Jackson's family at war over 'faked' new record

Yesterday, almost 18 months after Jackson's died from a heart attack as he prepared for a comeback tour, his record label, Sony, unveiled the first track from new album Michael, which it claims is fresh material recorded, but never actually released, during the star's final years.

The debut song, Breaking News, is an attack on the media "who want to write my obituary" written in the aftermath of Jackson's various court cases. It was apparently recorded in 2007 at the New Jersey home of producer Eddie Cascio, where the King of Pop and his children were living at the time.

Stalking

The song begins with snippets of news coverage about the singer, before segueing into a complaint about reporters "stalking" him. Its chorus poses the question: "Who is this boogieman you're thinking of?"

No sooner had the track been streamed on Jackson's official website, however, than Sony was forced to issue a statement denying that it had been "faked." The label said it had: "complete confidence in the results of our extensive research, as well as the accounts of those who were in the studio with Michael, that the vocals are his own."

It came after several members of Jackson's dysfunctional extended family claimed that the record had been cobbled together from out-takes and samples from his back catalogue.

Michael's nephew Taryll, son of his brother Tito, described it as: "Sampled breaths after sampled breaths mixed in with fake vocals to try to fool you." Taryll's brother TJ said on his Twitter feed that "Deceptively merging shady vocals with MJ samples -- from prior MJ records -- will never fool me."

Cynics were quick to suggest that Taryll and TJ may feel hostile to the record because they are not beneficiaries of Michael's estate, which according to Forbes magazine generated $275m (€198m) in the first year after his death.

Jackson's father, Joe, is in the same boat since he was also frozen out of his son's will. And he duly came out of the woodwork to claim the decision to release Breaking News was in poor taste.

"The songs which are being released on the new album were unfinished and incomplete tracks that Michael said over and over many times he never wanted released. We should honour Michael's wishes," said Joe's lawyer.

The statement put Joe Jackson at odds with his estranged wife Katherine, who does benefit financially from the singer's estate and is the guardian of his three children, Prince Michael, (13) Paris (12), and Prince Michael II (8), who is also known as Blanket.

Katherine and the children were scheduled to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show last night. According to unconfirmed reports, the pre-recorded interview would see them address allegations that the forthcoming album had been embellished from original recordings.

A clip released in advance showed Katherine Jackson also admit that Michael was addicted to plastic surgery. She recalled how his nose kept getting smaller after repeated operations, and eventually looked like a "toothpick."

hnews@herald.ie