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closeBefore Michael Jackson was the King of Pop, he was just a talented, shy, skinny kid, wearing a tuxedo, his head slumped against a wall.
That was at the American Music Awards in the early 1970s. The Jackson 5 were just hitting it big, and Fred Daviss, now a builder in Perry, was there as James Brown’s business manager.
“Michael would never look you in the eye when he was that young,” Daviss said Thursday evening after news of Jackson’s death at age 50 swept the world. “And I really felt sorry for him.”
Daviss said he can remember Jackson’s father hitting him backstage at the famous Apollo Theater in New York. Just “snatching him up by one arm, just beating the hell out of him,” Daviss said.
“Michael was a strange child and a strange man,” Daviss said. “He was a product of his environment.”
Daviss said the last time he spoke to Jackson was at Brown’s funeral in late 2006. It took a moment for Jackson to recognize him, and then he “put his head on my shoulder,” Daviss said.
“I’ve still got makeup on the suit and haven’t taken it to the cleaners,” he said.
Some time in the 1990s, Daviss nearly helped Jackson buy a castle in France, he said. He served as the go-between on a deal that fell through. But Jackson, impulsive and excited, called him throughout the day for updates.
“I couldn’t get my work done but for Michael calling me, squealing and carrying on about this castle,” Daviss said.
“He was squealing like a child he was so excited about this castle,” Davis said. “He never bought it.”
Others in Middle Georgia had more passing encounters with the famous musician.
When The Jackson 5 played the Macon City Auditorium in August 1970, a young Regina McDuffie was in the audience. McDuffie, who now manages the auditorium and other city facilities, said that was her first concert.
“Me and my sister actually had outfits made to go to the show,” McDuffie recalled. “It was my first concert. ... I actually ran after the limousine after the show.”
Chuck Leavell, the keyboardist for The Rolling Stones who lives in the Dry Branch area, said he met Jackson briefly in Europe one time. Leavell was touring with Eric Clapton, and a friend invited him backstage at a Jackson concert.
They spoke briefly in “kind of a strange setting.” Jackson was sitting off by himself, obviously in his own “comfort zone,” Leavell said.
“Told him I was a big fan, looked forward to seeing the show and that was about it,” he said. “The guy was, for all his quirkiness, a genius and an innovator, and certainly made a lot of people happy.
“His work was more than notable,” Leavell said. “It will be here forever.”
Thursday night, WIBB night host Shawty Slim said he and best friend and guest host Nikki Porcher started playing Jackson songs at 6:30, with plans to continue until midnight.
“The phone has not stopped,” Shawty Slim said. “It’s been really crazy.”
He said folks from all walks of life and all ages were calling asking him to play Jackson songs. Some mentioned Jackson’s troubles, but Slim said, “He had his troubles, but I’m not focusing on that.”
Slim, who said he also was production director, planned to stay late, get an hour of sleep” and return to work to put together some Jackson “best-of” segments.
“My Friday just got crazy,” he said.
As people worldwide mourned Jackson’s sudden death, it was even more personal for Macon native Newton Collier.
Collier, 64, first met Jackson in 1968, when he was a trumpet player for the soul duo Sam & Dave, who headlined a multicity tour that also included The Jackson 5 and the Five Stairsteps.
“It’s shocking. I didn’t think he would go away this early,” said Collier, who first met Jackson as the tour began in Philadelphia.
The Jackson 5 were early in their career, with the hit song “ABC.” Collier remembers Michael Jackson as a precocious 10-year-old.
“He was very quiet and watched everything, absorbing everything like a sponge,” Collier said. Collier said Jackson would always watch the other performers and musicians on the tour during practices.
During the tour, which also included stops in New York City and Chicago, Collier said Jackson brothers Marlon and Jermaine would converse with the other musicians about their instruments.
Part of the reason the Jacksons were on the tour, which traveled by bus and included the boys’ parents Joe and Katherine, was because Joe Jackson and Sam Moore had known each other as boxers in Florida.
But even then, young Michael, who would later became famous for his dancing, “was always doing flips and cartwheels,” Collier said.
Collier, who played with Stax Records artists for nearly 20 years, said Jackson will be sorely missed.
“He was on such a big comeback,” Collier said of Jackson, who was scheduled to begin a concert tour in London next month.
News of Jackson’s death caught several shoppers at The Shoppes at River Crossing off guard.
Joseph O’Berry, one of them, said he was “flabbergasted.”
Others did not want to believe the news.
“I still won’t believe it until I see it on the news,” said Roderick Wilcher, 47.
“It’s shocking and I don’t really like it.”
The lesson, he said, is that “money doesn’t make you live longer.”
Sarah Riedel, 51, was sitting with two other women at the shopping center.
While Riedel said she does not listen to his music as much now, there was a time when she was a fan.
“It was when I was young and he was young, way back when,” she said.
“This is really going to date us,” she said. She once bought the 45 single of “I’ll Be There” by The Jackson 5.
Michelle McCormick, sitting outside the Bonefish Grill, said Jackson spent some of his later years “trying to be something he wasn’t.”
Waitresses at Wild Wing Cafe said they had heard several tables talking about the news.
Kathy Gray, 49, a customer there, said she was “upset” by Jackson’s death.
“I love his music,” she said. “You can’t take away the talent he had.”
Stacey Lewis, 33, of Warner Robins, remembers being a little girl in Albany when the “Thriller” video first came out. At the time, her mother told her she couldn’t watch because it was too scary. However, she opted to go over to a friend’s house to watch it.
“I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep that night,” Lewis said.
She recalled walking around with a little Michael Jackson purse while her brother had the red jacket with the multiple zippers.
Her father even had old records from his Jackson 5 days and a box of Frosted Flakes with the music group on the front.
So Thursday, when she learned the man whose likeness adorned her childhood purse had died, she was in a state of shock. The music world had suffered a great loss, she said.
For Melvina Polk Clark, 33, of Warner Robins, it was Jackson’s impact that led to his success. She recalls seeing the “Beat It” video for the first time as a child.
Within days, the same black jacket he wore in the video was being seen on all the students.
“With everything he did, he was a trendsetter with everything from fashion to dancing,” Polk Clark said.
Staff writers Natasha Smith, Eldredge McCready and Sherrie Marshall contributed to this report.
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