79 MICHAEL JACSON'S LIFE AND CAREER

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Early life Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was born August 29, 1958 as the eight of ten children in Gary, Indiana, an industrial suburb of Chicago, to an Affrican working class family. His Mother, Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovah's Witness, and his father, joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson, a steel mill worker who performed with an R&B band called The Falcons. Jackson had three sisters: Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet, and six brothers: Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Brandon (Marlon's twin brother, who died shortly after birth) and Randy.

Michael Jackson first spoke openly about his childhood abuse in an interview with oprah Winfrey broadcast on Pebruary 10, 1993 live from around the world. He admited that he had often cried from loneliness and would sometimes even vomit when he saw his father. In an interview with Martin Bashir, later included in the 2003 broadcast of living with Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson acknowledged that his father hurt him when he was child, but was nonetheless a "genius". When Bshir dismissed the positive remark and continued asking about beating, Jackson put his hand over his face and objected to the questions. He recalled that Michael Joseph sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as he and his siblings rehearsed, and that if you didn't do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you.

He showed talent early in his life, performing in front of classmates during a Christmas recital in kindergarten. In 1964, he and Marlon joined the Jackson 5- a band formed by brothers Jackie,

Tito, Jermaine as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine. Jackson later began performing backup vocals and dancing: at the age of eight, he and Jermaine assumed lead vocals, and the group's name whas changed to the Jackson 5. The band toured the Midwest extensively from 1966 to 1968, frequently performing at a string of black clubs known aas the citlin circuit, where the often opened stripteases and other adult acts. In 1966, they won a major talent show with renditions of Motown hits and James Brown's "I Got You (I feeel ood)" led by Michael.