Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was born to Joseph Walter Jackson and Katherine Esther on August 29 1958 in Gary, Indiana. Michael was a child with an upbringing in a strict home with the musical influence of his father who was a member of an R&B band named the Falcons, which was also comprised of his uncle, Luther Jackson.

At a very young age, Michael Jackson had memories of being physically and emotionally abused by his father and did not speak out about that abuse until the early 90's when he was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. Later, Michael's brother Marlon substantiated the claims of abuse by their father. Michael was often physically abused by his father in ways of long hours in the studio rehearsing to beatings and emotional abuse by being called names. In addition to his claims of abuse, Michael told accounts of a time where his father crawled into the open bedroom window in the middle of the night wearing a mask to scare his children and he screamed and ranted. Joe later stated that he did this to show his kids how unsafe it is to leave your bedroom window open at night making it possible for a predator to come in and kidnap the children. This would later prove to be a very traumatic experience for Michael Jackson as he recounted the years of sleepless nights due to unchanging nightmares and claims that the mere sight of his father would make him vomit on several occasions. In later interviews, Michael stated that his father was so strict about their rehearsals and performance that he would sit in a chair with a belt in-hand and if they messed up, he would tear them up really bad.
It could be easily stated that Michael got the start to his famous career in 1964 at the age of 5 when he and his father would be a part of the group, "the Jackson Brothers" which was a band formed in conjunction with his brother's, Tito, Jermaine and Jackie. Later, Michael would join doing back-up vocals for the band and dancing when he was eight years old, and then Michael along with his brother Jermaine would take over the lead vocals, renaming the group the Jackson 5. Throughout the mid-60's the Jackson 5 would tour all throughout the Midwest tirelessly and later in 1966, the band was awarded the win of a large local talent show when the band did a cover of James Brown's "I Feel Good", which Michael took over the lead vocals on.

Two years later, the Jackson 5 would make it to the big-time in 1968 with signing for the major record label, Motown Records. Even popular music magazines like Rolling Stone were already recognizing the individual talents of Michael at such a young age. After several single billboard hits such as "ABC" and "I'll Be There", the Jackson 5 wanted more creative control and Motown strictly refused this creative control and so the Jackson 5 left the record label in 1975.