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Joseph Jackson
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Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson (born July 26, 1929) is a manager, former boxer, former musician best known as the father of American entertainers Michael and Janet Jackson. He is also notable for forming The Jackson 5, (which consisted of Michael Jackson) a Mowtown group that became popular in the early 1970s.
son was born in Fountain Hill, Arkansas, the eldest of four to Samuel Jackson and Crystal Lee King.
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Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson (born July 26, 1929) is a manager, former boxer, former musician best known as the father of American entertainers Michael and Janet Jackson. He is also notable for forming The Jackson 5, (which consisted of Michael Jackson) a Mowtown group that became popular in the early 1970s.
Biography
Early life
Jackson was born in Fountain Hill, Arkansas, the eldest of four to Samuel Jackson and Crystal Lee King. Joseph's parents split when he was twelve. He moved with his father to Oakland, California, where he lived until after turning eighteen when he moved to East Chicago, Indiana to live near his mother. While there, he met his future wife Katherine Scruse. After a brief marriage to another woman and then annulment, Jackson and Katherine began a courtship resulting in their November 5, 1949 marriage. Settling in Gary, Indiana, Joseph, a former boxer, worked full-time as a crane operator at Gary's U.S. Steel company, while Katherine tended to their brood of children, which eventually grew to nine. In the mid-1950s, Joseph started a music career with his brother Luther, playing guitar in a band called the Falcons. The group split up a couple of years later after the group failed to get a recording deal. Joe returned full time to his job at U.S. Steel.
The Jackson 5
By 1964, Joe had begun to discover that his three eldest sons, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine, had talent after Tito was busted for playing his guitar after a string broke. After Tito played for him and Jackie and Jermaine backed him up vocally, he helped form an early incarnation of The Jackson 5 with two neighborhood youths though eventually younger brothers Marlon and Michael joined.
Within a few years, the Jackson 5 polished their talents under Joseph's strict leadership. In 1967, the Jackson brothers turned professional and began performing in paying gigs, which paid off after the group got signed to Motown Records in 1968, and shortly afterwards the brothers became international recording stars. Joseph's role as manager dwindled however as Motown CEO Berry Gordy began to take more charge on his act, a role that reversed back to Joseph's when he began managing the entire family for performances in Las Vegas. Joseph also helped his sons seal a deal with CBS after leaving Motown distraught that the label did not allow the boys creative freedom in the studio.
Within a few years, however, Joseph's sons each left his management company to sign with outside managers, starting with Jermaine. In 1982, Joseph also managed the careers of his three daughters La Toya, Janet and Rebbie until all three eventually left his company for solo ventures, which afterwards saw only just Michael and Janet as the Jackson family's ultimate breadwinners.
Controversies
Jackson's image as a father was tainted throughout the late 1980s through the mid 1990s in which the media reported stories told by some of his children that Jackson was abusive towards his children. When he managed his family, he ordered each of them to call him "Joseph", which led to several siblings being estranged from their father. In spite of his actions, Jackson's contributions to his children's success led to him being honored by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as "the greatest musical manager of all time" while Jackson visited Cleveland.
In 2003, in an interview for BBC TV, Joseph admitted to using physical punishment on his children and also voiced his disapproval of homosexuality.
Current work
In late 2005, Joseph announced he would host a boot camp for aspiring hip-hop artists, both to move his career to the next stage and to change what he sees as distasteful about the genre. "Everybody is liking rap now. I'm gonna have to clean it up a little bit, all that vulgar language out there. I'm gonna have to keep that clean, with nice singing in it, and great music behind it".
Children
Joe had eleven children. Ten children were born to Katherine, of whom nine lived to adulthood while a tenth child was born with a Jackson 5 groupie named Cheryl Terrell.
With Katherine Jackson (née Scruse)
- Daughter Rebbie Jackson, born
- Son Jackie Jackson, born
- Son Tito Jackson, born
- Son Jermaine Jackson, born
- Daughter La Toya Jackson, born
- Son Marlon Jackson, born (Son Brandon Jackson, twin of Marlon Jackson, born March 12, 1957, died shortly after birth)
- Son Michael Jackson, born
- Son Randy Jackson, born
- Daughter Janet Jackson, born
With Cheryl Terrell
- Daughter Joh'Vonnie Jackson, born half-sister of the above children.
Footnotes
External links
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