When I go out, I dress up in sharper, brighter, more tailored clothes, but around the house and in the studio anything
goes. I don't wear much jewelry - usually none - because it gets in my way. Occasionally people give me gifts of
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jewelry and I treasure them for the sentiment, but usually I just put them away somewhere. Some of it has been
stolen. Jackie Gleason gave me a beautiful ring. He took it off his finger and gave it to me. It was stolen and I miss it, but it doesn't really bother me because the gesture meant more than anything else, and that can't be taken from me.
The ring was just a material thing.
What really makes me happy, what I love is performing and creating. I really don't care about all the material
trappings. I love to put my soul into something and have people accept it and like it. That's a wonderful feeling.
I appreciate art for that reason. I'm a great admirer of Michelangelo and of how he poured his soul into his work. He
knew in his heart that one day he would die, but that the work he did would live on. You can tell he painted the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with all his soul. At one point he even destroyed it and did it over because he wanted it
to be perfect. He said, "If the wine is sour, pour it out."
I can look at a painting and lose myself. It pulls you in, all the pathos and drama. It communicates with you. You can
sense what the artist was feeling. I feel the same way about photography. A poignant or strong photograph can speak
volumes.
As I said earlier, there were many changes in my life in the aftermath of Motown 25 . We were told that forty-seven
million people watched that show, and apparently many of them went out and bought Thriller . By the fall of 1983
the album had sold eight million copies, eclipsing, by far, CBS's expectations for the successor to Off the Wall . At
that point Frank Dileo said he'd like to see us produce another video or short film.
It was clear to us that the next single and video should be "Thriller," a long track that had plenty of material for a brilliant director to play with. As soon as the decision was made, I knew who I wanted to have direct it. The year
before I had seen a horror film called An American Werewolf in London , and I knew that the man who made it, John
Landis, would be perfect for "Thriller," since our concept for the video featured the same kind of transformations that happened to his character.
So we contacted John Landis and asked him to direct. He agreed and submitted his budget, and we went to work. The
technical details of this film were so awesome that I soon got a call from John Branca, my attorney and one of my
closest and most valued advisers. John had been working with me ever since the Off the Wall days; in fact he even
helped me out by donning many hats and functioning in several capacities when I had no manager after Thriller was
released. He's one of those extremely talented, capable men who can do anything. Anyway, John was in a panic
because it had become obvious to him that the original budget for the "Thriller" video was going to double. I was paying for this project myself, so the money for the budget overruns was coming out of my pocket.
But at this point John came up with a great idea. He suggested we make a separate video, financed by somebody
else, about the making of the "Thriller" video. It seemed odd that no one had ever done this before. We felt sure it would be an interesting documentary, and at the same time it would help pay for our doubled project. It didn't take
John long to put this deal together. He got MTV and the Showtime cable network to put up the cash, and Vestron
released the video after "Thriller" aired.
The success of The Making of Thriller was a bit of a shock to all of us. In its cassette form it sold about a million
copies by itself. Even now, it holds the record as the best-selling music video of all time.
The "Thriller" film was ready in late 1983. We released it in February and it made its debut on MTV. Epic released
"Thriller" as a single and sales of the album went crazy. According to statistics, the "Thriller" film and the release of the single resulted in fourteen million additional album and tape sales within a six-month period. At one point in
1984, we were selling a million records a week.
I'm still stunned by this response. By the time we finally closed down the Thriller campaign a year later, the album
was at the thirty-two million mark. Today sales are at forty million. A dream come true.
During this period I changed my management as well. My contract with Weisner and DeMann had expired in early
1983. My father was no longer representing me and I was looking at various people. One day I was at the Beverly
Hills Hotel, visiting Frank Dileo, and I asked him if he had any interest in leaving Epic and managing my career.
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Frank asked me to think about it some more and if I was certain to call him back on Friday.
Needless to say, I called him back.
The success of Thriller really hit me in 1984, when the album received a gratifying number of nominations for the
American Music Awards and the Grammy Awards. I remember feeling an overwhelming rush of jubilation. I was
whooping with joy and dancing around the house, screaming. When the album was certified as the best-selling album
of all time, I couldn't believe it. Quincy Jones was yelling, "Bust open the champagne!" We were all in a state. Man!
What a feeling! To work so hard on something, to give so much and to succeed! Everyone involved with Thriller was
floating on air. It was wonderful.
I imagined that I felt like a long-distance runner must feel when breaking the tape at the finish line. I would think of
an athlete, running as hard and as fast as he can. Finally he gets close to the finish line and his chest hits that ribbon and the crowd is soaring with him. And I'm not even into sports!
But I identify with that person because I know how hard he's trained and I know how much that moment means to
him. Perhaps a whole life has been devoted to this endeavor, this one moment. And then he wins. That's the
realization of a dream. That's powerful stuff. I can share that feeling because I know.
One of the side effects of the Thriller period was to make me weary of constantly being in the public eye. Because of
this, I resolved to lead a quieter, more private life. I was still quite shy about my appearance. You must remember
that I had been a child star and when you grow up under that kind of scrutiny people don't want you to change, to get
older and look different. When I first became well known, I had a lot of baby fat and a very round, chubby face. That
roundness stayed with me until several years ago when I changed my diet and stopped eating beef, chicken, pork,
and fish, as well as certain fattening foods. I just wanted to look better, live better, and be healthier. Gradually, as I lost weight, my face took on its present shape and the press started accusing me of surgically altering my appearance,
beyond the nose job I freely admitted I had, like many performers and film stars. They would take an old picture
from adolescence of high school, and compare it to a current photograph. In the old picture my face would be round
and pudgy. I'd have an Afro, and the picture would be badly lit. The new picture would show a much older, more
mature face. I've got a different hairstyle and a different nose. Also, the photographer's lighting is excellent in the
recent photographs. It's really not fair to make such comparisons. They have said I had bone surgery done on my
face. It seems strange to me that people would jump to that conclusion and I thought it was very unfair.
Judy Garland and Jean Harlow and many others have had their noses done. My problem is that as a child star people
got used to seeing me look one way.