A closer look: Michael Jackson’s relationship with mother Katherine

Updated: 2009-07-02 15:43

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Michael Jackson’s dad Joe dreamed of the Jackson family dominating the music charts. He pushed his kids to the point of perfection and it may have ended up alienating and perhaps causing psychological harm to Michael. But that was not the case with Michael and his mom Katherine.

“After we got married and when we were courting, Joe and I used to sing a lot so when the kids came along and we sang together — they were just little kids,” Katherine said an interview which airs in “Michael Jackson: An E! Entertainment Special,” Wednesday at 10 PM on E!

“I discovered then, that they had perfect harmony,” she added.

It was in those early moments of Michael’s life that his passion for music was born.

Katherine was first to hear Michael’s greatness.

“I said, ‘Why don’t you listen to them? I think they sound pretty good,’” she recounted. “And so, after persuading [Joe], he finally listened.”

Katherine soon heard a young Michael creating music on his own.

“Sometimes I’d hear him in the middle of the night, screaming and jumping out of bed, going, ‘Whoa!’ you know, like, ‘Woo hoo!’ Like he’d just got an idea while he was lying in bed, and he’d get up and write it down. That’s how he writes,” Katherine said.

In his own 1988 autobiography, “Moonwalk,” Michael recalled those early musical moments with his mom.

“My first memories are of her holding me and singing songs like, ‘You Are My Sunshine,’” he wrote.

Michael never forgot his mother’s support. He and his brothers dedicated the group’s albums to her in particular and Michael went on to dedicate all of his albums to her in some way, sometimes with dad Joe too.

Katherine’s support never wavered. She stood by Michael’s side through his two massive, media frenzied legal battles.

“I’d like to let the world know I am behind my son,” she said. “I don’t believe any of the stuff that is written about him because I raised him.”