Michael Jackson Jermaine 1
Michael Jackson may have been a child at heart — but he was "cold as ice" when it came to business! That's the scoop from
The National ENQUIRER's first look at the tell-all new book "Sing To Me" from musical legend L.A. Reid. The album producer and record label executive bares some of Michael's strangest secrets, including how the King of Pop put the skids on his brother Jermaine's career!
Photo credit: HarperCollins Publishing
2006 World Music Awards – Michael Jackson performs live – London
L.A. and his partner Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds signed on to work with Michael's older brother Jermaine in the '90s, with the resentful older sibling deciding to make a daring move. L.A. recalled that Jermaine said: "I want to make a song about my brother. I want to talk about how he's treated me through the years — like how every time I find producers like you guys, he takes my producers. He doesn't care about his family or anybody but himself!"
Michael Jackson Jermaine 3
The result was a song called "Word to the Badd!" — which began to shoot up the charts in 1991. But, as revealed in his book, L.A. soon got a phone call that showed Jermaine was telling the truth about his powerful pop-star brother! "You have to stop this,' he said. 'You're the head of the label. You have to kill this. This isn't good.'' L.A. couldn't bring himself to sell out his own recording artist, but soon learned that wasn't necessary.
Jermaine Jackson picks up food to go from Whole Foods in Los Angeles, CA
'The record disappeared off the air, as if it had never been there in the first place," wrote Reid. "I don't know what Michael did. I don't know if Michael did anything, but it went away in a flash." The song was on the album "You Said," which would be Jermaine's only release on the partners' LaFace label — and the elder Jackson wouldn't release another record until 2012!
Singer Michael Jackson
The book also revealed how Michael enjoyed mocking his musical rival Prince, as witnessed when Michael invited L.A. and Kenny to his Neverland Ranch after they signed a nondisclosure agreement. ("No one got to see Michael without signing one," wrote Reid.) Michael showed the duo a recent concert film where Michael guested onstage with James Brown — followed by Prince attempting a turn onstage that was ruined by technical problems. "Prince fell as flat as he could, and Michael enjoyed laughing at the video," wrote L.A.
American Singer Michael Jackson
That meeting was actually before Jermaine began recording his own album for L.A. When he learned Michael was trying to work with his new bosses, L.A. said the bitter brother demanded to be released from the label. L.A. recalled discussing that with Michael — who asked if Jermaine had signed his contract. When told that he had, Michael said: "'Then he'll have to live with it because those are the rules." Reid wrote: "You didn't expect that from Peter Pan. You expect a little compassion or something. No. Cold as ice."