Celebrity News

Jackson 5 Founder & Family Patriarch Joe Jackson Dies At Age 89 Of Pancreatic Cancer

Joe Jackson, father of the iconic Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson and the remaining Jacksons clan has lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 89 years old.

He was instrumental in the success of the Jackson 5 as well as Janet Jackson as their manager.  Although reports throughout the years referred to Joe as a tyrant who ruled with an iron fist, he was focused on the success of his children’s musical career.

People can say what they wish about Joe Jackson one thing is for sure there will never be another like him nor will their ever be an iconic family in entertainment like The Jackson Family.

EarHustle411 sends our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Joe Jackson.

Read more about Joe Jackson’s life as reported by NBC:

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Joseph Jackson, the strong, fearsome patriarch of the musical Jackson family, has died at the age of 89, according to a statement from the Michael Jackson Estate.

“We are deeply saddened by Mr. Jackson’s passing and extend our heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Katherine Jackson and the family. Joe was a strong man who acknowledged his own imperfections and heroically delivered his sons and daughters from the steel mills of Gary, Indiana to worldwide pop superstardom,” said John Branca and John McClain, co-executors of the family estate.

Jackson was a guitarist who put his own musical ambitions aside to work in the steel mills to support his wife and nine children in Gary, Indiana. But he far surpassed his own dreams through his children, particularly his exceptionally gifted seventh child, Michael.

Fronted by the then-pint-sized wonder and brothers Jermaine, Marlon, Tito and Jackie, the Jackson 5 was an instant sensation in 1969 and became the first phase of superstardom for the Jackson family. Over the following decades, millions would listen to both group and solo recordings by the Jackson 5 (who later became known as The Jacksons) and Michael would become one of the most popular entertainers in history.

“Papa Joe,” as he would become known, ruled through his stern, intimidating and unflinching presence, which became so indelible it was part of black popular culture, even referenced in song and on TV.

“This is bad, real bad Michael Jackson, Now I’m mad, real mad Joe Jackson,” Kanye West rhymed in Keri Hilson’s 2009 hit, “Knock You Down.”

Michael and other siblings would allege physical abuse at their father’s hands.

“We’d perform for him and he’d critique us. If you messed up, you got hit, sometimes with a belt, sometimes with a switch. My father was real strict with us — real strict,” Michael Jackson wrote in his 1985 autobiography “Moonwalk.”

LaToya Jackson would go as far as to accuse him of sexual abuse in the early 1990s, when she was estranged from her entire family, but she later recanted, saying her former husband had coerced her to make such claims. She and her father later reconciled.

In his autobiography, Joseph Jackson acknowledged having been a stern parent, saying he believed it was the only way to prepare his children for the tough world of show business. However, he always denied physically abusing his children.

Joseph Walter Jackson was born in Fountain Hill, Arkansas, on July 26, 1929, the eldest of four children. His father, Samuel Jackson, was a high school teacher, and his mother, Crystal Lee King, was a housewife.

The couple split up when Jackson was 12. He moved with his father to Oakland, Calif., while his mother moved to East Chicago, Indiana. When he turned 18, he moved to Indiana to live near his mother. It was there that he met and married Katherine Scruse.

In the 1950s, he had tried to launch his own music career as a guitarist, but he came to realize the truly gifted musicians in his family were his children.

While Michael’s success as a solo performer would eventually dwarf that of the rest of his family, Janet would become another multiplatinum superstar; Joe Jackson initially managed her career too, putting her in the Jacksons’ variety show in the early 1970s, where she charmed with her Mae West routine, and shepherding her acting career on shows like “Good Times.” But after she put out “Control,” her breakthrough album at 19, soon after, she too would sever managerial ties with her father.

Joe Jackson is survived by his wife, his children and more than two dozen grandchildren.
Source: NBC
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Most Popular

To Top