FRANK DILEO TALKS ABOUT MICHAEL ON OPUS/MJ

[Gina Jackson]

Well, I decided to post the FRANK DILEO words about his friend MICHAEL JACKSON on the OPUS/MICHAEL JACKSON Page 376 GLOBAL ICON.
I found wonderful  WORDS and I admire Frank Dileo for his respect and friendship for MICHAEL.
Thanks Frank for your loyalty to the HIStory of our idol, and his contribution in his work!
I hope that those who have not read OPUS / MJ like the post! I LOVED IT!
"IF WE CAN DREAM IT, WE CAN DO IT" - I BELIEVE...I DREAM....I HOPE....
L.O.V.E. for all BELIEVERS!!!! :mrgreen:
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IF WE CAN DREAM IT, WE CAN DO IT!!
In my opinion there were four big artists in music: THE BEATLES, ELVIS PRESLEY –who I worked with for a little while at RCA Records – FRANK SINATRA  and  MICHAEL JACKSON.
All of them were major icons, but MICHAEL was the BIGGEST.
He transcended age, race and culture through his music, vision and image. Frank Sinatra wanted to record with him or have MICHAEL write a song he could sing, but we never got around to it. The fact that Frank was in awe of him sums it up.
I managed MICHAEL from 1984 to 1989 during which time we did the THRILLER album, the VICTORY tour, the PEPSI commercial, BAD, the BAD TOUR and MOONWALKER. He ruled the world at that time and everywhere you went, everybody recognized him. I bet there wasn’t one country where the people didn’t know about MICHAEL JACKSON.
What made him so famous was that he didin’t just want to be an R&B singer. He wanted to reach the masses. He figured out how to be as big as he possibly could and then he worked hard at it. He had one of the greatest work ethics of any artist I have ever seen. He would watch and study old dancers to learn from them because he wanted to develop his trade. Anybody he thought was great he’d watch. He was a LOVER of the old movies, Jimmy Cagney films, all that stuff. Eveb if he went back and watched movie like ON THE WATERFRONT with Marlon Brando, he would see some gestures in it that he would then use in his short films – we never called them videos – just little hand gestures or movements. He was never afraid to say:” I saw James Brown do this move” or “I talked to Fred Astaire and he taught me how to do this!”.
The thing that made him so big was the fact that he took chances, whether that was in his music or in his films or clothes. He wasn’t afraid to try something new. Whenever he had an idea he would say to me:
“ IF WE CAN DREAM IT, FRANK, WE CAN DO IT!” and that became the motto for the pair of us.
Watching MICHAEL work was like watching what Michelangelo must have gone through. He was a GENIUS. I thought I was pretty savvy, but I learned a lot from him. I came out of that relationship a hell of a lot smarter than when I went into it. We were both interested in film. He got an editing machine and we worked on it. We talked about how to stage shots and how to do the proper lighting. We learnt all that stuff together. I never would have had that chance if I hadn’t been working with MICHAEL!
When we made our films – we made MOONWLKER together and I was Executive Producer on all the videos from BAD – he was a very hand-on guy, which was great because I was too. But the best way to explain our relationship in that MICHAEL thought and dreamed like Steven Spielberg and I tought like Marty Scorsese. Somewhere we would find the middle aand it would work every time.
Those videos and movies put him right up there. But I guess his most iconic moment came either when he won the seven Grammys for THRILLER in 1984 or with the BAD TOUR in 1988. That set the benchmark for every other artist in the world. We sold out arenas for three nights in all the U.S. cities and we sold out seven nights at Wembley Stadium. Which held 72,000 people. We could have sold out 12 shows there if the nights had been available.
There were a lot of artists scratching their heads at that time, thinking: “How the hell did they do that?”

MICHAEL had it all though: The dancing, the look, the clothes. He knew what would catch on, what was cool. He knew what people would talk about, and he wasn’t afraid to build an image. Most of all, he wasn’t afraid to work hard. I always tell young artists, “It’s not hard to become famous. It’s not hard to have a hit record, but it’s very difficult to maintain your high level career”.
MICHAEL WAS ABLE TO DO THAT BECAUSE HE WOULD TAKE RISKS. AND THAT WAS THE THING THAT MADE HIM “SO GREAT”
FRANK DILEO / 2009

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[2 Bad]

Thanks Gina!! I have the Opus and have tried to read everything, but it seems I get lost in it. I put off the 2nd half of it till after June. I believe with all my heart so to read the last page would be very bad. I may put it off for a long time!
 My wonderful son bought it for me for X-mas, if he only knew how much my heart flipped when I saw it!
I truly appreciate you taking the time to post Franks part.

Keeping the faith!

[PinkTopaz]

Aw, that was great.. I've always liked Frank, he's so- well, frank and sharp-witted, LOL! The pictures are precious!

[mjfansince4]

aw michael.

p.s. anyone notice how he talks about films for the majority of the passage?