‘Never do that again, Jordie’
Like many celebrated people, at his core, Michael Jackson was conscious of a certain emptiness. He admitted it, and often; it didn’t take much prodding for him to describe himself as ‘the loneliest person on the planet’. Over the years, especially as he got older, bleakness crept into his soul. When he was on stage, he came to life and was without peer; offstage, he felt… joyless. However, when he met Jordie Chandler, all of that seemed to change.
‘Michael is a sad person,’ confirmed someone who has been associated with him for twenty years. ‘He has had a difficult life, always been a loner, a misfit. If he hadn’t become a star, he would be the guy living in Gary, Indiana, alone in a one-bedroom apartment with no friends and a job developing film at a photolab. What really attracted Michael to Jordie, was the youngster’s humour. Whenever a person can make him laugh, that’s someone he will want in his life. Jordie made him laugh. He would make fun of Michael, of the way he dressed, of his clumsiness, his driving. Michael was amused by Jordie’s irreverent manner. He felt he could be himself around him.
‘They used to dance together, Michael showing Jordie choreography steps and Jordie catching on remarkably fast. Jordie was intelligent; Michael loves smart kids and Jordie was tremendously creative. Michael said that Jordie could one day be an amazing film director. “He has a vision,” he told me. “I think he could do wonderful things.”’
They probably would have been a perfect couple of buddies – if not for the fact that Jordie was thirteen and Michael was thirty-four.
‘I truly don’t think there’s a devious bone in his body,’ June said of Michael. If she thought anything was unusual about Michael and Brett at Neverland, she didn’t indicate as much after she and her family returned to Los Angeles.
It wasn’t long before Michael invited them all to his ‘hide-out’ on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood, about ten minutes from June and Dave Schwartz’s home. ‘Do you have an amusement park there, too?’ Jordie asked him. Michael laughed, ‘No, silly. It’s just my place to go where no one can find me.’ Then, lowering his voice as if to share an important confidence, he added, ‘As soon as someone finds out about it – whoosh! – I move to another hide-out. Once,’ he continued, ‘a person knocked on my door that I didn’t know and – whoosh! – I moved to another hide-out, the next day.’
Why?’
‘Because if one stranger knows whereI live,’ Michael answered, ‘then millions more will follow.’
‘So how many hide-outs have you had?’ Jordie asked.
‘Hundreds,’ Michael said, grinning. ‘Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds.’
Jordie, Lily and June had fun at Michael’s hide-out, as expected, and, as the days passed, became privy to more of his secrets. For instance, on 9 March, Michael was honoured with a
Soul Train
award for Best Album (
Dangerous
) and Best Song (‘Remember the Time’). At the show, he sat in a wheelchair on the stage and performed ‘Remember the Time’ while surrounded by a host of dancers. He explained that he had hurt himself during rehearsals.
However, the next day at Neverland, he threw the crutches aside. ‘It’s a miracle! I can walk! I can walk!’ Michael exclaimed, the jokester in him coming forth. Michael had never been injured; it appeared he had used the wheelchair and crutches as a publicity gimmick.
A couple of days later, Michael took Jordie, Lily and their mother to Las Vegas where they all stayed at Jackson’s private, $3,000-a-night suite in the Mirage Hotel. Michael and Jordie stayed in separate rooms, while June and Lily shared another suite.
The night after their arrival, June and Lily turned in early, exhausted by their fun time in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Michael and Jordie watched
The Exorcist
. Jordie was so frightened by the film, he asked – or Michael suggested, depending on which of them tells the story – that he be allowed to stay with Michael in his room. In whatever manner the circumstances evolved, the two ended up sleeping together, Michael in silk pyjamas, Jordie in aT-shirt and sweat pants.
The next morning, when June went to Jordie’s bedroom she found that he had not slept in his bed. As she stood in the doorway trying to figure out what had happened, she caught Jordie slipping out of Michael’s room. ‘What is going on?’ she asked. ‘Where were you?’
‘Oh, I slept with Michael,’ answered the boy, casually, according to a later recollection.
‘What?’ June exclaimed. ‘What are you talking about? You don’t do that,’ she said, now scolding him. ‘Never do that again, Jordie.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it’s not right,’ June said, upset. ‘Promise me you will never do that again, ever, Jordie.’
‘But, Mom – ’
‘But,
nothing
,’ she cut him off. ‘Promise me!’
‘I promise,’ said Jordie, sounding defeated.
The next day, Jordie told Michael about June’s concern. Now, Michael was the one who was upset. He didn’t understand why June would so object to his sleeping with her son. Did she not trust him? With Dave Schwartz not around the house, it seemed right that Jordie have a male influence, Michael reasoned. He decided to take up the matter with June. According to what June later recalled, Michael pulled her aside and, fixing her with an earnest look, said, ‘Jordie and I share a special and innocent friendship. Why did you tell him he can’t sleep with me?’
‘Because it’s completely inappropriate, Michael,’ June said, holding her ground. ‘And I don’t want Jordie to be hurt.’
‘But I’m not like that,’ Michael said. ‘How could you think I would hurt Jordie?’ he asked. ‘We have a friendly, honest, true and loving relationship.’ Michael then told June his theory about ‘conditioning’. That children are innocent until conditioned by the world to be otherwise, at which point they become cynical, judgemental adults who lie, cheat, gossip and treat each other poorly. It would be his desire, he said, that Jordie remain pure and untouched by the adult world, unconditioned. Michael began to cry.
June didn’t know how to respond to Michael’s heart-felt monologue. His theory, while idealistic and naive, was probably harmless. However, there was still something disconcerting about the proposition that Jordie never be permitted to grow into a well-adjusted adult. After all, it couldn’t always be moonbeams and lollipops for her son. Did she really want him to end up like the thirty-four-year-old man standing before her, sobbing? Or, was she now just being ‘cynical and judgemental’, thereby proving Michael’s point? At a loss, she apologized to Michael for hurting his feelings. The two embraced. ‘You must trust me,’ Michael said.
‘I do,’ June assured him. ‘I do trust you.’
The next day, Michael gave June a $12,000 ruby-and-diamond bracelet from Carrier’s. June stared at him as he presented the gift, dumbfounded. ‘A token,’ Michael told her. ‘It’s nothing. I just love you.’
Afterwards, Michael continued telephoning and visiting Jordie, with June’s approval and much to the astonishment of many in the Chandler and Schwartz families. Why would a wealthy, world-famous and busy superstar work so diligently to forge a deep and meaningful bond with one of his teenage fans? No one seemed to have the answer to that question. However, the scenario wasn’t quite as odd to those witnessing it from Michael’s camp. Many of them had seen young friends of Michael’s come and go over the years and had long ago learned not to question their employer about it. Though clearly obsessed with certain boys along the way, no one ever saw him do anything inappropriate with them, no one ever accused him of anything improper… and, so, that was the end of it. The explanation always had something to do with Michael’s ‘lost childhood’ and his having young friends because they were innocent and trusting… a bit of a tiresome excuse. Therapy might have been a better way to go but, as one of his long-time associates put it, ‘Don’t even go there with Michael.’
On Friday, 2 April Jordie Chandler and his mother and sister again went to Neverland to visit Michael. While there, they noticed that a pair of mannequins, both dressed as fierce-looking Sikh Indian guards, had been positioned in front of the heavy, mahogany double-doors leading to Michael’s bedroom. Michael said he had them placed there in order to keep ghosts away from the room.
Inside his bedroom, Michael had a giant, gold throne placed directly in front of the fireplace. It was very strange.
That night, June and Lily stayed in the guest quarters. Jordie stayed with Michael in a room fit for a king.