After years of looking at Michael Jackson’s humanitarian work, I’ve come to the conclusion that his most powerful “performances” were the acts of kindness that the cameras didn’t catch. His life was a master class in kindness and empathy, from the private stories his close friends told to the secret visits he made to children’s hospitals. This is a close look at seven times when Michael Jackson chose love when no one else was looking.
Michael Jackson kept saying the same thing in his music, speeches, and the way he lived his life.That being kind is a choice.You have to practise empathy. That means being there for people that the world thinks aren’t worth being there for.
He wrote songs about making the world a better place and then he tried to do it. He sang about treating people with kindness and then he did it, quietly, privately, and all the time.He chose love, and he spent his whole life asking us to do the same.
One thing that people don’t talk about much about Michael Jackson is how often he would show up at children’s hospitals without warning. He went to the Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome in May 1988 while on tour and gave the hospital 100,000 pounds. That kind of compassion, the kind that needs you to be there in person and spend time with someone, is the rarest kind of all.
Michael learned that Princess Diana would be in the crowd at his concert in Wembley in 1988. He quietly took “Dirty Diana” off the setlist out of respect for her.
When he saw her backstage, she looked at him and asked, “Are you going to do Dirty Diana?” That’s the song I like best! He was completely shocked.
It was too late to put it back in the show. A funny, warm, very human moment that showed how thoughtful he was and how playful they both were.
The Brass Ring Society, a charity that grants wishes to sick children, brought a 14-year-old boy named David Smithee to Michael’s house in April 1984. David had cystic fibrosis and was going to die. They had lunch, watched a movie, and played video games.
Later, David told a reporter that he played Michael twice and won both times. Michael gave David the real red leather jacket he wore in the “Beat It” video and the beaded glove he wore to the American Music Awards before he left.
David wore them on the way home. His mum said he was “in heaven.” A few weeks later, he died.
Michael and Elizabeth Taylor were friends for more than 25 years. Their friendship was based on caring for each other, loyalty, and real love. Taylor has talked about their relationship in public in a number of interviews.
She said that Michael Jackson was one of the most kind, giving, and caring people she had ever met. He was always there for her during some of the hardest and loneliest years of her life. Taylor wrote that her life felt empty after he died in 2009 and that she didn’t think anyone knew how much they loved each other.
Tito Jackson, Michael’s brother, said after Taylor died in 2011 that she had helped Michael through a lot of tough times in his life. One of the most powerful ways to show compassion is to be a real friend, which means being there for someone.
Every night during the Bad World Tour from 1987 to 1989, sick children were brought backstage on stretchers.
Seth Riggs, Michael’s vocal coach, said, “Every night the kids would come in on stretchers, so sick they could hardly hold their heads up.” Michael would kneel next to the stretchers and put his face right next to theirs so they could take a picture with him. Then he would give them a copy to remember the moment.
I couldn’t take it. I would be crying in the bathroom. The kids would get excited when he was around. Michael thought it was worth it if it gave them a few more days of energy.
Janet Jackson said in an interview that when Michael was a teenager, he would buy barbecue dinners and drive around town with her looking for homeless people to feed. But it didn’t stop when they grew up.
Later, his bodyguard Javon said that Michael would break the car window so no one could see him, pick out women from the crowd, give them hundreds of dollars, and then run out of money and get mad at himself for not bringing more. There were no cameras or media. Only Michael and a crack in the window.
Katherine, his mother, also said this was true. She said he would often stop the car and give homeless people everything in his wallet.
One time, a bodyguard named Mike proudly snuck Michael out the back of a building to avoid a group of fans who were waiting. Michael asked him right away why he had done that.
When the bodyguard told Michael that he thought the fans were bothering him, Michael said, “Mike, these people are my fans!” I love my fans so much! They buy my records and come to my shows. You should never, ever, ever try to sneak up on them… They are the only ones who care about me, buy my music, and support me. I wouldn’t be here today without my fans!
People still think about Michael Jackson.
In January 1993, I met MJ at a toy store. It was by chance that I saw him there because I didn’t know he was going to be there. He was getting a lot of toys to bring to a children’s hospital he was going to.
I got his signature. It was really cool for a kid to meet someone like that because I was a fan.
Michael was a guest star at the Bollywood awards in 1999, and my mum went. She yelled that she loved him, and he yelled back that he loved her. She was a teenager at the time.
My best friend’s dad and uncle saw him on the Victory Tour in Detroit in 1984. They met Michael and his brothers backstage because of a mix-up with their limo. After the concert, Michael’s uncle got to hang out with him in his room.
They talked about life and other things all night long. Michael really liked the conversation and liked that someone who saw him as a regular person treated him like one.
13 Moments When Quiet Kindness Successfully Holds the World Together When Everything Falls Apart
