• McCartney Discusses Michael Jackson (1988)

    From Norbert K@21:1/5 to All on Sun Dec 26 08:02:30 2021
    The Beatles' catalogue was thereafter bought from Lew Grade by an Australian, Robert Holmes a Court. And *then* Michael [Jackson] came along. Michael rang me up way back in the late 1970s and I said, "What do you want?" He said, "I want to make
    some hits!" I said, "Great, come on over."

    He did, and he was keen to do stuff, so I wrote "Girlfriend" for him, which I did later on London Town. Then we wrote "Say Say Say" and "The Man" together and then he wrote "The Girl Is Mine." It was fun and he was a nice guy to work with and
    everything. But it always used to keep coming up that he'd say, "Paul, I *need* some advice." I'd give him that advice and say, "Look, get good financial people, people you can trust." I took him under my wing and we'd always be in little corridors
    discussing this stuff. I thought it was just fine, but he used to do this little joke; he'd say [mimicking Jackson's meek tone] "I'm gonna buy your publishing, ya know."

    I'd go, "Ha! Good one, kid!" Then one day I get phoned up, and they said, "He's just bought your stuff." I thought, "Oh, you *are* kidding." But that was it, really. He had the money to buy it; he was rolling in it after Thriller and had it to
    burn.

    As you say, I could have bought it, but in actual fact there were complications with Yoko which prevented me from getting it. That's a whole other story. Anyway, Michael's got it, and all's fair in love, war and business I suppose. But it's a
    little galling now to find that I own less of "Yesterday" than Michael Jackson! It's a thorn in my side, and I keep thinking that I should phone him up.

    -- from McCartney's 1988 interview with Timothy White

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