The first half of Brett’s interview with Charles Thomson definitely needs some comments, clarifications and answers to a couple of questions. However, the matter of “sleeping arrangements” in Michael Jackson’s room is absolutely not among them.
Brett’s fiery monologue about those sleeping arrangements makes it clear that they are simply not an issue.
His exasperation that the 20+ years of his friendship with Michael Jackson were reduced to sleep only is very telling, and shows that the public focus was deliberately misplaced by the media and prosecution from really meaningful things in their friendship to the less or not significant ones.
THE MAGNET
Let us recall what Brett said about the sleep issue:
It’s not something that I actually remember… The thing is that he was such a magnet for all people – like everyone just wanted to be around him all the time because that’s just the type of person he was.
So it just would have been that fact of just never wanting to leave his side because of the power of him. Just everybody wanted to be around him 24/7. So it just would have evolved from that.
Because the sleeping, the thing with the sleeping arrangements …to me it’s never been something to concern myself with. I’ve never seen the problem with the sleeping arrangements because it was just to sleep. There was nothing, there was nothing more than that. And so why so much focus on? It’s just sleeping arrangements. It’s just for sleep!
I don’t see why, if you’re going with the understanding that nothing ever happened, why can’t it be understood that it was just nothing but sleep? It was just a sleep.
Another thing with me is that it’s never been the focus of my memories because it’s been such an insignificant part of it. Like who cares about sleeping? Do you remember all the times that you were sleeping? Do you remember your sleepy situations all those times?
No, because it’s not the focus of what you would think of, what memories you would want to keep.
[It was] so insignificant! So insignificant! And that’s what it has boiled down to. The friendship was so much, so much more than that, than sleeping arrangements.”
Indeed, the whole thing evolved from Michael being an irresistible magnet to all people, especially children. Everyone wanted to stay 24/7 with him, and this isn’t something said by Brett only.
June Chandler had to admit the same in her testimony at the 2005 trial:
Q. Do you remember telling Michael Jackson, “You’re like a magnet?”
A. I don’t recall.
Q. Do you remember telling Michael Jackson, “You’re like Peter Pan. Everybody wants to be around you and spend 24 hours”?
A. Yes.
Q. You told him, “Lily would too, except she’s not old enough”?
A. Yes.
Lisa Marie Presley also remembered that children loved Michael so much they even followed him into the bathroom.
Actually lots of other people said exactly the same about MJ. Close friends and newcomers alike noted that Michael was a singular magnet for people, especially children, so any discussion why Michael was often seen with kids around him should start with a fact that it is the kids who wouldn’t leave him alone and were attracted to him like bees to honey.
Therefore the question everyone repeats like parrots, “Why would a 35 year old man sleep with children?”, should be reversed into “Why did children want to be by his side non-stop, at all times of the day and never want to leave him alone?”
Children at Neverland
In other words, it is totally wrong to assume that it was Michael’s intention – vice versa, it is the children who wanted to stay with Michael day and night, constantly pleaded with him to please, please let them stay, and Michael had a big problem saying no.
Michael was too gentle, soft and yielding to many people around him, but refusing a kid was his worst nightmare. Remember the long discussion Frank Cascio had with Michael whether he should relent to the Arvizos’ entreaties to let them stay in his room just for once, and the compromise they worked out that both Frank and MJ would be in the room, just to be on the safe side (which didn’t help though, as you remember).
Knowing of Michael’s inability to refuse kids the problem had to be often handled by other people. See what Michael’s personal maid Gayle Goforth said to Finaldi (Robson’s and Safechuck’s lawyer) who deposed her in 2016:
A. THE WITNESS: All the kids wanted to stay in his room.
Q. Do you know why he let kids stay in his room?
A. Because he didn’t know how to say no.
Q. Who told you that?
A. I know that for a fact because he never — if he had to tell a child no, he would ask me to tell them that or something.
On most occasions Michael probably didn’t even understand why he should refuse them if they wanted to stay. He and his siblings were raised in a house the size of a two-car garage, where all six boys were crammed into one room and shared their beds, and all girls slept in another room. So Michael learned at his mother’s knee that girls should sleep separately from boys, but it is perfectly normal for boys to spend the night together. In other words, the kids’ requests were well in line with his own habit of sleeping arrangements acquired by him in early childhood.
So the first thing people should realize that the reason for those sleepovers was not Michael Jackson who didn’t “invite children to sleep with him” as the ignorant would claim it.
The real reason was the kids’ insistence on staying with Jackson and his total inability to refuse them, especially since he didn’t understand why he should do so.
Friends and cousins alike agree with Brett Barnes that sleeping at Neverland was a completely casual thing.
Macaulay Culkin, for example, had to rebuff the prosecutors’ questions who pedaled the sleep issue probably a hundred times at the 2005 trial, and each time shrugged his shoulders at the super monumental importance they attached to it:
Q. … had you ever spent the night alone with Mr. Jackson?
A. How do you mean “spend the night”?
Q. Did you ever share a bed with Mr. Jackson []?
A. Yeah, I mean, I’d fallen asleep in the same bed as him.
Q. Did you ever do that, fall asleep in the same bed as Mr. Jackson [ ] where none of your brothers or sisters were present?
A. It’s possible. But like I said, usually my brother was tagging along with me. But I fell asleep basically everywhere in that ranch, or anywhere else when I was hanging out with him. I would just flop down on the floor half the time.
Q. All right. On how many of those occasions were you there by yourself without any sibling, alone, without any sibling at all?
A. I don’t really remember. But most every time I was there, I was there with my siblings. And most every time I was with my siblings, they were, like, with me the entire time.
Q. All those occasions did you sleep in his room?
A. I couldn’t really say that I slept there every single time that I was there or anything like that. … I slept in his room about as often as I fell asleep anywhere. Like, I fell asleep — I would flop down — we’d fall asleep in the movie theater. He has beds in the movie theater. I’d flop down and fall asleep there. I’ve fallen asleep in the video game machines before. I mean, I would go and play there basically until I’d just run myself out, and I would just flop down wherever I needed to.
…On occasion, the other kids there that — like, cousins or family friends and stuff like that. And they’d bring their kids there, and then — same as me. They would play with me, and we’d fall asleep anywhere, sometimes his bedroom, sometimes in the theater, sometimes anywhere.
Q. Did you ever have a conversation with your mother about whether or not it’s appropriate for a 10-year-old boy to be sharing a bed with a 35-year-old man on a regular basis?
A. No. We didn’t share a bed on a regular basis.
Q. Did Mr. Jackson ever talk to you about other boys who shared his bed with you?
A. Not really, no. Like I said, it was a casual thing, so it wasn’t necessarily something that was, like, talked about. I’d fall asleep there, I’d fall asleep anywhere. People just kind of fell asleep wherever they wanted to. That was kind of the fun of the place, was that there was no rigid rules about when or where you should fall asleep.”
So same as Brett Barnes who is adamant that those sleeping arrangements were nothing special, Maucalay also testifies that the whole thing was so casual that no one really took it into their head where they were going to sleep and how.
At Neverland everything was based on the idea of freedom and no rigid rules, sleep included, and the ranch offered a multitude of variations in this respect, and it was only during Michael’s tours that the circumstances were more or less predetermined and asked for a somewhat different arrangement.
HOW DIFFERENT?
Firstly, during the tours Michael was literally confined to his hotel room. He rarely went outside, had a crowd of fans under his window, the journalists and camera men in the hotel corridors, and the security team behind his door, and all of it left very few choices for MJ’s friends other than stay in the same room as Michael.
A separate and a cheaper room on another floor could of course be reserved for his companions but it was mostly useless and superfluous as all of them ended up with MJ anyway.
Dangerous tour, Argentina
Secondly, Michael Jackson couldn’t sleep after the concerts and his tremendous outburst of energy on stage, so he didn’t need companions to “sleep with” but needed someone to stay awake with him well into the night.
Few adults would go for it, and I imagine that only kids with their bursting and never-ending energy were glad to hang out with him until the wee hours of the morning. So staying with MJ on a tour wasn’t actually about sleeping – it was about keeping him company after the shows and then sleeping their time away until the next afternoon.
Unfortunately, Michael had to keep to that regimen for months during his tours.
And when a crowd of Michael’s companions went out sightseeing in various cities, he was again forced to stay alone in the hotel room, and it was apparently at those moments that he hung on the phone for hours with people from all over the world.
Yes, he did call Jordan Chandler approximately once or twice a month (what a big deal!) in autumn 1992 and Michael spoke to him “from maybe 10 minutes to an hour, or an hour and a half” as June Chandler remembered it. But Jordan was absolutely not the only one whom Michael called.
Among many others Michael Jackson regularly called Glenda Stein, her husband and their daughter for example, and spoke to them for hours on end (here are some of the tapes). In the same way Michael called Brett, his sister, his mother and father, and Brett’s two cousins, who were girls by the way, when Michael was on the Bad tour – several years before he met the Barnes family in person.
Given all these tour limitations, Brett was probably one of the best companions for Michael. He didn’t like to go out, wasn’t much into museums, and being a private person even in his childhood, preferred to stay in the room and relax. Remember the funny episode about the Sistine Chapel in Rome he mentioned in his interview to Charles Thomson:
I was so young and it wasn’t like I really could like my family would go out and they went and saw a lot of the stuff, but for me it was …I just couldn’t be bothered. I’m just type of person that likes to even today stay at home and just relax.
So I could have done it, but I chose not to. As I’m saying, this is why I don’t like sharing these stories because it makes me look like a bit of an asshole sometimes, excuse my language. I had the chance to go and see the Sistine chapel, but you can’t wear hats in the chapel, so because I was always wearing a hat, I didn’t want to take my hat off. So I was like nah, I’m not going to go.
Mind you, I’m like 11, I am 11 or 12. It wasn’t so spectacular to me. That was my viewpoint. I don’t want to take my hat off, so I’m not going to go and see the Sistine chapel. Some of the greatest works of art known to mankind, and I don’t want to take my hat off.
No, Brett doesn’t look like an asshole. From what I know the above is a typical boyish approach to museums, and this is another of those reasons why teenagers like Brett were much better companions for MJ than adults.
THE INTRICACIES OF OUR MEMORY
There is one thing about Brett’s memories which somehow stands out in his interview with Charles Thomson. It is interesting that the incident with the Sistine chapel Brett does remember but any details of his so-called sleeping arrangements with Michael he doesn’t.
This is an extremely telling and meaningful sign which shows that there was nothing special for him to remember.
From your own childhood you know that you remember only its most striking moments, usually connected with strong emotions, whether good or bad, and all the rest simply fades away. The bad accident you once had, the big fright you once experienced, or the great joy at being presented with a doll or a puppy – this is what your childish memory will retain, while all the rest will remain blurred, unless molestation happened to you, because the experience like that divides your life into before and after, and is never forgotten.
This is why Brett’s question whether we remember all the times when we sleep is funny, but very much to the point. Our memory will certainly retain nothing about sleep, especially in our childhood, unless something out of ordinary happened. And if Brett remembers nothing about it, this means that in his childhood he didn’t experience anything extraordinary either.
From the matter-of-fact way Brett speaks about his sleep in Michael’s room, it becomes clear that this arrangement was just a matter of convenience for him. When you are at Neverland, and you hang around deep into the night, it is simply convenient not to leave, and to not have to walk in the dark and tiptoe into the guest unit where your parents are asleep. And there is no need to run back in the morning, fearing that you have already missed some of the fun.
Brett’s mother was in a similar situation herself when she watched videos and talked with Michael until very late and it started raining, so it was more convenient for her to remain in Michael’s room rather than go to the guest unit, and she even stayed there for a while:
“…we were watching videos and talking, and he just suggested, “Well, why don’t you stay; stay here,” because it was raining outside. And he said, “Well, you can stay here.” And I stayed for a little while, but then I went back to my room. It was just more comfortable.”
(from Mrs. Barnes’s testimony at the 2005 trial)
It is indeed super unfair that all we know about Brett Barnes is his sleep in Michael’s quarters.
Without being aware of it, people repeat stories about Brett that were invented by the notorious Victor Gutierrez who actually built his career on slandering Brett Barnes (and fantasizing about Jordan Chandler). His dirty fiction about Brett was taken by the media for real and was swallowed by many hook, line, and sinker. If only they had known that those fabrications sprang from the fantasies of a real pehophile who was actually writing about himself….
As to Michael Jackson’s supporters, there isn’t anything novel for them in Brett’s words. People who did their research and got familiar with Michael’s way of thinking realize that he was not able to do harm to any child. Michael was a kid in an adult’s body and his interaction with kids was completely innocent, though misunderstood by many.
However even Michael’s supporters are in for some surprises in Brett’s story.
And one of them is the real duration of Brett’s travels with Michael Jackson which is not the way it is described by the media, prosecution and even by the Barnes family themselves.
SO HOW LONG WAS IT?
Indeed, how long did Brett spend with Michael on tours or elsewhere, and are there any grounds to say that Brett “slept with Michael for 365 days in two years” as the folklore has it? Even if Brett and his sister say so?
The child’s memory isn’t too reliable here. Brett was around ten when he first met Michael Jackson and his memory didn’t retain much of the specifics of his travels with MJ. All he remembers is the blurred chain of the countries and cities visited and he cannot distinguish which was when and how long.
Even by the time he testified at the 2005 trial, fourteen years had already passed since he met Michael Jackson, and by 2022 when Brett spoke with Charles Thomson, seventeen more years had passed. And this 30+ year lapse in time certainly didn’t make Brett childish memories any clearer (though with Wade Robson it is the opposite as we know :)).
So in order to find out the real duration of Brett’s travels with Michael Jackson it is better to rely on the memory of a grown-up person, for example, Marie Lisbeth Barnes, Brett’s mother, who also testified at the 2005 trial. Her recollections could be a starting point for restoring the full and true picture of the events.
The Barnes family
For example, Brett says that their first visit to Neverland in December 1991 lasted for a month. But his mother remembers it more precisely and says that the whole family, including Brett’s dad, stayed at Neverland for about three weeks. The difference may not look that critical, but when it comes to details it grows rather meaningful.
See how Mrs. Barnes described to the prosecution their first three weeks with Michael Jackson:
Q. And your first visit to Neverland was when, what year, if you know?
A. December 1991.
Q. Okay. And who did you visit Neverland with?
A. Our family. My husband, my two children.
Q. Okay. And how long did you stay there?
A. About three weeks. Well, we stayed with Michael for three weeks. He took us to Disneyland, to Las Vegas, and, yes, we were together for three weeks.
Q. I believe that you said it was when your son was about nine years old. How much older was your daughter?
A. I said ten, actually. Nearly ten. … He was going to be ten in January, so it was December, so he was nearly —
Q. Close to his tenth birthday?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. And your daughter was how old at the time?
A. 12.
Further questioning addressed Brett “sleeping with Jackson” of course, and Mrs. Barnes said that Brett did sometimes stay in Michael’s room during the first visit, but she couldn’t remember the first time it happened:
A.…No, I didn’t say by the fourth night he was sleeping in his room.
Q. What night was it, then?
A. I’m not sure what night it was.
Q. Was it within the first week?
A. It could have been. It may have been. It may not have been. I don’t remember.
Q. But he was sleeping with your son in the same bed before this trip was over; is that correct?
A. That’s correct.
Q. All right. Was he sleeping in the same bed with your son for an extended period of time?
A. On — no, not — not continuously, no. Just on-and-off basis when they were — the times when my son would fall asleep when we were there, and he stayed there and — rather than having to go back to — outside into the [guest] unit.
……
Q. All right. Would it be fair to say that most of the time that you were there, you were at Neverland; is that correct?
A. Not quite. Not really, no, because we spent a few days in Las Vegas. We spent a few days at Disneyland. And when we were in Disneyland, I know we went to Century City, so I’d say — I wouldn’t say most of the time, no.
Q. Well, a few days in Century City?
A. A hotel there. There’s a hotel in Century City.
Q. Was that across the street from his condominium?
A. That’s correct.
Q. When you were at the hotel in Century City, was your son staying with Mr. Jackson in his condominium?
A. No, he stayed with us.
Q. He stayed with you for the entire time?
A. I believe so.
Q. When you were at the Las Vegas hotel, did your son stay with Mr. Jackson?
A. We were all together.
Q. In Mr. Jackson’s room?
A. Well, we shared a villa, so there were several rooms in the villa. It’s like a —
Q. And in which room did your son sleep?
A. With my daughter.
Q. Your son slept with your daughter?
A. Yes.
…..
A. We were at The Disneyland Hotel.
Q. For how long? More than one night?
A. Probably four, five nights, I would say.
Q. Four or five nights?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. At Disneyland Hotel?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. And did your son stay with Mr. Jackson while —
A. We were all, again, in the same —
Q. Suite?
A. Yes.
Mrs. Barnes’s testimony definitely leaves us with the impression that during that first visit in December 1991 Brett stayed with Michael on rare occasions only. Here is a rough calculation:
- The first four days or more were spent at Neverland, but Mrs. Barnes is not sure that Brett shared a room with MJ during that time.
- Then came a few days in Las Vegas where they stayed at a hotel and Brett slept in one room with his sister.
- Four or five more days were spent at Disneyland where the family stayed in one suite with Michael Jackson.
- They also went to Michael’s Hideout in Century City in L.A. where the family stayed at a nearby hotel for another few days and during that entire period Brett was with his parents and not Michael Jackson.
Thus out of the three weeks with MJ at least half the time was spent in various hotels, where Brett stayed with his parents and sister, and sometime in-between they went to Neverland, where he stayed in Michael’s room occasionally only, and most probably only closer to the end of the vacation.
Mrs. Barnes testified that their follow-up visits to Neverland were on average two or three times a year. For the most part she and her daughter travelled too. Sometimes her husband joined them, and on some occasions Brett went on his own.
Mrs. Barnes said about it:
Q. Did you allow your son to travel with Mr.Jackson?
A. I allowed him, yes.
Q. Why was that?
A. Because, to me, it was a learning experience, and — visiting other countries, and I couldn’t — you know, I was — it didn’t bother me at all.
And from what we know the first occasion when Brett was on his own came two months later when Michael Jackson took him on a short visit to Africa. This was solely a tourist trip where MJ didn’t perform.
NINE DAYS IN AFRICA
The journey started on February 10, 1992 at the invitation of the son of Bongo, president of Gabon, and extended to several other African countries. Michael Jackson covered 30,000 miles according to the official statistics.
The trip lasted for 9 days and was a learning experience all right for Brett – besides doing sightseeing they visited various dignitaries, schools and institutions for mentally handicapped children, and the whole trip was so crammed with events that those nine days in Africa must have seemed like a long marathon to Brett.
Brett Barnes and MJ in Africa Feb.1992
For example, just on one day in Côte d’Ivoire they visited the huge old Catholic Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, the up-to-date Peace Research Foundation building used for congresses where speeches could be simultaneously translated into 8 languages, then they went to see a lake with caimans and fed them there, then they met the mayor of the city and attended a show of folklore dancers. And it was also in Côte d’Ivoire that Michael Jackson was crowned the Prince of the Anyi people.
The following video report of the African trip in February 1992 is in French (other languages are available via the Youtube “translate” option) and in case you are wondering about Brett Barnes, you will see the 10-year old beside Michael Jackson in almost each of its shots.
On February 19th MJ and Brett left for London (the photos of that visit are also abundant in the media) where among other places they visited the hospital where the comedian Benny Hill had been taken after a heart attack.
Michael adored Benny Hill and discussed with him a sketch or a music video, where according to Hill’s biographer, “Michael Jackson does a dance move and then Benny Hill copies it, and then they speed up the tape so that Benny Hill is actually dancing faster than Michael Jackson”.
That was the last time they saw each other because several weeks later Benny Hill died.
On February 23rd MJ and Brett flew back to LA and that was it.
The media not only left us with a myriad of photos of Brett and MJ in Africa and London, but also with a multitude of speculations about MJ, but these 13 days in February 1992 is all we have as far as Brett’s tour of Africa and London is concerned.
THE “TOUR” OF NORTH AMERICA
Then there is constant talk about Brett and MJ touring North America. But this tour is quite a mystery because it actually never happened – Michael Jackson did not tour North America with or without concerts either in 92’ or 93’.
If you don’t believe me check up the itinerary of the Dangerous tour yourself (here). All Michael’s visits to the US cities took place during the earlier “Bad” tour but this is when Brett was five, was still in Australia and there was no way he could accompany MJ then. And after the Bad tour Michael didn’t tour the US cities ever again.
So what’s presented to us as the “tour of North America” was actually an occasional visit to a city here and there that took place within the many years of Brett’s friendship with Michael Jackson.
Mrs. Barnes could remember only the journeys to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Disneyland in California’s Anaheim, already mentioned here, then a visit to New York where Brett was on his own, and also a visit to Chicago where Michael Jackson was filming the Jam video and where the Barnes were present as guests.
And even if she forgot something this can hardly be called “the tour of North America”.
Prosecutor Zonen either didn’t look up the Dangerous tour itinerary or deliberately created the impression that Brett accompanied MJ on a fictional tour through the United States, so as a result their conversation with Marie Lisbeth Barnes in 2005 went as follows:
Q. BY ZONEN: … how often did your son travel to Neverland?
A. Several times.
Q. More than twice a year?
A. Probably, on average, about two, three times.
Q. Two or three times a year. On how many of those occasions did you accompany him to Neverland between the ages of 10 and 13?
A. Most of the time I did.
…
Q. So you’ve done tours with Michael Jackson in Europe, in South America, and in the United States?
A. Well, I didn’t actually tour with Mr. Jackson in the United States.
…
Q. Were you present when he traveled through the United States with your son?
A. To some places I was present, yes.
Q. Which places were you present?
A. Chicago, Las Vegas. I’m not really sure. There were several occasions where I was present.
Q. … All right. You just said Las Vegas and Chicago. Do you remember any of the others?
A. I know that he’s been to New York with Mr. Jackson.
Q. He went to New York. Okay. [ ] Did you travel to Chicago with your son and Mr. Jackson?
A. I did on one occasion, with — when he was filming the video for the song “Jam” with – with Mr. Michael Jordan in that video. Yes, that was the occasion I traveled with —
Q. Where did your son stay in Chicago during that trip?
A. He stayed with — with me at times and —
Q. With Mr. Jackson?
A. — with Mr. Jackson at times, yes.
Q. Yeah. How long did that tour go on? Was he actually on a tour?
A. No, that was just a few days that we went to Chicago, and then we had to come back. We had to go back again.
What I am driving at is that the incessant talk about Brett’s “tours with Jackson” is half-fiction and half-exaggeration, even if Brett himself has huge memories of them. Even a short trip with Michael was so packed with adventures that it must have looked like a full-time holiday for Brett. In fact, every traveler will testify to the same effect – a week of intense travelling seems like a lifetime as compared with the same week at home.
So what do we have of Brett’s travels by now?
- We have approximately ten days spent in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Disneyland, where Brett stayed mostly with his parents or sister
- and the remaining time at Neverland where Brett stayed with Michael “on and off”.
- Then there were 13 days in Africa and London.
- There was also a visit to New York which couldn’t be longer than several days.
- And then came a few days in Chicago during the shooting of Jam, where Brett stayed with Michael “at times” and alternated it with staying with his mother and sister.
All in all it is far less time that we previously thought.
According to Wiki “Jam” was filmed on April 20, 1992, but the directors of the video recall it to be longer than that:
“A classic example of Michael’s way of working is on one of our shoot days, I called to say, “Michael, we need you on the set,” and his people said, “Well, he won’t be there until later.” And I said, “Oh, OK, well we can probably fill the morning with some work, but what time do you think he’ll be here?” And so they said, “Well, he’ll probably be there in a couple of days.”
I said, “Wait, we’re in Chicago. He was here just yesterday. What happened?” They said, “He had a lunch appointment.” And I said, “Oh, OK, can he cancel it because [the video setup is] expensive?” And they said, “Oh, it’s with the President.” [George Bush at the time.] So I was like, “Oh, OK” [laughs]. His schedule is a lot more out of my realm. We shut down just for Michael to have that lunch, and we went back to L.A. until he returned to Chicago”.
Jam was interrupted by a visit to meet the President 1992
The episode is lovely and shows that Michael’s schedule was indeed out of anyone’s realm.
Thus shooting “Jam” was spread over several days, and involved some flying back and forth for Michael Jackson, while the Barnes apparently remained in Chicago. And after that the family returned to Australia, as Brett’s mother said: “And then we had to come back. We had to go back again”.
Prosecutor Ron Zonen probably regarded those several trips as a full-time tour through the US, but in reality this is all we have of the alleged tour. However from the number of times Zonen mentioned it, the impression is that not only did the tour take place but it also lasted for a century.
Well, creating this impression was actually the whole idea of it.
A SIDE NOTE ABOUT JIMMY
Incidentally, in was on that visit to Chicago that James Safechuck who also attended the set of “Jam” as a guest, went hysterical when he learned that Brett Barnes was allowed to stay with Michael while he (Jimmy) was not “invited”. He must have created quite a scene because the next day the head of security Bill Bray had to put him on a plane and send him home to LA.
But there was no need for James Safechuck to create so much drama. Brett and his family had come from Australia for just a few days in April 1992, so they did have a lot to catch up with, while James Safechuck lived close by and could visit Michael Jackson at any time.
The problem with James Safechuck is that in contrast to Brett Barnes he did turn into a diva that not only made demands on Jackson, but also felt that he “appropriated” him and didn’t tolerate any new friendships Michael Jackson formed with other people besides him.
This corresponds with what Michael Jackson’s maid Gayle Goforth remembers about the Safechucks. In her deposition to Finaldi she recalled that while Wade Robson was a nice kid, James Safechuck was spoiled and too demanding, just “like his parents”.
She also noted that the parents were guests for a long time even when Safechuck grew up:
THE WITNESS: When Jimmy first was cominq all the time, his parents would always come also. And his parents always came, even later on after he grew up and stuff, they were guests for a long time.
Q. BY FINALDI: … when you first met Wade when he was little, you said he was a nice kid, good kid, something like that?
A. He was a nice kid all the way through.
Q. How about Jimmy Safechuck?
A. He was a nice kid. He was spoiled.
Q. And what things would he do?
A. Well, it was just he was like his parents. He expected — it was like he would snap his fingers and “I want this” and “I want that” and “I want the other.”
Q. Okay. Not a bad kid, just a little demanding?
A. No. He wasn’t a bad kid. He was just, you know, he was wasteful with things and —
Q. Like with food or something?
A. Yeah. Michael had a special drink that he drank. It was called Dr. Tima at that time. It was an orange. And he would get one and he would take one drink of it and throw it in the bushes and stuff like that.
So the little angel would snap his fingers and send people to bring him a drink to only throw it away just after one gulp? Doesn’t the above piece throw a little light on James Safechuck’s character and behavior, same as his parents’ ways?
And why does the public think that those who snapped their fingers and sent people running on their errands then, wouldn’t snap their fingers and send the MJ Estate to bring them hundreds of millions dollars now?
SOUTH AMERICA
Ron Zonen’s questions to the Barnes family at the 2005 trial also concerned South America, but over here the situation is even funnier than with the alleged North American tour.
Let us recall that the Dangerous tour consisted of two legs. One was in 1992 (more about it in another post) and the second was in 1993 when it fully coincided with the Jordan Chandler scandal.
The second leg began on August 23 with a concert in Bangkok and ended on November 11 in Mexico, after which the remaining dates of the tour were cancelled.
Michael Jackson had already left for Bangkok when on August 21 and 22 the Neverland ranch and Michael’s condominium in the Century City were raided by the police. At the time Brett Barnes, his mother and sister were on the ranch, were witnesses to the raid and Brett and his sister were interviewed by the sheriffs.
Brett doesn’t remember when exactly they joined Michael Jackson in South America after those events, and vaguely speaks of “a couple of months” later. As to Mrs. Barnes she recalls that they stayed with Michael in South America for two or even three months, and said that they were there “for the entirety of the tour”:
Q. BY ZONEN: Now, your son traveled with him extensively in South America, did he not?
A. No, we were present, my family. My husband, my daughter and I were present when we toured South America.
Q. All right. And how long of a tour was that?
A. I don’t quite remember. Couple months maybe. I’m not sure. I don’t remember.
Q. Did you travel for the entirety of that tour?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. And your son was there as well the entire time?
A. That’s correct. And my daughter and my husband.
Q. That was a couple months?
A. I would say probably — it could be – could have been three months. I don’t remember.
Q. Your husband was able to take three months off from work?
A. Yes, because he had long service leaves.
Q. He had what?
A. Long — in Australia, after you work for, say, ten years, you’re entitled to long service leave, so you have three months every ten years. And he had two lots of long-service leave that he was able to take.
Q. And is it true that during the entirety of that trip your son slept in Mr. Jackson’s room with Mr. Jackson?
A. I wouldn’t say during the entirety.
Q. Most of it?
A. I would say at times.
Q. At times?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. Your son was how old at that point, the time of the South America trip?
A. 12, I would say.
As to Brett’s sister Karlee, she goes even further than her mother and says that they toured in South America for as long as half a year.
Q. Have you ever traveled with Mr. Jackson?
A. Yes, I have.
Q. And how many times have you done that?
A. Well, I’ve been to, like — well, in my first — in seventh grade, I spent half of the year over in Europe with him. And in the eighth grade I spent half of the year over in South America. And I’ve been to Chicago. And we’ve been to Las Vegas. So I’ve been, you know, lucky, very fortunate. When he came to Australia for his “History” tour, he took us to South Australia and to Western Australia. So I’ve been on many, many trips with him.
Part of Karlee’s story is correct – same as Brett she went to Chicago and Las Vegas. They also travelled to Europe in 1992 and various parts of Australia in 1996.
But saying that they spent half a year in South America is a decided exaggeration.
I mean, how could they stay with Michael in South America for half a year, if the South American part of the Dangerous tour lasted only for a month? It started on October 8th and ended on November 11th, 1993!
Here is the South American tour itinerary, so see for yourself:
Dangerous tour in South America (Wiki)
Someone will say that the alleged “half a year” in South America took place during the first leg of the Dangerous tour. But no, it didn’t, because South America was not even on the list then. Neither was it included into the History tour.
So that one month in Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Santiago and Mexico was the only time Michael Jackson and the Barnes family stayed in South America, and it certainly didn’t last for two or three months as Mrs. Barnes recalled it, or half a year as her daughter did.
But why do they remember it in so strange a way, and why is there so big a difference in their recollections?
REAL DURATION
In case of Brett’s mother the matter is more or less clear. Her memory of that period is based on just one reference point – the fact that her husband took a three months vacation during those turbulent times and they travelled to various places together with him.
The times were indeed turbulent. They went through the Neverland raid, interviews with the police and the Department of Children and Family Services, and then Brett’s appearance on TV where he vehemently defended Michael Jackson but innocently declared that when he slept in MJ’s room he slept on one side of the bed and Michael slept on the other – it was a really big bed – which only added more fuel to the fire.
To avoid the heat the family decided to go to Hawaii and it was only on October 8, 1993 that they finally flew to Argentina to join Michael Jackson there. So the August-September-October-part-of-November period is what Mrs. Barnes remembers as “two or probably three months” allegedly spent with MJ in South America.
Remember that she had to recall it twelve years later.
As to Brett’s sister Karlee, she is apparently talking about the overall time spent in the USA, and same as any school child will, she remembers their stay with Michael Jackson in terms of how much school they missed in 1992, and then in 1993.
And how much school did they miss in the summer of 1993?
It is difficult to say because schoolchildren in Australia go on a summer holiday in winter time (December and January), and what is a summer holiday in the USA is actually the middle of school year in Australia.
But we can be sure that at least at the beginning of August 1993 the Barnes were already in the US as Brett remembers being on the set of shooting of “Is This Scary?” video which had been filmed for 12 days before the Jordan Chandler scandal broke after which the filming was wrapped up.
The period from early August to November 11th will make exactly four months of that “half a year” recalled by Karlee, out of which Brett could be with Michael for some two weeks in early August and then for a month in October-November, when he stayed with Michael’s room “at times” only, according to Mrs. Barnes.
As to the remaining two months of that “half a year”, they must have been spent in January-February 1993 when the Barnes children were at Neverland and were on their Australian summer school holiday.
Remember Victor Gutierrez’s description of the famous scene when Michael Jackson picked up the Chandlers on February 19, 1993 to take them to Neverland for the second weekend, and Brett was already in the limo heading for the ranch too? According to Gutierrez, upon arrival at Neverland the Chandlers were invited to a guest unit, and Brett’s suitcases were allegedly taken into Michael’s room (meaning that he had just arrived from Australia and was all alone).
However, according to Gutierrez, the very next day Jordan, Brett and their sisters attended Michael’s private zoo and they threw stones at the poor lion in a cage, etc. etc.
But how come Brett’s sister was already there? Had she been staying on the ranch by the time Brett arrived?
Victor Gutierrez accidentally revealed that the whole Barnes family was at Neverland when the Chandlers went there in Feb.1993
As usual, nothing adds up in Gutierrez’s stories, but since June Chandler remembers Brett on that drive too, it’s obvious that the Barnes family was on the ranch that winter, and consequently, this period should be added to what Karlee remembers as “half a year” with Michael Jackson in 1993.
To me this discovery was a bit of a surprise, because the Chandlers never said a word about the Barnes staying at Neverland at the time, as according to their allegations all attention was focused solely on Jordan Chandler then.
However, this isn’t the only surprise awaiting us here.
HE WAS NOT ALONE
An even bigger surprise is that during the Barnes’ tour with Michael Jackson over South America, Brett was absolutely not the only kid who stayed with MJ there.
There were two other kids on that tour – Frank and Eddie Cascio, who stayed with Michael in his hotel room, had joined the tour much earlier and had initially accompanied Michael Jackson together with their father.
Of course, Frank Cascio did tell us in his book “My Friend Michael” that he and his younger brother Eddie were on a tour with Michael Jackson during the Chandler scandal and thus tried to bring some normality back to his life.
But the account of their stay with Michael Jackson is virtually unknown as it is almost totally ignored by the press, while the stories about Brett are overwhelming, exceed all limits in their nastiness and produce the impression that Brett stayed with MJ forever.
So the experiences of those two families seemed to be so widely apart, that even we didn’t realize that the Cascios and the Barnes were staying with Michael Jackson at exactly the same time on the South American part of the tour.
Why didn’t Frank Cascio mention Brett in his book? Probably because it was meant to be a story of his personal interaction with Michael Jackson only. Or because he didn’t know whether Brett would agree to being described in his book. Or because of many other factors, significant or not.
Anyway, now that the fact of Brett Barnes being together with the Cascios is finally clear, it is worth refreshing Frank Cascio’s recollections about their stay there, because they surely spent much time together with Brett and Brett certainly also stayed with them in Michael’s room, at least at times as his mother told us.
Brett Barnes and Eddie Cascio with Michael Jackson in Argentina
But before you read a rather long excerpt from Frank Cascio’s book, please remember that the Cascio brothers were not with Michael since day one of the tour either.
At the beginning of the tour Michael was in the company of his three nephews – Taj, Taryll and TJ, as well as Liz Taylor and her husband Larry Fortensky.
See this private 1993 video from Singapore where Michael is seen with his young nephews in his hotel suite, listening to Claude Debussy and looking rather cheerful and carefree, and then with his adult friends Liz Taylor and Fortensky looking sad, frozen and deep in thought:
Michael Jackson with Liz Taylor and Larry Fortensky in Singapore, September 2, 1993
Michael Jackson talking to Liz Taylor, Singapore, Sept.2, 1993
As to the Cascios, their travels with MJ began only after Michael’s first companions left, and Michael stayed all alone, after which Bill Bray finally called the Cascios and invited the whole family to join Michael.
Frank, Eddie and their father flew to Tel-Aviv on September 19, 1993. By then Michael Jackson had already performed in Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and Russia.
This is what Frank Cascio recalls:
“….only a week or two after the school year began, an unexpected phone call came from Bill Bray. He told my parents that Michael wanted to invite the whole family to join him on tour in Tel Aviv.
My mother was busy with my brother Dominic, who was six years old; my sister, Marie Nicole, who was three; and my baby brother, Aldo. There was no way she was flying to Israel. …Eddie and I would miss school [] but first and foremost, what mattered was that we had a friend in need. So, the day after we got the call from Bill Bray, my father, Eddie, and I boarded a plane. We flew first class to Israel.
…I gave my friend a big hug and said, «Don’t worry, we’re here for you, we’re going to get through this together». Eddie and I hung out with Michael in his room, distracting him, giving him support, and watching old movies on laser disc. My dad came and went, checking in on us and spending time with his buddy Bill Bray.
As far as what was going on with Jordy’s family, we only talked to Michael about it when he brought it up. When he did speak about it, it was often in a wistful tone, and I could tell that he was still trying to comprehend the fact that this horrible thing had occurred.
«I did so much for his family», he’d say. «I don’t blame Jordy. It’s not his fault. It’s his father’s fault.»
Michael was clearly upset about the circumstances he found himself in, but he always kept his composure when he was around us, remembering that we were kids. He was sensitive to what we would take away from this experience and to the effect it would have on our lives as well as his.
Frank and Eddie Cascio with Michael Jackson in Tel Aviv, September 19-20, 1993
The boys’ father had to go back to work a week later, but seeing that Michael would remain all alone after they left, he relented and allowed his sons to stay with MJ.
People might question my parents’ judgment in sending two young boys off to spend time alone with a man who had been accused of molesting another boy. But to us, the suggestion that we were in any danger was completely absurd. My parents knew that Michael was innocent.
To us, Michael was the funniest, nicest, and most playful friend imaginable. With my parents, his behavior was that of a humble, kind, and mature adult, a brilliant, well-read man with interesting, thoughtful opinions. My parents spent entire evenings talking with him, learning from him. They saw him as a good influence on their sons.
Above all, my parents knew Michael’s true heart. I want to be precise and clear, on the record, so that everyone can read and understand: Michael’s love for children was innocent, and it was profoundly misunderstood.
…Michael craved the simplicity and innocence of the youth he had never fully experienced. He revered it, he treasured it, and, especially through Neverland, he tried to offer it to others. People had trouble understanding all this, and many assumed the worst. This misunderstanding was the greatest sorrow of Michael’s life. He carried it with him to the end.
I am here to say that I knew the real Michael Jackson. I knew him throughout my childhood. In all that time, he never showed himself to be anything but a perfect friend. Never did he make a questionable advance or a sexual remark.
Teachers at their school agreed that schoolwork could be made with a tutor, however they didn’t know that this role would be performed by no other than Michael Jackson.
…Eddie and I had to do the schoolwork that we’d been sent. We were supposed to complete the assignments and return them to the school. The teachers were under the impression that we had been provided with a tutor, and we did, in fact, have one, but we kept his identity under wraps. We were pretty sure that the school wouldn’t buy the idea of Michael Jackson as a traveling tutor.
The truth was, he was genuinely committed to the job. Sure, we didn’t exactly keep regular school hours – lessons happened in the middle of the night sometimes – but Michael was the one who regularly sat down with me and my brother and went through our assignments with us. When we had to read books, he would read chapters of them aloud to us, then have us recap what we had heard, asking: «So who were the main characters? What did they want? What does it mean?»
In addition to the assignments our school gave us, Michael insisted that we keep journals of our trip.
«Document this trip», he’d keep telling us, «because one day you’re going to love to look back on it.» In every country he had us take pictures of what we saw, do some research about the customs, and put what we’d seen and experienced in our books. We explored the different cultures. We visited orphanages and schools. Eddie and I started to have a greater awareness of our place in the big, wide world. Only later was I wise enough to be thankful to my parents for permitting us to have this experience.”
Before going to South America Michael and the Cascios relaxed for a week in a chalet belonging to Elizabeth Taylor in a small and secluded place called Gstaad in Switzerland.
“Gstaad was a perfect escape from the rigors of touring. It was such a small town, and so remote from the rest of the world, that – in the beginning at least – Michael could walk freely down the streets, undisguised, without being bothered. This was a rare joy for him.
One thing I’ll always remember about our time in Gstaad was Michael introducing me to new music. We’d always listened to music together, and anytime we were in a record store together, I’d walk right next to Michael to see what albums caught his fancy.
Back at the chalet, we sat rapt, listening for hours as Michael played DJ, saying, «You have to listen to this song. Now you have to hear this group.» He introduced me to all types of music – country, folk, classical, funk, rock. Michael liked to go to sleep to classical music, especially the works of Claude Debussy.”
Brett Barnes, Frank and Eddie Cascio arrive in Santiago, October 23, 1993
Upon arrival, Frank and Brett run for their lives into the van awaiting them on the airfield, with Eddie falling a little behind
Frank’s story continues:
“Michael may have been our tutor, our father figure, and our friend, but onstage, he became another person. We went to every single concert in every single city. …I loved watching the fans from the side of the stage, a sea of people screaming, crying, fainting, hanging on their idol’s every move. I’d sit there and think, This godlike being they’re worshipping is the guy who’s helping me with my homework. As Michael warmed up his voice, which could take up to two hours, Eddie and I played games, watched cartoons, and ate candy in the greenroom. When it came time for him to perform, we usually watched from chairs on the side of the stage.
Often I wondered how it was that I saw the same people in the front row for show after show in city after city. How could they afford to leave their jobs and their lives and follow an entertainer from one place to another? Those of us who were part of the tour had the luxury of speeding around in private jets, but how did these fans make it to each city in time for the show? There was one fan, Justin, whom we called Waldo, after the character from the Where’s Waldo? books, because if we looked hard enough we could find him in every audience.”
(from “My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship with an Extraordinary Man” by Frank Cascio).
If anyone had any doubts about Brett and the Cascios being involved in the same activities during their stay in South America, the above detail about Waldo will remove the last doubts. Brett Barnes also describes the fun of searching for Waldo, so it’s clear that the quest was shared by the whole gang.
And the video games mentioned by Brett (Sonic the hedgehog, Sega Genesis, etc.) were set up backstage not only for him but for Frank and Eddie too, only Frank said that had played them before the show, while Brett admitted it was his pastime during the show.
And contrary to Bob Jones’s lies that Jackson “smuggled Brett in suitcases to avoid being seen by the press” (the lie told to explain why the boy wasn’t seen during the tour, who simply wasn’t there at the time), Michael didn’t make a secret of Brett’s stay at all, and arranged a whole photoshoot for them in Buenos Aires, during which all four of them pushed each other, made faces and acted ridiculous as all kids do.
This video will give you the idea of how much fun they had together and what a kid Michael Jackson himself actually was.
It’s obvious that Michael Jackson needed company while on his tours, especially during that extremely difficult part of his life, and those cheerful kids gave him the strength to go on with it. And Michael treated those kids as his own and literally made no difference between them and his own children.
So when you once again hear those pathetic stories about “Michael and boys” you will know that those allegations are not only flat and boring lies, but are also a far cry from the real life of Michael Jackson which was both much more complex, colorful and also simpler than anyone could imagine.
~
(stay tuned for the transcript of the second part of Brett’s interview with Charles Thomson and further comment)
