The Shmuley tapes
2000-2001
I think all my success and fame, and I have wanted it, I have wanted it because I wanted to be loved. Thatās all.
Michael Jackson, The Shmuley Tapes
Thatās the real truth. I wanted people to love me, truly love me, because I never really felt loved.
I said I know I have an ability. Maybe if I sharpened my craft, maybe people will love me more.
I just wanted to be loved because I think it is very important to be loved and to tell people that you love them and
to look in their eyes and say it.
The Shmuley Recordings are 18 minutes of audio that is confirmed to be Michael. And it is a whole book of conversations where we have to take Shmuley Boteach’s word for it that all these chats were indeed recorded with MJ.
Youtube channel GMJHD explains:
The tape recordings were revealed by the Rabbi on a few news broadcast networks such as CNN and Dateline NBC after the release of his book. The source for the tapes used in this video are these 2 network broadcasts.
There are significant differences between the tape and the book; some quotes from the tape are taken out of context and jumbled up. The overall worth of the statements made during the conversations comes with some hefty disclaimers (details below). So, take a moment to form your own opinion.
Authenticity
šø yes
Value
Consider this: What would you chat about with your rabbi, priest, or any spiritual guru, and how would that conversation unfold? Thereās your answer. Donāt hold your breath waiting for candid discussions on sexuality; the level of pretense surrounding this topic is off the charts. Itās far more genuine when Michael opens up about his family struggles. He tends to respond more as a public figure than as his true self. Shmuley, on the other hand, loves to ask leading questions, and a people pleaser with a knack for reading others will catch on to that. Heāll tailor his responses to what he believes the rabbi wants to hear. And thatās just scratching the surface of why Boteach is a rather controversial figure. You decide.
Sources
Source: Boteach, S. (2009). The Michael Jackson Tapes. Vanguard Press.
Source: Youtube – Michael Jackson’s Private Tape Recordings: 2000 – 2001 (with Shmuley Boteach)
Disclaimer: We are not liable for the content of outside links.
Source: The Michael Jackson Tapes – Version with all of Shmuley’s Comments removed
Source: The Michael Jackson Tapes – Version with all of Shmuley’s Comments removed 2
MJ: I canāt deal with it. I love beautiful things too much and the beautiful things in nature and I want my messages to get out to the world, but I donāt want to be seen now. . . like when my picture came up on the computer, it made me sick when I saw it.
SB: Why?
MJ: Because I am like a lizard. It is horrible. I never like it. I wish I could never be photographed or seen and I push myself to go to the things that we go to. I really do.
MJ: Yeah, I wanted to become such a wonderful performer that I would get love back.
SB: So you could change him, you thought. If you. . . so you thought that if you became a great star, very successful, and were loved by the world, and were very successful, your father would love you too.
MJ: Aha.
SB: So you could change him that way.
MJ: Aha. I was hoping I could and I was hoping I could get love from other people, ācause I needed it real bad, you know? You need love, you need love. Thatās the most important thing.
MJ: Yes, because before me you had [Harry] Belafonte, you had Sammy [Davis, Jr.], you had Nat King Cole. You had them as entertainers and people loved their music. But they didnāt get adulation, and they didnāt get [people] to cry and they didnāt get, āI am in love with you, and I want to marry you.ā They didnāt get people tearing their clothes off and all the hysteria and all the screams. They didnāt play stadiums. I was the first one to break the mold, where white girls, Scottish girls, Irish girls screamed, āI am in love with you, I want to. . . ā And a lot of the white press didnāt like that. Thatās what has made it hard for me, because I was the pioneer and thatās why they started the stories. āHeās weird.ā āHeās gay.ā āHe sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber.ā āHe wants to buy the bones of the Elephant Manāāanything that turns people against me. They tried their hardest.
MJ: And the press, they wait with knives.
SB: For you to fail?
MJ: Absolutely. They try and shred me apart so it has to be beyond expectation, beyond brilliant. I give everything I have.
SB: But it wears you out?
MJ: Yeah. Because when you are the top-selling artist of all time, the records that are broken, they wait. . . you are the target.
MJ: Absolutely. Because every time I talk to him he is in better spirits. When I spoke to him last night he said, āI need you. […] Then he calls me āDad.ā I said, āYou better ask your Dad if it is ok to call me that.ā He shouts, āDad, is it ok if I call Michael, āDad?āā and he says, āYes, no problem, whatever you want.ā Kids always do that. It makes me feel happy that they feel that comfortable.
[…]
MJ: I always feel that I donāt want the parents to get jealous because it always happens and it rubs fathers in a strange way. Not as much as the mothers. I always say to the Dads, āI am not trying to take your place. I am just trying to help and I want to be your friend.ā The kids just end up falling in love with my personality. Sometimes it gets me into trouble, but I am just there to help.