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One on one with Dick Gregory
Author, activist, nutrition expert and comedian Dick Gregory has taken the charges against pop star Michael Jackson personally. He completed a 40-day fast in support of Mr. Jackson and asked the superstar’s loyal fan base around the world to join him in a prayer vigil every day at noon “so that the truth comes out about Michael Jackson’s case.” Mr. Gregory, who has known Michael Jackson for years, said, “He’s a good man and I feel that he’s been the target of a conspiracy to destroy his career. “In my opinion,” Gregory said, “there are people who have a financial interest in bringing Michael down.” Final Call staff writer Nisa Islam Muhammad sat down with Mr. Gregory to discuss his views on such a conspiracy surrounding Michael Jackson.
Dick Gregory (DG): Michael Jackson did something that no one thought a Black man would do. He purchased the Beatles catalog for $48 million and today it is worth $1.5 billion. He didn’t know when he bought it that the Beatles owned Little Richard’s music. Michael gave it back to Little Richard, who is very happy now. Michael also owns the Elvis Presley catalogs. A Black man owns (the music of) two of the most important music figures in the world and anytime something is played by either of them, Michael gets paid.
Previously when Michael needed money to produce an album he could go to Sony and borrow the money. They came to him with a deal that he would have to put up collateral for future loans; he put up the catalogs as collateral, not all of the catalogs, but enough of them for him to lose control if he forfeits the loans.
Whenever his new records come out, all of the nonsense takes place. I see this and know what the government will do. I have the autopsy of Malcolm X. Someone threw a smoke bomb in the back of the ballroom and someone ran up to the front and shot Malcolm. The autopsy says that all the bullets in Malcolm were shot from above; they go down. Now, the CIA admitted that they rented the Audubon Ballroom a week before. The person who gave Malcolm mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was an undercover cop. Lee Harvey Oswald (who shot President Kennedy in 1963) died from air bubbles, too. You don’t give mouth to mouth to gun shot wounds. That’s what kills them.
I think someone will either stage an accident and kill Michael Jackson, or kill him and make it look like suicide.
Final Call (FC): For the past few weeks, the Nation of Islam has been wrongfully accused of taking over Michael’s affairs. What do you think this uninformed journalism is about?
DG: When riots take place in major cities and the people begin to flee the cities, White businesses call for the Nation of Islam to restore the peace–but they don’t consider that using the race card. There is a double standard. You can’t deal with anything in this country unless you factor in racism and sexism.
White folks have advertised the Million Man March as the greatest march in history. What they didn’t say was that the Navy satellite recorded the attendance at 1.9 million or that all of the hotels were full to capacity for a 100-mile radius. There wasn’t any reefer or alcohol at the march that day. There were no arrests at the march, either. When you get 1.9 million Black men together in D.C. with no arrests and no fights, why wouldn’t Michael call the Nation of Islam for help?
If I were the federal government, I would put the Muslims at the airports. The first time I went to the mosque, they searched me so good they found something on me I had been looking for, for six months. They know how to search and how to search for the truth.
The conspiracy is to destroy Michael Jackson, so he can’t pay his debt to the record company, and anyone they can use to help discredit Michael, they will. I‘m not looking at this from an emotional viewpoint–I know Michael Jackson; he’s innocent.
FC: Michael Jackson has been called weird, “wacko jacko” and other names in the press. What are your thoughts about this?
DG: Was it weird for him never to have a childhood? Robert Blake took a gun with him to dinner and left it in the chair. When he went back to get it and returned to his wife, she was dead. No one classifies that as weird.
If you take away Michael’s genius and brilliance, you have a man with a child mentality. Children do and say what adults won’t. Children are trustworthy. There are people all over the world who are outraged by what is happening to Michael. That’s why I asked people to pray at noon all over the world that the truth will come out. My faith is that when the truth comes out, he’ll be cleared.
He’s innocent, childlike. They said Jesus was childlike.
Being childlike, he didn’t know that taking two fish and five loaves of bread and feeding 10,000 people was messing with the fishing industry, the economy and they will come and get you for doing that.
Michael offered to save the county money by turning himself in. He rented a jet to turn himself in. What does it cost to rent a jet? That’s what he saved the county. Why handcuff him?
Michael gets a $3 million bond. Max Factor heir (Andrew Luster) was charged in California with rape and released on $1 million bail. He didn’t have a $3 million bond. John DuPont, an heir to the DuPont fame, was charged with third degree murder. I’ve never even heard of third degree murder and he was allowed to plead temporary insanity.
If Michael is turning himself in, why does he need a $3 million bond? The press has not demanded that they show someone else with the same amount of bond for a similar case. When you say a $3 million bond, people around the world think you must know something.
If this happened after February, why did they wait so long to investigate Neverland? Why did they wait until Michael left town? Why were FBI agents at Neverland during the search? I thought the FBI only got involved with federal crimes. We learned that someone was privately filming Michael as he was being flown to California. The L. A. Times revealed that the owner of that jet company was an FBI informant and no one in the media is asking, how does this fit in with the FBI? Since when does a Black man own a jet fleet, right out of jail–that’s weird.
With any conspiracy, you don’t know how deep it goes or who’s involved.
FC: Thank you.
