought of waiting to slap the shit out of Michael. I bet you if any of his brothers or sisters stated these things about Michael, the fans would ripped them a new one. As I do this blog, there are fans actually telling fans to buy this book. I mean, these people cannot be serious.
Javon also had something to state on the same page,
However, when Javon saw Raymone at the bar with her friends, that was his chance to ask her about his money. Instead of asking her, he kept silent.
As I was reading the book, I was bothered by what Bill stated on page 244 about Michael's empathy for others and the nerve of this man trying to psycho-analyze why Michael did not seemed to care about what his employees were going through. Here is what Bill stated after describing Michael's compassion for others,
When Michael saw the looks on the faces of Bill and Javon, he wanted to know what was wrong and the men told them the situation about their payment. Michael immediately called Raymone and demanded her to pay these men. When their checks finally arrived, during one of his photo shoots, he stopped production because he was so excited that these men were finally getting their pay, came over to them and gave them their money. It was not all of it, but it was some of it. To state that Michael did not care about how his employees felt because of their lack of pay and to assume that he could not develop personal relationships with people because of his childhood is the most ignorant thing from that book. This is why Michael had horrible experiences with his employees. If they are not going to do their job right, they will steal from him and get fired. Or they would stay with him until they find ways to get their pay. These two idiots had every chance to get out of the situation that they were in but they claimed that their "loyalty" to Michael was the reason why they did not quit working for him. Michael cared about his employees and it is not remotely his fault if the very people he hired to do the job of simply paying his employees were unreliable and did not do what they were told to do by Michael. Michael did all he could to find out what happened to his money so that things can go smoothly.
The book also talks about the two flings that Michael had two different women name "Friend" aka "Joanna" and "Flower". On pages 175-181, the two women were discussed in the book. I have to honest, I think this whole part of the book is made up in some way. Do not get me wrong, I have always believed that Michael had girlfriends/ladyfriends in his life that he loved and adored but these two circumstances are not real to me. If Michael had a woman at that time in his life, she has to be a few years younger than him and probably have experienced life. What is Michael going to do with a young, somewhat naive woman that he cannot do with a woman who was a few years younger than him? I know that older men go out with younger women all of the time, but I do not think Michael was actually doing that at that time in his life. Another reason why I do not believe this happened was that "Friend's" actual name is "Joanna" and I remembered a fan by the name of Joanna Thome who claimed to have a relationship with Michael back in the 2000s. That turned out to be a lie and I will go into that in the fifth installment of the Ladies in Michael's Life in September. Going back to this information about these women, I have been seeing MJ fans retelling this story on facebook, twitter, tumblr and LSA (Lipstickalley.com) as if it was true. However, ten years ago, an employee of Michael's, who I mentioned a few times on this blog, talked about the women that Michael was actually with and only a few fans actually took the time to check on what he stated. Even today, the information has become a guessing game as to who stated it and if it is even true. The information was even called a "letter" instead of a post that came from a message board. Now that information about Michael and women is in the Bodyguards book, the fans want to spread it around as if it was true and accurate. No one seems to want to question the authenticity of what was stated but when a respectable employee of Michael did this a decade ago, it is looked upon as gossip. I guess people care more about what was stated in the book than the actual motives these men have taken to get their story in a book.
There were a few things that made me scratch my head at times because of the randomness of it all. When Bill talked about Michael's fondest for hot sauce on page 133,
First off, there are people who are black that do not like hot sauce on everything or hot sauce period. Why should Michael's blackness, hoodness or ghettoness have to be determined by the food that he eats? When are black people going to stop this nonsense of proving one's blackness based on the foods that one eats? There are blacks who are vegetarians and vegans. People who think Michael was "a white man" based on looks alone are idiots. Let them believe their own foolishness. Michael stated that he was proud to be a black man and that alone proves his blackness.
In the book, the men stated that Michael mostly listened to classical music and rarely does he listen to the radio. If Michael did not listen to the radio then how in the world did he know about Kanye West, Ne-Yo, Lady Gaga and T-Pain?
Speaking of T-Pain, he did an interview with hiphopdx.com in January of this year to talk about other things including his encounter with Michael. Read carefully what he stated,
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/editorials/id.2272/title.t-pain-recalls-unrealized-michael-jackson-duet-stories-from-his-biggest-hits
So, if Michael did not listen to the radio often, how would he know about T-Pain's song "Bartender"?
Also Michael liking the Bobby Brown classic "My Provocative" seems far fetched. I have a hard time believing that Michael did not know about that song when it was released in the 1980s.
The reason why I asked the men on the Q&A session I did with them on my blog about Michael having a facebook account was because Bill stated in a session he had with fans in either 2010 or 2011 on his facebook page that Michael had a facebook. Here is what he stated then,
http://www.michaeljacksonhoaxforum.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=253&t=9098&start=0
However, on my Q&A session with them, well, read on,
Also in the interview that Bill did with the fans, he was going to have a special mention of the people who deserted Michael that were in the memorial in the book. One of he reasons why I bought the book so that I can read who were the ones who left him hanging. I was surprise to find out that Bill did not mention any of those people.
In the book, Bill talks about the day of the July 7th, 2009 memorial service that was held in the Staples Center for Michael. In pages 302-306, Bill talks about getting a calling from "Friend" aka "Joanna" wanting to get tickets to go to the funeral and decided to call it a different word other than what it was, a memorial. Javon was not interested in going to the memorial because he thought it was phony and "fake" and decided not to go. There were certain things that Bill stated on pages 305 and 306 that really showed me that he was disrespectful in how Michael was being honored and really did not get what Michael was truly about. On page 305, Bill states,
Then, on page 306, when Bill agreed with "Joanna" about what she thought the memorial was,
When I read this ignorant comment, I was angry. Was it a "show" when Mariah Carey could not even sing a note because she was crying? Was it a "show" when Stevie Wonder was breaking down during the middle of the song when he sang the ever haunting "They Won't Go When I Go"/"I Never Dreamed You Would Leave In Summer" medley? When Lionel Richie sang "Jesus is Loved" while his voice was cracking or when Usher sang "Gone Too Soon" when he was literally in tears, was that a show? When Marlon Jackson spoke about his memories of his brother or when Paris cried, was that a show? Bill does not get it: Michael Jackson was not just a single father of three trying to live his life. He was an entertainer who was loved throughout the world. How can he be sent off without fanfare? Michael was about fanfare. That was why he was an entertainer.
When I watched the memorial, I did not see anything that was remotely a show. A saw a group of people giving Michael the proper send off. Bill and Javon were too concerned about those people not being there for him but when Michael called Bill to come over to see him, he refused. Bill and Javon did not work for Michael eight months before he was murdered. On top of that, even though I do not like the guy, Randy was one of the people who planned Michael's memorial. I saw their issues with the memorial as a way to attack the Jacksons because why be so judgmental over something they had no control over? Why can the Jacksons send off their loved one the way he would want it? In my opinion, I do not even think they, nor "Friend" should have even been there at the memorial. If they felt so negative about it, why bother going? Michael had family in Gary, Indiana that would have loved to have went to give their final goodbyes to him. They could have given their tickets to them.
When the book was released on June 3rd, the third bodyguard, Mike Garcia, released a statement through his facebook page on what he thought about the book. He stated,
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pp73cEAG4Ke9yclzxC_V1ui8NFOlKR2qOKsBYkmclhk/pub
In the email message, I never stated that they should ever change the questions in any way, shape or form. I stated that if they have any questions, they can contact me. They never contacted me. When I saw the questions with the answers, I was completely shocked and stunned.
http://michaelandthetruth.blogspot.com/2014/06/q-session-bill-whitfield-and-javon.html
Instead of confronting them, I had to post the session because I promised you all that I would post their Q&A session. As you can see the obvious ways these men have to go to promote a book. All they had to do was answer the questions that they knew the answers to. They did not have to change the whole session into their own thing so that people would not see that they really did not have all of the answers to all of the questions that were asked of them. I was thinking of removing the session because of the way they went about it but I figured that I wanted to leave it online to show the reader the depths these men had to go to get a certain version of their story out there.
In conclusion, I was discussing with someone about the book and how I was starting not the like the book. As we were discussing my issues with the book, I realized that we really did not need this book. What has the book proven? The information in the book was already known years ago. Michael's issues with his family were revealed in the 1990s. During the time that he was doing the Invincible album, rumors about his financial situation started to surface. Raymone Bain's pathetic ways to run a empire was exposed during the uncalled for 2005 trial. Michael's relationships with women were revealed and explained various times in his life and career. Former confirmed girlfriends have come forward with their stories and even a book done by one of them was released. Michael's amazing parenting skills were always known ever since he became a father back in 1997. What can this book already state that has not been already stated? To me, the hardest part of the book has to be the way Michael's children were exploited in the book. Do I really need to know every single thing they did with their father? Isn't that part of their childhood? Ever since Michael was murdered, the children lost their anonymity. People who "knew" Michael started telling stories and showing pictures of Michael with his children. The last years that the children had with their father was supposed to be private and sacred. Only they would keep those memories to themselves. However, thanks to these men, the whole world now knows their memories of their time with their father. Memories that they probably did not want the world to know about. It was hard enough to lose their father and now they have to have their private memories of their time with the father exposed for the world to see so that fans can be "satisfied" and two Bodyguards can get a certain paycheck. That, in itself, is pathetic.
*Update 6/9/2017: The Bodyguards book has been turned into a mockery movie that aired on the American network, Lifetime, on Memorial Day. I did a Twitter Moments regarding the movie and my reaction about the movie after it came on television. I want to add this on here to let the reader know how I felt about the never ending rewriting of Michael's life and legacy.
My Twitter Moment Reaction (you must have an account on Twitter to view the twitter moment) -
https://twitter.com/i/moments/869323777137618944
My Facebook page response to the movie and things of that nature -
https://www.facebook.com/michaelandthetruthblog/posts/1815355052039676
Nothing but opportunists. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References:
Book -
Remember the Time, Protecting Michael Jackson In His Final Days, Colby, Tanner, Whitfield, Bill and Beard, Javon. 2014. Pages: 73, 74-75, 133, 144, 157, 175-181,190-191, 192, 193, 200, 205-206, 214, 217, 219-220, 223, 242-243, 244 and 302-306.
Facebook -
Mike Garcia's statement regarding the Bodyguards book posted on his personal facebook page.
Twitter -
Tarryl Jackson's, @tarryljackson (verified) about Frank Casico's and Casico Family's betrayal.
Articles/Blog Entries/Links/Message Board -
"Jackson Lived With New Jersey Family For Three Months", Roger Friedman, Nov. 19th, 2007. FoxNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/11/19/jacko-lived-with-new-jersey-family-for-three-months/
"Thinking Twice About Billie Jean By Veronica Bassil: Book Review", Raven Woods, Jun. 6th, 2014. AllForLoveBlog.com, (on the comments section post by Susan Campbell)
http://www.allforloveblog.com/?p=9183
"T-Pain Recalls Unrealized Michael Jackson Duet & Stories From His Biggest Hits", Omar Burgess, Jan. 24th, 2014. HipHopDX.com
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/editorials/id.2272/title.t-pain-recalls-unrealized-michael-jackson-duet-stories-from-his-biggest-hits
"Original Questions To the BGs", Belinda O., 2014,
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pp73cEAG4Ke9yclzxC_V1ui8NFOlKR2qOKsBYkmclhk/pub
"Q&A Session With Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard", Belinda O., Jun. 3rd, 2014,
http://michaelandthetruth.blogspot.com/2014/06/q-session-bill-whitfield-and-javon.html
"MJ Bodyguards Answers Fans Questions on FB", Apr. 24th, 2010,
http://www.michaeljacksonhoaxforum.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=253&t=9098&start=0
"List of Sony/ATV Music Publishing Artists",
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony/ATV_Music_Publishing_artists
Michael Jackson's Red Military Jacket
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/rock-roll-history-presley-to-punk-n09160/lot.69.html
Pictures -
From my personal harddrive and google.com search.
Youtube -
The videos are from youtube.com
The book.
After reading the book, I was left dumbfounded by the things that were stated in the book. I decided to focus my review on certain things that bothered me from the book. As we all know by now, Raymone Bain was Michael's publicist from 2003 to 2007/2008 and probably the worse publicist he ever had. She was a terrible speaker, made some of the lamest press releases ever and seemed to do everything 30% instead of 100%. You would think that someone as successful as Michael would have the best of the best working for him. As you know from my expose on his former make up artist, Karen Faye, Michael had a slew of employees who were terrible, unprofessional and down right pathetic. The bodyguards talked about Raymone a lot mainly because she handled the money. (Keep in mind that the whole point of their book is money. You will see as you read this blog post.) The things that the men stated in the book does not surprised me one bit about Raymone because back in 2005, I was warned about her that she and other women in Michael's camp were harming him. That can mean anything and after Michael's death, I am convinced that the person who told me that was correct.
Raymone Bain, Michael's worst spokesperson
Raymone was also a fraud and in the book, the bodyguards described one incident about her ways that was so horrible, I really do know how this woman got away with this. On page 192, Bill Whitfield stated that Michael found out that Raymone was not doing things he thought she should be doing. Bill stated,
"Mr. Jackson thought that Raymone was running an official office for his company in D.C. One day when I had to go and pick up a package from her and I pulled up in front of her address. It was a home. She was running his business out of her house. I heard him talking one day about how Raymone managed his office for him, I said, 'Sir, Raymone doesn't have and office.'
'Yes she does. She runs my office in D.C.'
'No, Mr. Jackson. She lives in D.C. She works out of her house.'
'You mean, I do not have an office?'
Not only did he not have an office, he didn't know that he did not have an office. That's how disengaged he was from how own affairs."
As you can see, Raymone created a front to Michael that she was together, reliable and responsible but she was the complete opposite. If you have been following Michael's career during the time that woman was his publicist, you would know that just by reading her terrible press releases. You did not have to know that from a bodyguard. There were plenty of incidences that shows that Raymone was basically an employee who is used to playing upon Michael's ignorance to do whatever she wanted to do instead of doing what she was supposed to do. When she sued Michael for $44M in 2009, it was comical because why did she think that she did work for Michael that was worth that much? Pathetic.
The Bodyguards putting Raymone out there was the best thing in the book. When I first read that, I was waiting to see who else these men were going to put out there for not doing right by Michael. I soon learned that my yearning for that possibility was more of a trick than an actual reality.
Frank Casico with Michael who was never his godfather.
"Being at the Casicos offered Jackson something that he had nowhere else: a window onto a normal life. Over the years, their home had become one of his favorite retreats, one of the few places he could truly be himself."
Interesting. If you are a person who is now starting to research on Michael, you would think that the Casico family were great people and compared to Michael's actual family, seemed to be normal and reasonable. The thing that people need to understand when it comes to Michael's life is that looks can be deceiving. It seems like Javon and Bill were falling for the Casicos act when they described how Michael was like when he was around them. Javon stated on page 217,
"You could tell that he and the Casicos had a long history together. He was so relaxed and happy there. That was one of the best times I remember as far as him being in a good place, just relaxing around other people."
I see. Bill stated about Michael's reaction with the Casicos on pages 219-220,
"We just kicked it around the Casicos for almost two months, running errands, going to the mall. Part of it, I think, was that Mr. Jackson was just comfortable there. He didn't want to leave. The stability he got from their family life was something he didn't get very often."
Interesting.
The truth is around the time that Michael was visiting the Casicos, Roger Friedman, a gossip reporter, wrote on his former column, Foxnews.com, that Michael was staying with the Casicos at their home. Here is the article to that story.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/11/19/jacko-lived-with-new-jersey-family-for-three-months/
In the article, Friedman said that the sources to his story were not from the Casico family. That is not the case because no one really knew Michael was there at the time except the Casico family. When Friedman posted his column, that was the first time many fans and the public even knew that Michael was in New Jersey. Also, in the book, Bill or Javon stated that there was no paparazzi at that neighborhood so pictures were not taken of Michael in New Jersey. The only people that knew Michael was there were the Casicos. Friedman and Frank Casico are very good friends and I believe that Frank was the source to that article. I do not think Michael wanted people to know his whereabouts that that time of his life. I would think that the Casicos would keep his whereabouts to themselves and not let the world know that Michael was in New Jersey with his children trying to be "normal". However, the Casicos did not know when to keep things about Michael private.
Fast forward to 2010 and the Michael album was released. Three songs from that album: "Breaking News", "Keep Your Head Up" and "Monster" were not Michael's vocals and it is now believed that these songs were recorded by a fraud name Jason Malachi in Eddie's music studio. This betrayal was something that the Bodyguards never mentioned in their book and anyone that is reading their book without knowing the true history of Michael, would never know that or that Michael's nephew, Taryll, stated this on his twitter account after the three songs from the Michael album was revealed,
Tarryl's tweet from 2010.
What kind of betrayal was Taryll referring to? Was it when Michael's privacy was invaded when Frank went to Roger Friedman to tell him that Michael and the children stayed with him for months in New Jersey? Why wasn't this mentioned in the Bodyguards book?
Frank did a book on Michael, which I was not going to waste any time caring about, which basically stated tales about his friend and even made up some lies in the book so it can sell. Even up until today, Frank is still betraying Michael. Here is a link to a item of Michael's that is going up for sale at the auction house giant, Sotheby's -
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/rock-roll-history-presley-to-punk-n09160/lot.69.html
A military jacket that Michael wore in the past that he probably gave to Frank to keep as a gift. Frank saw another opportunity to cash in on his friendship with Michael. However, these Bodyguards and Tanner did not seem to let the public know what the Casicos were really about. Yes, the Jackson family are not better but letting the public know about the Jackson family issues and ignoring what others have done to him, particularity the Casicos, isn't fair. The family have gone out of their way to get what they wanted in regards to Michael and because the Jackson family are not popular with the MJ fan community, what the Casicos have done to Michael, does not get mentioned in the book.
The Jacksons in 2003. Complicated at best.
Speaking of the Jacksons, the men talked about Michael's complicated relationship with his family in the book and I believe all of what they stated. Let's face it, his family, some of them, are crazy. However, like millions of people who have issues with their own families, what was the point of stating this? What benefit would this give to Michael's legacy? Everyone knows this about his family so what was the point of talking about it? There was one thing that Grace stated about Joe Jackson to Bill and Bill's reaction to it that bothered me. On page 223 it was stated,
"That was another thing Grace said that stuck with me. She said that the only person who never stole from Michael was his father."
Why would Bill feel that way? Just because Michael had his issues with his father that his father could have stolen from him and since he did not, that shocked him in a way? I do not get why Bill would feel that way but Bill felt all kinds of ways when it came to Michael's finances. However, going back to the Jackson family, I did not understand why Bill needed to ask Grace about Michael's family when she was an employee and Michael's issues with his family was none of her's or Bill's business. If it bothered Bill so much, why didn't he just ask Michael what was the deal? Michael never stated that they could not ask him about his issues with his family. Bill and Javon decided not to ask him. So, if they decided not to ask Michael about his family problems, then why discuss it in the book? Was the men discussing Michael's family woes in the book done to "humanized" him? Wasn't he a human being already? Didn't he get angry, happy, sad or excited like every single human in the world? I am not trying to defend Michael's family but I want to get to the point of why it was discussed in the book if the men were not willing to find out about Michael's issues with his family from the man himself. Also, weeks before Michael passed away, the family had a reunion in May of 2009 and the whole entire family was there. It is possible that Michael killed his beef with his family members and vice versa but once again, if you got the book and you did not know about what was going on with Michael's life at that time, you would not have known that.
Michael with his children, 2003
Michael's children, Prince, Paris and Blanket were discussed a lot in the book. It was almost as if I was knowing all about what they were doing for that period of time. I have always been against knowing about what three minor children are doing in the lives and when I was reading up some things regarding the book, I stumbled upon some information that was interesting. The information was posted on the amazon.com reviews section that later posted on the All for Love blog.
http://www.allforloveblog.com/?p=9183
"Prince, Paris and Blanket are betrayed & exploited in this book!Tina H. says:
Prince, Paris, and Blanket Jackson – these bodyguards’ clients – are all still minors, entitled to their privacy, and at especially sensitive ages to have to deal with yet more betrayal, inappropriate exposure, exploitation, and public scrutiny. They are VICTIMS of this book.William Whitfield promised several times, via social media, that he would obtain the approval of Katherine Jackson before releasing his book for publication. Unsurprisingly, that never happened because Katherine does not need any more heartache or public disclosures by paid employees to embarrass, exploit, and shame her family members – her children and her grandchildren.William Whitfield promised, via social media, to give a significant portion of the proceeds from his book to a large number of charities. There has been no mention of any contributions to charities since the announcement was made that the book would be available in June 2014.None of MJ’s security personnel were ever allowed inside his home without special permission for a special reason, ensuring that these two bodyguards’ exposure to MJ and his children was very limited. This reality begs the question of how much “information” that is “revealed” in the book is lies, misrepresentations, and/or exaggerations for the sole purpose of selling books. The bodyguards claim to expose MJ’s “home life,” whereas they were not allowed in his home!"
You could not make this up, people. You just could not. Oh, and it gets better. In the book, Bill and Javon stated to speculate about the paternity of Michael's children. I thought this book was about the final days of Michael's life and their "protection" of Michael and his family. Why are their paternity being discussed in a book that is released all over the world? When the men did their first interview with Good Morning America back in 2009, they were asked about the children's paternity, which was none of the business of that ignorant "reporter" and it was not the place of Bill and Javon to even comment. Here is what both of the men stated in the book about the children's paternity on page 200,
"Javon: The question we always get is, 'Blanket looks more like him than Prince or Paris. Do you think they're all his?' And when we first started working there, we'd ask ourselves a lot of the same questions. 'What's the deal? Are those really his kids?' But once you spent time with them, and you saw the way he was with them, you just stopped thinking about it. Those were his kids. He was their father. They were a family. End of story."
Then, Bill added his two cents,
"Bill: Every day, all over the world, couples use surrogate mothers, donor eggs, frozen embryos. People go to all different lengths to have families, and nobody questions the legitmacy of those families. Nobody points a finger at those families and says, 'Those aren't really your kids.' But with Michael Jackson, people questioned his right to even be a parent. But from everything I saw, they were a better, more loving family than a lot of families I've seen. There's really nothing else to say."
If there was really nothing else to state, why even bring it up in the book or in the interviews? Why even allow people to make you question Michael's manhood? Here is the thing, I am not going to waste any time talking about this tired subject about the paternity of Michael's children. I will state that when it comes to Javon, this man has so many children with so many baby mothers that it is trifling. Now, why can't we talk about that? Because what Javon has is "normal" in the black community? Why hasn't Javon married any of his baby mothers yet? However, Michael married Debbie Rowe to legitimized both Prince and Paris and even though I thought the marriage was fake from the beginning, I understood, for the sake of the children, for Michael to marry that woman. Bill has a daughter and not one time Bill mentioned the mother of his daughter. I wanted to know why Bill did not talk about the mother of his child, but felt the need to comment on a grown man and his children as if he knew what he was talking about. As for Blanket, when Michael revealed him in 2002, People magazine talked to Gary Pudney, a producer for the World Music Awards and was asked about Blanket. Pudney stated that Michael told him that Blanket was a surprise to him and he also told the same thing to Access Hollywood. Now, if Blanket was a surprise, why are these two men assuming otherwise? Like I stated before, if you are reading the book for the first time and you are not familiar with Michael's history, you would believe these two without questioning them. Now, let a family member state the very same things that these two men have stated, and it would be an all out war.
Grace Rwaramba....stay being suspect.
Grace Rwaramba was viewed in the book as one of the few people in Michael's life that Michael can somewhat rely on. However, an important part in the book that both men overlook confirms to me that maybe Grace was doing more harm than helping Michael. On page 74, Bill discusses John Feldman, an former assistant of Michael's, and Grace being at odds with one another and on page 75, Bill describes what John Feldman told him about Grace's ways.
"Whenever Grace put the wine in the house, Feldman would go into the house, get it, and bring it into the trailer.
'Mr. Jackson doesn't need to be drinking this,' he'd say, 'its's poison.'
Then, Grace would come up and go, 'Bill, I'm going to run to the store. The boss wants some wine. I could have sworn I bought some, but he must have misplaced it.'
'What kind of wine? I'd ask. She'd tell me, and I'd say, 'Feldman brought it in here.'
She'd get pissed and she'd take it back in the house. A day of two later, Feldman would come looking around. 'Where's that wine at?'
'What wine?'
'The wine I bought in here.'
'I gave it to Grace.'
'No! No! You can't do that!'
'What? Why not?' 'She is trying to poison him! Do you understand?'
I thought the dude was crazy. At first, I thought he meant that she was actually trying to poison him, like she was putting real poison in the wine. Those two fought about everything."
The sad thing about it is that if you read it closely, you will ask yourself a couple of questions like 1. Why would John Feldman state that about Grace if he did not think she was capable of poisoning Michael? 2. Why would John go out of his way to make sure that wine was not given to Michael? Just because they fought about everything, does not mean that what John was claiming was far fetched. Bill thought it was and never looked into why John would go through all of that trouble with the wine. Keep in mind, in my Q&A, I did asked the men what was Michael's favorite alcoholic drink because we all know that Michael liked to get his drink on. However, it was not like Michael was a big drinker; he just drank occasionally. When I read that part in the book, I was concerned that maybe John might have been on to something with Grace.
After Michael's death, there were rumors about Grace poisoning Michael and I did mentioned it a few times on my blog. I do not know what to really think about that but when the AEG trial happened last year, depositions were done on the people who were going to testify in the trial. Prince and Paris did their depositions and even though Paris did not testify during the trial because of her breakdown, her deposition was played in court. Let's just say that the things that she had to state about Grace was very telling.
Paris' deposition in 2013.
That is very interesting. Remember in the book, Bill and Javon did not spend enough time with Michael when he was living in the rental homes in Vegas and Virginia and the Palms to really know what was truly going on. Paris' comments about Grace and her father's true relationship was not mentioned in the book.
Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard...
The main reason why I now do not like the book was the constant reminder of Michael's finances being in shambles, supposedly. The common theme in the book was that Bill and Javon were not getting paid on time, not getting all of their pay or not getting paid at all. Remember that Michael sold, at that time, 750M albums worldwide, millions of tickets sold in his concerts and the ever lucrative, Beatles Catalogue aka Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Before I get into the music publishing details, let's get into the money talk that was thoughtout the book. On page 73, Javon talks about Michael's money and the rumors about his finances,
"You'd hear things in the media about his finances, but from where we stood, there was just no way a man like Michael Jackson could be broke. He had stashes all over the place, stacks of cash hidden away. Like that briefcase Ms. Raymone brought him. The same day our pay was late, we'd be going somewhere to spend twenty thousand dollars on something. He's flat broke and he's worth millions at the same time? That's what we never got."
I remembered when Dr. Tohme Tohme was interviewed on the Today show in 2009 and he talked about Michael giving him $5M to keep. That was the first time I ever heard of Michael keeping money. For Javon to openingly state that about Michael's money in the book bothered me because it made it seem as though Michael was purposely not paying his employees and keeping his money to himself and his children. Michael had people he assigned to make sure that they pay his employees. Raymone was the one in charge of making sure that Bill and Javon got paid. It was a constant thing for both men to go through not getting their pay on time. Once Bill got access to Michael's financial documents, he started seeing the bigger picture and stated what he saw in the book. On page 144, Bill states,
"Now being put in this point-man position, I was starting to see things. I knew I was looking at couple of pieces to the puzzle, but I was starting to get a glimpse at the bigger picture of his finances."
Yep.
Knowing that both men have not be fully paid, things got interesting when Bill retrieved Michael's silver briefcase and on page 157, he talked about what he saw in it,
"It was heavy. I took it home, put it on the table in my living room. All night, I just kept looking at the thing. Mystery briefcase. Like out of the movies of something. I wanted to open it. I was dying to know what was inside. At the same time, I wanted no part of whatever it was. But if I was going to be going through airport security with this thing, crossing state lines, I decided I had to find out. I opened it. Inside were two Academy Awards. At first, they just looked like generic Oscar statues; I'd never seen one up close. But then I looked more closely at them, and they both had Gone with the Wind on them. One was for Best Picture."
Bill goes on to state that the Oscars were the most valuable Oscars of all time and that Michael paid 1.5 million in an auction in 1999.
Michael chilling at Neverland in 2002.
In pages 190-191, Michael noticed that Bill and Javon looked sad and upset and he did not know why. When Michael asked them, they both told him that they have not gotten paid and it is taking a toll on them. Michael stated to them that he told Raymone to pay them and proceeded to tell Bill to get Raymone on the phone. Once he did, Michael let her know that she must pay the men for their work. Raymone told Michael that the men will be paid on a certain day and when that day came, the money did not come. Michael apologized to the men for the delay of their money. Keep that in mind when you read the other things that the Bodyguards stated about Michael and his money.
On page 193, Bill continues to talk about Michael's money and how he overheard Michael speak to Peter Lopez on the phone regarding the location of his money.
"He'd been rich his whole life that I don't think he really grasped the idea that he could go broke. He just thought there would always be more. He always had cash on him. He had hundreds of thousands of dollars stashed away in that house in Vegas, in little hiding spots, and I knew he had some of that cash with him in Virginia. To him, that was real money, money he could put his hands on to get whatever he needed right then."
Is there a reason why Bill is stating this? Talking or discussing what a grown man does with his own money is a private thing and is not anyone's business. Was Bill stating this because he wanted to make a point that Michael was stingy with his money and that he had enough to pay both Bill and Javon? Was he trying to imply that Michael purposely did not want to pay neither of the men? Remember, Raymone was assigned to pay the men, not Michael. I do not care of Michael was not on top of that, one of Raymone's responsibilities was to make sure that Michael's employees needed to get paid. Michael should not have to be on top of that if he hired reliable, professional people to do the job that he paid them to do. Sadly, Raymone did not do the job that she was paid to do and Michael had to find a way to make sure that Javon and Bill were getting paid. Bill knew that the money that Michael stashed away was not going to him or Javon so the reason for him to tell the world in a book what Michael did with his own money was to what exactly?
"I was driving him in D.C. one day, and he was on the phone with Peter Lopez. I could hear parts of their conversation and I heard Mr. Jackson say, 'Peter, I don't know where my money is. Or how much money I have. Can you help me?'
That quote was from page 193 which explains Michael asking Peter Lopez to help him locate his money. Michael probably did that because he wanted to find the money so he can pay the Bodyguards and maybe former employees, their money.
On page 214, Bill and Javon finally got paid but it was not the whole paycheck. Both men where not happy about that and did not want to show that to Michael because Michael was happy that the men got paid. When Javon saw Raymone at the Carlyle, that was his chance to confront her about their money situation, but instead he did not.
When reading the information about Michael's finances, people would think that Michael Jackson was broke and could not pay his employees. However, Michael sold millions upon millions of copies and co-owned the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalogue and if one would understand how music publishing works, there is no way in this world that Michael was even close to being broke. So, let's breakdown a few things so that people can understand music publishing. It can also explain when you read on why Bill wanted to beat up Michael during a Christmas Shopping Spree.
Michael in 1985; the year he purchased the now Sony/ATV Music Catalogue.
Michael and now his estate, was/are co-owners of the Sony/ATV Music Publishing Catalogue. Michael owns the rights to songs from various artists such as the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Beyonce, 50 Cents, Bob Dylan, etc. You can check out the list of artists under the catalogue by clicking on the link -
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony/ATV_Music_Publishing_artists
Everytime those songs are played on the radio, sampled in a song, used in a music video or used for a television commercial, Michael would get paid a certain percentage. When a company or a television show wants to use the songs in the catalogue for their use, they would ask Michael for permission because he owned the publishing rights to the songs. We also have to add in Michael's very successful music career and the millions upon millions of albums that he sold worldwide. Michael sold 750M records worldwide before the era of social media. So, for Bill and Javon to imply that Michael could possibly be broke because they were not getting their full pay is laughable to me.
If you get a chance, please listen carefully starting at 7:00 minutes in, on what comedian, activist and friend of Michael's, Dick Gregory had to state about Michael's co-ownership of the Sony/ATV Catalogue. I am telling you, Michael made the smartest deal in the history of the music business. No wonder this man was being threaten.
Interesting.
Another thing that was laughable to me and which made me start to look at the book a different way was the reactions that Bill and Javon had when Michael was shopping for Christmas presents for his children. On pages 242-243, Michael asked Bill a question that really angered him,
"At one point, Mr. Jackson was looking at these girls' dolls and he picked one up and looked at me and said, 'Bill, aren't you getting anything for your daughter?'
I said, 'No, sir. We haven't been paid yet.'
'Oh.'
That was all he said. Then he turned around and went right on shopping. At that moment, I wanted to slap the shit out of him. I saw myself doing it, too, in my mind. I envision it. I saw myself slapping the shit out of him, him falling back over this big pile of action figures. But of course I didn't say or do anything. I just let it go."
This part angered me because Michael did what he can to make sure that Bill and Javon were paid. He was not going to get on top of things that were not his job description. The fact that this man wanted to beat Michael up, knowing the situation that he was under, angers me to no end. I would have never guess that I would read this in the book because no where in their promotional trial where Bill ever utter the thought of waiting to slap the shit out of Michael. I bet you if any of his brothers or sisters stated these things about Michael, the fans would ripped them a new one. As I do this blog, there are fans actually telling fans to buy this book. I mean, these people cannot be serious.
Javon also had something to state on the same page,
"Because I have had it. I was tired of tipteoing around the facts. I wanted to talk to Mr. Jackson and tell him, 'Look, Christmas is important to us too. We're fathers too. We want to do the exact same thin for our kids that you're are doing for your kids right now, but we can't. So let's get this straight. How are we going to make that happen?'"
However, when Javon saw Raymone at the bar with her friends, that was his chance to ask her about his money. Instead of asking her, he kept silent.
As I was reading the book, I was bothered by what Bill stated on page 244 about Michael's empathy for others and the nerve of this man trying to psycho-analyze why Michael did not seemed to care about what his employees were going through. Here is what Bill stated after describing Michael's compassion for others,
"But when it came to the pain caused by his own actions to the people right in front of him He couldn't see it. He didn't want to see it. Given the life he lived, being isolated from such a very young age, I don't think he ever really developed the skills you need to cope with personal relationships. So he shut those feelings out, refused to deal with them. If you had people that worked for you and they hadn't been paid for months, you'd understand how that would mess them up. You'd know it. You'd see it. He didn't. He couldn't. And that's why I kept saying to myself, 'its not his fault. It's not his fault.'"
When Michael saw the looks on the faces of Bill and Javon, he wanted to know what was wrong and the men told them the situation about their payment. Michael immediately called Raymone and demanded her to pay these men. When their checks finally arrived, during one of his photo shoots, he stopped production because he was so excited that these men were finally getting their pay, came over to them and gave them their money. It was not all of it, but it was some of it. To state that Michael did not care about how his employees felt because of their lack of pay and to assume that he could not develop personal relationships with people because of his childhood is the most ignorant thing from that book. This is why Michael had horrible experiences with his employees. If they are not going to do their job right, they will steal from him and get fired. Or they would stay with him until they find ways to get their pay. These two idiots had every chance to get out of the situation that they were in but they claimed that their "loyalty" to Michael was the reason why they did not quit working for him. Michael cared about his employees and it is not remotely his fault if the very people he hired to do the job of simply paying his employees were unreliable and did not do what they were told to do by Michael. Michael did all he could to find out what happened to his money so that things can go smoothly.
Random pictures of Michael with women, 2003 & 2007.
The book also talks about the two flings that Michael had two different women name "Friend" aka "Joanna" and "Flower". On pages 175-181, the two women were discussed in the book. I have to honest, I think this whole part of the book is made up in some way. Do not get me wrong, I have always believed that Michael had girlfriends/ladyfriends in his life that he loved and adored but these two circumstances are not real to me. If Michael had a woman at that time in his life, she has to be a few years younger than him and probably have experienced life. What is Michael going to do with a young, somewhat naive woman that he cannot do with a woman who was a few years younger than him? I know that older men go out with younger women all of the time, but I do not think Michael was actually doing that at that time in his life. Another reason why I do not believe this happened was that "Friend's" actual name is "Joanna" and I remembered a fan by the name of Joanna Thome who claimed to have a relationship with Michael back in the 2000s. That turned out to be a lie and I will go into that in the fifth installment of the Ladies in Michael's Life in September. Going back to this information about these women, I have been seeing MJ fans retelling this story on facebook, twitter, tumblr and LSA (Lipstickalley.com) as if it was true. However, ten years ago, an employee of Michael's, who I mentioned a few times on this blog, talked about the women that Michael was actually with and only a few fans actually took the time to check on what he stated. Even today, the information has become a guessing game as to who stated it and if it is even true. The information was even called a "letter" instead of a post that came from a message board. Now that information about Michael and women is in the Bodyguards book, the fans want to spread it around as if it was true and accurate. No one seems to want to question the authenticity of what was stated but when a respectable employee of Michael did this a decade ago, it is looked upon as gossip. I guess people care more about what was stated in the book than the actual motives these men have taken to get their story in a book.
There were a few things that made me scratch my head at times because of the randomness of it all. When Bill talked about Michael's fondest for hot sauce on page 133,
"I don't care what anybody says about Michael Jackson trying to act like or turn himself into a white man. Anybody who insists on taking his own spray butter and hot sauce to a movie theater? That man is black, ghetto and hood."
First off, there are people who are black that do not like hot sauce on everything or hot sauce period. Why should Michael's blackness, hoodness or ghettoness have to be determined by the food that he eats? When are black people going to stop this nonsense of proving one's blackness based on the foods that one eats? There are blacks who are vegetarians and vegans. People who think Michael was "a white man" based on looks alone are idiots. Let them believe their own foolishness. Michael stated that he was proud to be a black man and that alone proves his blackness.
In the book, the men stated that Michael mostly listened to classical music and rarely does he listen to the radio. If Michael did not listen to the radio then how in the world did he know about Kanye West, Ne-Yo, Lady Gaga and T-Pain?
Speaking of T-Pain, he did an interview with hiphopdx.com in January of this year to talk about other things including his encounter with Michael. Read carefully what he stated,
“Dude, his guest house is bigger than my regular house [laughs]. That was the most amazing shit! It was the craziest shit in the world. He just wanted to tell me that “Bartender” was the only CD he sent someone to go buy in the last four years. I was on my way to the studio, and they said, ‘Michael Jackson wants to meet you.’ So I immediately turned around. I don’t give a fuck if that nigga wanted to meet me in a God damn meat factory. I would’ve fuckin’ went there. So he told me “Bartender” was the only physical CD that he wanted in the last four years, and that was the most amazing shit."
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/editorials/id.2272/title.t-pain-recalls-unrealized-michael-jackson-duet-stories-from-his-biggest-hits
So, if Michael did not listen to the radio often, how would he know about T-Pain's song "Bartender"?
Also Michael liking the Bobby Brown classic "My Provocative" seems far fetched. I have a hard time believing that Michael did not know about that song when it was released in the 1980s.
The reason why I asked the men on the Q&A session I did with them on my blog about Michael having a facebook account was because Bill stated in a session he had with fans in either 2010 or 2011 on his facebook page that Michael had a facebook. Here is what he stated then,
"Q: did MJ have a twitter account?
- No twitter, he had a face book though."
http://www.michaeljacksonhoaxforum.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=253&t=9098&start=0
However, on my Q&A session with them, well, read on,
"Q: Did Michael have a Facebook and/or Twitter account? Did Michael ever watch television and if he did, what were the television shows that he would watch?
Bill &Javon: Mr. Jackson didn’t have Facebook or Twitter and almost never went on the Internet, because he didn’t want to see, and he didn’t want his kids to see, all the negative tabloid rumors about himself. He didn’t have broadcast or cable television for the same reason. Everything they watched was on DVD. His favorite TV show had to beThe Simpsons. He owned every season that was available. His favorite films were the big summer action movies like Spider Man and Transformers, which he always liked to sneak into the theater to see with a full audience."
Maybe they forgot. *Kanye Shrug*
That ever sad Memorial, 2009.
Also in the interview that Bill did with the fans, he was going to have a special mention of the people who deserted Michael that were in the memorial in the book. One of he reasons why I bought the book so that I can read who were the ones who left him hanging. I was surprise to find out that Bill did not mention any of those people.
In the book, Bill talks about the day of the July 7th, 2009 memorial service that was held in the Staples Center for Michael. In pages 302-306, Bill talks about getting a calling from "Friend" aka "Joanna" wanting to get tickets to go to the funeral and decided to call it a different word other than what it was, a memorial. Javon was not interested in going to the memorial because he thought it was phony and "fake" and decided not to go. There were certain things that Bill stated on pages 305 and 306 that really showed me that he was disrespectful in how Michael was being honored and really did not get what Michael was truly about. On page 305, Bill states,
"Once I got inside and got to my seat, I could tell right away that this thing was going to be exactly what we thought it was going to be. This wasn't going to be a real, genuine thing. It was going to be Hollywood, a place to be seen, a who's who."
Then, on page 306, when Bill agreed with "Joanna" about what she thought the memorial was,
"Friend was right. This wasn't a memorial. It was a show. That's exactly what it was."
When I read this ignorant comment, I was angry. Was it a "show" when Mariah Carey could not even sing a note because she was crying? Was it a "show" when Stevie Wonder was breaking down during the middle of the song when he sang the ever haunting "They Won't Go When I Go"/"I Never Dreamed You Would Leave In Summer" medley? When Lionel Richie sang "Jesus is Loved" while his voice was cracking or when Usher sang "Gone Too Soon" when he was literally in tears, was that a show? When Marlon Jackson spoke about his memories of his brother or when Paris cried, was that a show? Bill does not get it: Michael Jackson was not just a single father of three trying to live his life. He was an entertainer who was loved throughout the world. How can he be sent off without fanfare? Michael was about fanfare. That was why he was an entertainer.
When I watched the memorial, I did not see anything that was remotely a show. A saw a group of people giving Michael the proper send off. Bill and Javon were too concerned about those people not being there for him but when Michael called Bill to come over to see him, he refused. Bill and Javon did not work for Michael eight months before he was murdered. On top of that, even though I do not like the guy, Randy was one of the people who planned Michael's memorial. I saw their issues with the memorial as a way to attack the Jacksons because why be so judgmental over something they had no control over? Why can the Jacksons send off their loved one the way he would want it? In my opinion, I do not even think they, nor "Friend" should have even been there at the memorial. If they felt so negative about it, why bother going? Michael had family in Gary, Indiana that would have loved to have went to give their final goodbyes to him. They could have given their tickets to them.
Mike Garcia.
When the book was released on June 3rd, the third bodyguard, Mike Garcia, released a statement through his facebook page on what he thought about the book. He stated,
"The two other bodyguards I worked with for are coming out with a book in conjunction with those that never had Mr. Jackson's best interest and stole from him. In the past years, I've been asked about the other two bodyguards and always remained silent. Now I can no longer do that. They made a deal with a book author behind my back which the book author had to end the deal with them because of the fiction they wanted in the book, they are using my image for their book sale and its not "MJs Bodyguards" writing this book, its the greed of just them two, and they care of only money. This is the second attempt at writing a book with my image and I'm not even involved. For the record, I am NOT involved in their book and I'm in disbelief that they have sided with the ones who took advantage of Mr. Jackson. Just when I thought these two couldn't disrespect Mr. Jackson even more, they do it again. Sad and the karma, in the name of Mr. Jackson will come to you both."
This is what can kill the credibility of the things that the men stated in the book. If Mr. Garcia is correct, this explains the whole point of why the book was even made. At first, Mr. Garcia was with them talking about Michael and planning on writing a book about their time with him. Then Mike decided not to participate in the book and go on to do his own thing. After some time, the book is released and he issues a statement basically stating that Bill and Javon were plotting to make a deal with a different author and that they were going to add fictional stories in the book. After reading the book, I read Mike's statement and that was when I decided I can no longer support this book.
When reading the statement from Mike, I decided to let you all know the real issue with my Q&A session with the men. When I send questions out to anyone that I am doing a session with, I state that they have to answer all of the questions and if they have any issues that they can contact me. The session that you have read is not the session that you were suppose to read. In other words, those questions are not the questions that I asked them. I gathered the questions from myself and fans, listed them in chronological order and stayed up until 2 AM making sure that the questions made sense and were done with taste. Here is the list of the original 60 + questions:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pp73cEAG4Ke9yclzxC_V1ui8NFOlKR2qOKsBYkmclhk/pub
In the email message, I never stated that they should ever change the questions in any way, shape or form. I stated that if they have any questions, they can contact me. They never contacted me. When I saw the questions with the answers, I was completely shocked and stunned.
http://michaelandthetruth.blogspot.com/2014/06/q-session-bill-whitfield-and-javon.html
Instead of confronting them, I had to post the session because I promised you all that I would post their Q&A session. As you can see the obvious ways these men have to go to promote a book. All they had to do was answer the questions that they knew the answers to. They did not have to change the whole session into their own thing so that people would not see that they really did not have all of the answers to all of the questions that were asked of them. I was thinking of removing the session because of the way they went about it but I figured that I wanted to leave it online to show the reader the depths these men had to go to get a certain version of their story out there.
In conclusion, I was discussing with someone about the book and how I was starting not the like the book. As we were discussing my issues with the book, I realized that we really did not need this book. What has the book proven? The information in the book was already known years ago. Michael's issues with his family were revealed in the 1990s. During the time that he was doing the Invincible album, rumors about his financial situation started to surface. Raymone Bain's pathetic ways to run a empire was exposed during the uncalled for 2005 trial. Michael's relationships with women were revealed and explained various times in his life and career. Former confirmed girlfriends have come forward with their stories and even a book done by one of them was released. Michael's amazing parenting skills were always known ever since he became a father back in 1997. What can this book already state that has not been already stated? To me, the hardest part of the book has to be the way Michael's children were exploited in the book. Do I really need to know every single thing they did with their father? Isn't that part of their childhood? Ever since Michael was murdered, the children lost their anonymity. People who "knew" Michael started telling stories and showing pictures of Michael with his children. The last years that the children had with their father was supposed to be private and sacred. Only they would keep those memories to themselves. However, thanks to these men, the whole world now knows their memories of their time with their father. Memories that they probably did not want the world to know about. It was hard enough to lose their father and now they have to have their private memories of their time with the father exposed for the world to see so that fans can be "satisfied" and two Bodyguards can get a certain paycheck. That, in itself, is pathetic.
Michael in 2006.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Update 6/9/2017: The Bodyguards book has been turned into a mockery movie that aired on the American network, Lifetime, on Memorial Day. I did a Twitter Moments regarding the movie and my reaction about the movie after it came on television. I want to add this on here to let the reader know how I felt about the never ending rewriting of Michael's life and legacy.
My Twitter Moment Reaction (you must have an account on Twitter to view the twitter moment) -
https://twitter.com/i/moments/869323777137618944
My Facebook page response to the movie and things of that nature -
https://www.facebook.com/michaelandthetruthblog/posts/1815355052039676
Nothing but opportunists. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References:
Book -
Remember the Time, Protecting Michael Jackson In His Final Days, Colby, Tanner, Whitfield, Bill and Beard, Javon. 2014. Pages: 73, 74-75, 133, 144, 157, 175-181,190-191, 192, 193, 200, 205-206, 214, 217, 219-220, 223, 242-243, 244 and 302-306.
Facebook -
Mike Garcia's statement regarding the Bodyguards book posted on his personal facebook page.
Twitter -
Tarryl Jackson's, @tarryljackson (verified) about Frank Casico's and Casico Family's betrayal.
Articles/Blog Entries/Links/Message Board -
"Jackson Lived With New Jersey Family For Three Months", Roger Friedman, Nov. 19th, 2007. FoxNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/11/19/jacko-lived-with-new-jersey-family-for-three-months/
"Thinking Twice About Billie Jean By Veronica Bassil: Book Review", Raven Woods, Jun. 6th, 2014. AllForLoveBlog.com, (on the comments section post by Susan Campbell)
http://www.allforloveblog.com/?p=9183
"T-Pain Recalls Unrealized Michael Jackson Duet & Stories From His Biggest Hits", Omar Burgess, Jan. 24th, 2014. HipHopDX.com
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/editorials/id.2272/title.t-pain-recalls-unrealized-michael-jackson-duet-stories-from-his-biggest-hits
"Original Questions To the BGs", Belinda O., 2014,
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pp73cEAG4Ke9yclzxC_V1ui8NFOlKR2qOKsBYkmclhk/pub
"Q&A Session With Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard", Belinda O., Jun. 3rd, 2014,
http://michaelandthetruth.blogspot.com/2014/06/q-session-bill-whitfield-and-javon.html
"MJ Bodyguards Answers Fans Questions on FB", Apr. 24th, 2010,
http://www.michaeljacksonhoaxforum.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=253&t=9098&start=0
"List of Sony/ATV Music Publishing Artists",
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony/ATV_Music_Publishing_artists
Michael Jackson's Red Military Jacket
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/rock-roll-history-presley-to-punk-n09160/lot.69.html
Pictures -
From my personal harddrive and google.com search.
Youtube -
The videos are from youtube.com
