Joe Jackson (manager) - Public Image

Public Image

Joseph's image as a father became tarnished from the late 1980s onward, as the media reported stories told by his children that he was heavily abusive toward them. When he managed his family, he allegedly ordered each of them to call him "Joseph", which contributed to several siblings being estranged from their father. Joseph is also alleged to have engaged in several extramarital affairs; one affair resulted in the birth of a daughter Joh'Vonnie, born in 1974.

Michael Jackson claimed that from a young age he was physically and emotionally abused by his father, enduring incessant rehearsals, whippings and name-calling, but also admitting that his father's strict discipline played a large part in his success. In one altercation—later recalled by Marlon Jackson—Joseph held Michael upside down by one leg and "pummeled him over and over again with his hand, hitting him on his back and buttocks." It was alleged that Joseph would also trip up or push his male children into walls to show his dominance.

Michael first spoke openly about his childhood abuse in a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey. He said that during his childhood he often cried from loneliness and would sometimes get sick or start to vomit upon seeing his father. Michael recalled that Joseph sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as Michael and his siblings rehearsed and that "if you didn't do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you." Joseph admitted to whipping his children with switches and belts as punishment, but said he did not do so at random, and claimed never to have used any hard object as he felt was implied by the word "beating." Despite the much-publicized abuse, Michael honored his father with an annual "Joseph Jackson Day" at Neverland Ranch and ultimately forgave him, noting that Joseph's deep-South upbringing during the Great Depression and the Jim Crow years and working-class adulthood hardened him emotionally and made him push his children to succeed as entertainers.

In 2003, in an interview with Louis Theroux for a BBC TV documentary called Louis, Martin & Michael, Joseph admitted to using physical punishment on his children. In the same documentary, Joseph took advantage of the opportunity to promote his record label's new artists, even though the intention was to talk about Michael in the interview. In the same interview, Joe Jackson expressed an extreme dislike of gay people after Theroux asked if he'd like to see Michael settle down with a "partner".

Following Michael's death on June 25, 2009, Joseph attended the BET Awards on June 28. The event was hastily reorganized as a tribute to Michael following his sudden passing. Joseph appeared at the event, speaking to several reporters about Michael's death. He struggled with CNN reporter Don Lemon's questions about his family, first appearing cheerful, then mournful, then asking a family spokesperson to read a prepared statement. After the statement was read, Joseph talked about his new hip-hop recording project. This exchange led to accusations of insensitivity from the press. In a press conference two days later, Joseph said he had honestly answered a question about what he had been doing, and mentioned his recording project again before going on to praise Michael's life and work. Additionally, when speculation arose that a Norwegian friend of Michael, named Omer Bhatti, was Michael's son, Joseph accepted the claims, even though sources close to Bhatti had denied the claims.

Joseph Jackson was portrayed by Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs in the mini-series The Jacksons: An American Dream & by Frederic Tucker in the 2004 VH1 biopic Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story.