R&B singer Patti Austin talks about working with Michael

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Something new, article dated 12/26/11.

Patti Austin sings Ellington | Washington Examiner

[Note: Patti Austin sang the duet "It's the Falling in Love" with Michael Jackson on his album Off The Wall]

Austin's distinctive timbre caresses the ear no matter that she is performing as a soloist or singing duets with such top stars as Johnny Mathis, George Benson and James Ingram. Her long relationship with Michael Jackson began with "The Wiz" when she was contracted to book 345 singers and handle all the paper work involved.


"That was before the PC," she said, laughing. "Michael had very little to say. He just walked around with a paper and pen writing down anything that sounded remotely intelligent. The next time we met was for a project with Quincy Jones. The three of us were sitting in Quincy's den when the phone rang and Quincy left the room. I'm not one to start conversations, so we both sat quietly. Then all of a sudden Michael began to talk and didn't stop. We worked together quite a bit after that in the studio and live. His energy was over the moon. This was his renaissance period when he was like a fireball, almost nuclear."


Michael sure loved to talk :giggle:
 
Patti also talked to Joy Behar on her show during the Conrad Murray trial (to know more about her friendship with Mike)

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1110/14/joy.01.html


ANNOUNCER: Coming up on THE JOY BEHAR SHOW, Grammy winner Patti Austin reflects on her 30-year friendship with Michael Jackson and the demons that plagued the king of pop.

___________

JOY BEHAR, HOST: As the Conrad Murray trial continues, a picture of Michael Jackson as a deeply troubled potentially drug-dependent man emerges. But was that the way he appeared to people who knew him well? Here to talk about their memories of Michael are Patti Austin, Grammy winning singer who knew Michael Jackson for 30 years; and another long time Michael Jackson friend, Flo Anthony. Welcome ladies, to the show.

Patti, you worked with Michael multiple times over the years. What do you remember best about him?

PATTI AUSTIN, SINGER: His energy, is Eveready, bunny, hummingbird, never stop energy. He was always on fire, always a perfectionist, always tremendously professional. Very silly, in private moments. Yes, very silly. Had a very silly sophomoric sense of humor. Loved to jump out from behind doors and scare me.He loved me because I scare very easily. And he would -- whenever I would heading for the studio and he knew I was coming in the door, he`d always be behind the door a little bit further down the hall and he`d jump out literally and do, you know, like boo. And I would always jump and it just made his day. BEHAR: Yes, he was a practical joker, kind of, right?

AUSTIN: Very much so, absolutely.


.......

BEHAR: Patti, what was his relationship with his family like?

AUSTIN: Well, when I knew Michael, the relationship was not great. He got along great with his sisters but did not speak fondly of the guys in the family.

BEHAR: Really?

AUSTIN: There was -- he always -- the conversations that we had, he always felt kind of put upon because at the time that I met Michael, it was right when he was doing "The Wiz" and he wasn`t even speaking at that time. Michael used to literally sit in the studio with a pad and paper -- I mean with a pad and pen. If he`d hear somebody say something remotely intelligent, he would write it down. He was always trying to learn and absorb anything that he thought was intelligent.


BEHAR: Yes.

AUSTIN: So he was very, very quiet; very, very shy, frighteningly shy. We didn`t really start working together until "The Dude", until Quincy Jones` album, "The Dude". That`s when I started talking to him.

And a lot of our conversations were about his relationship with his family. He adored his mother. He adored his sisters. But at that particular time, he didn`t have the greatest relationship with his brothers or with his dad because he was -- he was really trying to branch out on his own. He was trying to break away from the Jackson 5 and break away from what that was. So he kind of felt that that was holding him back from being all that he ultimately became and wanted to be. He worked very hard to become that.


......

BEHAR: Patti, you say that Michael was a troubled soul who internalized his grief. What do you mean by that?

AUSTIN: Well, you know, Michael didn`t really -- I don`t think he really talked that much about all of the pain that he felt to that many people.

He would talk to me about it because we were working. And I think when you have a working relationship with somebody it`s almost closer than if you`re having a sexual relationship with them, if that makes any sense. You have a tendency, you become -- when you`re working on an album or you`re touring together, you have a tendency to become like a family. And you spend a lot of time on buses and a lot of times waiting in a studio to get back in and actually do your work, so you talk about things.

(CROSSTALK)

BEHAR: What was troubling him. Go ahead. What was troubling him?

AUSTIN: Just his childhood really troubled him. He felt that he lost his childhood, which is why so many of us that knew Michael always said he suffered from Peter Pan Syndrome. You know, he wanted to be forever young and he did a lot of chid -- he acted out in a child-like way a lot because he didn`t get to have that when he was a kid.

He felt -- I mean these are the discussions I had with him. I don`t know what he said to anybody else. But he told me many times that he felt that he had been robbed of his childhood.

BEHAR: Yes.

AUSTIN: He loved the fact he was able to become a great entertainer, but he also at the same time, it was a love-hate thing. He hated the fact that he lost his childhood in the process. And I started in the business when I was a kid so this is a conversation we used to have a lot. I started when I was four.
 
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Thanks for this :) I love her work w/Michael but also the duet she did with James Ingram, I think, "Come to Me". They used to play it a lot of the radio.

It's good to see Joy clarifying that Michael really did have Vitiligo. Did any of the other members of the press do this?
 
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