She used to talk totally differently about MJ:
In a way, Michael Jackson’s monkey Bubbles would be the inspiration of one of the songs on his Dangerous album. In late 1990 leading primatology expert Jane Goodall would be invited by Michael to visit him in Neverland. Goodall, famous for her 50 years of groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Africa, said Jackson invited her because "he loved what I did."
When challenged about how his own interest in these types of animals might make him appear “weird” later on Jackson would tell an interviewer, “God created animals. And they're loving; they're beautiful. I feel the way [anthropologist] Jane Goodall does or any of those naturalists. I don't find my interest in animals weird or strange at all.”
In 1988 Jane had actually turned down making an appearance at a PETA dinner where she was being honored because Bubbles would be present. PETA had named him an “animal rights ambassador” because of how Jackson had rescued him from a cancer research lab, but Goodall didn’t believe in keeping chimps as pets. PETA would defend Jackson and Bubbles with founder Ingrid Newkirk saying, "Seeing how intelligent and social he is, people can see why we have to leave chimps in the dignity of their natural environment," adding that, "[Bubbles] did have a good time at the dinner."
Goodall would say that she had heard through friends that Michael wanted to speak with her, but had not heard anything directly until Christmas 1990 when the telephone rang at her house and her mother answered, only to turn to her in shock and tell her that Michael Jackson was on the end of the line. Jane says that, “The first thing he said was, ‘You don’t approve of me having a pet chimp, do you?’ “I said, ‘No.’
Although she still disagreed with people keeping chimps as pets, they decided to overlook this difference in opinions, sharing a common idealism and a love of both children and chimpanzees, so she agreed to visit him at his ranch. It’s reported that he had also sought her advice on how to properly take care of the chimps he had, including Bubbles, who had apparently seemed discontent at the time, and that she had suggested fixing the chimp up with two females chimps and a kinder trainer. She would later say that keeping wild animals was slightly different for Jackson, "with the money and space he has he can create conditions on a par with any zoo."
Goodall said of her visit to Neverland in late 1990, “I got taken to my room, and then sat waiting for Michael. Classical music was playing. The views were magnificent. I sat, feeling the whole experience was surreal. After a while, I heard a small voice. I turned and there was Michael. We said hello and he asked if I would like a drive through the ranch. At the time there were many animals there.” She remembers seeing a large swan swimming in a children's pool, waiting as a larger pond was being constructed for it, his long python, Muscles, some giraffes, and two beautiful black horses she says he’d already had harnessed for her in case she wanted to ride.
While driving across the ranch together he began to sing softly, but then suddenly, he stopped. She asked him to continue singing, and was surprised when he told her that he was too shy. “I pointed out that when he was on stage he was anything but shy.” He told her that when he was on stage, “there was magic. He let the magic come at him and take him over, he became another person.” Goodall said she told him that she could relate to that, “It was the same thing that happened to me when I was working with animals.” She says that he pointed out areas to her where giraffes and other animals moved about freely, “He seemed very happy in his new home.” He told her about his plans for the ranch, "he talked about his dreams for the place to have animals running, looking free like they would in the wild. ... It was just a very charming day, very low key, nobody else was there.” At some point Jane said that Jackson had even done a little home footage with her at the ranch together with him, just to keep for himself.
Then he told her that he would take her to “my children’s rooms.” He lead her to a room full of toys and games which he told her was his son’s room. “When we reached the miniature train set, Michael sat on the floor and tried to start it for me, but something went wrong and out came a cloud of smoke. He quickly turned it off laughing.” Then she said he took her to "his daughter's room", which was full of dolls and gowns. She congratulated him on the birth of his upcoming daughter and says that at this he started laughing. "I have no son and no daughter," he told her, "But you believed I did!" She told him that she’d thought it could be true, spending much of her time in Africa she was out of touch with mainstream celebrity news. Jane would say, “He seemed very funny.” He would explain to her, “I will have a son and a daughter someday,” and that these were the rooms he’d created for them. Michael had also shown these bedrooms for his future children to Ryan White’s mother Jeanne who would say that she’d seen other celebrities express similar desires for children in this way, "It was not to be the last time that I would come upon a rich, famous man longing for the comfort of a family of his own."
Jane says that he then lead her into a room full of all sorts of lessons for children with chemical experiments, workbooks,”all the kind of material you would if you were teaching children.” Michael told her that he wanted to give her the opportunity to teach many children what it was that she knew. "In some ways, he was like a child, and a very sweet and gentle child, and he wanted me to tell him many, many stories," she said. "Stories about the chimpanzees, the forests, animals, anything. He told me he liked the way I told stories."
“Later, we went to his own bed room. I had brought him a few small gifts: a stone with polished edges from a special beach in the Isle of Wight (an island off the south coast of England), a photo of my favorite chimpanzee, David Greybeard, one of my books and a video.”
Jane wanted to show him footage of chimps in a medical research laboratory that she had brought with her. “We lay in his bed together to watch, propped against pillows; I had to bend down and look behind a pile of pillows to see his face.” She says that as they watched the footage of these chimps in captivity at certain points she saw Michael smile. "But it's terrible," she said she’d told him, "So sad, how can you smile?" "It's his face," he’d told her, "I love their faces. They’re so much like us." She said it was obvious that, “he loved chimpanzees. He loved to watch them feeding. He liked their faces. They made him smile."
Then she asked him if he would be willing to help the chimpanzees. When he said yes, she suggested that if he wrote a song specifically for the chimpanzees, it could raise millions. He told her he would like to write such a song.
She left the next day, “My lasting impression of him was of a very sweet, bright, and lonely man.” Some time later, her friend Michael Aisner received a message saying that Michael had asked her if she could send him videos involving stories about animal cruelty. He wanted these tapes because "he wanted to be angry and cry" as he wrote the song. Goodall says, “Michael told me later that he had cried and could not sleep after seeing the reports.”
“The last time I saw Michael, Mr. Aisner and I were invited to his studio to hear the song. It was an early version of "Heal the World". Later, of course, the song had changed and became an anthem for children.”
Although the song would not be about animals and Goodall was disappointed that the proceeds did not go towards chimpanzees, Jackson would host a £500-a-seat Chimps’ Tea Party at Neverland in April of that year to raise money for Jane's ape research institute and a few weeks after that, at a fundraising gala he would pay for a $10,000 table even though he could not attend, as well as sending a videotaped message and a white fedora to be auctioned off in support of the Gombe chimps in Nigeria. At the end of the album there is a thanks to “Jane Goodall for her inspiration.” Though expressing her disappointment at the lack of funding from the sales of the song Jane still lists Heal The World among her favorite songs on her site
This song and his desire to make a difference would coalesce into his “Heal The World” foundation.
And Jack Gordon? Really TMZ? :doh:
h34r: