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Ron Weisner's chapter on MJ

I can't believe it...

Review
“Listen Out Loud reminded me why Ron Weisner is my brother from another mother. Like me, he’s not afraid to do something just because it hasn’t been done. This is a must-read for music industry professionals, musicians, listeners . . . Hell, this book is a must-read for anybody!”—Quincy Jones


“The passion and loyalty Ron has for his artists, his business associates, and his friends is unmatched. . . . Now, with the music industry in such flux and turmoil, it’s the perfect time for Ron to tell his story. There’s a whole new generation of representatives, producers, and executives who could stand to learn from his experience. And if they take what he has to say to heart, maybe, just maybe, they can make our entertainment world a little bit better.” —Gladys Knight, from the foreword
 
mkgenie;4013696 said:
I can't believe it...

Review
“Listen Out Loud reminded me why Ron Weisner is my brother from another mother. Like me, he’s not afraid to do something just because it hasn’t been done. This is a must-read for music industry professionals, musicians, listeners . . . Hell, this book is a must-read for anybody!”—Quincy Jones


“The passion and loyalty Ron has for his artists, his business associates, and his friends is unmatched. . . . Now, with the music industry in such flux and turmoil, it’s the perfect time for Ron to tell his story. There’s a whole new generation of representatives, producers, and executives who could stand to learn from his experience. And if they take what he has to say to heart, maybe, just maybe, they can make our entertainment world a little bit better.” —Gladys Knight, from the foreword
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I actually wonder if Gladys Knight read the entire book. She is good friends with the Jacksons (supported Tito when he was touring as well as the tribute in 2010) and Weisner throw the entire family saved for Toya under the bus.

Quincy, not surprise about him. Although I wonder if he knew anything about Michael being hooked on drugs in the 80s.
 
Billboard is covering this book now. I read some of the snippets on their site. Very negative perspective, but at least he didn't call him a child molester, but calling him a druggie, especially in the 80's is very inaccurate. As for the skin lightning thing, as a black person there has always been a stigma about having dark skin. Now we are taught more to embrace our color, but growing up I remember seeing skin lightning ads in Ebony magazine. As Michael says, no one says anything when white people get tans.
 
mkgenie;4013696 said:
I can't believe it...

Review
“Listen Out Loud reminded me why Ron Weisner is my brother from another mother. Like me, he’s not afraid to do something just because it hasn’t been done. This is a must-read for music industry professionals, musicians, listeners . . . Hell, this book is a must-read for anybody!”—Quincy Jones


“The passion and loyalty Ron has for his artists, his business associates, and his friends is unmatched. . . . Now, with the music industry in such flux and turmoil, it’s the perfect time for Ron to tell his story. There’s a whole new generation of representatives, producers, and executives who could stand to learn from his experience. And if they take what he has to say to heart, maybe, just maybe, they can make our entertainment world a little bit better.” —Gladys Knight, from the foreword
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I can't believe this either. Is it that this book is more about music and entertainment? The way knight & Q write, it is as though the book is a scholarly look at music and how the music industry functions.

Sam Sam I couldn't get what you were trying to say, but Michael had vitiligo, and depigmented the darker patches so his skin would be even, that is, one color. He was not the first person to do this either. I have not read the book, but it seems the author is saying something entirely different. You commenting that as a black man there was always a stigma against dark skin, makes it seem as though Michael depigmented because he was a dark man. Be careful with this, because we have tried very hard to make people understand this is not the case. Q does not believe Michael has this skin condition, even though it is in the autopsy.

Q must really resent Michael at this point and the other people in the book for him to give this such a glowing review. With Gladys, after the inappropriate remark about Paris during that summer, I consider her someone lacking good judgment and who is not afraid to look uneducated on national tv.
 
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Petrarose said:
I can't believe this either. Is it that this book is more about music and entertainment? The way knight & Q write, it is as though the book is a scholarly look at music and how the music industry functions.

Sam Sam I couldn't get what you were trying to say, but Michael had vitiligo, and depigmented the darker patches so his skin would be even, that is, one color. He was not the first person to do this either. I have not read the book, but it seems the author is saying something entirely different. You commenting that as a black man there was always a stigma against dark skin, makes it seem as though Michael depigmented because he was a dark man. Be careful with this, because we have tried very hard to make people understand this is not the case. Q does not believe Michael has this skin condition, even though it is in the autopsy.

Q must really resent Michael at this point and the other people in the book for him to give this such a glowing review. With Gladys, after the inappropriate remark about Paris during that summer, I consider her someone lacking good judgment and who is not afraid to look uneducated on national tv.
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I think Sam Sam was referring to the Jacksons supposedly lighting their album pictures to make them look lighter, not so much Michael's skin disease.
 
Petrarose said:
I can't believe this either. Is it that this book is more about music and entertainment? The way knight & Q write, it is as though the book is a scholarly look at music and how the music industry functions.

Sam Sam I couldn't get what you were trying to say, but Michael had vitiligo, and depigmented the darker patches so his skin would be even, that is, one color. He was not the first person to do this either. I have not read the book, but it seems the author is saying something entirely different. You commenting that as a black man there was always a stigma against dark skin, makes it seem as though Michael depigmented because he was a dark man. Be careful with this, because we have tried very hard to make people understand this is not the case. Q does not believe Michael has this skin condition, even though it is in the autopsy.

Q must really resent Michael at this point and the other people in the book for him to give this such a glowing review. With Gladys, after the inappropriate remark about Paris during that summer, I consider her someone lacking good judgment and who is not afraid to look uneducated on national tv.
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Hi as Ramona said I was referring to MJ's album covers. And I was saying in the black community there is a stigma period about being "too black." I know all too well about MJ's vitiligo and I am the first one to tell someone this, but that doesn't change that maybe he did want to look lighter on his album covers. You misinterpreted what I was saying. Lightening a picture is a whole lot different from doing that to your skin. The author of the book is trying to connect the two in my opinion. I'm trying to say that there doesn't have to necessarily be a connection and in MJ's case there wasn't.
 
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^^Oh I got you. Since you just said "as for the lightening thing" it was not clear. Now that you said you were talking about the album then I see. However, lightening a cover has more to do with trying to be more "appealing" (to put it delicately) to a non-African-heritage majority population so that the artists gets more sales from them. The person on the cover "looks more like us" type of mentality, so you have cross-over and more money from a marketing point of view, especially during the time when racial issues were more volatile, so I don't know why you added the Black darkness point among Black people. Well I guess that would derail the thread, so don't explain.
 
Petrarose said:
^^Oh I got you. Since you just said "as for the lightening thing" it was not clear. Now that you said you were talking about the album then I see. However, lightening a cover has more to do with trying to be more "appealing" (to put it delicately) to a non-African-heritage majority population so that the artists gets more sales from them. The person on the cover "looks more like us" type of mentality, so you have cross-over and more money from a marketing point of view, especially during the time when racial issues were more volatile, so I don't know why you added the Black darkness point among Black people. Well I guess that would derail the thread, so don't explain.
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There's no drawn out explanation. You pretty much added to my point. Being lighter at one time always meant better in the African American community and I was just pointing that out. Just giving my opinion of what could have been going through MJ's mind, since none of us know.
 
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I hope this thing is not a bestseller, but now we have people like Q giving it a thumbs up. Is Q capable of influencing people to buy a book like this?


I knew soon Ron would get his buddies to write good reviews on Amazon. I just saw 2 5 star ones and they are billing it as him talking about the industry. This one below you can tell is a direct response to the first 2 reviews that called out Ron on his contradictions about Michael:

By A Los Angeles reviewer (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Listen Out Loud: A Life in Music--Managing McCartney, Madonna, and Michael Jackson (Hardcover)
This is a must read for anyone interested in hearing an insider’s perspective of the music industry and it’s evolution or, one could argue, devolution. Weisner starts the ride with his beginnings at the legendary Buddah Records. He continues with amazing story after amazing story featuring many music greats: Gladys Knight, Curtis Mayfield, Steve Winwood, Bill Withers, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, Madonna and yes, Michael Jackson. After reading some of the previous reviews, it’s obvious that there is a public fixation on the Michael chapter. Of course, Weisner is going to write about his experiences with Michael… but if his intentions were to exploit the subject, why didn’t he just devote the entire book to Jackson? It’s a great chapter but the book as a whole is what makes this an engaging read. To see from the perspective of a music veteran how the industry has changed from one that sought to support and develop artists to one that simply cares about the bottom line is fascinating. Highly recommended. Couldn’t put it down!


^^He is so obvious. He talks about fixation on the Michael chapter not commenting that Ron spends most of his pages talking about Michael and the family, so I think Ron is more fixated on it than 2 people writing reviews and mentioning Michael related lies. When they get their buddies to write reviews, they are so obvious.

How could the Michael chapter be a good chapter? He could not put the book down either. I guess he likes this type of content.
 
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There are three different books conveniently coming out during June. I find each of the authors are looking for profit at a time some fans may be at their most vulnerable.

I will proudly ignore all three and encourage others to purchase Xscape instead.

Correction: four books.
 
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Petrarose;4014176 said:
I hope this thing is not a bestseller, but now we have people like Q giving it a thumbs up. Is Q capable of influencing people to buy a book like this?


I knew soon Ron would get his buddies to write good reviews on Amazon. I just saw 2 5 star ones and they are billing it as him talking about the industry. This one below you can tell is a direct response to the first 2 reviews that called out Ron on his contradictions about Michael:

By A Los Angeles reviewer (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Listen Out Loud: A Life in Music--Managing McCartney, Madonna, and Michael Jackson (Hardcover)
This is a must read for anyone interested in hearing an insider’s perspective of the music industry and it’s evolution or, one could argue, devolution. Weisner starts the ride with his beginnings at the legendary Buddah Records. He continues with amazing story after amazing story featuring many music greats: Gladys Knight, Curtis Mayfield, Steve Winwood, Bill Withers, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, Madonna and yes, Michael Jackson. After reading some of the previous reviews, it’s obvious that there is a public fixation on the Michael chapter. Of course, Weisner is going to write about his experiences with Michael… but if his intentions were to exploit the subject, why didn’t he just devote the entire book to Jackson? It’s a great chapter but the book as a whole is what makes this an engaging read. To see from the perspective of a music veteran how the industry has changed from one that sought to support and develop artists to one that simply cares about the bottom line is fascinating. Highly recommended. Couldn’t put it down!


^^He is so obvious. He talks about fixation on the Michael chapter not commenting that Ron spends most of his pages talking about Michael and the family, so I think Ron is more fixated on it than 2 people writing reviews and mentioning Michael related lies. When they get their buddies to write reviews, they are so obvious.

How could the Michael chapter be a good chapter? He could not put the book down either. I guess he likes this type of content.
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I think people may enjoy the Michael's chapters because it reads like a Greek tragedy. Let's face it, most people view Michael as a tragic figure and they enjoy reading books that depict him as such. People in general do not like reading about happy celebrities, which is why no one buys a book about Madonna, but will buy books about lesser celebrities that bust into flames over drugs, family drama, and mental disorders.
 
Hes just a typical disgruntled ex employee. isnt the first and certainly wont be the last. is his lawsuit with the estate still on going? and what do u expect of Q hes said many vile things over the years and hires robsons lawyer. good ile members of the bitter and twisted club.

ppl give rubbish like this to much attention .the net makes things appear bigger than they are. why even upset yourself by reading the b.s hes sprawling
 
There's also some pleasant revisionist history on LaToya Jackson: "A nice lady whose horrible reputation was, to me exaggerated ... the only person in the family who consistently tried to help Michael."
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? Latoya consistently helped mj? This author's clearly insane. Maybe he's being ironic.


Paris78;4013322 said:
Jackson’s manager: ‘Kidnapping’ could have saved Michael (Page Six)

Ron Weisner — who managed Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney and Madonna — desperately tried to “kidnap” the King of Pop to save him from drug addiction while the star was being plied with cash and drugs by Bahraini royalty.
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So in 05 we have jerms plotting to whisk mj to the middle east away from the clutches of sneddon and us justice in a plane supplied by the bahrani prince. And the following year we have latoya plotting to kidnap him right back again as the bahrani prince is now an evil drug dealer. It's certainly all non stop excitement chez the jacksons in their heroic attempts to protect mj.
 
^^Funny, the first thing that came to mind about the kidnap plot was Jermaine's plot. Maybe Ron & Jermaine are great minds that think alike.
 
This is an old thread, but I just read the MJ chapters and the intro (not the whole thing yet). I think it's a book worth reading, even though he does not say good things about Joe Jackson, so that might offend some--in fact, he says some pretty scary things about Joe's interactions with the seedier parts of the business, even the Mafia. As far as what he says about MJ, he says he had an 'addictive personality," meaning, I guess, that he could easily become obsessive or addictive, kind of intensely intense about something--like Disneyland, for ex. Weisner comes across as a smart, well-meaning, and, as far as business is concerned, an ethical guy in a largely unethical business world at that time, AND, most interesting to me, he is writing about a crucial time period, the time from the Jackson 5 slump, where they basically lost their shine as hit-makers, to the shift to CBS/EPIC, to meeting Q, and to MJ's rise as a solo superstar. Weisner comes into MJ's world before for the Destiny album and gets booted out after Thriller, but before the Victory tour began. It's a pretty amazing time period in MJ's life and Weisner has a lot to say about it. True, there are parts that are off-putting--he has a very low opinion of MJ's Neverland project--thought it was a money pit and not worth all that effort--and he does think MJ became addicted to prescription drugs.

After the firing, there was a one-year gap in his contact with MJ, but they reconnected once more and stayed in moderate contact, but Weisner was never re-hired and MJ never apologized to him (as he wanted) for being fired. Weisner thought he was a good manager, along with Freddie De Mann, and took good care of MJ, so he could focus on his art and flourish. He thinks if MJ had had a good manager, someone to protect him, he would not have died young. He saw the firing as Joe's work, mainly, but thought MJ shoul have stayed loyal to him or at last fired him personally, instead of by mail.

It covers a very important period and in an interesting way. He says he tried to talk MJ out of going on tour, leaving his solo career, in particular his work with Q (Weisner loves Q), and the next day he got the letter that he was fired.

It's not perfect--but has some good content too.
 
jamba said:
After the firing, there was a one-year gap in his contact with MJ, but they reconnected once more and stayed in moderate contact, but Weisner was never re-hired and MJ never apologized to him (as he wanted) for being fired. Weisner thought he was a good manager, along with Freddie De Mann, and took good care of MJ, so he could focus on his art and flourish. He thinks if MJ had had a good manager, someone to protect him, he would not have died young. He saw the firing as Joe's work, mainly, but thought MJ shoul have stayed loyal to him or at last fired him personally, instead of by mail.

It covers a very important period and in an interesting way. He says he tried to talk MJ out of going on tour, leaving his solo career, in particular his work with Q (Weisner loves Q), and the next day he got the letter that he was fired.

It's not perfect--but has some good content too.
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I haven't read the book, but I think I'd like to. I realize that most of these music autobiographies put the author in the best possible light and everything that happens is usually because of somebody else-BUT he was a good manager to Michael and I feel sorry that he was fired the way he was.
I don't think it was Joe's fault-I do think that Michael was really looking for more independence at that time (hence, the B team for example) and wanted his own people-and he noticed the great work DiLeo was doing at Epic and wanted him as his manager. Since Joe hired DeMann and Weisner in the first place, it made sense they had to go.
And Frank DiLeo was a great manager also-I also feel sorry for him that he was fired. I don't think he should have been.
 
@barbee0715--yeah, I got an inexpensive used copy. I would be interested in your response, if you do read it.
 
Sorry to bump up this old thread, but just read the chapter on the book

There's quite a few inaccuracies especially during the parts about Thriller and onward. Weisner says Quincy was done with Michael after Thriller and didn't have a hand with Bad (but Q produced the album AND We Are The World) and parts about MTV playing Michael's videos, saying MTV were playing the videos from Off The Wall but went on to contradict himself when speaking about the videos for Thriller.
 
LOLLLLLLLLLLL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how the heck did weisner work that out????? did he not see quincy's name printed on the back of the cd & booklet??!!!

Weisner must be living under a rock : crazy:
 
I'll scan some of the pages if anyone wants to check out what he says. He's pretty complimentary of Michael and his work ethic for the most part but some parts, its obvious he's mixed up about facts or just embellished
 
Admins, I scanned the chapter on The Jacksons and currently scanning the chapter on MJ. Is it allowed to post the download link in this thread?
 
Here's a link to the chapter about The Jacksons
[FONT=source_sans_proregular]https://mega.nz/#!cEMUwCgC!EdKEtcTe1EZ8dZbFxb0ksOy-_2DXHG29Aq3ettt8LlE[/FONT]
 
^Downloading now ~ Thanks!

I've wondered whether to buy the Kindle book couple of times, when browsing through Amazon.

Thanks for sharing yours, because I was looking for new reading content on Michael.
 
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