More STORIES Cont.
I posted the whole of this guy's contribution because it is so moving and has information connected to what we are discussing in the AEG thread. I am not sure if there will be a problem about posting this, well her it is:
Mike, Be Nice!
USA Michael La Peruque
Michael La Perruque (=Mike) was Michael Jackson’s personal security from 2000 through 2004. He stopped working for Michael before the last allegations by the Arvizo family because he needed to spend more time with his two children, which Michael completely understood. Michael asked Mike to come back to work for him in 2007. Mike worked again with Michael into 2008.
Michael and I crossed ways in the summer of 2000, when I worked as a Deputy Sheriff (police officer) in charge of a small police station at Universal Studios-Hollywood in Los Angeles. Michael was filming his short film “You Rock My World” there and as it happens, an acquaintance of mine worked on Michael’s security team. They had problems with people being on the film set without permission and fans trying to sneak in all the time, so one day he asked me if I could help out with providing security. I agreed and once off duty from my police job, I went over to the film set. One day when they had finished a shooting, I was asked to escort Michael over to his trailer and this was actually the first time Michael acknowledged me and we said “Hi” to each other. Although I appreciated his kind gesture, it was no big thing for me because I had to deal with many celebrities on a daily basis. I was not a fan of Michael Jackson, had no album of him and paid no attention to the tabloid crap in the news about him. For me, he was just another artist filming there and I was doing my job. A few days later my acquaintance asked me if I would also help provide security for Michael’s children at the hotel they were staying at and help out if anything was needed.
I got to know Michael and his life a little in these days and since everything had worked fine, they thought of me again when they prepared for the “30th Anniversary Concert” Michael gave in New York in September of that same year. On the evening of the first show, Michael was supposed to walk the red carpet at Madison Square Garden together with Elizabeth Taylor. As the limousine with her arrived at Michael’s hotel and backed up to the VIP door where Michael came out, all fans at the other side of the street were screaming and waving at him excitedly. Michael as usual, took his time to happily respond to them, even though he knew Elizabeth Taylor waited for him in the car. I stood right next to him and watched the scene when suddenly a voice from inside the car shouted: “Michael, Michael, what the **** are you doing” Get your ass inside the car, we have to go!” I knew he heard it and he knew I heard it, having a smirk on my face. So he looked at me with this stunned expression on his face, saying “Oh my gosh, did you hear that?”. From that day on, this memory was a private joke between the two of us and we laughed each time we remembered it.
Michael’s second show at Madison Square Garden was on the evening of September 10th, 2001. We all know what terrible events the following morning brought. As soon as we realized what had happened with the “World Trade Center” and how dangerous the situation obviously was, we immediately got Michael out of town. We managed to bring him and his family to a safe house somewhere in New Jersey. However Michael’s instructions for us, his security, were to get back to the hotel in New York City and watch out if any of his fans were in need of help and support. He knew they were stuck since no flights went out for days. And indeed, some of them had hotels in lower Manhattan, close to the “World Trade Center” and lost their place to stay due to the horrible events. So we managed for them to stay in Michael’s suite at the “New York Palace” hotel, which he paid for until flights went out again. During those two weeks in New York and later New Jersey, I got to know Michael better each day, because I was with him almost every day.
Around two months later, I received a phone call from his executive assistant who asked me if I could help provide security for Michael at the KIIS-FM (a Los Angeles based radio station) “Jingle Ball” in Los Angeles, where Michael would accept an award at the “Staples Center”. She told me: “Michael said that he would like to have you and nobody else!” Of course I was very surprised and happy to hear that, so I answered: “Oh! OK if that is what Michael wants, I am happy to do it?”. And so I had another security job besides my career as a police officer.
Michael drove to Los Angeles a few days before the event and we met at the “Beverly Hills Hotel”. During those days, I stayed with him 24/7 and we started to have many conversations. The next thing I remember was taking him to an appointment and while I was waiting for him, I got a call from his executive assistant again saying: “I heard you had a nice conversation with Michael. Did you understand what he was asking you?” I remembered the conversation we just had almost word for word, but I think I am at a loss here.” So she continued: “Oh! Well, Michael was wondering if you would like to take over as his head of security and become his main person to provide protection for him and his family!” I was so stunned that I could not believe it at first and answered that I would need to think about it, because after all I still had my career as a police officer and this decision would drastically change everything for me. However, not long after I went to his assistant’s office and talked with her. She laid out for me what my responsibilities would be. By that time Michael and I had really started a kind of relationship with one another. I had seen a bit of his world and knew that I wanted to be a part of it. So I took the job.
But I still had to learn a lot about and from him. My first lesson was about the relationship with his fans.
During a stay in New York City we were being chased by fans from place to place, the whole day. Everywhere we went they were already there and soon I became kind of frustrated with these kids. So I thought about what I could do to make it easier for us and came up with an excellent plan, in my opinion. When we went to the next meeting, I made arrangements with the driver to get to the back door of the building unnoticed. This way we would not have to get out through the waiting crowd again and I was sure that this was something Michael would be happy about, because I believed he was getting tired of all the commotion, too. So when the time came, I picked him up from his meeting, sneaked him through corridors and staff entrances towards the waiting car. We managed to get away from the building without being seen by one single fan and I felt really great and proud of myself. Suddenly Michael asked me: “Mike, did all the fans leave?” and I proudly told him: “No, Sir, I brought you out at the back of the building to avoid the crowd.” But he continued: “But why did you do that?” and I answered: “Well, I thought they were bothering you!” But what he told me then really made me thing: “Mike, these people are my fans! They are the ones who buy my albums, come to my concerts and I truly love them! You should never ever, ever, ever try to sneak off from them because I appreciate my fans and if that means that I am slowed down a bit or be inconvenienced, it is OK for me. They are the ones that care about me, buy my music and support me and I would not be here today without my fans!”
I must confess this was not the kind of reaction I had in mind, when I had made my plan to get him out the backdoor. However, this was sort of my “pinch me moment” and I began to understand what he meant when talking about appreciation and tolerance and that it did not matter what social status, nationality or race you are. He taught me to accept and care for all his fans – and not only fans but all people we came across. He wanted them all treated nicely and with respect all of the time. I began to understand that those 22 years of being a police officer had made me hard and jaded my view about other people’s problems or misfortunes, their state of health or their educational level. Many times I was very biased and one-sided. When I started to work for Michael, he really taught me to become more tolerant, giving and accepting of people from all different classes and colors. And, that one should not look down upon another or be prejudiced about others. Other people may be less fortunate than I am but most of the time people try the best they can. All this was very important to Michael and through him I was getting a new philosophy and view of life.
Michael would give in big and small ways and wherever we went, he never forgot the people who had less than he did. However, Michael did not want publicity when he gave. There are countless stories of Michael helping other people, countless times he was giving, for example to homeless people he saw on the way; like in London, when he wanted me to go over to a homeless man on the street and give him 100 dollars. Or around Christmas time in Florida, Michael knew about a shelter for abused women where they could find a safe place for themselves and their children. He wanted me to go to a big toy store and buy presents for every range and for every age of kids-from babies to teenagers. I spent thousands of dollars and when everything was ready, Michael and I were going to go to the shelter to give the presents to the children there. However, at the last moment he decided not to be present there himself. He did not want the press to know because they would concentrate all the attention on him. He wanted to make it a special day for all the children there. So I made sure the people at that shelter at least knew from whom those presents came.
I remember another story most people would not believe about Michael. I was told he was driving down a street one day with his driver, when he saw a man standing at the roadside with a flat tire that needed to be changed. Michael asked his driver to pull in to help this man change his tire. Once they got home, he asked his driver to show him how to change a tire, so he could do it himself next time. And, so his driver showed him how to raise up a car, loosen the screws, and so on. A while later he was on the road again when he saw another person on the roadside with the same problem. This time Michael asked his driver to pull in again, however this time he wanted to help changing the tire himself. The driver replied something like: “Oh Michael, I think this is probably not the best idea…”. But Michael responded: “No, I really want to help him…”. And so they pulled in and Michael himself helped the stunned man change his tire.
I believe Michael got that charitableness from his mother. He always said that Kat (his nickname for his mother) taught him that and mentioned that he remembered driving in the car with her as a kid and as his mother saw a homeless person, she went over and gave that person some money. So he learned at a very young age to always give back a little to people in need.
Michael also had a way of disarming people, or making people comfortable around him. He did not like people being nervous because of him because, being a shy individual, tht made him nervous, too. I remember one time when we were about to leave for London. He had a very important meeting at the “House of Commons”. So he asked me if I could organize wardrobes for such an event be delivered to his hotel. And so a young man and woman from a notable store brought all those things to his hotel and set them up in a room. Those people had no clue who their customer was, as I did not want to tell them beforehand. When I walked in the room together with Michael, they both just froze, wide-eyed and could not speak except for “Oh my God!” But Michael, being the person that he was, kindly said “Hi, how are you?” to them and after not more than a few minutes they all talked like old friends with one another. As much as he was surrounded by thousands of fans and everything, most people were amazed how down to earth he really was once they met him. By being this “normal guy” he had taken the tension away from those two young people and put them at ease.
However, the media never portrayed him the way he really was. They wanted to report on their “W---- J---” type of stuff. Sensationalism that brought them money was their goal, not writing about Michael, the human being. Even though he knew that even negative publicity is important publicity in some way, there were times when it went too far. He became really frustrated with the media, especially when they took pictures of his children, printed terrible lies or took pictures of him and amended those to make him look strange. He found that very frustrating and often said: “Why don’t they leave me alone?” As a security agent, especially when you really like your client, you not only want to protect him physically but I found myself wanting to protect his feelings from being hurt. You want to protect him from certain jealous people, bad business people and from the media. I often found myself wanting to kick someone’s ass for looking down on him or belittling him, knowing he would have never judged them the way they judged him. Never.
When the accusations against him came up in 2003 and the investigators came to my house, I told them: “Look guys, the charges are fake! I know this because I was with him 24/7. And with my experience, having been a police officer for 22 years, I certainly would know if any of this occurred!” I was one of the first people who publicly stated in the press that Michael was innocent of the charges against him. Standing up for the truth bartered me a lot of criticism but I knew this was the right thing to do and upfront I let them know that I would fight for Michael and would do anything I could possibly do to help defend him.
It speaks for itself that the Prosecution did not let me testify for him. I believe the Santa Barbara District Attorney had a personal vendetta against Michael. I told them that all he was doing is nothing but waste the tax payer’s money and that he would not win the case. And that is what happened because it was based on lies.
But this terrible time haunted Michael because he knew there were still people out there that thought: “Oh, just because he was not found guilty does not mean he did not do it” or that he has paid himself out of it. But these people did not see and get to know the person I knew. They were not with him 24/7. They did not see all the people and children he helped. They did not know his heart.
Already prior to those accusations, during the time when his “Invincible” album came out, one of his biggest fears was that he would get up on stage and people would not love him or look at him with some kind of doubt and say: “You aren’t the Michael Jackson we love!” We can only imagine how bad this must have been for him after the trial. He was deeply scared that even his fans would question him and I think that is the reason why he avoided the public eye for so long. He was scared that he had lost people’s confidence and was worried that they would not love him anymore. Two weeks before he died, when I last saw him, he was still scared of that.
When I heard the terrible news about his death I was deeply shocked, to say the least. Not a single day goes by without me thinking of him. I miss him very much and I felt that I finally needed to download Michael’s albums, to hear his music. Because of my children, I used to listen to “alternative rock” type of music back then. I remember one time when I stayed with Michael in a hotel, I had this great stereo unit in my room. Suddenly he came in to ask me something but when he heard the music playing, he asked: “Mike, what are you listening to? What is that?” He was very puzzled to say the least about the kind of music I listened to. Michael himself mostly listened to classical music when he was in the car or at home. This music helped him to relax and he needed it to drown out the music and soothe the creating force he always had in his head, which he could not switch off. It often kept him awake during the night and one could say that his biggest asset was somehow also his biggest curse. So his music is now on my playlist and whenever I hear a song of him, I always think back to the time I was privileged to work for him, the time we spent together, being up all night with him and having all those private conversations. But one of my dearest memories is of simply sitting in a van at a parking lot with him, eating hot wings and having hot wing sauce all over our faces and just talk what two normal guys would talk about.
If I could tell him something now, I would say to him: “Thank you Michael, for everything you gave me, for the opportunity to see the world, to do things that I never ever would have been able to do, for letting me fly on the supersonic plane to London roundtrip, for letting me stay at the finest hotels, introducing me to people like Elizabeth Taylor and President Clinton, and so many other celebrities and stars and especially for allowing me to get to know you and your family, Prince, Paris and Blanket. And, thank you for introducing me to Grace and your Executive Assistant, who are two of the finest people. Thank you for those life-enriching moments that gave me more good memories in such a short period of time, than I could have ever made in my whole life. But most of all, thank you for molding me into the person that I am today, so I can exemplify my children and other people what you taught me about tolerance and being charitable.”
Now, I am the one when I see someone needing help, I stop, or give a bit of change to a homeless person begging for money. I always feel Michael’s spirit whispering in my ear saying: “Mike, be nice!”
