Speaker 1: Big day. Today, the Michael Jackson bio pick drops in cinemas.
Speaker 2: Swinging the capital laughs.
Speaker 3: Oh, Michael's success because a Jackson family, because the brand.
Speaker 2: That's our copper caller, and we need to start selling.
Speaker 2: So I'm planning an international tour. This is just the beginning.
Speaker 2: I need to think. I told you what to think.
Speaker 1: With the movie dropping in cinemas today, we thought what
Speaker 1: was he really like? And our next guest can tell
Speaker 1: us he spent ten close years with Michael Jackson. He's
Speaker 1: former bodyguard and good friend. Matt Fodesk.
Speaker 4: You were Michael Jackson's bodyguard and his close friend, so
Speaker 4: you know more about Michael Jackson than most people. When
Speaker 4: a movie like this is being made, do the producers
Speaker 4: or writers or directors come to you and ask you
Speaker 4: for information about him?
Speaker 5: Have you had any involvement in the film?
Speaker 3: No on this this section, because the rumor is there's
Speaker 3: going to be a part too, So this film takes
Speaker 3: you drops in nineteen eighty eight, I would have been
Speaker 3: a primary school then. I do remember doing pe lessons
Speaker 3: to the Bad Song and stuff like that, not knowing
Speaker 3: I was going to go and end up being his
Speaker 3: friend and bodyguard for ten years. But I think in
Speaker 3: the second part there's going to be some definite questions
Speaker 3: and queries and so forth. But every day of michael
Speaker 3: life is very documented and a lot of people don't
Speaker 3: realize that.
Speaker 2: Whenever he was.
Speaker 3: Out and about, he had his own film crew with him.
Speaker 3: He believed, if life is worth living, it's worth recording.
Speaker 3: So he journalized his whole life. So everything's the videographer
Speaker 3: followed him everywhere. It's all archives, so they've got everything.
Speaker 6: Really, So tell us about the Michael that you know
Speaker 6: and remember, because I mean, from the outside looking in,
Speaker 6: he looked like a complex character. What was it like
Speaker 6: hanging out with Michael?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Michael's not your average guy. He was very super intelligent.
Speaker 3: I mean he used to read three to five non
Speaker 3: fiction books per week. He would stay the greats and
Speaker 3: make them, make them better. He was not the clown
Speaker 3: or weirdo or whatever the world sees him as. He
Speaker 3: was the greatest media manipulator I've ever met in my life.
Speaker 3: And whatever he'd rite at a different city, he would
Speaker 3: set at the table and get us all together and think, right,
Speaker 3: how can we make front pages?
Speaker 2: What can I do?
Speaker 3: And if we went out for dinners, even at friends houses.
Speaker 3: He would say, I need an hour to become Michael
Speaker 3: Jackson and go off to the bedroom, put the lipstick
Speaker 3: on and the sticky taking those and it was all
Speaker 3: an act.
Speaker 2: It was all on me.
Speaker 3: O guy behind closed doors was pery jeans and a
Speaker 3: T shirt, watch TV order, Curry drugs. Just unfortunately the
Speaker 3: image backfired on him, and in the social media era,
Speaker 3: the the the image he created when we used to
Speaker 3: walk out to the fans at the hotels and and
Speaker 3: go out to public of events, he'd all say to me, Matt,
Speaker 3: make sure I want my life to be the greatest
Speaker 3: show on Earth. Wow, yeah, the greatest mystery on Earth.
Speaker 3: And we had to play that game for him with him,
Speaker 3: you know, we used to play bad cop and he
Speaker 3: put on the high pitched voice and made sure the
Speaker 3: face mask was on. People wondered what was behind it.
Speaker 3: He would alter the makeup accordingly. But we had no
Speaker 3: social media in his era, so he just started to
Speaker 3: use the email before he died, that was basically about MySpace,
Speaker 3: but so it was very different. When social media came out,
Speaker 3: it backfired on him and people did really understand. Back then,
Speaker 3: lots of people used image control, like you know, Madonna
Speaker 3: used to be invent herself all the time, you know,
Speaker 3: Sorry Prince.
Speaker 2: And people like that.
Speaker 4: So you're saying there was very much Michael Jackson the
Speaker 4: human and then Michael Jackson the character, and they were
Speaker 4: very different people.
Speaker 3: He used to I remember driving with his brother, Tito
Speaker 3: Jackson in California and Tito.
Speaker 2: Was complaining to me.
Speaker 3: He said, I my little brother Michael is that he
Speaker 3: lives and breathes being Michael Jackson the performer.
Speaker 2: He loved it. He would never switch off.
Speaker 3: He literally was working day and night like the song,
Speaker 3: and even at nighttimes he had a job to sleep,
Speaker 3: he was recording and every day I used to have
Speaker 3: a room adjacent to his living room and he used
Speaker 3: to keep me up all night singing and playing Lionel
Speaker 3: Richie and Diana Ross. And then he apologized the next day.
Speaker 3: We go through the same routine and every single day
Speaker 3: when we're on the road.
Speaker 2: But he loved it.
Speaker 3: But the Michael Jackson that wasn't the performer was a
Speaker 3: very kind man and who lived for his children and
Speaker 3: would do things for charities and stuff. But he would
Speaker 3: never switch off. He'd always be recording new songs and
Speaker 3: he wanted to be a movie director. That was his
Speaker 3: goald in life.
Speaker 1: I know with the movie there's a section where they
Speaker 1: start to tackle the allegations around Michael, and apparently they
Speaker 1: have to do race shoots on it. You were with
Speaker 1: him for ten years. Do you remember your feeling when
Speaker 1: news of allegations around Michael Brooke.
Speaker 3: We knew so the nineteen ninety three obviously I would
Speaker 3: have been at school, but it was mainstream media was
Speaker 3: massive then, so I was aware of it even at school,
Speaker 3: and there was always jokes about Wacko Jacko and Michael
Speaker 3: being into young children and stuff and so forth. So
Speaker 3: when I got to meet Michael nineteen ninety eight, then
Speaker 3: I got to know the real guy. Now, if we're
Speaker 3: talking about the last allegations where he was found not
Speaker 3: guilty on those all counts, we kind of knew his charge.
Speaker 3: Knew it was approaching even before approached. So when we
Speaker 3: knew that Neverland was being raided and he was going
Speaker 3: to be accused of child on the station and they're
Speaker 3: not allowed to release the child's name, we knew exactly
Speaker 3: who it was going to be because that family was
Speaker 3: something else that we warned Michael all the time about it,
Speaker 3: and they were taking advantage he was to give in.
Speaker 3: They were foreign tangents, they were wrecking Neverland with the
Speaker 3: quad bikes and stuff. So and we were feeding this
Speaker 3: information back to him, and in the end he cut
Speaker 3: them off and then kind of frets were made and stuff.
Speaker 3: So we were we were shocked that they went to
Speaker 3: that length, but we kind of just thought they weren't money. Really,
Speaker 3: I mean, that's what happened in ninety three. Everyone thinks
Speaker 3: that Michael was paid that family off. It wasn't Michael Jackson.
Speaker 3: It was Michael Jackson's insurance company.
Speaker 6: Hey, hey, Matt, just in terms of his celebrity, and
Speaker 6: you acted as his bodyguard for many years, were you
Speaker 6: ever shocked at how, you know, how people acted around
Speaker 6: Michael because he was.
Speaker 5: The people, says Lauren, Like, I've never seen anything like that.
Speaker 6: He was probably at one stage the most popular person
Speaker 6: on the planet. Like, what was your experience, Like.
Speaker 3: It was, Yeah, it was insane. I remember going to
Speaker 3: a very famous person's wedding once and Michael was best man,
Speaker 3: and everyone at the wedding were all Hollywood styles, major
Speaker 3: TV movie Hollywood stars, and at the end of the wedding, ceremary.
Speaker 3: They all mobbed him for his autograph or picture. We
Speaker 3: had to we had to lock Michael away in a room.
Speaker 3: It was like the Superstar of Superstar.
Speaker 5: He is the celebrity, celebrity whose wedding.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 3: I know you guys remember him in Australia. I'm not
Speaker 3: sure how famous he got there. Guy called Yuri Geller,
Speaker 3: famous for bend in spoons with a power of mind.
Speaker 3: He was more like seventies, but one of Michael's best friends.
Speaker 3: But it's a big time in America and around Europe.
Speaker 3: But I don't think he ventured out to Australia too much.
Speaker 3: But yeah, and it was interesting to see that. But
Speaker 3: everyone was trying to get him, get to him, you know,
Speaker 3: like Britney Spears would be hanging around and and she
Speaker 3: she looked out to him. And we used to have
Speaker 3: presidents ring us all the time, and he was too busy.
Speaker 3: He would turn him away, like President Clinton used to
Speaker 3: call all the time.
Speaker 6: And yeah, yeah, literally that happened.
Speaker 3: I was in London and the phone went I answered
Speaker 3: its President Clinton. Can I speak to mister Jackson? And
Speaker 3: I went into interrupt Michael. Mike was Father's day. I
Speaker 3: remember very well. Michael was reading a book to his children.
Speaker 2: They were in New York.
Speaker 3: We were in London on loudspeaker for Father's Day, and
Speaker 3: I said, President Clinton's on the phone for you, and
Speaker 3: he said, Matt telling him to I'll call him back,
Speaker 3: and his father's.
Speaker 5: There to his kids.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Is carried on reading the story to Prince and Paris,
Speaker 3: who were in New York. We're in London, and I
Speaker 3: told President Clinton that he were calling him back.
Speaker 1: How did that go?
Speaker 2: He was fine. They were good friends, you know. He
Speaker 2: was fine, but well, he's busy.
Speaker 5: They just bill j popular.
Speaker 1: Did he sorry? Did he pay?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: I did it for free. I did it for free.
Speaker 3: I was in the unusual situation. I've been in a
Speaker 3: millionaire of my own business by the time in nineteen
Speaker 3: and I think that's why it works so well, is
Speaker 3: that there was no financial transactions. It was he opened
Speaker 3: awes from me. He taught me how to build the
Speaker 3: biggest martial arts brand, franchise brand in the world, over
Speaker 3: two thousand locations. He had the biggest merchandise brand in
Speaker 3: deal with Pepsi Cola where he burnt his sculp and
Speaker 3: I did it free. He offered money many times, but
Speaker 3: I knew he was struggling financially.
Speaker 2: I did want the money.
Speaker 3: I had over one hundred staff that could help him out,
Speaker 3: my brother in law, So it was a non transactual.
Speaker 4: So you saw it has been good for your brand
Speaker 4: to be his bodyguard, to show the world what you're.
Speaker 3: Know if you think about it, I've got one of
Speaker 3: the biggest children's organizations in the world. So at times
Speaker 3: I had people in my ear saying, you're doing the
Speaker 3: right thing here. You sure this guy is not guilty
Speaker 3: because you're sticking your neck out for this man as
Speaker 3: your mate, being seen with him all over the world.
Speaker 3: But I knew the real Michael, knew what he was like.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean, I won't be talking to you
Speaker 3: guys now. I being his friend and body got the
Speaker 3: open doors. But I didn't realize at the time.
Speaker 1: But how did the relationship start? How did you reach out?
Speaker 1: How did you get into that position in the first place.
Speaker 3: So I built the biggest martial arts chain in the world,
Speaker 3: the Mattfest Martial Arts Schools that hit UK international media.
Speaker 3: But he boy comes millionaire at nineteen. His best friend
Speaker 3: saw it and Michael was already a black belt and
Speaker 3: he wanted to meet me. He was interested in my
Speaker 3: success and my ambition, and he wanted to work towards
Speaker 3: his second to be black belt. That's what you see
Speaker 3: some of his dance movies does kick some blocks and
Speaker 3: so forth. So his best friend you that I could
Speaker 3: be trusted with Michael and and we were friends for
Speaker 3: a year training beforehand before he took over his security operation.
Speaker 4: Gosh, he had a fascinating life. I did not know
Speaker 4: who like. There's so much we do.
Speaker 6: Not controversial as well? How do you how do you
Speaker 6: expect this film to be received? Because because I canceled
Speaker 6: is a is a word that gets bandied around. I mean,
Speaker 6: is Michael Jackson still canceled in many respects?
Speaker 2: Do you know what? Every day? There's not a day
Speaker 2: in the UK, I'm very known for me.
Speaker 3: Michael Jackson's bodyguarb also every thing out so I get
Speaker 3: stopped or there's not a day I don't get a
Speaker 3: DM or questioned about him. He's getting bigger and bigger
Speaker 3: as the years go by. So I've got friends, we've
Speaker 3: seen this movie. I was invited to a private screening,
Speaker 3: but I couldn't make it to a business agreement. It's
Speaker 3: controversial because they stopping it just before plastic surgeries. The allegations.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not an idiot, I know exactly. The
Speaker 3: media are going to go wild over this. That is
Speaker 3: his brand has been whitewashed by the Michael Jackson State
Speaker 3: who direct this will collaborate this for this movie with
Speaker 3: Lionsgate Universal, So it's going to be controversial like the
Speaker 3: Freddie Murcury.
Speaker 2: That's just the same people who made the Freddie Murcury movie.
Speaker 3: But what it will do is rebrand the Michael Jackson State.
Speaker 3: You're going to see kids moon walking at school again.
Speaker 4: It's going to be which seem to like their MJ
Speaker 4: musical as well, which just like tickets flew off the shelf.
Speaker 5: So that and this is going to jump down and
Speaker 5: do that, don't.
Speaker 3: I don't think you can counsel Michael Jackson. I think
Speaker 3: he's too big to be counting. It's been proven now
Speaker 3: and this is just there's been lots of documentaries, negative
Speaker 3: ones come out in the UK and Ireland about Michael
Speaker 3: and just no one's watching, no one's listening anymore. It's
Speaker 3: and for me, I would not hang around a man
Speaker 3: for ten years, hang around my child.
Speaker 2: I got six childs. Hang around my kids.
Speaker 3: But you know, and if I thought there was any
Speaker 3: sighted bit the truth, I was sneaking women into his room.
Speaker 2: That was the thing. The trouble you've got.
Speaker 3: They've all signed NDA's or no one wants to go
Speaker 3: with the narrative that man was a womanizer. He was
Speaker 3: not interested in young boys, but he was brainwashed by Motown.
Speaker 3: And I hope the movie will cover this, that you
Speaker 3: cannot be shown to be married. When Tito got married,
Speaker 3: the first Jackson be married, Michael was crying, so he
Speaker 3: thought it was the end of his career. At the
Speaker 3: end of the Jackson's he used to tell me this,
Speaker 3: So towards the end of his life, he was gonna
Speaker 3: He tried to make a documentary about his love life,
Speaker 3: but Mianbushier screwed him up, and that was supposed to
Speaker 3: cleanse his whole image and show the real him talk
Speaker 3: about his relationship. I still speak to some of his
Speaker 3: girlfriends that he had to this day. We're still in contact.
Speaker 3: But no one wasted.
Speaker 4: Hey, just quickly, can you just take us behind the
Speaker 4: curtain at Neverland? Like that place fascinated me where he leaved,
Speaker 4: what went on there, like was it as kookie as
Speaker 4: it seemed. Did he really he had a monkey or Bubbles?
Speaker 4: Didn't he at one point?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was before he had many monkeys, but that
Speaker 3: was before my my era. Bubbles had to go to
Speaker 3: a zoo because when they become like teenage age, they
Speaker 3: they get abusive, so he had to go to zoo.
Speaker 2: He's in Miami right now.
Speaker 5: I'm still alive.
Speaker 2: Yeah four yeah, yeah, here he comes. Yeah.
Speaker 3: He Documentaries made about him all the time and people
Speaker 3: try and visit him. He's an animal sanctuary being looked
Speaker 3: after by the Jackson Estate in Florida.
Speaker 5: But the whole place to look like a playground.
Speaker 3: It's like a playground, but once you left a few days,
Speaker 3: you go crazy. I mean you go mad. It's this
Speaker 3: like the music that you go to. So if you
Speaker 3: guys over been to euro Disney or disney Land, but
Speaker 3: the music's playing all the time in years and when
Speaker 3: you're there, you never see Michael, who was like a
Speaker 3: running joke. You never seen Michael never Land because he
Speaker 3: just kept himself to hisself off in his room, in
Speaker 3: his quarters, and very rarely would he come out because
Speaker 3: the security would have to follow him around because people
Speaker 3: would parachute in to try and get to meet him.
Speaker 2: So even in his own privacy of his home, he
Speaker 2: didn't have.
Speaker 1: What was the what was the craziest fan interaction, like
Speaker 1: someone that had gone to an extreme level to get
Speaker 1: to him.
Speaker 3: So many I mean would find fans underneath his bed.
Speaker 3: They would hide in the trolleys for room service, So
Speaker 3: so we'd have to check the trolleys before we go
Speaker 3: into the hotel rooms. Parachuting in to Netherland was a
Speaker 3: very common one where am I and they did. The
Speaker 3: security would run the quick MIKEL would run to the
Speaker 3: panic room. And that's the room the media like to say,
Speaker 3: is the sex chamber room off his bedroom. Yeah, that
Speaker 3: was built before he bought Neverland, and so he would
Speaker 3: go there until head of security at Nevland said it
Speaker 3: would save for him to come out.
Speaker 5: So was he like he was so oh famous? Was
Speaker 5: he scared about his popularity?
Speaker 4: Was he scared someone was going to hurt him?
Speaker 2: Towards the end, he was terrified.
Speaker 3: But before before the allegations, no, but after two thousand
Speaker 3: and five things changed.
Speaker 2: When we would go around people with shout abusive.
Speaker 3: Comments to him to try and we would hear him
Speaker 3: being shouted. People called him a pedophile, you know, which
Speaker 3: we never got that before the trial.
Speaker 1: Matt, what was your last interaction with Michael.
Speaker 2: I spoke to him two nights before he died.
Speaker 3: He called me. He was panicking. He was asking for Joseph.
Speaker 3: He called his dad, Joseph. He wanted to know if
Speaker 3: I knew where Joseph was he was. I told him
Speaker 3: I did. I gave him Joseph's number. His dad he
Speaker 3: was in Vegas. Michael was in rehearsals at the time,
Speaker 3: and I could tell Michael was not good and he
Speaker 3: was on some kind of substance. He told me he
Speaker 3: was on effort room, which the doctor gave him, which
Speaker 3: kind of reassured me a little bit, which is not
Speaker 3: uncommon for dancers to take. But he told me, you know,
Speaker 3: I won't swear the word he you because it's on
Speaker 3: Nash Radio. But he told me, my dad is Joseph
Speaker 3: is the only person who can sort this beep out
Speaker 3: the situation, and they're working me to death. I can't
Speaker 3: go on like this. And he spoke to my children,
Speaker 3: and he spoke to my wife at the time, and
Speaker 3: that's the last I heard. Then he left a message
Speaker 3: on Joseph Jackson's ass the phone machine. Unfortunately, jose didn't
Speaker 3: pick it up until after Michael passed away on the
Speaker 3: Thursday morning.
Speaker 1: Wow, well, mate, look what. I can't thank you enough
Speaker 1: for an insight you've given us this morning. I'm sure
Speaker 1: no doubt the movie will be hard for you to watch,
Speaker 1: but we really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2: Mate, Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: It's been nice to hear a very different side of
Speaker 1: the man we thought we knew.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I hope they take a part two past
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3: I think the fans are going to be disappointed because
Speaker 3: they're gonna want to see the real guy. They've seen
Speaker 3: the performer. They're gonna want to see the loneliness of sadness.
Speaker 3: But let's see, let's see what happens. Is everything Michael
Speaker 3: does as controversial, but I think this will be the
Speaker 3: biggest movie of all time.
Speaker 2: That's my prediction.
Speaker 5: Wow, there go.
Speaker 6: Jas and Lauren.
Speaker 5: Lauren wake up feeling good. Follow them on the socials.
Speaker 2: So h