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New Chris Tucker Interview, Travis Smiley To Write MJ Book

Re: Chris Tucker/Tavis Smiley Both To Write MJ Book

^just watched this and it was a good interview. Tavis said HE was writing a book about Michael's last 16 wks.
I really don't know anything about Tavis or his background-I started watching his show the last few years when he has a good guest. I also watch him on political shows from time to time.
Has anybody read any of his books?
 
Re: Chris Tucker/Tavis Smiley Both To Write MJ Book

I enjoyed this, thank you.
 
Re: Chris Tucker/Tavis Smiley Both To Write MJ Book

I feel a little bad for Chris Tucker considering he went on to talk about his stand up and Tavis plugs his book about the last 16 weeks of MJ's death? It was brief, but a little awkward. Chris subtly skirted the issue and instead talked about MJ's genius and what his legacy is / will be. I don't know a lot about Tavis, but he has had some interesting guests on his show including people that worked with MJ to talk about MJ's contribution to black culture / music / etc.
 
Re: Chris Tucker/Tavis Smiley Both To Write MJ Book

^^ I found that a bit odd hilarious that the interviewer almost talked more than the person he was interviewing
 
Re: Chris Tucker/Tavis Smiley Both To Write MJ Book

TinnyandOdd said:
I feel a little bad for Chris Tucker considering he went on to talk about his stand up and Tavis plugs his book about the last 16 weeks of MJ's death? It was brief, but a little awkward. Chris subtly skirted the issue and instead talked about MJ's genius and what his legacy is / will be. I don't know a lot about Tavis, but he has had some interesting guests on his show including people that worked with MJ to talk about MJ's contribution to black culture / music / etc.
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True-I think that's how I discovered him in the first place-in 2009-he had James Ingram on as a guest and James was imitating Michael in the vocal booth dancing his legs off-it was really endearingly funny. And I've seen quite a few people associated with Michael on his show since-
I don't know why Tavis would find that period of life interesting-took me aback a little-and I agree-shouldn't have talked about it on Chris's segment.
 
Re: Chris Tucker/Tavis Smiley Both To Write MJ Book

barbee0715 said:
I don't know why Tavis would find that period of life interesting-took me aback a little-and I agree-shouldn't have talked about it on Chris's segment.
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?????
 
Re: Chris Tucker/Tavis Smiley Both To Write MJ Book

Tygger said:
?????
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Guess I didn't phrase that very well and that was one of the reasons I was asking people here about his background-since I am only familiar with him as the host on the PBS show as well as being the political commentator on the Sunday morning talk shows from time to time. I really only "discovered" him after Michael died, and he has said on all these shows how he grew up with him (and Motown), and absolutely loves him as an artist-the love really comes through for musical artists in all the shows I've seen. And he's always very well researched in his interviews.

What I meant was that I was surprised when he said he was going to write this book from March 2009 (the announcement) to June 2009-what happened in-between? And that seems like a book that would be written by an investigative journalist-not a political/arts commentator. I knew he had written books on Black America in the cultural and political sense. I just imagined he would write something about the cultural/political influence of Michael on America and the world-not just his last few months. I thought that was his expertise.

Since I wrote that, though, I left and did some checking on Tavis's biography and see that he wrote a book on the last days of Martin Luther King with the same writer he's writing the Michael one with. And I read the reviews and they were all excellent. So, guess I figured out my own question-
 
Re: Chris Tucker/Tavis Smiley Both To Write MJ Book

I have his book on Martin Luther King, "Death of a King". Haven't finished the whole thing yet as I got on to something else, but so far it's very good, insightful. He writes about the man he admired so much and it isn't just a bland biography. I'm going to get back to it and finish it. I'm looking forward to his book on Michael. He'll do well by him I'm sure.
 
Re: Chris Tucker/Tavis Smiley Both To Write MJ Book

In his segment with Chris Tucker, Tavis said the title of his book on MJ will be "Before You Judge Me". However, I couldn't find it listed online anywhere, not even a release date. A different article mentioning the book has it re-titled as "The Death of the King of Pop", which sounds fairly repetitive given Tavis' previous book on MLK.
 
Re: Chris Tucker/Tavis Smiley Both To Write MJ Book

barbee0715 said:
I knew he had written books on Black America in the cultural and political sense. I just imagined he would write something about the cultural/political influence of Michael on America and the world-not just his last few months. I thought that was his expertise.
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He discussed this with West and Dyson below:



Since I wrote that, though, I left and did some checking on Tavis's biography and see that he wrote a book on the last days of Martin Luther King with the same writer he's writing the Michael one with. And I read the reviews and they were all excellent. So, guess I figured out my own question-
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SarahJ answered your question as well:

SarahJ said:
I have his book on Martin Luther King, "Death of a King". Haven't finished the whole thing yet as I got on to something else, but so far it's very good, insightful. He writes about the man he admired so much and it isn't just a bland biography. I'm going to get back to it and finish it. I'm looking forward to his book on Michael. He'll do well by him I'm sure.
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Because of this, I am interested in what Smiley may uncover regarding that time period.

Moviefan2k4 said:
In his segment with Chris Tucker, Tavis said the title of his book on MJ will be "Before You Judge Me". However, I couldn't find it listed online anywhere, not even a release date. A different article mentioning the book has it re-titled as "The Death of the King of Pop", which sounds fairly repetitive given Tavis' previous book on MLK.
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Actually, A King and The King are two very separate and distinguished titles.
 
Bringing Brighter Days said:
That tour never should have been scheduled, Michael hadn't performed a concert tour in 12 years
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I think MJ should've been more prepared for it.. Like finding an expert who deals with insomnia, stress and psychological issues that he was obviously having.. I think the tour could've happened if MJ was better prepared for it and in shape for it..
 
jaydom7 said:
I think MJ should've been more prepared for it.. Like finding an expert who deals with insomnia, stress and psychological issues that he was obviously having.. I think the tour could've happened if MJ was better prepared for it and in shape for it..
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Thats the thing

If

He was not prepared mainly because he hadnt conducted a tour in 12 years

It was never going to happen
 
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I found the book listed on Amazon now, for a June 21st release. I'm guessing Tavis and the publishers chose that date to honor Michael's birthday this year, which is a Saturday.
 
Moviefan2k4 said:
I found the book listed on Amazon now, for a June 21st release. I'm guessing Tavis and the publishers chose that date to honor Michael's birthday this year, which is a Saturday.
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Sheila already pointed out that Michael's birthday is in August, but since this book is about his last days, sounds like they are going to capitalize on his death anniversary, which always gets press.
 
I was very tired when I posted my last comment, and got his birthday confused with the anniversary of his death. My apologies; I'm still looking forward to the book, though.
 
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