Got an e-mail this morning from the wonderful Emma Whittle in London. Emma’s a researcher for Iambic Productions, the company that produced a documentary on Michael Jackson I did a few interviews for. She let me know that the documentary, titled “The Michael Jackson Story,” will air in the US on August 4th on A&E. Check your local listings.
It’s been about three years since I shot the first segments for the film, enough time that my world has been shaken upside down since this first came up.
Here’s the story…

In 2003, I wrote a piece slamming Michael Jackson for saying that racism was the reason that Sony was trying to drive him out of his contract. For one, I found humor in Mike picking that time to speak so boldly against racism. But the other part–by the time he made these complaints, he really wasn’t worth the money Sony was paying him. His global sales were still high, but he’d evolved into a largely irrelevant domestic entity. That’s not really his fault; we all gotta get old. Mike’s problem has been his refusal to come to grips with age. Check Prince’s Musicology and you’ll see that there’s great music to be made when you’re not so concerned with making a blockbuster.
Anyway, Emma came across that piece and asked if I would be willing to appear in the documentary they were producing. Of course, I jumped on it pronto. I was 22 years old, writing for national outlets but still almost totally anonymous, and always up for a free trip. So I jumped on a plane and headed to New York to be interviewed.
(The coolest part–they were able to work me in because James Brown cancelled. Imagine that–Bo Jones and James Brown were on the same itinerary. That would usually only happen if I’d been sent to jail or got a perm or something. But I doubt I could afford a perm at his salon.)
Anyhoo, I caught a cab from La Guardia to the Millennium Hotel at UN Plaza. I got to the hotel and Emma came to greet me.
Then she figured out that I was a weeeeee bit younger than they expected. I was sitting there in a V-neck charcoal grey shirt, slacks, two fairly sizable earrings, and a pretty large silver chain. Definitely didn’t look like a pundit.
I sure as hell didn’t feel like a pundit. I think I was more nervous than I’d ever been at that point because I was so afraid of sounding stupid. The whole time I was thinking, “they want me for something this important?” Really, we’re talking about the Brits and Michael Jackson. They ain’t really going halfway on something like that.
And they wanted to talk to me.
Anyway, we went up to a room and started recording, and it felt like it went okay. I had no idea what it felt like to do good or bad television, but I didn’t think I did anything silly.
Iambic didn’t seem to feel that way. They thought I did really well. How cool was that, right?
Well, they were all set to run the documentary on British TV late 2003…but the air date happened to coincide with when The Man raided Neverland. To the shelf the documentary went.
That was pretty bad for them, as you might expect. Worked out okay for me, though. In February 2004, I was headed to London for a couple of days to record more. It was my first adult trip to London, so I was way too gassed. That was the first time I was upset to be in school. I skipped a couple of days of class for that, but I really wanted to skip longer. But I was a student. Had to be dedicated and all that jazz.
Booooooo!
Anyway, fast forward to Summer 2005. Mike’s trial was winding down and interest in the doc was being revived. Being the kind souls they are, the Iambic folks called me to see if I’d be up to come to London to record the closing for this documentary.
This time, I wasn’t in school. Did my segment and spent a week between London and Amsterdam. If you’d like to know how that trip went, check the archives for June 2005. It was a great time, needless to say.
But I look back on this and think of all that’s happened since then. I’ve gone from being a part-time writer to a full-time one. Since recording these segments, I’ve been on national television twice and done about a dozen radio appearances. Instead of being anonymous, I’ve begun to catch the attention of my colleagues (just last week, I sent something to a guy reminding him that I spoke to him at the ACC Tournament, to which he responded that he wished he knew that I was who I am when he saw me then….bonkers, right?). I’ve even met with a big timer at a major television network about potentially working with them either on-air or behind the scenes.
Nobody’s stopping me on the street or anything, but I do finally feel made in this game. I’m no boss, but I’m part of things now. People actually look to see what I have to say about things, something I’ll never be able to get over.
And I can point to “The Michael Jackson Story” as a turning point in my career. I’ve never hurt for confidence in my work, but I have no expectation that anyone else has ever given a damn about what I do. I do my work because it’s what I do, and my measures for success are largely internal. But dealing with Iambic let me know that I really may be onto something.
What’s that something? I really have no idea. But it’s coming around. Luckily, I’ve been able to keep the mortgage paid in the meantime.
So long of the short–look for me on August 4th. And as you might expect, you won’t have much a chance to forget. I’ll be posting so many damn reminders that you’ll have it TiVo’d outta guilt or something.
But don’t really watch it so much for me. I’d appreciate if you did, but I’m cool if you don’t. Watch it for the Iambic folks. They’re good people that treated me fantastically, and I’d like to see this documentary do well for them. They’ve worked hard on it, and it’s a strong piece of work that focuses on substantial things rather than sensationalism. They deserve credit for it, and I’d like them to get great ratings.
So tune in. It’s a good show.