seeing the children in the audience. Every night there would be a number of them who had gotten all dressed up.
They were so excited. I was truly inspired by the kids on that tour, kids of all ethnic groups and ages. It's been my
dream since I was a child to somehow unite people of the world through love and music. I still get goose bumps
when I hear the Beatles sing "All You Need Is Love." I've always wished that song could be an anthem for the world.
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I loved the shows we did in Miami and all the time we spent there. Colorado was great too. We got to spend some
time relaxing up at the Caribou Ranch. And New York was really something, as it always is. Emmanuel Lewis came
to the show, as did Yoko, Sean Lennon, Brooke, a lot of good friends. Thinking back, the offstage moments stand out
for me as much as the concerts themselves. I found I could lose myself in some of those shows. I remember swinging
my jackets around and slinging them into the audience. The wardrobe people would get annoyed at me and I'd say
honestly, "I'm sorry but I can't help it. I can't control myself. Something takes over and I know I shouldn't do it, but you just can't control it. There's a spirit of joy and communion that gets inside you and you want to just let it all out."
We were on the Victory tour when we learned that my sister Janet had gotten married. Everybody was afraid to tell
me because I am so close to Janet. I was shocked. I feel very protective of her. Quincy Jones's little daughter was the
one to break the news to me.
I've always enjoyed a wonderfully close relationship with all three of my beautiful sisters. LaToya is really a
wonderful person. She's very easy to be around, but she can be funny, too. You go in her room and you can't sit on
the couch, you can't sit on the bed, you can't walk on the carpet. This is the truth. She will run you out of her room.
She wants everything to be perfect in there. I say, "You have to walk on the carpet sometimes," but she doesn't want prints on it. If you cough at the table, she covers her plate. If you sneeze, forget it. That's how she is. Mother says she used to be that way herself.
Janet, on the other hand, was always a tomboy. She has been my best friend in the family for the longest time. That's
why it killed me to see her go off and get married. We did everything together. We shared the same interests, the
same sense of humor. When we were younger, we'd get up on "free" mornings and write out a whole schedule for the day. Usually it would read something like this: GET UP, FEED THE ANIMALS, HAVE BREAKFAST, WATCH
SOME CARTOONS, GO TO THE MOVIES, GO TO A RESTAURANT, GO TO ANOTHER MOVIE, GO HOME
AND GO SWIMMING. That was our idea of a great day. In the evening, we'd look back at the list and think about
all the fun we'd had.
It was great being with Janet because we didn't have to worry that one of us wouldn't like something. We liked the
same things. We'd sometimes read to each other. She was like my twin.
LaToya are I are very different, on the other hand. She won't even feed the animals; the smell alone drives her away.
And forget going to the movies. She doesn't understand what I see in Star Wars or Close Encounters or Jaws . Our
tastes in films are miles apart.
When Janet was around and I wasn't working on something, we'd be inseparable. But I knew we'd eventually
develop separate interests and attachments. It was inevitable.
Her marriage didn't last long, unfortunately, but now she's happy again. I do think that marriage can be a wonderful
thing if it's right for the two people involved. I believe in love - very much so - how can you not believe after you've
experienced it? I believe in relationships. One day I know I'll find the right woman and get married myself. I often
look forward to having children; in fact, it would be nice to have a big family, since I come from such a large one
myself. In my fantasy about having a large family, I imagine myself with thirteen children.
Right now, my work still takes up most of my time and most of my emotional life. I work all the time. I love creating
and coming up with new projects. As for the future, Que sera, sera . Time will tell. It would be hard for me to be that
dependent on somebody else, but I can imagine it if I try. There's so much I want to do and so much work to be done.
I can't help but pick up on some of the criticism leveled at me at times. Journalists seem willing to say anything to
sell a paper. They say I've had my eyes widened, that I want to look more white. More white? What kind of statement
is that? I didn't invent plastic surgery. It's been around for a long time. A lot of very fine, very nice people have had
plastic surgery. No one writes about their surgery and levies such criticism at them. It's not fair. Most of what they
print is a fabrication. It's enough to make you want to ask, "What happened to truth? Did it go out of style?"
In the end, the most important thing is to be true to yourself and those you love and work hard. I mean, work like
there's no tomorrow. Train. Strive. I mean, really train and cultivate your talent to the highest degree. Be the best at
what you do. Get to know more about your field than anybody alive. Use the tools of your trade, if it's books or a
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floor to dance on or a body of water to swim in. Whatever it is, it's yours. That's what I've always tried to remember.
I thought about it a lot on the Victory tour.
In the end, I felt I touched a lot of people on the Victory tour. Not exactly in the way I wanted to, but I felt that would happen later, when I was off on my own, performing and making movies. I donated all my performance money to
charity, including funds for the burn center that helped me after the fire on the Pepsi set. We donated more than four
million dollars that year. For me, that was what the Victory tour was all about - giving back.
After my experience with the Victory tour, I started making my career decisions with more care than ever. I had
learned a lesson on an earlier tour, which I remembered vividly during the difficulties with Victory.
We did a tour years ago with this guy who ripped us off, but he taught me something. He said, "Listen, all these
people work for you . You don't work for them . You are paying them." He kept telling me that. Finally I began to
understand what he meant. It was an entirely new concept for me because at Motown everything was done for us.
Other people made our decisions. I've been mentally scarred by that experience. "You've got to wear this. You've got
to do these songs. You are going here. You are going to do this interview and that TV show." That's how it went. We
couldn't say anything. When he told me I was in control, I finally woke up. I realized he was right.
Despite everything, I owe that guy a debt of gratitude.
Captain Eo came about because the Disney Studios wanted me to come up with a new ride for the parks. They said
they didn't care what I did, as long as it was something creative. I had this big meeting with them, and during the
course of the afternoon I told them that Walt Disney was a hero of mine and that I was very interested in Disney's
history and philosophy. I wanted to do something with that Mr. Disney himself would have approved. I had read a
number of books about Walt Disney and his creative empire, and it was very important to me to do things as he
would have. In the end, they asked me to do a movie and I agreed. I told them I would like to work with George
Lucas and Steven Spielberg. It turned out Steven was busy, so George brought Francis Ford Coppola and that was
the Captain Eo team.
I flew up to San Francisco a couple of times to visit George at his place, Skywalker Ranch, and gradually we came
up with a scenario for a short film that would incorporate every recent advance in 3-D technology. Caption Eo would