What It’s Like to Produce an Album for Michael Jackson

Tommy said he’d also worked with Michael Jackson for many years, often fielding Michael’s bizarre 3am calls: “Of course, you’re thinking someone’s pranking you, at first.” Even worse was the financial stress of Michael’s process: “The recording costs were tens of millions of dollars and then marketing dollars were tens of millions on top of that. … Michael thought that everything bigger was better.”

When Michael was accused of molesting children, Tommy toed the company line: “Our job was to support Michael, and that’s what we did.” Howard asked if Tommy believed Michael was innocent–a question Tommy dodged: “I always believed in him.” Michael’s ‘Invincible’ album, proved him wrong: “It was an ok record. It was not nearly as good as his other records.”