Transcribed from audio files posted at the HIStory Museum (Sony MJ homepage)
H IStory:
" In truth, I really didn't want the album to be about old songs, you
know. It is a Greatest Hits album -
to me most Greatest Hits Albums are boring, you know, and I wanted
to keep creating. You know, the
new songs are very different. They are autobiographical, I mean they
came from the heart - they are
myself. They are not my songs anymore, it's the way I feel they belong
to everybody now."
Scream:
"Sometimes the only thing you can do is scream. (laughs) Don't you
ever feel this way? You just wanna
let it all out. People should listen and decide for themselves.
Childhood:
"Our personal history begins in childhood and the song "Childhood"
is a reflection of my life, years ago,
when I was much younger. And it's about the pain, some of the joys,
some of the dreaming, some of the
mental adventures I took because of the different lifestyle that I
had being a child performer. I was
born on the stage and "Childhood" - it is my mirror - it is my story."
Earth Song:
"I remember writing Earth Song when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And
I was feeling so much pain and so
much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, uhm,
this is Earth's Song, because I think
nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the
Earth. And with the ecological
unbalance going on, and a lot of the, uh, problems in the environment,
I think earth feels... feels the pain,
and she has wounds, and it's about some of the joys of the planet as
well. But this is my chance to pretty
much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is "Earth Song".
And that's what inspired it. And
it just suddenly dropped into my lap when I was in... on tour in Austria."
Stranger in Moscow:
"Stranger in Moscow was written, uh, when I was in Moscow on the Dangerous-Tour.
And it was just a
strange, eerie, lonely time for me. Outside my hotel was just a sea
of faces of... of fans chanting and
screaming. But I was inside my room and I felt so all alone, like I
was the last person of the planet. And
in the song I say "How does it feel when you're alone and you're cold
inside." uh, I say "It's like a
stranger in Moscow" and that's pretty much how I felt. And the people
were some of the nicest people
I've ever met. And the concert was very successful, but, uhm, that
day, especially that day, I just felt
this different feeling and the song "Stranger in Moscow" came to me.
So, that's how it was written."
The Girl is Mine:
"One of my favorite songs to record of all of my recordings as a solo
artist is probably "The Girl is
Mine", because working with Paul McCartney was pretty ex... exciting.
And we just literally had fun. It
was like lots of kibitzing and playing and throwing stuff at each other
and making jokes. It was just a
lot of fun, and we actually recorded the track and the vocals pretty
much live at the same time, and we
do have footage of it, but it's never been shown. Maybe one day we'll
give you a sneak preview of it."
Thriller:
"I think the most fun short film or video that I've ever made hat to
be "Thriller". I just loooooved
becoming a monster (laughs) because it gave me a chance to pretty much
become someone else. It was just
fun hiding behind this mask and just really letting this part of you,
your body or your feelings out, but
hiding behind a different character. And it was just thrilling for
me to make that. And the dance, and all
the morphing, and all the fun things that we did...it's so memorable."
Billie Jean:
"When I was very little, around 10 years old, I used to go on these
tours with my brothers, The Jackson
Five, and I'd hear these crazy stories that (laughs) these girls would
claim my brothers hand
relationships with the, which they didn't and that they were going
to have their children. And I thought
that to be so strange and so crazy. And then, a couple of years later,
there was this girl, named Billie
Jean, who used to stand outside my gate. And I would drive outside
the gate and she would say "Here's
the keys to our car" and she would say "Here's the keys to the front
door" She would say that I am
actually the father of her child, which never ever happened... And
that inspired the song cause the chorus
goes "Billie Jean is not my lover, she's just the one who claims that
I am the one, but the kid is not my
son" So, I guess that's how that happened."
