Before Michael Jackson died in June 2009, he was set out to get back on stage with a series of sold-out concerts. He had 50 shows booked for his major comeback tour, This Is It. Footage from its rehearsals was turned into a movie of the same name. It was released 4 months after the King of Pop's death. There, fans got to see the singer's backstage preparations. But what wasn't explicitly revealed there was Jackson's unreleased music. After the musician's shocking death, his sister La Toya Jackson said she had found two hard disks at the Billy Jean hitmaker's home.
She said it had over 100 unreleased tracks and that most of which were unregistered. Many of these songs were leaked on the internet. In 2010, Sony signed a record-breaking deal with the singer's estate for $250 million. Until 2017, they had distribution rights over Jackson's records and production of ten posthumous albums. Only two albums came out of the deal. But the Jackson family announced an upcoming third album back in August 2021. Not much has been said about it. But in the 13-time Grammy winner's final interview, he raved about a certain artist whom he worked with on one of these unreleased projects.
Michael Jackson Loved Working With Will.I.Am
Some people have the idea that the Smooth Criminal singer had taken a total break from music during his break in the mid-2000s. But according to the legend himself, he never stopped creating new music. "I never stopped [writing music]. "I'm always writing, it's how it is," he said in a 2006 interview with Access Hollywood. "I like to take sounds and put 'em on the microscope and just talk about how we want to manipulate the character of it."
He added that he had chosen Will.i.am to work with him on an album because "he's doing wonderful, innovative, positive, great music." He truly admired the Black Eyed Peas frontman. "I thought it would be interesting to collaborate, or just, you know... see how the chemistry worked," Jackson explained. In 2010, Will.i.am slammed Sony for "profiting off of" MJ's posthumous album.
"He just wasn’t any ordinary artist. He was a hands-on person. To me it’s disrespectful. There’s no honoring," the rapper told Access Hollywood. "Michael Jackson songs are finished when Michael says they’re finished. Maybe if I never worked with him I wouldn’t have this perspective. He was very particular about how he wanted his vocals, the reverb he used…he was that hands-on." He vowed never to release the music they made together.
Michael Jackson Never Stopped Making Music
Before working with Will.i.am, Jackson had gotten into a potentially "history-making" music project with a Bahrain-based team. In early 2005, the Moonwalker star flew to Bahrain amid his trial for allegedly intoxicating and molesting a 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo. Jackson was under a lot of stress and was on the verge of bankruptcy. The pop star hadn't made an album since his poorly received 2001 album Invincible. He was also out of contract for years due to a falling out with Sony. His brother Jermaine Jackson wrote in his memoir You Are Not Alone that he had connected the pop star with the second son of the king of Bahrain, Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad al-Khalifa. He thought the prince could help Jackson "to be free of debt’s burden."
In late June that year, two weeks after Jackson's acquittal and after traveling to Europe with Abdullah, the two returned to Bahrain and signed a collaborative album deal. It was a good way for the singer to recover from his financial troubles. He stayed there for 11 months this time. However, the project didn't come to fruition. The partnership ended with a lawsuit instead. "The plan that Abdulla put together with Michael and myself was a really healthy, long-term, good thing," English record executive Guy Holmes told The Irish Times. He was managing Jackson at that time. "I truly believe that he would be alive today if he had stuck with his word."
"'How do we get him back? How can I make people enjoy what this guy gave the world?’ That was his thing. He wanted to be part of rewriting history," said Ahmed al-Khan of Abdullah's ambitions for his project with Jackson. al-Khan was the financial adviser hired by the sheikh to help the singer with his financial issues. After multiple costly trips to Bahrain and several expensive recording requests, Jackson ultimately decided to quit because he was apparently "ashamed" of the way he looked post-trial. "Michael was sitting behind a cloth curtain," Holmes recalled. "You couldn’t really see him. And so I walked out of the meeting... He basically was skin and bones after the court case, and I think that’s what it was. He was ashamed of the way he looked."
Jackson's then-manager added that the Beat It singer was facing about 47 lawsuits. It's understandable why he would suddenly back out of a major collaboration. The singer was initially excited that he even brought his Bad and Dangerous team to Bahrain at the sheikh's expense. "'Billy, we’re gonna make the best music ever! When the time is right, Billy, we are going to make Mozart music!'" Bill Bottrell remembered Jackson telling him. "He said 'When the time is right,' like, four times." Abdullah eventually sued the singer in 2008, saying he had spent $7 million on loans and expenses. Promoter AEG Live settled with the sheikh off-court, paying him $5 million to set Jackson free for a 50-show residency at London’s O2 Arena. Seven months later, the King of Pop died.
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