Portland Observer, January 21 ,1 8 8 3 Page 5
The Jacksons: Will they quit?
The Jacksons have com pleted
what could be their last to u r, ac­
cording to M ichael. Following the
D e tro it concert M ich ael said he
would like to try other things.
“ I think it's im portant to grow
and I ’ve been doing this for so long.
I sometimes feel like I should be 70
by now. W e 'v e been around the
world twice, performed before kings
and ambassadors. It's time to move
on. I still want to make records.
That’s how I want to spend my time
the next few years.’’
The tour— completely sold out—
drew an estimated 600,000 persons
and grossed $5.5 million.
Because Michael is considered to
be the Jackson’s chief attraction, his
decision will have an impact on his
brothers* careers. Jackie, 30, is in­
terested in film scoring; T ito , 27
would like to study for his masters
degree in music; Marlon, 24 is inter­
ested in actiong; Randy, 19, plans to
work on a solo album. The question
is: W hen these projects are com ­
pleted will the groups come back to­
gether?
The Jacksons* touring history
goes back eleven years when the five
brothers and two sisters toured in a
VW van, then returned in the early
morning hours to attend school that
morning.
The groups started as a trio —
Jackie. T ito and Jermaine— singing
cou n try-W e s te rn . By the tim e
M ichael and M a rlo n were old
enough to join them they were con­
centrating on the Top 40 hits, espe­
cially Motown tunes. They won sev­
eral regional competitions and ap­
peared on the Ed Sullivan show be­
fore their first Motown hit.
Soon the Jacksons were dom ina­
ting the charts. They toured regular­
ly in the early '70s, appeared in Las
Vegas and had their own T V series.
Then they began to rebel against the
M o to w n system o f having other
Presents
Revlon Platform Artist
Marie Edwards
from:
Paris
London
Los Angeles
Have your hair
stlyed by one o f
the b e st...
Th« Jacksons: Michael, Tito, Randy, Jackin, Marlon.
people write and produce their rec­
ords. They dreamed o f writing and
recording their own songs.
The Jacksons broke with Motown
in 1976, switching to Epic Records,
where they gained control over their
recordings. H o w ever, Jerm aine,
whose wife is the daughter o f M o-
town’ s Berry G ordy, left the group
over the switch.
A n o th er setback was in 1980
when Randy was seriously injured in
an auto accident and was not ex­
pected to walk again. Randy took it
in stride and through hard work was
soon back on the stage.
I f he does decide to give up tour­
ing, Michael, who played the scare­
crow in " T h e W iz ,” will try films.
He will begin work in February with
producer Quincy Jones on his next
LP so he will be free this summer to
concentrate on acting.
“ I'd lik e to do heavy d r a m a -
something with depth, something so
fu ll o f em otion that people get
aroused the way they do in concert.
" I t ’s beautiful at the shows when
people jo in together. I t ’ s our own
little w o rld . F or that hour and a
h a lf, we try to show there is hope
and goodness."
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