Michael Jackson outlines his creative obsessions: building instruments by hand, letting songs write themselves, and drawing inspiration from children's innocence. He credits humility, self-belief, and physical embodiment of music as keys to his legendary career, citing the bass hook for "Billie Jean" as a moment when inspiration felt divine.
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He's a singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor.
People call him the King of Pop.
His 1982 album Thriller is the best-selling album of all time.
He's Michael Jackson, and here are his top 10 rules for success.
My favorite song on the album is Man in the Mirror.
Oh yeah, I like that a lot.
That's my favorite song. I tend to hold a feeling that no matter what you do in the world, it really has to start with you.
It's my philosophy too. If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change. Is it hard to do? Yeah, well, people don't look at themselves honestly. They don't look at themselves and point the finger at them. It's always the other guy's fault or somebody else. You should change yourself. Look at yourself. Make better of yourself.
Uh-huh.
My purpose? Oh boy, I think to give in the best way I can through song and through dance and through music. I mean, I am committed to my art. I believe that all art has as its ultimate goal the union between the material and the spiritual, the human and the divine. I believe that to be the reason for the very existence of art, and I feel I was chosen as an instrument to just give music and love and harmony to the world.
I remember having the guys go back in and create more innovative— because we don't— this is our thing. We don't put a lot of sounds on the album that are sounds from keyboards that are, you know, pretty much programmed into the machine. Go out and make our own sound. Hit on things, we beat on things, so nobody can duplicate what we do. We make them with our own hands. We find things and we create things. And that's the most important thing to me, to be a pioneer, be an innovator.
Okay.
What's going through your mind when you're dancing?
Not thinking. Thinking is the biggest mistake a dancer could make.
You have to feel.
You become the bass, you become the fanfare, you become the clarinet and the flute and the strings and the drums.
So you're almost the physical embodiment of the music.
Absolutely. Believe in yourself. Study the greats and become greater. No matter what. I mean, I don't care if the whole world is against you or tease you or say you're not gonna make it. Believe in yourself. No matter what.
No matter what.
Some of the greatest men that have made a mark on this world were treated like that. You know, you're not gonna do it, you're not gonna get anywhere. They laughed at the Wright Brothers. They laughed at Thomas Edison. They laughed at Walt Disney. They made jokes of Henry Ford. They said he was ignorant. He didn't have a college degree because he dropped out of school. Disney dropped out of school.
They even took Ford to court to prove his intelligence.
That's how far they went. Yeah. And these are men that shaped and changed our culture, our customs, the way we live, the way we do things.
Most important, stay humble. The humbleness that a child, like a newborn baby has. Even though you become powerful or have power with people, with your talent, or with like, you know, with what Michelangelo did with sculpting, you know, underneath all that, be as humble as a child, as a baby, and as kind and giving and loving. Never become puffed up with pride.
How do you write a song?
How do I write a song?
Well, you don't have a pen in your hand and you don't try.
What would happen if I sat here and played some chords, whatever, and say I'm going to write the best song ever written? Nothing happens. Something in the heavens has to say, look, this is the time that this is going to be laid on you, and this is when I want you to have it. Now I remember when I, when I wrote Billie Jean, I was riding in my car down Ventura Boulevard, all I said to myself beforehand, I want to write a song with a great bass hook, you know, and, um, and I just let it go really. And then several days later, you know, um, you know, where did that come from?
From above.
So, okay, you, you were singing the bass line. Sing that again, and then what happened? How did you get the other instrumentation and the composition? How did it work?
It It— see, the thing is, in, um, artists seem to get in the way of the music. Get out of the way of the music, you know. Don't write the music, let the music write itself.
I think with any type of creation, you create what's inside of you, um, subconsciously what influences you. I'm a fantasy fanatic, and, uh, Anything that takes you off into another world, escapism. That's what I like. I'm not so crazy about the reality of everything. I like a lot of fantasy, and that's what I try to create. To get away, to become moved.
To become moved. I think what they get from me, I get from them. I told you, I've said it many times, my greatest inspiration comes from kids. Every song I write, every dance I do, all the poetry I write is all inspired from that level of innocence, that consciousness of purity. And children have that. I see God in the face of children. And, um, man, uh, I just love being around that, that all the time.
You have something within your records that everybody just loves? Boy, I couldn't say. I just create it, and I'm honored that the public enjoy what I do. I couldn't explain why, the anatomy of why it happens.
There's a formula?
Not that I know of. I— it's my heart. I put my heart in it.
You put your heart in it. Yeah. Like Michelangelo said, you know, I know the creator will go, but his work survives. That is why to escape death I attempt to bind my soul to my work. That's how I feel. I give my all every morning.
Because I wanted to just live and just give all that I have, you know?
It has to be.
I mean, what do you put into it?
Well, whatever I sing, that's what I really mean. I'm singing a song. I don't sing it if I don't mean it.
Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Random Order asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of Michael Jackson's top 10 rules you like the most. Leave it below. I'm going to join in the discussion. Thank you guys so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.
