TO Jackie and Tito Jackson, Michael Jackson is forever the little brother they loved and lost.
“I know he’s watching over everything,” says Tito today, 12 years after his superstar sibling succumbed to an overdose of prescription meds.
“But losing him was devastating . . . absolutely devastating.”
To the world outside his family, Jacko remains the most controversial figure in pop — prodigiously talented, wildly successful, utterly eccentric, his reputation tarnished by disturbing allegations.
With some radio stations refusing to play his music, he still divides opinion but his eldest brothers are resolute in their defence.
“We can’t help but support him,” says Tito, sticking with the present tense. “He’s my brother. We have the same last name. The blood inside him is inside me.”
Of the lawsuits filed against Michael before and after his death on June 25, 2009, Tito adds: “It’s very simple for me. You’ve got a person who’s been investigated by the highest office, the FBI, for over a decade (1993-2005) and they couldn’t find one thing. He’s squeaky clean.
“My brother was so talented and when you’re on top, there are always those who want to destroy you.
“People just couldn’t understand how this one kid could have all this success and keep on coming up with hit records.”
Jackie chimes in: “It was running them crazy. I always knew Michael was going to have a huge solo career.
“I knew the kind of person he was. He would write on his mirror in the bathroom that he was going to sell this many records.
“He read a bunch of books and set goals for himself. He was a real hard worker.”
I’m speaking to Jackie, 69, and Tito, 67, to mark a happy chapter in their family’s fabled musical history.
In 1976, The Jackson 5, the first great boy band, left hit factory Motown to become simply The Jacksons, the line-up by then, in age order, being Jackie, Tito, Marlon, Michael and new recruit Randy. Jermaine, who had married label boss Berry Gordy’s daughter, stayed put.
The next couple of years yielded three albums for the Epic label, culminating in the groove-laden Destiny. Now expanded versions have been released digitally.
Destiny in particular marked the emergence of the brothers as songwriters and producers, paving the way for Michael’s stellar solo albums Off The Wall and Thriller.
Hits from the period were peak disco bangers, including Blame It On The Boogie and Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground).
lt’s noon on America’s West Coast and 7pm in London when I’m connected to Jackie and Tito via Zoom, the preferred method of communication in these Covid-hit times.
Jackie reports that he has been staying at home during lockdown, Zooming his large extended family “until everybody gets vaccinated. Then we’ll all come out like the zombies in Thriller!”.
And Tito says: “I’ve been quarantined, hibernating. I don’t leave my home either and I order in my groceries.
“But I’m getting in line to take my shot. I’m more scared of the needle poking me than the shot itself.”
I’m instantly struck by their warmth and humour but, inevitably, the conversation drifts back towards MJ.
Tito, sporting his trademark bowler hat, talks of the unshakeable bond he still feels with his late brother.
As the second oldest in the group behind Jackie, he remembers how his protective instincts came to the fore.
“You always look after your little brothers,” he says. “We were a gang within ourselves and we had each other’s backs.
“If anyone bothered Michael or whoever, they had to deal with four others.”
I ask if they ever felt overshadowed when that little brother became the world’s most successful entertainer.
He replies: “It wasn’t like that. People don’t usually say, ‘I like Michael’, they always go, ‘Michael Jackson’. So we had a Jackson in there and we couldn’t help but support that.
“I feel that Michael’s success is part of my success. It’s the family’s success. We’re a family of music.”
From their first appearance in the mid-Sixties, the Jackson brothers hit on a winning formula — joyous, danceable, life-affirming songs performed with gorgeous harmony vocals, silky dance moves and bags of style.
“It’s the kind of music that everybody can enjoy,” says Jackie, flashing one of his big smiles.
“You can take your grandma to the concert and she’s going to like it. There are no curse words. You just have a great time dancing and having fun.”
Jackie and Tito describe younger brother Marlon as the best dancer in the group, suggesting that Michael might have “stolen a few moves”.
On a more serious note, the Jackson clan were crucial in breaking down racial barriers, along with other black artists such as The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations.
With race issues still front and centre in 2021 following the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests, The Jacksons are releasing a remixed version of Can U Feel It including passages of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech from 1963’s March On Washington.
The lead vocals from Michael draws this response from Jackie: “You hear all the stuff going on around him but we know our brother.
“To see Dr King’s camp sign off on it and Obama’s camp sign off on it — that tells you something. They could have said no.”
Never a hit single in the States, Jackie calls Can U Feel It “a late bloomer”.
“All of a sudden, everybody’s protesting and marching. The song talks about what’s happening today. We tried to get a rapper (on the remix) but the record company suggested Dr King. He’s a world-rated rapper!”
Back in 1978, when The Jacksons were releasing Destiny, Michael and Jackie wrote a plea for racial harmony for the album cover, using the multi-hued peacock as their symbol.
They wrote: “The peacock is the only bird that integrates all colours into one, and displays this radiance of fire only when in love.
“We, like the peacock, try to integrate all races into one through the love of music.”
All these years later, Jackie compares the message to the memorable United Colors Of Benetton brand campaign.
He says: “That’s how we looked at the whole world with the hope of races coming together in harmony and peace.”
At this point, he sifts through the mists of time to where it all began, living with his brothers, sisters and parents Joe and Katherine in a humble two-room house in Gary, Indiana, not far from Chicago.
Jackie says: “We had a television that broke down and we couldn’t get it fixed, so we started harmonising and singing with our mom all the time, every day. She was a country and western fan.
“While she was ironing once, she said, ‘Joe, listen, they can really sing’. That’s when he started buying us instruments.
“All kids have talent but your job as a parent is to find out what it is and bring it out of them. That’s what our father did for us.”
For Tito, that instrument was a guitar, although he secretly borrowed his dad’s before that.
“My father played the blues with his brother Uncle Luther every weekend and I was very interested,” he says.
“When he went back to work, he’d put his guitar away and say, ‘Don’t you boys touch my guitar’. It was his pride and joy.
“That was the worst thing you could tell a young kid. My mother let me play it, though, and when I broke a string, my father found out I was playing the music.”
Of course, it wasn’t long before the brothers, originally including third eldest Jermaine, starting performing shows. By 1964, when Michael was just six, they became The Jackson 5.
When they signed for Berry Gordy’s Detroit-based Motown, there was disbelief in the family’s neighbourhood.
Jackie recalls: “People used to say to us, ‘You’re not signed to Motown, you’re lying to us’.”
And Tito agrees: “Yeah, they said, ‘You’re making all that noise in the house — that ain’t going nowhere!’ ”
How wrong they were. As the original boyband, they set the scene for those who followed down the decades — Backstreet Boys, Take That, Boyz II Men, One Direction, current faves BTS and countless more.
“I was the first kid that got my clothes torn off me by screaming crazy girls,” laughs Tito. “I had hundreds and thousands of girlfriends and didn’t even know it.”
With Michael and Jermaine taking most of the lead vocals, the classic songs flowed — I Want You Back, ABC, The Love You Save and I’ll Be Back giving The Jackson 5 four consecutive US No1s.
Yet all those hits were written by the Motown machine and, by the mid-Seventies, the brothers were ready to spread their wings.
Tito says: “Before we left Motown, we had been writing songs in our closet, but the label felt, ‘Why try to fix something that’s not broke?’ ”
While accepting they needed to move on, Tito and Jackie are at pains to acknowledge the company that gave them their big break.
“We always have said that Motown put us on the map, introduced us to the world,” says Tito with Jackie adding: “You’ve got to give them that respect. They did a wonderful job.”
At Epic, the brothers hooked up with stellar partnership Gamble & Huff (The O’Jays, Teddy Pendergrass) and they penned Jacksons favourites Enjoy Yourself and Show You The Way To Go.
But by the time they got to the Destiny album, The Jacksons had complete control.
The new-found freedom allowed Tito to play guitar on the records, never possible for him at Motown.
He says: “I could turn on my car radio, listen to a Jacksons song and hear myself playing as well. That felt like a great accomplishment and a great feeling.” For Destiny, he remembers the pressure piled on the whole group. “We had a legacy to live up to. Now that we were doing this album by ourselves, we had to make sure it was a hit.
“You must remember we were up against Earth Wind & Fire for control of the charts. We wanted the biggest show and the most effects. Always in competitions for greatness!”
In 2021, with The Jacksons’ greatness long assured, the line-up of Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon is still performing.
Pandemic permitting, they are due to headline the Happy Days Festival in Esher over the August Bank Holiday and Jersey’s Weekender a week later.
“We’re coming to your backyard!” Tito exclaims. “We’ve changed the show a little bit. We put a couple of stripper poles on stage and we have a few girls come out. Our audience is all male now.”
Cue peals of giggles and Jackie interjecting: “Don’t believe that!”
Of course, Tito WAS joking and it’s perfectly safe to take your granny to watch these living legends getting everyone shaking their bodies. . . down to the ground.
THE Jacksons may be pop royalty but they have connections to our real Royal Family.
After moving to California, Jackie and Tito attended the same school as Meghan’s mother, Doria– Fairfax High School, in Los Angeles.
“Well, Tito took her out a couple of times for dinner,” Jackie informs me with a deadpan expression before breaking into laughter and saying: “No, I’m just kidding!”
These days, he lives not far from Harry and Meghan and chat show queen Oprah Winfrey.
“They’re in Montecito, right around the corner. I saw bits and pieces of their interview and I’m really happy for them with the baby. I hope they continue to be happy here in the US.”
Tito remembers meeting the Queen when he was a teenager during one of the Jacksons’ visits to the UK. But he found it hard to convince his schoolmates it had actually happened.
“If you had a picture of you and the Queen, it was real. There was no Photoshop,” he says.
“We sung I Want You Back, ABC and she really loved Dancing Machine. Maybe she got up every morning and did a little jiggle to it.”
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