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"He's still a mystery man to me and he may always be one," Michael Jackson said of his father in his 1988 autobiography.
So here we have Joe Jackson, MJ's father who has been in the limelight as well during the height of his son's popularity because of his questionable parenting when Michael was just a child. It was comparable to a rollercoaster ride because throughout the years, Michael's relationship with his father has been one which is very enigmatic.
Again in the 1988 autobiography book edited by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Michael recounts that one of his earliest memories of his father was of him coming home from a hard day's work from a steel mill with a bag of glazed donuts for all the kids. There was also some time at the theme park.
"My brothers and I could really eat back then and that bag would disappear with a snap of the fingers," Jackson recalled. "He used to take us all to the merry-go-round in the park."
However, most of his earlier childhood trauma was the physical torment his dad would sometimes put him through for a wrong dance step or a bumbled musical note. Jackson shared that they would always get a hit with either a switch or a belt whenever they do it wrong during rehearsals.
"My mother told me I would fight back even when I was very little, but I don't remember that," Michael wrote. "I do remember running under tables to get away from him and him getting angrier."
In hindsight, MJ recalled that they were always rehearsing - frantic rehearsals.
Come to think of it though: did this discipline contribute to the immense talents of Michael? It probably did but undeniably it had a psychological effect on Michael.
If anything the violent discipline methods of Joe might have been justified with the rise to fame of the Jackson 5. "I remember singing at the top of my voice and dancing with real joy and working too hard for a child," Michael Jackson wrote. "I wasn't formed to be Michael the lead singer."
To explore the other end of the argument, if Joe would not have been as harsh as he has been, his family would have starved to death and be exposed to the harshness of the world if he had continued relying on his failing job in a mill.
However it did a lot to the psyche of Michael and we don't know if that is enough justification for violently hitting a child as a means to discipline.
In an interview with BBC, Joe Jackson admitted that he did whipped MJ with a switch and a belt. However according to Joe: "I never beat him. You beat someone with a stick."
Joe is now speaking in hindsight since he has attended the funeral of his child instead of the child naturally burying the parents. He believes that his son Michael was not crazy and is actually smart.
MJ once said that he would have nightmares about his father and that he would regurgitate every time he sees Joe.
To this Joe replied: "He regurgitates all the way to the bank. That's right."
Joe has been criticized by some people in the blogosphere for shamelessly promoting his recording label in spite of the death of his son. Somehow it didn't seem right. Joe did say that he and Katherine will take care of his grandchildren with MJ - Prince, Paris and Blanket.
Definitely, Joe Jackson has a huge hand in the development of our king of pop. Somewhere, somehow, MJ's decisions have been influenced by these experiences with his father, for better or for worse.
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