音乐 & Michael-音乐界内部人事采访实录 见解很独特的一篇稿子

lenafox

全文翻译在： http://www.mjjcn.com/mjjcnforum/thread-78987-1-1.html



有网友提供了音频  SONY/EPIC高管接受采访，揭示MJ真相
http://www.mjjcn.com/mjjcnforum/ ... p;extra=&page=1

英文文字版在这里
http://thesportsinterview.com/mjackson.html

我觉得是很与众不同的一篇采访，有一些内幕，所以就翻译了，没有太斟酌词句，大家就将就看吧，挺有意义的。我还没有翻译完成，现房上来一些。

Chris Yandek: Cory, 你有幸和MJ共事，制作歌曲，你俩关系到底如何？

Cory Rooney: “有人也问过我，我就说‘我的人生我的事业，就是在等待和MJ合作的那一刻，我得才能终于被认可了，被MJ认可。我们刚开始一起工作，整整一个月都是在闲扯，他教会我很多，完全没有开始音乐创作，那种经历你很难想象。

CY: 感觉有点离谱，不工作，净闲扯了。

CR: “有点儿，然后我就成了监制了。感觉比起创作团队的成员，我更像是他在公司的内线。那时候，他觉得在公司没有自己人，也没人站在他那边。

CY: 真的？Really?

CR: “挺神奇的，我就成了他在公司的第一盟友。

CY: 那成为盟友后，感觉如何，他到底是个什么样的人？总是听说，是人都想从他那里分一杯羹，建议他干这干那的。他对人生是不是缺乏控制权啊？

CR: “你这算问到点上了。我一开始就发现，他特别想要取悦所有人。有时候，都有点过了。好像我们做好一张专辑，我说“Michael, 这音乐太棒了”，他就说“嗯，我觉得还得再加工。”成千上万的人给他出主意，他自然就迷失方向了，我特惊讶的就是，他耳朵其实挺软的。

CY: Chris,你在索尼工作十几年了，你跟MJ有什么交集？对他有什么了解。

Chris Apostle: “我跟他的交往有限，也就是几天吧。那个时候MJ在录制混音，JAY Z有参与，那个时候JAY Z在业界已经有一定影响了。我就记得那时候MJ还没有来，JAY Z在哪儿一个劲儿复习歌词，我从没见他那么谦卑过，都有点紧张了。我对这个印象挺深刻的。
我比Cory年长，基本上是和 Michael 的音乐一起长大的。你知道，如果你在索尼，你会看到一堆人给他提意见出主意，我觉得，你不要忘了他是干什么的，他一直就是个做音乐的。好像Martin Bashi那个采访吧，挺有意思， Martin 说“不错，你又开始做音乐了”他的回答让人挺伤感的，他说“我一直都没停过啊”你觉得怎么样Cory?他说不定有几百首作品堆在不知道什么地方呢。

CY: 我看报道说，他有２００首没有发行的歌曲，价值６千万，都是留给他孩子的财产。

CR: “没错，我觉得这是老 Motown 的传统. Stevie Wonder 大概就有２０００首歌存着给孩子的。Michael 一直都在进行音乐创作，一直就没停过。好像我说的，他从没对自己真正满意过。

CY: 好几年前，他对Tommy Mottola发表过一些言辞。他对２００２年的专辑发行颇多不满。在有３０００万资源提供给他的前提下，你对他的行为感到惊奇么？

CR: “我不怎么吃惊。他就没觉得在唱片公司有人是和他一条战线的。我也不觉得唱片公司的人给了他应有的爱戴和尊敬。没错，他们是花了３０００万，但是他们是出于商业考量， Michael并不能得到他真正想要的。你明白么？

CY: 嗯

CR: “他们下了个套，把市场投资放得那么高，就等着他收钱。这本身就不是一个好的局面。就好像吊个萝卜在前面，说，好，就看你的了。我们要你卖唱片，做巡演。他们觉得ＭＪ就应该跟着萝卜跑“天，我得把钱收回来。”

CY: Chris, 你呢?

CA: “象Michael这种巨星, 他不是第一个对东家不满的，公司什么都不管，就等着他干活。他这个级别的，有不满，自然就说出来。象他这种只跟最高层打交道的，说出来也没什么。当时情况一定很糟，他是被逼推到那个位置的。

我觉得最不能忍受的是，虽然只是传闻，不过我是相信的。在那个丑闻里面，他确实是被放到黑名单上了。有一天事实会浮出水面的。这个人可是给慈善机构捐款几百万都不吭声的人。那是他的本能反应，当时他一定是被逼的。你看看他作品的水平，从我最喜欢的Off The Wall,或者任何一首作品，他们都是完美的，业界的最高水准，金曲。

Cory和我在索尼办公室看过一个现场DVD.我同事RON问我俩“要不要看个东西”，大白天的我俩也没事，就说看上个十分钟吧。结果那是一场未剪辑过的2小时半的巴西演唱会。他在2小时半里就没有停过。我想点出的是，他的成就在业界被没有得到足够的重视。他或许是我们这个时代最伟大的音乐家了。我们这辈子再也看不到第二个了。这一点需要得到重视和宣传。
CY: 音乐界会因此产生什么影响。

CR: “我不觉得音乐界对MJ对每个人的影响有一个深层次的了解，我的意思是每个人，制作人，演员，整个娱乐界。业界的每个人都只顾忙着关心他们那些屁事。当MJ深缠官司的时候，没有人，哪怕一个都没有，没人站起来支持他。 I don’t think that they took a deep enough look because everyone is too busy with their head up their own butt. When Michael was on trial, nobody…nobody stopped to go and support him at the trial.”

CA: “Yup.”

CR: “他被证明清白后。没有人说“MJ对不起”，没人跟他说“我知道你是清白的”。那个时候可没人在BET是为他致敬。没人放他的歌，没人为他抗议。没人说我们来场致敬演唱会吧。怎么就非得MJ开演唱会筹钱。就没人说，来吧，我们也聚在一起，大家来一次We are the world. 没人。Tookie Williams 可是个黑帮，你知道吧。
CY: Yes.

CR: “他面临死刑，半个好莱坞都站起来为他说话。我就不明白了，人们怎么就单在MJ有困难的时候对他敬而远之。They were trying to get him pardoned from the death penalty and half of Hollywood showed up for this man. What I can’t understand is like, ok people didn’t want to go near Michael Jackson when he was in trouble.”

CY: 他们可是公开挺一个杀人犯。But they show up for a murder.

CR: “他们挺一个杀自己家人的人。他们说，哦，他在监狱里改过自新，给孩子写书。还给提名诺贝尔和平奖了。那MJ帮助了成百万的孩子，就因为两孩子的错误控告，他就给彻底毁了。简直疯了，我所在的这个行业到处都是伪君子。

你问我对业界的影响？我就不觉得他们有那个觉悟。每个人都致敬，每个人都是想通过致敬吸引注意力，给自己添光。现在可好，是个人都想说他的好话了。
CY: 每个人都想沾点光。Everyone wants to be relevant.

CR: “个个都想分杯羹，恶心死我了Everyone wants to be relevant and that sucks to me.”

CY: 93事件以后，你觉得他还应该再接受采访说，和孩子同床么？经过那件事情，大多数人都应该警觉一些吧。After ‘93, should he have known better going on the Martin Bashir Documentary Living with Michael Jackson and saying it’s ok to share your bed with a child? Don’t you think most people are going to say in some senses well, he kind of set himself up for that?

CR: “我跟你解释，MJ亲口对我说的，我俩谈过这事儿，他说“Cory, 我是个孩子的时候，就被剥夺了童年，还有爱的本能。我拥抱我的父亲，他不会抱我。我座飞机害怕，他也不会安慰我说，‘孩子没事’。我恐惧登上舞台，他只会说“你快给我滚上去”，不只是他，我身边的成年人都这样。Let me explain to you what was said to me directly from Michael. Michael and I spoke about that. He said, ‘Cory, when I was a kid, I was denied not only a childhood but I was denied love. When I reached out to hug my father, he didn’t hug me back. When I was scared on an airplane, he didn’t put his arm around me and say Michael, don’t worry. It’s going to be ok. When I was scared to go on stage, he said, ‘Get your ass on this stage.’ Not just him, but every other adult around him.

他说‘我永远都不会否认我对孩子的爱，如果我终究要因此被钉在十字架上，被送去坐牢，那我也只能认了。”93的时候，他的顾问建议他“Michael，不好了，快付钱了事。”所以第二次，他说“你看，我付钱，让我看起来有罪，看起来想掩盖什么，这次我绝不妥协了，我要在法庭上一决胜负，你会看到，我是清白的。”So he said to me ‘Cory, I will never deny a child love and if it means that I have to be crucified or put in jail for it, then that’s just what they’re gonna have to do.’ When it was time for him to stand trial, the first time he went through it, his advisors told him, ‘Michael, this is not good. Pay this kid off and let’s keep moving.’ Second time he said, ‘You know what? All that did was make me look guilty like I was hiding something. So this time there won’t be any payoffs. I’m going to fight this in court. You’ll see. I’ll be innocent.’

就在陪审团出结果的那一天，我跟他家里人说过话，因为我记得看新闻，MJ45分钟才过去。我就问他家人说“MJ到底在鼓捣什么”。事实上，他在楼上着装。然后下楼，有个牧师和他家人在一起，他跟所有人说“我希望你们都别为我担心，我会没事儿的”Right to the day when they finally had to read the verdict and the verdict was in, I talked to his family cause I remember watching on the news that Michael had 45 minutes to get there. So I spoke to some of his family members that were in the house with Michael. I said, ‘Well, what the hell is he doing?’ He’s upstairs getting dressed. He came downstairs. He said a prayer with his family and he told everyone, ‘I want you guys not to worry about me because I will be ok.’

去那里的路上他们兄弟姐们都在一起，他可能有点紧张，他在车里唱歌。不过，他真的没有担心过。说实话，那要是我，我绝对就垮了。说不定连怎么站在庭上都不知道。

lenafox

CY: Chris, 你的看法呢

CA: “我昨天晚上看了Bashir的那个采访，就是想搞明白到底是怎么一回事。Martin问他，第一次为什么支付被告一笔钱了事，讽刺得很，他就那么实实在在真诚的回答了“我就是决定赶快脱身。”他就是那么做了，他也不是历史上娱乐界第一个想用钱脱身的人。第一次他想脱身，第二次，他决定斗争到底。

但是Cory也说了，他童年的那些事情。他年轻的时候有青春痘，我们都有过不是么，他爸爸就坐在哪儿取笑他的皮肤。作为一个孩子，他没有机会正常的成长。同其他时期相比，孩子的成长过程是很复杂困难的。而他是MJ，很多原因形成了他的不安全感。对他的控告，我百分之千的肯定，直到我进坟墓的那一刻我也肯定，他是无辜的。他就是被想制作节目，出书，做电影的众位“先生”们联合构陷了。从我所知道的各种内部消息我可以负责任的这么说。

CR: “Martin Bashir的那个采访，我觉得人们也不会有什么大印象，MJ自己还作了另一个版本不是么。

CY: 他够聪明在旁边准备了另一台摄像机。

CR: “他够聪明，所以从MJ的摄像机，你可以看到，那个采访的就是在断章取义，胡搅蛮缠。他们问Michael"你是同性恋么？”MJ说“我不想回答这个问题”。然后Bashir就立马加个画外音“很明显他因为众所周知的原因不想回答这个问题”。

你再看MJ的版本，MJ说“我不想回答这个问题”，然后他还接着说“如果你关掉你的摄影机我会回答你”。然后那采访的家伙就关了，MJ说“我不是同性恋。但是我有上百万的歌迷是同性恋，所以如果他们希望相信我是同性恋，就让他们相信好了。我并不介意，我只是不想冒犯任何人。”So then when Michael showed his version, he said, ‘Are you gay?’ Michael said, ‘I don’t want to answer that question.’ Then he said, ‘But if you turn your camera off, I will answer your question.’ Then the guy said ok, turn the camera off. Then Michael said, ‘No. Absolutely not. I am not gay, but I have millions of gay fans and if they believe I’m gay, then let them believe I’m gay.’ He said, ‘I don’t care. I don’t want to offend anybody.’ You know?”

CA: “我还是想说，都这个时候了，人们还是想针对这些个问题扯淡.”

CR: “Yeah. 疯了.”

CA: “看看他给我们的世界带来了什么，我有一个很好的朋友，正在为MJ的新巡演工作，他和Cory跟另外一个巨星女歌手合作过。他跟我说“MJ的状况比任何时候都好。”他确实感觉有点棘手，因为这是一个会很长很辛苦的演唱会，但是一切依然正常进行。就算他取消掉几场也无所谓吧，那可是50场啊。Anything about what this man contributed to the world and I have a very good friend that Cory doesn’t know that we know that was working on this tour with him, someone that worked with Cory with another diva in our lifetime and he said, ‘He was looking better than ever.’ He was struggling cause it was a long hard show, but this was going on. He canceled a couple of shows, fine. This guy had 50 shows lined up.

一切正常进行，Staples Center，完整的排演。我们谈论的是千万制作的表演。一切正常，直到这可怜的孩子说他感觉不舒服，就回家了，结果第二天他就离去了。我和Cory的感觉一样，这可能是我这一生最艰难的时刻了。我觉得自己都不完整了，我希望这个世界对他多一些致敬，停止那些取乐的称呼，还有宣扬那些杂事。 This was going. They were in Staples Center, full production. You’re talking about a multi multi million dollar show. This was going. This poor kid goes home the night before and says he doesn’t feel well and the next day he’s taken from us. I’ll use a word that Cory used, probably the most devastating thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my life. I feel like my right one has been taken from me. People have to pay a little bit attention to what he contributed to the world and stop with all the Whacko Jacko stuff.”

CR: “但是他们不会，因为他们比较在行的，比较喜欢的就是丑闻.”

CA: “Liza 很cool，我看到她采访了.”

CY: Yeah. 她在Larry King上.

CA: “她说，停，停，让我们庆祝一下。乱七八糟的消息都会出来，人们会开始上窜下跳，有人会耳闻了什么，有人出书，索尼要出新专辑了。我敢打赌，他们4台机器开足马力在重新制作他的作品。啊，对不起，还是让Cory说吧，我真是难受。这个星期我会回我乡下的房子，那里放着我所有的原始版唱片，我会重新聆听。是时候讨论他的贡献了，停止其他的狗屎。

CY: 很多人说2005年审判以后，他开始走下坡了，关于他个人问题和健康的谣言这几年也没停过。

CR: “我知道他是有健康问题。首先，MJ有一个健康问题，从未被提及过，叫做“舞者之足”。多年的跳舞的人，总是用带子缠足。所以脚步皮肤得不到足够的呼吸而干裂。好像被纸划开的伤口一样，MJ为此很受罪。

有时候太严重了，就得用石膏状的东西把脚包裹起来。所以你经常看见他的脚上有石膏。那种疼痛真的很难过，他当然会用止痛药。我没看见过，但是我跟他聊起过。不管死亡的原因是什么，这个男人走到这一步，这个行业本身罪责难逃。

CY: 他的经济状况也是把他推到如此地步的原因吧？他开始只要开10场，后来加到50。你认为他这么拼有经济原因么？Fair to say that the business because he had all the financial issues that he was kind of pushed into a corner? He said he wanted to do 10 shows, but then it became 50 for this thing in London that was supposed to happen next month. Did he feel like he was backed in a corner because he had to fulfill financial issues?

CA: “听着，我相信他决定回归演唱会可不是为了钱，尽管那是他应得的钱。就像，Cory说的，我觉得他是受了非常有权势的人的影响被推到悬崖边，被不公平的对待了。

CR: “大概8年前吧，Michael跟我说“Cory,我不能再巡演了，我再也不会巡演了，那会杀了我的。”他可就是这么跟我说的“那会杀了我”。他为什么这么说，他告诉我“你还记得上次我筹备演唱会，在索尼晕过去那次吧，那是因为我每次开始准备巡演，我就开始脱水。我不吃，不喝，不睡觉。我太投入了。

他说，“我不是故意折磨自己。到了那个时候，自然而然就顾不得了。你明白么，我太投入，自然就忘了其他。他们就让我插着输液管继续。所以我决定，我的一生也建议，再也不巡演了。”他说，他完成了无敌专辑也不会为它巡演，他受够了，他还会继续出专辑，直到他不能再继续下去，巡演是再也不要了。

lenafox

CY: Is it fair to say the downfall of Michael Jackson were people who were greedy and obviously wanted the 85 million dollars that the ticket sales had sold for the thing over in London for example? Is it fair to say that greed got the best of him and other people that were forced into a situation?

CR: “I wouldn’t call it greed. I just don’t think he had a choice. I think financially, sometimes we all do what we have to do. It’s the same reason that a boxer like Joe Lewis would go in after he was long into retirement. Joe Lewis still got in the ring and had to fight cause he had no money. I’m not saying Michael didn’t have any money.”

CY: But he owed 400 million dollars.

CR: “But he did have debt. He definitely had debt. Ok, when you got debt and you got people hawking you down and doing all this stuff, ok Michael, one more tour and let’s clean up this debt. Ok, well you know what? The person that he is, the entertainer he is, well let’s get to work.”

CY: It’s a surprise to many, but at the same time is it one of these great tragedies we’re gonna look back upon and say he had all the highs but he had all the lows also?

CR: “I would say my deepest prayer to ask God to just give this man peace and hope that his legacy lives on and it’s untainted with all the bullshit if I can say. But I’m afraid that forever it’s always going to be a problem. Just like there is always all kinds of crazy things said about whatever, Elvis Presley.”

CY:  How he died.

CR: “How he died.”

CY: The conspiracy theories.

CR: “A conspiracy theory. How did Bruce Lee die? How did Marilyn Monroe die? You know what I’m saying? Michael’s not comparable to these people. I would say Elvis Presley is the closest you’ll get to that. It had to be in Elvis Presley’s career even from Michael to stand on those shoulders and move beyond that. I’m not gonna discredit Elvis Presley, but they’re two different people. Michael, as far as I’m concerned, surpassed Elvis and everything that Elvis was about a long time ago.

And he stood for something different. No one talks about when he did the Victory tour, I remember as a kid Michael being on tour with the Victory tour right? And every night on the news they would announce that Michael Jackson donated his money from every city that he did, he donated it to a new charity. He donated his money from the Victory tour to charities. I thought that was amazing. I’m like, wow! This guys donating millions of dollars every night to a new charity. Then he would stop in every city and every city he would stop at a hospital and visit kids that were burned, ill or whatever. He took the time to do all that.”

CY: Chris, any thoughts?

CR: Two things. Comparing the Elvis Michael comparisons are obvious considering what they were to the American culture and actually the world culture. Differences, Elvis I believe died at 42. And Elvis, the most money he’s ever made was after he died, far more than while he was alive. Go back to the highs and the lows, all artists have highs and lows. Most of the lows are generally contributed to the lack of creativity, the skill diminishes, the body goes, etc…etc. Michael had the highest of highs and if you remember the highest of highs, there’s never gonna be anything like that in our life.

Number one, the albums were brilliant. The performances were brilliant. He was brilliant. He was an icon, probably the most famous person in the world. I think his lows weren’t totally attributed to creative decline. I think the lows were forced upon him and he was put into caves and holes and by people doing things to him. That to me is really sad. Artists get old like athletes. They change.

They go on different tours. They start playing the casinos. They start picking up the city festivals, the package tours, etc. This guy was forced, he was forced to go lower than an artist should ever have to go. It wasn’t because of lack of skill. Something about Michael that people don’t realize is I would call him a musicologist. This guy knew every song, ever recording, every studio, the whole Sun Studios thing, Memphis, Motown, New York, LA, everywhere. He knew everything. The musicians. The instruments. The mics. No one talks about this. No one discusses this and it’s unbelievable. And by the way, unlike Elvis, this guy was doing it still for 43 years. 43 years Chris. My God man.”

lenafox

CY: I think looking at this whole industry and the way things have been moving forward now and it’s more about the name value as you like to call it the bonafide musical talent. Is the music industry crumbling? There’s talents out there that are going to do well always, but is it crumbling in a sense that we don’t have these huge identities, these larger than life figures anymore? It’s just kind of one act after another.

CR: “I feel like because of the newfound independence that the internet has given us all. I think we’re in kind of like in a whole new revamping stage.”

CY: A transitional stage.

CR: “Well, I always say it’s a transitional stage sure. But when I say revamping or I would say an incubating stage because right now we’re about to witness the rebirth of real music. That’s because there was a time when you can have an Earth, Wind, and Fire like or Michael Jackson like Off the Wall sounding record that someone worked their ass off for independently and it sounds good. A record company wouldn’t even give it the chance because if it didn’t sound like Chris Brown or Rihanna that’s not what they were looking for.

Now independently when that becomes the most played thing on the internet and people have no choice but to role with it, record companies start to get behind it. We’ll be back to people not being pigeon held or feeling like they have to follow suit or what’s going on just going on just to get a deal.”

CY: Chris, your thoughts?

CA: “It’s been a longer transition than most people would expect. The industry is not dying. And if you look at certain aspects of it, Live Nation is having their biggest years now with the touring industry with the 360 deals it’s obviously different for artists, labels, etc. The labels, you used to have creative people working under the executives and labels, but now you have the executives maintaining their salaries by making sure they have no staff. I went to see a group tonight in New York, a kid that’s showing up all over the place. Every label was there. It was all low level people with no signing power. It’s different. They can’t sign bands. They can sign one band at a time.

As for the internet and stuff like that, I have an opinion about the fact that all the genius that we all profess to myself, Cory, and everyone that we worked with five to six years ago this industry suddenly decided that I liken to it like this. Trying to sell the public – remember the car the Hugo? ”

CY: Yes.

CR: “Yea.”

CA: “Sitting there saying, ‘You know what? We’ve come up with this great car. It’s a Hugo.’ And people are like, oh wait, I’ve heard there is this really cool car out of Germany called a Mercedes, no…no…no, you want to have the Hugo. But wait, I hear BMW makes a pretty good car, I hear Chevrolet, Escalade is really hot, whatever. No…no….no, you want the Hugo.

The industry that we worked in that came up with all these huge artists Michael included, the U2s, the Bruce Springsteen's, the Dylans suddenly decided, you know what? We’re gonna give you Lindsay Lohan. We’re gonna give you Paris Hilton. We’re gonna give you Kelly Osbourne. And the public sat there and said, ‘This is the best you have to offer? I’m not paying $17.99 for this. To hell with this, I’ll steal one song off the internet.

And the labels were slow to come to form realizing it was changing and now they’re getting screwed because of it. Fans are doing it independently Chris. They’re doing it differently. If you notice the live concert situation, the records that sell, if you look at the top 40 SoundScan you’ll probably see five country artists, five Disney artists, two or three older artists, live people listen to Bruce Springsteen, U2. Why do you think quote on quote country Keith Urban is so popular? It’s not that people like country and Keith Urban is definitely not country, it’s a singer-songwriter. They want to hear songs. Talking about Michael, he made songs. The bands that last for a record, they don’t have songs. They don’t have staying power.

When you’re 21 years old, I always ask people, name five artists under the age of 20 that were truly geniuses? And they sit there and ponder everything. I sit there and say ok, I’ll give you a few, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Michael Jackson, a Mariah Carey that was truly legitimate at that time in her career and there is one or two others, but you see where I’m going with this. Now you have every band out that is 20 year olds and they can’t play.”

CR: “Being the producer, what you find is, see, I grew up in my household when I was a kid, the Isley Brothers would be in my living room rehearsing with my dad. My dad was a producer as well. I grew up and I couldn’t wait to get in the business and kind of do it that way. And then all of a sudden I got in the business and I found well Cory, that’s kinda like too much. People don’t want to hear the live band thing and the live instrument thing. So all of a sudden I had to teach myself, force myself how to make music based on eight bar loops and write things repeat around, repetition.”

CY: You felt like you were dumbing yourself down.

CR: “I had to dumb myself because when I first started producing, I was producing strictly to make some money to take care of my family. So I had to follow suit. I was never ever…ever happy. I got very happy when I got the chance to work with the Mariah Carey or a Michael Jackson or someone like that because I knew I could be me. There’s been artists that will remain nameless that it’s like I’ve had to just sit there and just do it basically because it’s for a check and not for love.”

CA: “You also grew up surrounded by monster players.”

CR: “Oh absolutely.”

CA: “Chris, Cory never mentions this and he’ll never mention it, one of the things I’m most impressed by musically is I’ll go to his house and he’ll sit at the piano without the musical training and I came from the classical training. Cory can sit down and play the whole Stevie Wonder book note for note.”

CR: “But you know what’s crazy? When I was a kid, I remember seeing the guy walk down the street like with a base guitar on his back or I remember seeing a guy carrying like in his car like he’s got his drums or this and I was fascinated like wow! This guy’s a musician. Now, a guy walks out with a base on his back, walk in studio sessions and someone will laugh at him. Like, where the hell you going to? What is this? A parade? What are you doing? They don’t get it. A horn player, like they don’t exist anymore.”

CA: “Oh, you can’t make a living.”

CR: “Yeah. I feel like now that the internet is what it is. It’s ok to make those records because now they’ll get past those gates that where people go, oh, I’m sorry. We don’t allow that music here. Now it’s gonna go past that right over their heads and be out there and all of a sudden you’re gonna start hearing music that sounds so organic, so good, so stimulating that it’s going to go right back where it needs to be.”

lenafox

CA: “Here is a good one for you guys. You both know Steve Lukather, the guy that played most of the guitar on all of Michael’s records. He was the leader of the Toto, etc. His son is 19 years old. This kid grew up in Los Angeles four houses down from Eddie Van Halen. His father did every record from Boz Scaggs to Michael Jackson to Lionel Ritchie. You name it his dad has played on them. This kid is the most brilliant prodigy, rock and roll guitar player in the world today. He can’t get arrested. He can’t get arrested. I would put him up against anyone and people hear him and they’re horrified, he can’t get arrested.”

CR: “Yeah. I know. It’s disgusting.”

CA: “But the players, listen it’s changing yes, but fine. The industry sold 1.3 billion records last year instead of 1.5.”

CR: “It’s all a hoax. I just want you to know that if you really do some research and look at the statistics on the amount of records sold in the industry now versus over the last 20 years, we’re only down by like a few million records. It’s like 10 percent. It’s nothing crazy. Nothing crazy. All of that internet nonsense is just a hoax because the record companies, the majors always felt like, ‘Wait a minute. If we don’t start to put the word out and keep people off the internet, we’re going to lose ground here.”

CA: “Oh I got blasted at Sony once and I’ll say this. I made a suggestion once we should allow every new artist to have their first single downloaded as many times as we want, the fans want for free. ‘So, well, you don’t want to work here very long.’  I said, no. I do. He said, ‘Well, our publishing division isn’t going to like that and neither are the artists.’ I said, you know what? Maybe you’ll get three out of five.

Maybe you’ll get two out of three that love the artist, want to buy the single and do this, but this was after talking to my niece who’s like 13 at the time. I said, ‘What record store do you go to?’ She goes, ‘Record store?’ Well, there is a Coconuts around there. A Sam Goody’s still in that time. She goes, ‘I haven’t been to a record store in three years.’ I said, ‘You got 100 CDs in your room.’ ‘I get them off the computer.’

CY: Because she’s buying it from Amazon.com.

CR: “That’s what’s happening. Amazon.com, Itunes, whatever. I’m telling you, music is going to get really good now. It’s gonna get interesting. It’s gonna get good and everyone is going to see because I don’t know if you got a chance to see what BET tried to do the other night.”

CY: It was horrible. It was a train wreck.

CR: “It was a train wreck. It was horrible. It just made no sense. Let me tell you the shame of it all. The best performance of it that night was The O'Jays and they’re old guys but they just bring the truth. Everything else is just garbage.”

CY: The Beatles, The Supremes, those are acts that are part of music history. And you look at the acts today and you’re gonna say to yourself, how many of these acts are we really going to remember in 50 years?

CR: “No one’s special right now. The O’Jays were special. The Beatles were special. Why were they special? Because they sat down and worked on being special. The combination of John Lennon and Paul McCartney writing and I don’t know if you ever pay attention to the fact that they always were kind of like opposite or contrary of each other. That’s what made it crazy. It was brilliant.”

CY: And now everybody just wants to go make a record, collect a paycheck, and go home.

CR: “Oh yeah. Eight bars and everyone has the audacity to say that Chris Brown is the next Michael Jackson.”

CY: Are you freaking kidding me?

CA: “But they’re serious.”

CY: I know, but I’m saying are you freaking kidding me? They might be serious, but are you freaking kidding me?

CR: “That’s the way I felt about it. I really can get into this whole thing and go crazy about it, but I said to myself for years ok. There’s times when I try and be different, but there’s other times where I sit there in the studio and say I cannot believe that I’m working with this person and this is what it is. And they all have the nerve to have attitudes.

Then you work with a guy like Michael Jackson who when he was late, he was supposed to be in the studio at twelve and he showed up about quarter to one. He felt so terrible for being late he apologized the whole session. The next day he sent a big giant basket because we’re talking about movies and that how much I love movies. So he sent me this giant basket.”

CY: With all these different movies in it.

CR: “Oh my goodness, it probably had 100 DVDs. It had popcorn, candy, all kinds of books and movie trivia, all kinds of stuff. Again the card said, ‘I’m very sorry for not respecting your time.’”

CY: It’s the thought that counts. Absolutely!

CR: “Right. I would say Mike, what time do you want to start tomorrow? He said, ‘Cory, you’re the boss. You tell me what time. If you want me here seven in the morning, I will be here at seven in the morning.’ He said, ‘You are the boss. Whatever you tell me.’

CY: What I find interesting about those comments is the way the mainstream media projects it is that he wanted to always do things his way.

CR: “Not at all, not at all. That’s what I said. It’s like if the world would just stop and just really pay attention.”

CA: “Stepping back a minute and talking about what’s out there now is I’m horrified to think of the Michael Jackson tributes that’s gonna come out. I’m horrified to think of what his family may attempt to put out. I’m horrified to think of what records the labels are gonna attempt to put together.”

CR: “The one thing that I’m looking forward to coming out is Michael had been sitting on all of the footage of the Victory tour because he owns all of the footage of the Victory tour. I used to beg him all the time please. As a matter of fact, I do have a DVD unedited. It’s the straight footage for you.”

CA: “Maybe Cory will play it for you some time.”

CY: Or he’ll let me borrow it and I’ll promise I’ll return it later.

CR: “It’s amazing. The guy did not lip synch. His voice sounded so amazing. It’s ridiculous. He did all the dancing. He did all the stuff like that. It’s just that he conditioned himself to be able to do that.”
CA: “Only one artist that I’ve ever seen and it’s an entirely different animal that I’ve ever seen two plus hours on stage and Michael usually went two and a half. At least that one concert we watched was close to two and a half in Brazil, the only one that’s close to that and pulled it off single handedly and did all the work, Bruce Springsteen. He never stopped.

He never leaves the stage. When Michael was leaving the stage it was for one minute to change his clothes and it was a real one minute. It wasn’t the ten minutes. It was the 12 beauty police in there. He was back on. By the way, has anybody bothered speaking of dancers’ feet? Has anybody bothered to look how this kid danced? Who idolized Michael Jackson? Fred Astaire. I mean come on.”

CR: “It’s so many stories. It’s so many things. Michael, he loved to sit and tell stories. He loved to talk…talk…talk about everything. Every time he came to like a city or something I remember he wanted to go to the bookstore. They closed the bookstore down. He’d go to get books. He’d read. He’d educate me on Africa and how beautiful Africa is. He said, ‘You know, people don’t want you to know how beautiful Africa is because they’re over there robbing it of all its riches.’ But he said, ‘It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been in my life.’ He brought me pictures. It’s just amazing. Remember Chris, David Blaine buried himself alive?”

CA: “Yeah. Sure. He used to hang out on our floor at Sony. You don’t remember, but he used to hang out up there around the time your friend 50 Cent was running getting us coffee.”

CY: This is a very random story, but continue.

CR: “So David Blaine buried himself alive in the city over by the Trump building.”

CY: Trump National Towers.

CR: “Right. When I told Michael that was going on, he was like, ‘You gotta be kidding?’ I said, I’m telling you. He didn’t even know who David Blaine was. I started like sending for like video footage and everything because we didn’t have YouTube then. I started sending for footage to explain to him who David Blaine was. He was so fascinated. We got in a van that night and we went to see David Blaine late at night. We went over there.

We jumped out the van and he like a kinda partial disguise and no one really knew it was him. He jumped out and walked right over there and we sat there and he was fascinated by it. It was funny. Then we were laughing because sometimes he said, ‘You know what? Half the time someone is going to think it’s an impersonator and not me anyway. Sometimes I can just jump out.”

CY: You seem to have had a lot of personal conversations with him, but did you ever talk with about the plastic surgery?

CR: “Yup.”

CY: And what did he tell you?

lenafox

CR: “He said, ‘What’s the difference in me and Sylvester Stallone and anybody else in Hollywood?’ He said, ‘So what?’ He said, ‘My skin disease, I don’t want to be white.’ He said, ‘That’s not what I’m trying to do.’ He said, ‘But I couldn’t help my skin disease.’ He said, ‘I did try a surgery to even it all out and do things like that that did not turn out the way I wanted it to turn out, but that’s not the reason I turned into a light skinned black man.’ As far as my nose he said, ‘I hated my nose just like Sylvester Stallone hated his.’”

CA: “Look what he said his father told him.’

CR: “Yeah. He said, ‘I hated my chin. I hated my nose.’ He said, ‘And so what?’ He said, ‘Why is it just me?’ He said, ‘Why is it just me?’ He said, ‘I can show you 20 people in Hollywood that’s got nose jobs, lip jobs, botox, all kinds of stuff.’”

CY: Is there anything else you’d like to share?

CA: “The only thing I want to share, my uncle used to be real close friends with Bill Cosby. In the late 60s he handed me one of the first records I ever had. I think the first record I ever had was The Monkeys. He handed me a Michael Jackson Bill Cosby record that they did. I still have it. It’s kind of like a yellow submarine with a beautiful booklet inside. One of the most cherished possessions I have and I can’t wait to see it on Saturday.

On my thoughts with Michael Jackson regarding anything else, I just hope that the landslide is going to come out in the next couple of weeks. I hope that some people start discussing all the good that he did because if you weigh the good against the bad, he’s the most famous person in the world. It’s been on TV 24/7 for six days. That’s just my hope. God bless him and let him rest in peace and we’ll all see him someday later in our life and I’m sure he’ll be singing and dancing his ass off.”

CR: “As far as I’m concerned, actually Sunday I went to church and I spoke to my pastor at my church cause I wanted to be clear on something. I wanted to make sure that I’m not going to get attacked or get any trouble by expressing myself the way I’ve been expressing myself. I said, not to compare anyone to Christ because there is no comparison to Christ. If you just look at a second this world that we live in within God’s world which is called the entertainment world.”

CY: Yeah. Fair enough.

CR: “Michael, to me, I can only tell you to me and I’m sure I can get you dozens and dozens and dozens and hundreds of thousands of people who feel the same. Michael Jackson was like a Christ like figure for us. To know that this man over the last 15 years has been torn down, crucified, slandered, badmouthed, everyone would rather talk about something negative like he wanted to buy the elephant man’s bones. So what? You know what? I would buy them too.”

CA: “Me too.”

CR: “I think it’s cool. I would do it too. But because it was him, they always had some negative instead of positive. My heart is completely broken. My inspiration, the light of inspiration that I once had from a kid is completely dim at this point for me. I don’t know because I was not one of the disciples or whatever that followed behind Christ and had to look at him being crucified and hung from a cross.

But I’m sure their hearts were just as broken as well and my heart is broken. Moving forward with this business, all I can say is that I’m happy that there is a time we live in where we can kinda do things independently and we don’t have to deal with the hypocrites as much, but we are surrounded by hypocrites in this business. It’s just a tragedy. I always wondered what it would be like if something God forbid happened to Michael. I don’t think I ever really wanted to feel it. I just always kind of wondered like my goodness, what would happen? Well, here we are. And so far everything that’s happened is pretty much exactly what I thought what was going to happen.”

CA: “Cory and I speak countless times every day. We have basically for the last 20 years.”

CY: I can tell.

CA: “When this happened as I was emailing Cory and at one moment I got his wife on the phone but that was it. I didn’t hear from Cory for three days. Emails, phone calls, no answer. I knew that he was mourning and I was distraught about this.”

CR: “Because I cried for three days.”

CA: “He called me up Monday morning and I think it’s a very appropriate quote here, ‘Ok, it’s Monday. We gotta go back to work because Michael would’ve gone back to work.’”

CR: “And that’s the truth.”

CA: “Very poignant to me.”

CR: “Michael would’ve gone back to work. Like I said, he took his bumps, he took his bruises. He was one of the toughest men I ever met, and that’s the truth. He was a rugged tough guy. There was nothing timid about Michael Jackson.”

CY: You’ve told me a different story that the mainstream media is totally not focused on. What you’re saying to me is the industry is not totally focusing on really how important this guy was as a whole?

CR: “Nope.”

CA: “Nope. Not even close.”

CR: “They’re not even scratching the surface.”

CY: As you know in this 24 hour news cycle, it’s about what I put out, how quickly do I put it out and who’s listening.

CR: “I think they go off the fact like everything else in the world. This news, it’s the very reason National Enquirer exists.”

CY: Still exists. I’m not sure if either of you heard, but Vibe Magazine for example folded today. With the tabloid outlets online, I would not be surprised if the National Enquirer would join that list. I don’t know if you guys know this, but they’ve been having financial issues in the last six months also. Regardless, it’s all going online.

CR: “Well, I believe that anyway and that’s what I said. You know what? It gives the freedom to people like yourself to be able do something right.”

CY: Yeah. Sure, on the record.

CR: “Instead of trying to follow suit to say the Enquirer, Star Magazine, they position them right like at that cash register when you go in and it says some crazy shit on the title on the cover. Michael Jackson sleeps in the hyperbaric chamber.”

CA: “No. It’s Obama’s gay last week.”

CR: “That’s what I’m saying, enough of that. I think they’re always going to opt for the lowest form instead of saying let’s do a head count and see how many children Michael Jackson changed their life or did anything. Here’s a last fact that no one ever touched on. Both the boys that allegedly accused Michael were both kids that were involved in or their parents were in prior scams or something like that.”

CY: I remember the recent one, she tried to get her kids to fall over like in JCPenney and sue for harmful injury or something like that.

CR: “Yeah and then they tried to do something with George Lopez. They tried to say that he stole their money out of the comedy store when they were at the comedy stores. He said they robbed one of their wallets and stole from them.”
CY: Looking back on that, it was mentioned for 10 seconds and that was mentioned once.

CR: “Because it’s not important to the public.”

CY: Cause it’s not somebody important to the public because they’re not somebody prominent who anyone’s going to care about. Who is the person again?

CA: “The media started this media frenzy, it started with OJ Simpson. It sagged into Bill Clinton. They basically beat the heck out of Bill Clinton. They went after George Bush who I did not like who I didn’t support, but they did a really good job on him. Now they’ll go after Michael Jackson and don’t kid yourself, in a year or two they’re going to go after my president also.”

xiaoshuidi

看着还是很难过……
谢谢翻译……

lavaflow

看了这些, 实在忍不住又哭了.

他案子那会儿, 我因为身边有事也没怎么很关心, 只是对自己说他肯定是清白的, 如果有人问起, 也只是淡淡地回答他肯定是清白的, 也懒得多辩驳, 自以为公道自在人心, 你们这帮愚人我懒得和你们多罗嗦.

其实如今挖根掘底想想才发现我和那些身怕自己也被众口铄金的冷漠旁人有何两样? 生怕因为力挺他而被惹一身腥骚. 说穿了自己还是自私, 无非是怕说不过被舆论误导的众人而鸵鸟政策把自己埋起来, 自己骗自己出淤泥而不染罢了.

再也不会这样了!

Hermione

迈迈真的很敬业，膜拜

○range｀

LZ好辛苦~~

bestdaddy

太好了有人翻译了呵呵`

dora

多谢搂主翻译。。看样子很像还没翻完
我觉得这个是歌迷都应该看。。。

我怎么不觉得他们见解独特， 反而觉得这很符合我对MJ的了解。

xueping21

MJ大半辈子都在受疼痛的折磨，连脚部也那么多伤。
他真的是为艺术奉献了一切！

lavaflow

他为什么要巡演! 还不如不巡演, 也就不会死了!

风轻云淡

LZ辛苦了,顶了!!