Michael Jackson was one of the most talented performers who ever lived. His personal life also contributed to his status as a global sensation. He was born on August 29, 1958 and died on June 25, 2009 at just fifty-one years old. Many called him “Wacko Jacko,” and whether they were deserved or not, there were many other such nicknames and jokes surrounding the nature of his relationships with children and his many efforts to change his facial appearance. There are two things that he revealed during his life that give a powerful glimpse into the inner motivations of his heart. First, in an interview, he said that when his parents started the Jackson Five, he was about five years old. In the first rehearsal something went wrong and he stopped and said, “Daddy—.”  However, as Michael described it to the interviewer, “His dad cut him short and said, ‘I am NOT your daddy I am your manager.’” Michael said he never forgot that.

Then, several years later, he was speaking in Oxford, England to 800 university students and professors. He was speaking about the foundation he had formed called “Help the Children.” About twelve to thirteen minutes into the talk, he started to weep profusely and then he couldn’t talk. The audience was very uneasy, and finally, one young man got up and brought the King of Pop a box of tissues. Once he had gained his composure, he said, “All I ever wanted in life was a father’s love . . . all I ever wanted was for my father to call and say, ‘Michael, I love you’ but he never has.”[1] 

Any serious consideration of Michael Jackson’s drive, discomfort with his appearance, or the associated torment in his soul must take into account “the father wound.” Jackson’s friend and spiritual mentor, Rabbi Scmuley Boteach, recorded thirty hours of conversations with Jackson in preparation for a book that was intended to let the King of Pop speak directly to the public. Following Michael’s untimely death, Boteach reflected on the tragedy:

What most haunts me is the knowledge that Michael’s life could so easily have been saved. What Michael needed was not pain killers but counseling, not the numbing of an inner woundedness through drugs but the awakening of an inner conscience through spiritual guidance . . . any number of people could have rescued Michael from impending oblivion. [But] most of all, he craved the love and validation of his father. What emerged most strikingly in our recorded conversations . . . was the hurt he felt toward his father on the one hand, and the extreme affection he harbored for him on the other. Michael had many fans, but he played primarily to an audience of one.[2]

[1] The details here are from a talk called “The Vital Role of Fathering” that Josh McDowell did at Focus on the Family’s headquarters in 2006. The number of the CD I have is 5008595.

[2] Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, “Michael Jackson’s Life Could Have Been Saved,” Jewish Journal, June 21, 2010, accessed November 14, 2016, http://www.jewishjournal.com/rabbi_shmuley/item/michael_jacksons_life_could_have_been_saved_20100621.