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CNN Live At Daybreak

Has Michael Mania Returned

Aired September 10, 2001 - 07:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL JACKSON: When I had you to myself, I didn't want you around. Those pretty faces always made you stand out in a crowd.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VINCE CELLINI, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that, as you probably know, is Michael Jackson and a couple of his brothers. But he was on stage Friday at Madison Square Garden, his first performance in the U.S. in more than a decade, kind of a comeback concert. So is Michael mania back?

Here to help answer that is Chris Norris, staff writer for "Spin" magazine, and he joins us in New York.

Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS MORRIS, "SPIN" MAGAZINE: Good morning. How are you?

CELLINI: I guess the concert was a success despite the delays and a lineup of over the hill/ stars there. And, you know, eventually when Michael took the floor, everybody was happy about that. But where is he as an artist right now? We seem to always reference "Thriller," which is almost 20 years old. Where is he going as an artist?

MORRIS: Well, that's a good question because where is he going as an artist, where is he going as a human being, a pop figure and...

CELLINI: We'll get to the human being part in just a moment, but the artist.

MORRIS: Yes, yes, yes. Well, I mean "Thriller" actually has finally been surpassed by, of all people, The Eagles. The Eagles finally sold a million more records with the "Greatest Hit" record than "Thriller." So he's really even finally been surpassed technically in terms of highest selling artist of all time.

But he is desperately, desperately trying, as he asked, "Won't you please let me back into your heart?", you know, in the "I Want You Back." He's saying that to the American public at large and spending literally, the reported news is $30 million on this last record just trying desperately to claw his way back into our hearts and minds. CELLINI: Well, you mentioned that and "Invincible," I guess, comes out next month. And how important will that album and the success of that be in order for him to jump start his career?

MORRIS: Well, judging from the amount of energy and friends and favors he's calling on, incredibly important. He wants, he obviously has no reason to need to be back into the public's, the bosom of our love. But he really has this, I mean, no material need. He's, you know, incredibly wealthy and owns the Beatles catalog and, you know, he has nothing to gain other than a sense of like I think his personality is identified to himself with being in the center of our attention.

So that's what he needs. He needs to be on top. Actually, he literally seems to take the title king of pop seriously and you see him and he dresses in these sort of like uniforms and, you know, he has like a whole, he leads parades, this whole weird Leni Riefenstahl kind of like films.

CELLINI: That whole Sergeant Pepper look, he's holding onto that?

MORRIS: Yes. I don't think he's kidding. No, yes, no, that's -- he, you know, he means it.

CELLINI: Well, let's get to him career wise and, you know, Bruce Springsteen once said that he never wanted to be an oldies act. But if Michael doesn't push forward, is he in danger of becoming an oldies act?

MORRIS: Yes. He would be called, I think, I'm not sure, yes, like an oldies act, someone who comes and sells, does concerts based on their existing catalog.

CELLINI: Right.

MORRIS: If he thinks that he's not going to do that in some way now, he's clearly deluded. I mean he has one of the most enviable catalogs of anybody, any artist in history, and I don't think that that's going to be changed no matter how much money he throws at it, how many producers, how many guest stars he puts in this, the most expensive recording ever made, is going to really change that.

He is going to be an oldies act no matter what and -- which, you know, to his credit in some way. I think the sad thing is Michael is going to have a very hard time adjusting to that kind of status as he has seemingly adjusting to all sorts of other aspects of aging and, you know, growing up.

CELLINI: Well, yes. Let's talk about his whole persona and the fact that a lot of people can't get past his appearance. You know, he goes from the Indiana child star we saw on Ed Sullivan to now many surgeries later almost difficult to look at for some. You know, there's been the allegations of impropriety with a child. He's got a chimp who's his best friend. I mean can, for some people, maybe, is that difficult to get past in trying to get a new audience? MORRIS: He's not exactly the boy next door.

CELLINI: No. Right.

MORRIS: Yes, and I mean, yes, it has. I mean sort of around '93 I think for many people Michael Jackson ceased to be a human being. I mean most in his appearances, and even when he grew up he was always this sort of gravity defying, puberty defying kind of, you know, wunderkind who just danced around and would just be this fantastic spectacle, the ultimate child star.

As that went on, he, that seemed to fly apart until around '93 we saw the videotaped statement of him responding to accusations of child molestation. And then he was clearly, it seemed to be, beamed from another planet, you know? You seemed to, you know, people of Earth, you know, please accept my apologies. And he then started to seem just like a very surreal kind of ultimate tabloid creation because he combined all these wonderful tabloid staples like extraterrestrials and cosmetic surgery and celebrity and scandal and all these things rolled into one fantastic multi-million selling package that we just couldn't get enough of for a while. And that's the role that he's played for the past 10 years.

Right now he's trying to re-spin that and he's, you know, spending huge amounts of money and he's calling in all his favors.

CELLINI: Well, let me ask you about, recently we saw him on the MTV Awards prior to the concert and performing with 'N Sync, who obviously they're very big fans. Can he possibly piggyback off the 'N Sync audience and try to nurture some of these 'N Sync fans, you know, or is that a reach?

MORRIS: I mean I would call that a reach. Yes. Yes. I mean he's, I mean like current teen pop and the way it's packaged fetishises youth and innocent. And that's exactly what these people are doing. They, but, I mean to Michael Jackson's credit, and he deserves a lot of it, these people learned how to sing, learned how to be pop stars, learned what it meant from Michael Jackson. And that, and who started out as a child, you know, teen pop star himself.

So I mean it makes complete sense that they would be, they would love him for it, as would all these other people and, you know, all his listeners around the world. I think that it looks creepy at a certain point for him to be sort of like hanging out -- like on his concert apparently he like came out and they did "The Way You Make Me Feel" with Britney Spears and he's supposed to be the sort of smitten suitor walking behind her...

CELLINI: Right. Right.

MORRIS: ... and it seemed very hard.

CELLINI: OK.

MORRIS: I mean he is, he does not seem in control of his image making right now. CELLINI: Michael's, yes, at this point we have to go.

Thank you so much, Chris Morris.

MORRIS: My pleasure.

CELLINI: Michael's career and his future very difficult to figure out, as always. Thank you very much for sharing some time with us.

MORRIS: Sure.

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