Original subtitles

This American icon, this great talent, gone.

It's been a year since his death.

Oprah remembers Michael Jackson and their historic worldwide interview from

Neverland Ranch.

It literally was like going to see the wizard.

What I was thinking then, you could immediately sense both fear and sadness

his eyes. And now, I was surprised that he was willing to go that far.

Next.

I was on vacation with all of Harpo and their families, and we

got the news that Michael Jackson was dead.

And there was this kind

of sadness that everybody felt.

Just like the rest of the world, we didn't know the details, but there was

kind of, gee, this American icon, this genius

musician, this great talent, gone.

What happened?

And, you know, all around me, people were talking about the fact that he had

been in preparation for this great London tour, and I felt...

How sad that he won't be able to live that.

At the time of Michael's death, he was preparing for a major comeback concert.

An estimated one million people were planning to attend his This Is It tour.

Michael passed away less than three weeks before the first show in London.

But the hours he poured into rehearsals are forever preserved in a new film

called This Is It.

For anybody who passes who is this known, and even if it's just a member of

your family,

that nobody other than you and your family know, you always think about what

happening in the last days, what was going on with them, what were they

thinking, what did they do, what were they feeling.

And I think for the rest of the world now to have an opportunity to see this

film and to have at least a glimpse of what was going on with Michael Jackson

just days before.

His last day is really important to people who really cared about him.

When I interviewed Michael Jackson in 1993, he was considered the greatest

entertainer in the world. There had been no allegations of sexual abuse. And

Dangerous, his most recent album, was flying off shelves.

Thriller, released a decade earlier, was and still is the best -selling album

ever. With worldwide record sales of over $1 billion and concerts selling out

minutes, Michael was the most famous pop star on the planet. But for 14 years,

the fiercely private singer had refused to give a single interview.

All that changed on February 10, 1993, when Michael agreed to sit down with me,

live, from Neverland Ranch.

In 1993, this was the most exciting interview I'd ever done and certainly

going to be the most watched interview I'd ever done. There was a lot of

pressure and a lot of excitement. I remember going to Michael Jackson's

prior to this, shooting promos there. There was great excitement.

First of all, I came with my little entourage because I always travel. Got

get my hair done with hair and makeup and the producer. And we were just

thrilled.

So it's me, hair, makeup, producer. We are just thrilled.

We are just we can't believe it. We are like coming in the gates of Neverland.

It's like that moment where in The Wizard of Oz when they sing.

out of the woods, step into the light. It literally was like going to see the

wizard.

Live from Santa Inez, California, Michael Jackson talks to Oprah.

Michael Jackson's home is nothing like anyone would expect.

I thought there were going to be a few llamas roaming around the living room

maybe some chimps jumping around.

Don't get me wrong. I was dead wrong. There are plenty of mind -boggling areas

on this 2 ,700 -acre ranch, which you'll see during the next 90 minutes. But

where Michael Jackson eats and where he sleeps and where he lives is quite

simply a beautiful home.

At the time that I was doing that interview,

Michael Jackson was known for sleeping in the oxygen chamber and running around

with the chimp, and he was a world musical icon. There were no allegations

the time of sexual abuse.

What I sensed when I went to Neverland was the real sense of joy he was trying

to create for children and for himself there.

I've done hundreds of interviews.

thousands of interviews and i don't ever recall ever ever being in an interview

where my knees were shaking because the moment i said coming up live around the

world that's when it hit me that i was going to be coming up live around the

world and i remember being out in the trailer going oh my god oh my god i

have any questions what if he doesn't answer

What if I am live around the world and I don't have the next question formed in

my head to go to, which that isn't my style is to know what questions I'm

to ask. I just thought I am going to be in big trouble.

Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson.

In your own house.

Hey.

Hey.

Well, how nervous are you right now?

How what? How nervous are you right now?

I'm not nervous at all, actually. You really aren't? No, I never get nervous.

You don't?

No. Not even for your first interview and it's live around the world?

I thought you'd be a little nervous, but that's great. Because if you're not

nervous, I won't be nervous.

I just wanted to let the world know that when we agreed to do this interview,

you said that you would be willing to talk to me about everything, and we

haven't discussed one single question that's going to be asked here tonight.

Just wanted to make that clear. Very true.

Very true.

And so my first question to Michael Jackson, how nervous are you right now?

asked that question because I was so nervous my knees were shaking.

And I asked that question to sort of give myself some room, because I

well, if I'm nervous, he must be really nervous. And when he said he wasn't

nervous,

That really calmed me down.

But we hadn't discussed a question because I didn't have a question.

That's why we hadn't discussed a question. I didn't have a question.

I was just going to sit down with Michael Jackson and have a conversation.

That was my interview style at the time. Let's just see what happens here.

Not so smart for live around the world.

Pretty smart if you're on tape and you say, let's see how it goes, and if it

doesn't go, you can tape something else.

But not so smart.

for live around the world. That could have backfired on me big time and could

have ruined my career right in that moment. I could have ruined my career.

I talked to Suzanne DePass the other day, and Suzanne DePass worked with you

for a long time at Motown and really groomed you all and found the outfits

the Ed Sullivan show. I wanted to go to this to hear what Suzanne had to say

about your show.

We're going to look at some pictures of you as a little boy.

He lost the ability to be a kid before his 12th birthday.

Michael Jackson really was never able to go anywhere without a bodyguard or

without a limousine, you know, people to protect him from his success.

To not ever be able to just go out to the park and look up at the sky and to

be able to go to the movies, I just think that he has paid a tremendous

Suzanne said it was a heavy price. I want to know how big of a price it was,

losing your childhood or having this kind of life.

Well, you don't get to do things that other children get to do. You know, the

simple things that they so much take for granted.

Having friends and slumber parties and buddies and just hanging out. There was

none of that for me.

Coming up, I was surprised that he was willing to go that far.

What Michael told me about his father.

In 1993, nearly 100 million people tuned in to see my historic

interview with Michael Jackson. Our conversation took place six months

any sexual abuse allegations surfaced. At that time...

Michael was simply the biggest pop star on the planet.

And that's what this interview was about.

The world has never seen a star like that, like Michael Jackson.

We've never seen a star like Michael Jackson.

And so, obviously, there's no rule book for how you would do that.

And so what I sensed from him was...

How lonely it is, how it really is lonely at the top.

Were you as happy offstage as you appear to be onstage?

Well, onstage for me was home.

I was most comfortable and still most comfortable onstage.

But once I got offstage, I was, like, very sad.

Really? Yes.

There were times when I had great times with my brothers, pillow fights and

things, but I was always, I used to always cry from loneliness.

You did?

Yes. Beginning at what age?

Oh, very little.

Eight, nine.

When you all first became famous? Yes.

So it wasn't what it appeared to be to the rest of the world, all of us. I

remember I was a little black child, wanted to marry Jackie Jackson, your

brother. I mean, to all of us, we thought this was the most wonderful

the world. Who wouldn't have wanted that life? It is wonderful.

There is a lot of wonderment in being famous. I mean, you travel the world and

you see things, you meet people, you go places.

It's great.

But then there's the other side.

I would do my schooling, which was three hours with a tutor. Then right after

that, you know, I'd go to the recording studio and record. And I'd record for

hours and hours till it was time to go to sleep.

So it'd be nighttime. And I remember going to the recording studio. There was

park across the street and I'd see all the children playing and they'd be

rooting and making noise and I would cry.

It'd make me sad that I would have to go and work instead.

Was there ever a place where, because, you know, children, you know, I remember

playing games and talking to myself and playing with my dolls and all that. Was

there, and I think every child needs a place to escape into a child's world,

into a child's imagination. Was there ever a time you could do that? No, and

that is why I think now, because I didn't have it thin, I compensate for

Really? I mean, people wonder why I always have children around, because I

the thing that I never had through them.

You know, Disneyland, amusement parks, arcade games.

I adore all that stuff because when I was little, it was always work, work,

from one concert to the next. If it wasn't concert, it was the recording

If it wasn't that, it was TV shows or interviews or picture sessions.

It was always something to do.

So here you were, Michael Jackson, with hits. You all had so many hits, four

hits in a row.

And you were crying because you couldn't be like other kids.

Well, I love show business, and I still love show business. But then there are

times you want to play and have some fun, and that part did make me sad. I

remember one time we were getting ready to go to South America, and everybody

was packed up in the cars, ready to leave and go.

And I hid, and I was crying while I was hiding because I really did not want to

go. I wanted to play.

I did not want to go.

Were your brothers jealous of you when you started getting all the attention?

Not that I know of, no.

What's your relationship like with your family? Are you all close still? I love

my family very much. I wish I could see them a little more often than I do.

But we understand because we're a show business family and we all work.

We do have family day when we all get together. We'll pick a person's house.

might be Jermaine's house or Marlon's house or Tito's house.

And everybody will come together and we'll fellowship.

And love each other and talk and catch up on who's doing what.

Well,

I can tell you, he's very likable there. And I will tell you, I really, really,

really, really liked him.

And, you know, there's that thing that happens when somebody is around

famous people where...

You move from sort of fandom to like, oh, gee, I wonder if I could be his

friend. I never want to do that because I want to just be able to have the

interview and let that be what it is. But I really, you know, after this

interview, thought I could be his friend. I could be his friend because I

that he really was honest, as honest as he knew how to be.

And, you know, as forthcoming as he wanted to be at that particular time.

I'm wondering.

When you started to go through adolescence, having been this child

was that a particularly difficult time for you? Very, very, very difficult,

really. Yes, yes.

Because I think every child star suffers through this period because you're not

the cute and charming child that you were, and you start to grow.

And they want to keep you young forever and little forever.

Who's they?

The public.

And, you know, nature takes its course.

It does.

And I had pimples so badly, and it made me so shy. I used to not look at myself.

I'd wash my face in the dark. I wouldn't want to look in the mirror.

Really? My father teased me.

And I just hated it. I cried every day because of it. Your father would tease

you about your family? Yes, he would tell me I'm ugly.

Your father would say that? Yes, he would.

Sorry, Joseph.

What's your relationship like with him?

I love my father, but I don't know him.

Are you angry with him for doing that? I think that's pretty cruel, actually.

Am I angry with him?

Because adolescence is hard enough without a parent telling you that you're

ugly. It's very difficult.

Am I angry with him?

Sometimes I do get angry, yes. I don't know him the way I'd like to know him.

mother's wonderful.

To me, she's perfection.

I just wish I could understand my father.

And so let's talk about these teen years. Is that when you started to go

yourself?

you know 14 years i think is your last televised interview so you went inside

you became a recluse and that was on purpose was it to was it to protect

yourself i felt that there wasn't anything important for me to say

you know those were very sad sad years for me and uh why so sad because on

stage we see you performing you're getting your grammys you're why so sad

Oh, there's a lot of sadness about my past life and, you know, adolescence and

my father and all of those things. It just made me very, very, very sad.

So he would tease you, make fun of you?

Yes.

Would he, did he ever beat you?

Yes, he did.

Yes. And that was difficult to take, getting beaten and going on stage and

performing. Yes.

And why would he beat you?

He wanted me to, I guess maybe, I don't know if I was his golden child or

whatever it was.

Some may call it a strict disciplinarian or whatever, but he was very strict,

very hard, very stern.

And just a look would scare you.

Were you scared of him?

Very, frightened.

There's been times when he'd come to see me and I would get sick.

Really? I'd start to regurgitate.

As a child or as an adult?

Both, both.

He's never heard me say this. I'm sorry. Please don't be mad at me.

You know, when he was talking about his father, you could immediately sense both

fear and sadness in his eyes.

And off camera, he said some things to me that were off camera and that

I won't be sharing.

But, you know, that was a difficult relationship for him.

No question about that.

I was surprised that he was willing to go that far with it. I was surprised

he was willing to say even what he said, and even in saying it, trying to temper

it by saying, please don't be mad at me, Joseph. Please don't be mad at me,

Joseph. So obviously you know that he still carried that fear and pain of it.

And you could just, if you're watching it, you know.

Put it on pause right now and go back and look in his eyes when he starts to

talk about his father. His eyes shift to change.

Of course, his father, Joe Jackson, has said repeatedly that he never beat him.

But I would have to say in that moment, I certainly believed what he was saying.

What he was doing was, you know, breaking the facade, the wall that

had of, you know, the great perfect family.

what he allowed us to see is to penetrate that and to begin to see some

dysfunction. Coming up, what Michael told me about plastic surgery and the

of his skin.

Well, you can see he got a little testy there.

That's next.

I think in 1993 nobody understood what it was. Nobody knew.

anything about vitiligo, the controversy was Michael Jackson kept getting whiter

and whiter and whiter and whiter, and nobody understood why.

But anybody who knows Michael Jackson will tell you that when you are up close

to him, I mean, he has...

had absolutely no pigmentation in his skin. So you can see all the way

You are looking at his veins when you look at his hand. When you look at him,

you are seeing through to the blue veins, and they're very, very, very,

very apparent.

And at first, that's a startling thing.

Nobody ever talks about that, but it takes you aback at first. So you're like

looking at a person who is...

almost like translucent, like looking through skin. It's like looking

through skin.

The thing that is most discussed about you, I think, is the fact that the color

of your skin is obviously different than it was when you were younger. And so it

has caused a great deal of speculation and controversy as to...

What you have done or are doing, are you bleaching your skin?

And is your skin lighter because you don't like being black?

Okay, number one, there, as I know of, there is no such thing as skin

I have never seen it. I don't know what it is. Well, they used to have those

products growing up. I used to hear, always use bleach and glow, but you'd

to have about 300 ,000 gallons. Okay, number one, this is the situation. I

a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin. It's something

I cannot help.

But when people make up stories that I don't want to be who I am, it hurts me.

So it is a problem for me. I can't control it.

But what about all the millions of people? Let's reverse it.

What about all the millions of people who sit out in the sun to become darker,

to become other than what they are?

Nobody says nothing about that. So when did this start? When did the color of

your skin start to change?

Oh, boy.

Sometime after Thriller.

Or an off -the -wall thriller.

And what did you think?

It's in my family. My father said it's on his side. I can't control it. I don't

understand. I mean, it makes me very sad.

I don't want to go into my medical history because that's something that's

private. But that's the situation here. So please, when people see something

like that. I just want to get this straight. You are not taking anything to

change the color of your skin? Oh, God, no. You did not purposely? We're trying

to control it. And using makeup evens it out because it makes blotches on the

skin. And I have to even out my skin. Well,

you can see he got a little testy there about the skin issue.

This was a very big deal in 1993 to have him explain to us that that is what was

happening. Because, as you can imagine, there was no official explanation when

it started to happen that I had heard of.

And so the media speculated as it would.

about what was going on and the tabloids and all of that.

And I could see that that was one of the areas that was very sensitive to him,

obviously.

And, you know, I tried not to stay on that very long.

Because the thing about doing an interview, which has happened to me a

times, once you tick somebody off, it's hard to get them back.

You know, it's hard to get him back. So I'm like, I know I got to get through

this. You can't do an interview with Michael Jackson.

At the time, that was one of the biggest controversies going with him is that,

Michael, you've all of a sudden become a different color.

How much plastic surgery have you had?

Very, very little.

You can count them on two fingers.

I mean, let's say this. If you want to know about those things, all the nosy

people in the world.

But once we say it, we don't have to say it anymore. Read my book, Moonwalker.

It's in my book. You know, let's just put it this way. If all the people in

Hollywood who have had plastic surgery, if they went on vacation, there wouldn't

be a person left in town.

I think you might be right.

I think I am right. I mean, the empty. So did you start, okay, did you start

having plastic surgery because of those teen years, because of not liking the

way you look?

No, not really. Not really? It's no big deal.

Okay. You don't want to tell me what it is? You had your nose done, obviously.

Yeah, but so did a lot of people that I know. Yeah.

And so when you hear all these things about you, and there have been...

But I've never had my cheekbones done, never had my eyes done, never had all my

lips done and all this stuff. They just go too far. I mean, it's crazy.

But this is something that happens like every day with other people.

Are you pleased now with the way you look? I'm never pleased with anything.

a perfectionist. It's part of who I am.

And so when you look in the mirror now and the image that looks back at you,

Are there days when you say, well, I kind of like this or I like that?

No, I'm never pleased with myself. I think I'm pretty cute today.

No, I'm not pretty cute today.

No,

I try not to look in the mirror. I really do because I'm never happy with

see. So I go on with my work and get it done.

I've got to say I didn't believe him there.

Yeah, counting on two fingers. And he also gave me that response that I most,

most, most dislike from anybody that I'm interviewing. But you can't tell it

there, can you? He gave me the response I most, most dislike. You ask a question

and the person says, read about it in my book.

That makes me nuts.

But we must go on because we're live around the world.

Coming up. I'm going to ask you this, and it's embarrassing for me to ask you

this, but I'm going to ask you anyway. Are you a virgin?

You know, in every interview that I do, I really am

the surrogate viewer.

So, you know, in so many of his videos, he's grabbing his crotch, and that's

what people wanted to know. What is that thing he has with his crotch?

So I ask that question because that's what people want to know.

I have to ask you this. So many mothers in my audience have said to please ask

you this question. Yeah. Why do you always grab your crotch?

Why do I grab my crotch? We think you got a thing with your crotch going on

here. I think it happens subliminally.

When I dance, if you're a dancer, you know you're just interpreting the sounds

and the accompaniment of the music. If there's a driving bass, you become the

bass. If there's a cello, if there's a string, you become that.

So you become the emotion of what that sound is.

Okay? So if I'm doing a movement and I go, bam, and I grab myself.

It's the music that compels me to do it. It's not saying I'm ready to grab down

there and it's not a great place. You don't think about it. It just happens.

Sometimes I look back at the footage and I go, did I do that?

Yeah. So I'm slave to the rhythm. Yeah.

Okay? Mm -hmm.

I think the alarm's going off in the house. I don't know why.

But we're going to fix it in a minute. We're in live television. So we're going

to go to break. These things happen. We'll be right back. Okay.

What was I thinking? You want to know what I was thinking? What the hell was

that?

I don't know what that was or why that happened in a live interview.

I think it was a smoke detector or something had gone off.

It's crazy.

Well, first of all, what I knew was you can't continue talking in this

interview. You can't continue the conversation with both of us now

that this alarm isn't going off in the house.

We've got to do something and hope whatever it is, we can fix it in two and

half minutes, in a two and a half minute break.

I think the F word was probably said a few times by the director.

I think that might have happened.

I heard a couple of those over the loudspeaker.

Yeah. Do you go out? Do you date?

Yes.

Who do you date?

Well, right now it's Brooke Shields.

Mm -hmm.

Well, we try not to just be everywhere and go everywhere.

It's mostly at home. She'll come over, I'll go to her house, because I don't

like going out in the public.

I mean, there was this sort of mystery about him.

You know, at the same time he's holding his crotch and wants to rock with us all

night, we don't know, you know, who's he rocking with. That's really what you

want to know, who's rocking with you when you're a rock with me.

Have you ever been in love?

Yeah. Mm -hmm.

With Brooke shield yes and another girl and another girl I'm going to ask you

this and it's embarrassing for me to ask you this, but I'm going to ask you

anyway. Are you a virgin?

How could you?

I'm just I just want to know I want it. I'm a gentleman.

You're a gentleman. I'm a gentleman So I'm a gentleman so that okay I would

interpret that to mean that means that you believe that a lady is a lady, and

therefore... That's something that's private.

I mean, you know, it shouldn't be spoken about openly.

You can call me old -fashioned if you want, but, you know, to me that's very

personal. So you're not going to answer it? I'm embarrassed.

So you're not going to answer it? Well, we would like to know whether or not...

there is a possibility that you are going to marry one day and have

I would feel that my life is incomplete if I do not, because I adore the family

life. I adore children, and I adore that whole thing.

And I would love to. That's one of my dreams, but I couldn't right now because

I'm married.

I am married, but to my work.

Coming up, what happened when Elizabeth Taylor dropped by?

I'm looking at this whole interview cringing. First of all, let's get over

hair. But mine, and my voice, I don't know where my voice is. It feels like

in my mouth instead of in my diaphragm. So there's a level of nervousness there

that I sense in myself that I really thought that I'd overcome after Michael

down. But I can see that I'm truly, I'm not really fully in my body in this

interview.

and perhaps maybe a little more preparation would have helped me.

You know what I mean? Because I really am flying by the seat of my pantyhose

from one segment to the next.

I heard, too, this was another one of those rumors, that you had proposed to

Elizabeth Taylor at some point.

Elizabeth Taylor is gorgeous, beautiful, and she still is today.

Yeah. And I'm crazy about her. Yeah, but did you propose to her?

I would like to have.

Yeah.

Elizabeth Taylor is here. Liz, can we bring Liz in now?

Liz had said that she wanted to be here to hold your hand through this. You

don't look like you need your hand now. Hi, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Taylor.

Hello. Hi.

Hi. Have a seat. Have a seat. Thank you. Did Michael ever propose to you?

No.

And I never proposed to him. Never did.

What do you think is most misunderstood about Michael Jackson, Liz?

All the things you mentioned.

He is the least weird man I've ever known. He is highly intelligent,

shrewd, intuitive,

understanding, sympathetic, generous, to

almost a fault of himself.

And he just...

If he has any eccentricities, it's that he is larger

than life, and some people just can't accept that or face it or understand it.

His talent on stage, why I call him the king of pop, rock, soul,

music, entertainment, whatever, there's nobody that can come near him. Nobody

can dance like that, write the lyrics like that, the music.

caused the kind of excitement he does.

And why do you think you all are such friends? What has brought this kind of

bond? Because people try to make this be weird.

Well, it's not. I mean, our childhoods are very similar.

And we have that from the very beginning in common.

I was a child star at nine, had an abusive father.

That kind of brought us close together in the very beginning.

And what is it, I'm going to ask Michael this question later on, but what is it

you most want the world to know about him?

What a wonderful, giving, caring, generous man he is and how good he

is. And he's funny too.

Oh, he's wildly funny.

He can crack some jokes, I tell you. Yeah.

It's kind of crazy, wasn't it?

As I look at that now, I'm thinking, well, if we knew she was coming in, why

didn't we have a chair for Michael?

But, you know, I, you know, for the first time really

understood or had like a

glimpse of that childhood movie star experience in a way that I

hadn't. And I understood their bond. And I didn't think it was weird at all.

And prior to that, you know, all the stories had been, what are they doing

what's this about? But I understood it and I felt her affection and love for

and him for her because they had this shared experience that only children who

have grown up in that kind of environment where they've had to grow

you know, truly understand. So I really got that.

I hope the rest of the world got that too. I got it.

Coming up. Okay, I want to see you dance. I want to see you dance.

Michael Jackson and our moonwalk moment.

And here we are inside the theater. I had one too many sugar babies here the

other day at the candy counter.

I went on the tour. I was in the craft room and the candy room and

the ice cream store and all of that. And actually, my

makeup artist at the time, Reggie Wells, ate so much

cotton candy and ice cream and junk.

He had to be hospitalized that night.

I am not kidding because I think, well, this is what happened to happen to

children who come. You can't stop yourself. And so you're eating all the

and then you me moving on from fudge and you're going to the cotton candy and

then you're in the ice cream place and then you just can't stop yourself. And

then there is a hot dog stand and then there's so much like if you're a kid,

it's just like, oh, my goodness. I have just opened the doors to Neverland.

Really? Where did the moonwalk come from, actually?

Well, the moonwalk came from these beautiful children, these black kids who

in the ghettos, and, you know, the inner cities, who are brilliant. They just

have that natural talent for dancing. Any of the new hot dancers, the running

man, any of these dancers, they come up with these dances. All I did was enhance

the dance. Okay, I want to see you dance. I want to see you dance.

No, no.

I want to see you dance live.

No, I can show you a step or two, but I'm a little rusty right now. A little

rusty.

That's the move. Did you catch it from the sideways?

Got to turn sideways?

Are you from the front? Yeah. We got you. From the sideways.

Okay, just show me slow motion. Could you show me slow motion?

Wait.

It's like it's pushing and then there's

It's mainly like a popping type of thing.

Well, I saw it live.

I saw it live. I saw it live.

We're in his theater there on the Neverland Ranch.

And that was really kind of a little thrill to get to see Michael Jackson do

that because we all remember. Do not we all?

We all remember when we first saw.

The Suzanne DePass produced Motown 25 special and Michael Jackson. You know,

there are seminal moments in our life, and that's one of them. Where were you

when Michael Jackson first moonwalked on the Motown 25?

Yeah, everybody. Everybody knows that moment. And so to be able to see him do

that live and experience that, that was

a little thriller for me.

We'll be right back with some final thoughts.

So when you're standing there and there's a sea of people responding to

screaming your name as they were, what does that feel like?

Love. You feel lots of love. And I feel blessed and honored to be able to be an

instrument of nature that was chosen to give them that. When I give them, I'm

very honored and happy about that. An instrument of nature. That's an

interesting way to describe yourself.

Thank you. Yeah.

Are you very spiritual?

In what sense?

I mean, do you meditate?

Do you understand that there's something bigger than yourself at work here? I

believe in God, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Very much.

And I believe everybody comes to the world for a reason, I think.

Most of us spend our lives trying to figure out what the purpose of our being

here is. What do you think yours is?

My purpose?

Oh, boy. I think...

To give in the best way I can through song and through dance and through music

mean I am committed to my art I believe that all art has as its ultimate goal

the union between the material and the spiritual the human and the divine I

believe that to be the reason for the very existence of art and I feel I was

chosen as an instrument to just give music and love and harmony to the world

What do you want the world to know about you most? I ask Liz that of you. What

do you want them to know? Like to be remembered for?

Well, not to be remembered for. What about known for now?

Forget remembered.

Oh, known for now as to be an artist, a great artist. I love what I do, and I

would love people to love what I do. And to be loved, I just simply want to be

loved wherever I go.

And obviously, if I had known that we'd be sitting here,

Talking about the memory of Michael Jackson, I would have let him finish

wanted to be remembered for.

You know, now that I watch this, I see how profoundly lonely he was.

And at the time, I was probably more caught up in the, oh, we got the Michael

Jackson interview.

And I heard it and sensed it, but I didn't really feel how profoundly

lonely.

He was.

And sad.

There's a sadness about it.

And, you know, had I reached out to him, I'm certainly not saying, oh, my God,

you know, if I had been a friend of Michael Jackson, things might have been

different. But, you know, I just might have felt better about this particular

moment that I'm having right now. Because I didn't. I didn't. I let the

interview be done, and that was it.

What I would remember about Michael the most is that he was a person who was

passionate about life.

He was really passionate about his work.

But just like everybody else, I never imagined this day coming too soon.

And really felt that song at his funeral was really the greatest

part of the eulogy.

Gone too soon.