Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days by Bill Whitfield & Javon Beard & Tanner Colby

Author:Bill Whitfield & Javon Beard & Tanner Colby
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781602862517
Publisher: Weinstein Publishing
Published: 2014-06-03T00:00:00+00:00

Javon: Bill let it be known he wasn’t going up in any hot-air balloon. I said, “I ain’t going up there neither. No way. Nuh-uh.” Neither of us wanted to do it, but one of us was supposed to be with Mr. Jackson at all times. So the whole time leading up to the trip we were thinking, Who’s it going to be? One of us was going to have to submit.

Bill: We had to leave the house at five-thirty in the morning to get to the launch site by six-thirty. It was a husband-and-wife team operating the balloon ride. Per usual, they didn’t know who they were going to be taking. They thought it was just going to be a family of regular tourists. We arrived and they went through the whole drill, telling the kids about how the balloon worked, safety precautions, that sort of thing. There was a little breakfast spread arranged for them before the ride started.

When it came time to take off, the kids were so excited they couldn’t get in that balloon fast enough. They ran over and jumped right in with big smiles. Me and Javon sort of shuffled and stood back, and Mr. Jackson said, “Aren’t you guys coming?”

I looked at Javon, like, I think Javon’s got this one, sir.

Javon said, “Nah, I’m good. I’m good.”

There was a bit of an awkward pause. Mr. Jackson said, “What, are you guys afraid?”

I wasn’t about to tell the man I was scared of riding in that damn balloon. I said, “Nah, we ain’t afraid. It’s just . . . you know—”

“It’s okay if you’re afraid. You can just say so.”

“Nah, nah. It’s not that. It’s just, you know, we just feel like—”

He said, “Okay. Why don’t you just stay down here and follow us in the truck? I think we’ll be fine.”

I said, “I think that’s a good idea, sir. We’ll keep an eye on you from down here.”

So we followed the balloon in the truck. They were pretty high up. It was a nice summer day, not much wind blowing. Still, I was glad I wasn’t up there.

When they finally landed, Mr. Jackson came over to me and said, “Bill, the guy who flew the balloon, I think he took a picture.”

Sometimes you’d think that he was being overly paranoid about that sort of thing—and sometimes he was—but just as often he’d be proven right. I went over to the guy and said, “Hey, I need to see your phone.” He had one of the new iPhones. I went through the photos and, sure enough, this guy had tried to snap a picture on the sly. All he got was the back of Blanket’s head, but it was the breach of privacy that mattered to Mr. Jackson. Even just relaxing and trying to have fun on vacation, he couldn’t trust anyone. That picture got erased.

Javon: It was one thing to keep Michael Jackson hidden in Las Vegas. The town is practically built for it.

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