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Joseph Jackson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other individuals with this name, see Joe Jackson.
Joseph Walter Jackson (born July 26, 1929) is the father of the Jackson musical family, including pop music icons Michael Jackson, La Toya Jackson and Janet Jackson, as well as the former manager of The Jackson 5, a group comprised of his five sons.
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Jackson was born in Fountain Hill, Arkansas to Crystal Lee King and Samuel Jackson.[1] Born the eldest of four, Joseph moved to Chicago to live with his mother after turning eighteen. He met future wife Katherine Scruse while there and within a couple of years the couple married. Settling in Gary, Indiana, Joseph, a former boxer, worked full-time as a crane operator at Gary's U.S. Steel company, while Katherine tended to their growing brood of children, which led to nine. In the mid-1950s, Joseph started a music career with his brother Luther playing guitar in a band called the Falcons. The group never got out of Gary and within a couple of years split up though Joseph played his guitar during sing-alongs with his wife and children.
By 1962, Joseph had begun to discover that his three eldest sons, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine, had talent after they were busted for playing his guitar after a string broke. After Tito played for him and Jackie and Jermaine backed him up vocally, he helped form an early incarnation of The Jackson 5 with two neighborhood youths though eventually younger brothers Marlon and Michael joined.
Within a few years, the Jackson 5 polished their talents under Joseph's strict leadership. In 1966, the Jackson brothers turned professional and began performing in paying gigs, which paid off after the group got signed to Motown in 1969, and shortly afterwards the brothers became worldwide phenomena. Joseph's role as manager dwindled however as Motown CEO Berry Gordy began to take more charge on his act, a role that reversed back to Joseph's when he began managing the entire family for performances in Las Vegas. Joseph also helped his sons seal a deal with CBS after leaving Motown distraught that the label didn't allow the boys creative freedom in the studio.
Within a few years, however, Joseph's sons each left his company to sign with outside managers in 1982. Joseph also managed the careers of his daughters La Toya and Janet until they also left his company for solo ventures, which afterwards saw just Michael and Janet as the family's ultimate breadwinners.
Widely regarded as a ruthless manager and an even more ruthless father, Joseph has often been accused by members of his family of strict parenting, especially by Michael, who has said in the past that Joseph never showed any of his children the kind of love that fathers are supposed to show their children. Michael did, however, credit his father for starting his long career, saying in a recent interview that Joseph was "a genius". Other family members share that sentiment with Jermaine and Janet saying that Joseph was able to bring his family out of their rough Gary neighborhood using his children's talents. In other instances, Joseph has been confirmed to have committed infidelity on his wife Katherine during their long marriage at least twice. In 1974, Joseph fathered a baby with a Jackson 5 groupie, and in 1979 he was accused of having relations with a former Motown secretary. In both instances, Katherine called for a divorce but she later reversed the decision because Joseph wouldn't leave their gated mansion. Joseph was called worse things by daughter La Toya, who wrote in her 1991 book, La Toya: Growing up in the Jackson Family, that not only was Joseph a physically abusive parent but he also sexually abused her and older sister Rebbie - charges that Rebbie denies. In spite of the rumors, however, many in the Jackson family still remain loyal to Joseph, including Michael, who says he gets along with his father now, saying "he's mellowed out a lot". In 2003, in an interview for BBC TV, Joseph admitted to using physical punishment on his children and also voiced his disapproval of homosexuality.[[1]]
In late 2005, Joseph announced he would host a boot camp for aspiring hip-hop artists, both to move his career to the next stage and to change what he sees as distasteful about the genre. "Everybody is liking "rap" now. I'm gonna have to clean it up a little bit, all that vulgar language out there. I'm gonna have to keep that clean, with nice singing in it, and great music behind it".
Joseph currently lives in Las Vegas.