Joe Jackson: ‘I tried to save Michael’

Michael Jackson’s father Joe has claimed he desperately tried to save his son’s life.

Joe Jackson attempted to halt his son Michael's use of painkillers in the weeks before the singer's tragic death. "I tried it. But in the last weeks before his death it wasn't possible to reach him. I stood in front of his house and the security blocked my way. I even called the police. I did everything. I went as far as thinking, 'I'll go home. Take my guns and shoot my way to Michael'," Joe told German newspaper Bild. "I said to my wife, 'Katherine, we have to get out the boy from there or he'll be dead in a week'. One week later he was dead. What worries me is that such a fundamentally good human being like Michael was exploited and has been ruined by people he has trusted and who he overwhelmed with gifts."

Later in the interview, Joe answered his son's repeated claims that he had never had a childhood. "He claimed he had no childhood, but that's not true. The truth is that I didn't want to allow my kids to play with the kids of the neighbourhood. It was a no-good neighbourhood where we lived," Joe explained. "The children from then are now drug addicts or have gone to prison. I wanted to protect my children from that. Michael had eight siblings who could play with. They frolicked, played basketball. I took the boys firmly in hand, that's true. But I also promised to make them the greatest stars in the world. That was the plan and they agreed. I smacked them sometimes but not constantly. How could I do that? I was rarely at home. I had two jobs to earn the money for their instruments and I had to feed an 11-person family. I abused nobody. I insist on that! Back then it was like that. If a child didn't toe the line then they got slapped in the face."

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