Why Michael Jackson's Own Brother Recorded a Song to Destroy Him

In August 1991, a song went out on American radio attacking Michael Jackson's skin, his face, and his surgeries. The voice singing it belonged to his own brother. Jermaine Jackson was the one Joe Jackson picked to be the star. He sang lead in that two bedroom house in Gary, Indiana, while a six year old stood behind him. Then the six year old opened his mouth, and Jermaine spent the next forty years standing next to the most famous man in the world. This is the story of what happened between them. The 1975 split at Motown, when five brothers walked to Epic and Jermaine stayed behind with the label his father in law owned, and lost his place to his own youngest brother. The night in 1983 when he finally came home to a stage with his brothers after eight years, and Michael stayed on after the medley ended and did the moonwalk in front of forty seven million people. The producers who were taken. The eight months of phone calls that were never returned. And the record he made about it, which reached number seventy eight while his brother sold thirty two million albums. It is also the story of what came after, which almost nobody tells. Jermaine in the courtroom in 2005. Jermaine walking out in front of the cameras on the twenty fifth of June, 2009, to tell the world his brother was dead. And his son Jaafar, in 2026, playing Michael Jackson on screen. He was not jealous of the King of Pop. He was jealous of his little brother, and those are not the same thing. Sources and documented record referenced in this video: Los Angeles Times, 7 November 1991 (Jermaine's account of the eight months). Billboard chart positions for Word to the Badd, released 13 August 1991. Motown 25, taped 25 March 1983, broadcast NBC 16 May 1983. The Victory Tour, 6 July to 9 December 1984. Michael Jackson's interview with Oprah Winfrey, 10 February 1993.