Andy Warhol had two encounters with Michael Jackson; in between, he did a portrait of him for a 1984 cover of Time (working from photographic reference). This is his account of the first meeting:

Wednesday, February 2, 1977

Went home and did some work, then at 11:00 Catherine and I went over to Regine’s to interview Michael Jackson of the Jackson 5. He’s very tall now, but he has a really high voice. He had a big guy with him, maybe a bodyguard, and the girl from The Wiz. The whole situation was funny because Catherine and I didn’t know anything about Michael Jackson, really, and he didn’t know anything about me–he thought I was a poet or something like that. So he was asking questions that nobody who knew me would ask–like if I was married, if I had any kids, if my mother was alive…. (laughs) I told him, “She’s in a home.”

(Warhol’s mother died in the early ’70s, but he routinely deflected questions about her, saying “She’s fine.”)

posted 8 July 2009 in Excerpts and tagged Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson. no comments yet