For a charity event held at the Neverland Ranch in September 2003, for the first time ever, he invited an artist from the outside to perform there. It was Yannick Harrison, also known as Jay Kid, from Denmark that performed a number of his interpretations of Michael Jackson songs for the specially invited guests.
Former son-in-law of Priscilla Presley.
Fortress Investment Group foreclosed and took possession of Jackson's half- interest in the Sony/ATV Music Publishing company, estimated to be worth $1 billion, as well as the entire MiJac Music Publishing company. (December 2005)
Godfather of Nicole Richie.
Had a skin disease called vitiligo.
Has his look-alike puppet in the French show "Les guignols de l'info" (1988).
Has sold over 750 million albums worldwide.
He and his lawyer, Mark Geragos, sued jet charter company XtraJet for invasion of privacy. The firm allegedly installed hidden cameras to tape the two's confidential attorney-client conversations. A California judge has barred the firm from releasing or selling any footage it may have obtained. [25 November 2003]
He died on the same day as Farrah Fawcett. Both were in California at the time. She died at 9:28 a.m PDT, he was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. after hours of unsuccessful resuscitation.
He does not own the right to the entire Beatles catalogue. For example, the family of the late George Harrison own songs he wrote, including "Something," and Sony music owns 50% of the catalogue after Jackson sold it to them because he needed the money.
He had a long standing relationship with Cherokee Studios, reaching back to his days with the Jackson 5. It was during an early Jackson 5 recording session at Cherokee that Shelley Berger, longtime Motown Manager, first realized his talent, telling Rolling Stone Magazine he would be "the new Sammy Davis." Later, he came back to Cherokee to record his multi platinum breakout solo Album Off the Wall. His relationship with Cherokee continued throughout his solo career, culminating in the recording of what went on to become the best selling album of all time, Thriller (109 million albums sold worldwide).
He had been scheduled to perform 50 sold-out concerts to over one million people at London's O2 arena, from July 13, 2009 to March 6, 2010, which he implied during a press conference would have been the final concerts of his career. Unfortunately he passed away before he could perform any of these shows. His rehearsals for the tour were documented in This Is It (2009).
He is being sued by two former financial advisors for $25 million over alleged unpaid expenses. Jackson denies owing them anything. [9 September 2001]
He returned to live in the United States on 24 December 2006, setting up residence in Las Vegas.
He was a close friend of the former child star Mark Lester. Lester is godfather to Jackson's children. Although the two had not spoken for several years before his death.
He was never related to Elvis Presley by marriage since Presley died many years before his marriage to Lisa Marie.
He was the highest earning singer of 1988-1989, with $125 million from his worldwide "BAD" album tour.
He was voted the 35th Greatest Artist of all time in Rock 'n' Roll by Rolling Stone.