Insightful, surprising and heartbreaking, The Michael Jackson Tapes is a stunningly honest look under the surface of the late pop superstar.

Penned lovingly and carefully by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the book is revealing and intimate without feeling exploitative or over-sentimental. The conversations outlined in The Michael Jackson Tapes came from a selection of recorded conversations in 2000-2001 between Jackson and Boteach. Jackson wanted Boteach, a rare trusted friend, to write the book upon completion of the tapes, but a series of events caused the Rabbi to reconsider.

Boteach goes to great lengths to explain why he thought now, after Jackson’s death, was the best time to complete and release the book. One senses the author’s pain when he describes how he and Jackson grew apart over time and how he was unable to be a positive influence in the pop star's life. Having been relegated to the sidelines in favor of Jackson’s parade of “yes-men,” Boteach withdrew from his friend’s life and watched the destruction overwhelm Michael from afar.

Boteach, shocked yet not surprised by the death of Michael Jackson, eventually chose to release the book some eight years after the interviews because he believed Jackson’s wishes should be finally fulfilled.

The conversations are arranged by subject matter in The Michael Jackson Tapes. Boteach interjects his “present day” self into the conversations frequently, offering a heartbreaking account of things he wished he would have said or things he was thinking. In this way, the book becomes a sort of disheartening record of a friendship shattered by time, fame and ego.

To say Jackson was a tragic figure would be an obvious understatement, but Boteach, in revealing these startlingly honest conversations, shows us a Michael Jackson motivated by one thing: love.

In talking to Boteach, Jackson reveals that his pursuit of fame and attention came out of a desire to be loved. He describes his relationship with his father, with women and with children. Through it all, through all the strangeness and deluded thoughts, Jackson’s motivation to be loved remains shockingly clear. The problem, according to Boteach, is that the King of Pop confused attention and adulation with love.

Judging from some of the reaction to the book, there are many who may think that Rabbi Boteach is overstepping his boundaries here or that he is being critical. I do not believe this to be the case for a number of reasons, the least of which is that Jackson wanted the tapes to be released.

Boteach’s interjections do, at times, come across as slightly disapproving, but one has to understand the standpoint of the author here. He was never a friend of Michael Jackson’s because he was a fan; he was, instead, a friend of Jackson’s because the pop star trusted him and craved his structure and opinion. For Boteach to gutlessly refuse to hold Jackson to the standards of their friendship, even after Jackson’s death, would be, in my view, the ultimate cruel evasion.

For many, The Michael Jackson Tapes will be difficult to read. It is incredibly hard to read about Jackson’s belief in his healing powers, about his understanding of women and about his own understanding of fame. But Boteach is reasonable in his assessment of Jackson, choosing to treat the subject cautiously rather than hopelessly.

Boteach believes in the good of Michael Jackson and he, right or wrong, believes in the innocence of Michael Jackson. He misses Michael Jackson, perhaps in a more painful way than many, and it is clear that he is saddened and angered by what he perceives as the inevitable conclusion to a life that he viewed with so much promise, love and natural affection.

Is it fair to say that The Michael Jackson Tapes is an exploitative, hypercritical piece of work? No.

From what we know, Jackson wanted the material to be released and wanted Boteach to write a book about what was on the tapes. The two were, at one point and time, trusted friends until Jackson’s overwhelming circle of influence forced the Rabbi out. And Boteach’s obvious passion for his friend is clear, going so far as to say that knowing Jackson made him a better father and infusing every heartbreaking word and rebuke with true love and compassion.

This is not an easy book to read, nor do I presume it was an easy book for Rabbi Boteach to write. In dealing with the legacy of Jackson and his fandom, one is dealing with the theatre of the absurd. As talented an artist Jackson was, he was also a severely troubled, delusional individual and many of his fans followed suit in showing up to a child molestation trial with signs and costumes and continuing the bizarre legacy after his demise with similar displays of irrationality.

In the end, The Michael Jackson Tapes is a lucid account of what it was like to know Jackson in the midst of the outlandishness that was his life. Boteach is a welcome narrator for those among us who appreciated the man for his art, but he will be the definitive scoundrel for those with a stranger connection to the King of Pop. (Posted on 10/25/09)

When I first saw the cover of THE MICHAEL JACKSON TAPES: A TRAGIC ICON REVEALS HIS SOUL IN INTIMATE CONVERSATION, with the ominous shadow of Jackson’s face above the bold byline of Rabbi Schmuley Boteach, I thought there had to be some kind of mistake. Was this some sort of joke? You know, where a rabbi, a king of pop and a kid with cancer walk into a bar? (No, that’s not quite right, but the three of them did walk into Neverland Ranch together. Perhaps the trio isn’t as unlikely as I first suspected.)

Turns out, the rabbi was Jackson’s mentor for nearly two years in 2001 and 2002, just a year before the singer’s accuser, Gavin Arvizo, came forward with allegations of child molestation. The first of many shockers in the book is that the rabbi and his family were staying at the ranch the night the first instance of alleged abuse happened. One gets the sense that Boteach doesn’t believe Michael is guilty, but then again, he did catch him in a few lies during the tapings.

Ironically enough, the rabbi was in Jackson’s life to help him rebuild his character after the devastating scandals from the ’90s rocked the entertainer’s kingdom. (Jackson had settled that case, but claimed he was innocent and just wanted to avoid a long, lengthy trial and public opinion.)

Innocence. Now there’s a word you see repeatedly throughout the book. The JACKSON TAPES of the title refer to the recordings of interviews that Boteach conducted with Jackson to gain a better understanding of the man behind the myth, in order to steer him in the right direction. For anyone familiar with the rabbi’s work, he does this via counseling and his best-selling books. I’ve been a fan of the rabbi since I first saw him on OPRAH years ago. Heck, if anyone could’ve helped Jackson, Boteach was the guy to do it.

First, the rabbi told Michael that he needed to place emphasis not on the children he wanted to help, but their parents, and that way he could still help the children, but it wouldn’t be, well, creepy. After all, Jackson had a lot of ground to gain to win back good favor. The parent initiative did gain momentum, and Jackson was on board for talks and high-powered meetings until his management thought Boteach was trying to soften him too much and making him too accessible.

This book was literally unputdownable. The only section that steered toward boredom was the interview with Michael’s mother, Katherine. It wasn’t so much the soft questions (the tough one about Joe, her husband and the father of their children, was answered with the recorder off), but because Katherine answered with a lot of yes/no responses and didn’t seem to want to discuss much other than that Michael was a sensitive child, that he loves children and that she wished he hadn’t left the Jehovah’s Witnesses church.

The rest of the interviews, with Jackson himself, were fascinating. Seriously, did you think the singer had much of a brain? I guess I always thought of him as the scarecrow in THE WIZ, with his only passions as music and dancing, not worldly or spiritual matters. But the book reveals his philosophical leanings, his extremely distorted body image, his honesty about the ugliness of aging and how he’d prefer to die young vs. old, and his feelings toward women. He was attracted to them, yet didn’t trust them.

Boteach believes Jackson’s aversion (practically repulsion in my opinion) toward sexuality came from going to strip clubs as a child and seeing women as sex objects who used men for money, period. He hated for women to see him as a sexual conquest. He got embarassed just thinking about it. I’m not even certain Jackson ever had sex. Yes, he was married twice, but so what? The rabbi wanted to set him up and believed Jackson needed the stability of a family, a wife and a mother to help raise his children. Jackson could only think of a couple of suitable “types” of partners: people like Mother Theresa and Princess Diana. Seriously.

Regarding idolatry, Jackson didn’t think it was necessarily a bad thing that he was idolized since his intensions were pure. Like Jesus. Same goes for people daring to think he could ever harm children. He loved kids and wanted to be surrounded by them, like Jesus. If people had perverse thinking, it was their own problem. In fact, he says it killed him inside that people could ever think he could harm a child, ever.

Yet, he uses the words “I’m in love with innocence” repeatedly. If “in love with” isn’t sexual, then I’m not sure what he meant by that. Perhaps he felt less judged by children and he did want to “heal the world,” which is very believable throughout his conversations. One can sense he carries a great deal of pain, and perhaps knowing all that he has been given, he did want to give back by healing those who are hurting.

Yes, we get that stardom and fame screw people up — even worse when your father is beating your naked body and nothing you do is ever good enough. Jackson would feel ill anytime he knew his father was approaching. That has to mess a kid up.

One thing I never understood in the book is why Jackson kept calling his mother an “angel and a saint,” except that he must have idolized her, too. She knew about Joe’s abuse, so I can’t imagine Michael not being angry at her for not doing more to stop it, beyond telling Joe not to be so hard on them. The children asked her repeatedly to divorce him, yet because of her faith, she wouldn’t.

Additionally, Michael said he didn’t see his mother that much growing up. However, he did live at home until he was 27, and even went door to door during his THRILLER fame in disguise so he could talk about his faith. Impressive.

Kudos to Boteach for trying to help, at least. If Jackson had listened to him and heeded the advice, he might still be alive today and a whole lot less “weird” in our minds. That advice was:
1. Let his kids know their mother and have a relationship with her.
2. Never be alone with a child, ever.
3. Get married.
4. Get back into a church and stick to a schedule.
5. Not let the wrong people influence him and spend his money.

As we know, Jackson didn’t heed any of it, slipping deeper into his prescription-medication addictions as he got back into the limelight, due to financial pressure more than anything.

From TAPES, one will learn many more interesting things about the singer’s thinking, spirituality and relationships. Yet, it’s just as good a read for any of us to take the rabbi’s advice on how to heal our own relationships and live healthy inner lives, whether or not you give a flip about the King of Pop. —Malena Lott (Posted on 9/27/09)