Lucy Diamonds from BallerStatus.Com has conducted an interview with Producer Teddy Riley. He mentions upcoming projects with Michael Jackson. You can read the full interview by clicking here.

Below is a transcript of when Teddy talks about working with The King of Pop:

Lucy Diamonds: There have been rumours going around the news that you and Will.i.am are both working on the new Michael Jackson album? Any truth to that?

Teddy Riley: Yes, it’s true Michael and I are supposed to be working together. I don’t know exactly which direction Michael is going in right now, but when the call comes in, I’m there.

Lucy Diamonds: Speaking of Michael Jackson, after he broke records with Quincy Jones on several albums up through Bad¸ you took over the production for Dangerous. At that time in your career, was following Quincy Jones a lot of pressure?

Teddy Riley: It was a lot pressure, I ain’t gonna lie about it. I felt really tense going in there working with Michael and to be coming after Quincy who’s a genius. He’s the Grandfather of production. Actually he called me to do it. He told me “you can do this.” He’s the one who put me out there to Michael and said, “This is the guy you need to do your record.” So then Michael called. At that point, I just went in with a lot of songs knowing he’d at least pick one song but he picked seven.

Lucy Diamonds: What was that experience like?

Teddy Riley: That experience was crazy because… like, I expected the worst. So when you expect the worst and then you actually get something, the worst now becomes the best for you. I expected not to have more than one song on the album, but then over the course we just developed this great relationship and chemistry. It’s a magnificent feeling.

Source: BallerStatus.Com

Greeting From Michael

Thank you to all the fans for your love and support of Mr. Jackson. It is so sweet of you all to remember his birthday. He really loves and appreciates you all.

Best.
Raymone K. Bain

Dear Michael

You are often in our thoughts and always in our hearts.

We miss you very much and hope that this birthday greeting finds you and your family happy and well.

We wish you a very Happy Birthday, with all of our love and best wishes, from your fans and friends of The Michael Jackson Fan Club!

The web site The Star Online features an interesting article on the history of music videos, which of course also includes several paragraphs on some of Michael`s short films.

To read the article click here.

Source: The Star Online

Michael Jackson inspired Australian pop star Darren Hayes to come out as gay.

The former Savage Garden star claims Jackson made him realise how important it was to be honest to himself. Hayes says, “I connected with that gorgeous, wounded creature that he was.”

The Insatiable singer revealed his sexuality last year (06) when he announced he had ‘wed’ British boyfriend Richard Cullen in a same-sex civil ceremony in the U.K.

Source: Contact Music

A lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who died at a hospital soon after she was moved to make room for Michael Jackson cannot continue as filed, a judge has ruled.

The family of Manuela Gomez Ruiz had sued Jackson and Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria, claiming she was kept from critical care after she had a heart attack on the same day Jackson was brought in with flu-like symptoms during his 2005 child-molestation trial. Jackson was acquitted in the case.

Judge Rodney Melville - also the judge in Jackson’s molestation case - on Tuesday allowed challenges to the complaint filed by attorneys for Jackson and the hospital, who had argued the facts of the case didn’t justify the complaint.

Melville gave the plaintiffs’ attorney, James McKiernan, 30 days to redraft their complaint. McKiernan said he would refile the necessary documents.

The lawsuit said the 73-year-old Ruiz was on life-support after a massive heart attack and was moved from a two-bed room so Jackson could occupy it by himself.

She was kept alive in an exam room using hand-pumped oxygen until she could be reconnected to a life-support machine, court papers said.

The lawsuit alleged she had another heart attack but the crowd milling around the pop star delayed her arrival at the critical-care unit. Ruiz died later that night.

The complaint cites the “outrageous, circus-like atmosphere they orchestrated during the last hours of Manuela Ruiz’s life and its obvious emotional and mental lasting effects upon the plaintiffs.”

Source: Associated Press

An interview of singer and producer Will.I.Am by the German newspaper ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’ has been published by the web site jetzt.de. In the interview, he also talks about meeting and working with Michael Jackson:

SZ: Your opinion as a businessman: Can the new Michael Jackson album at which they collaborate become a success? Will it ever appear at all?

Will.I.Am: I already think that it will appear. But to all other one: no comment. The deal between Michael Jackson and me is very simple: I come into the studio to him if he calls me. There already are further photo dates, we see each other again in the studio in November. He is super cool. Just like Prince.

SZ: You also have worked with Prince? The man has spoofed the CD industry just another time by simply giving his new CD in Great Britain as a supplement in a daily newspaper.

Will.I.Am: A visionary. I have appeared with him. I was in Las Vegas with the Black Eyed Peass a couple of months ago. Prince who played in a casino calls me there: “Hey, do you want to appear with me today?” I clearly say of course! The next day his assistant called me on and said: “Once again, Prince would like to know tonight whether you would feel like it to join in.” Desire? What is there cooler but to appear with Prince? Exact: Appear on two days behind each other with him! I get another call a couple of minutes later: “Hey, here is Mike, what do you do just that way?” Mike? Michael Jackson? Wow! He had at the time of the studio changed from Ireland to Las Vegas. So I say: “Hey, I appear with Prince here tonight.” Prince — “? This is terrific!” you “should” drop in! actual — “? Do you think this would be cool?” “this would be damned cool”! I okly then “come”. One must imagine this: I appear with Prince and Michael Jackson sits in the audience! Sacred shit! It is how p robable that gets a man unite call of Prince within ten minutes first and then unite of Michael Jackson?

SZ: The probability is zero.

Will.I.Am: Right. Okay — so I get stuck in the traffic on the way to the concert in the early evening! *****, do I think, is there to be in the jam a worse time? So I jump out of the car sometime and run off. I make it to the club in the very last second. At this everything runs wonderfully, Prince still calls into the microphone after three minutes “Give it up for Will.I.Am ” , I am down of the stage again !

I creep into the hall and sit down at the table, of — Michael Jackson. So he really did come! “How did you find me?”, I ask him. He answers: “I didn’t know at all that you rap.” Pardon? The man has let me fly in for a couple of admissions to damned Ireland and he didn’t even know that I am not only producer but also a rapper! I say: “Have you never listened to my music, never seen my videos? I am the main rapper the Black Eyed Peas !”

Anyway. Next to Michael Jackson actor Chris Tucker is sitiing and then Prince comes down from the stage towards us. . .

SZ: …and does see Michael Jackson sitting at the table with you?

Will.I.Am: Yo. He has buckled his bass on and stops in front of our table .. So we sit there: Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker and I. Prince stands directly in front of Michael Jackson and improvises on his bass: Slap! Otherwise , he makes nothing! Nothing says! Simply play. What a scene! When Prince is back on the stage again Michael Jackson says to me: “Prince has played me with his bass in the middle of the face! What should this then?” Hm, I say: “You finally are here incognito! Imagine Prince would have said: ´Yes, and Michael Jackson sits by the way here.’The people are already rested from enough because of Prince, let alone, they would have known that you are also there!” Well, this was the craziest night of my life.

SZ: And if you tell the story nobody believes you.

Will.I.Am: I wouldn’t even believe her myself! But what shall I say: It is true. Every word. The next morning I had breakfast with Michael Jackson, we worked a little on songs, and this was the last time that I have seen him.

The complete interview in German can be read here.

Source: jetzt.de

A treasure trove of unreleased Jackson 5 material is set to be released, after lying in a New Jersey storage warehouse for years.

Richard Altomare, the boss of luggage movement company Universal Express, bought a collection of unclaimed personal belongings from the warehouse - only to find a set of tapes dating back to the ’70s containing almost 60 unreleased songs by The Jackson 5.

Altomare claims he’s currently in talks with Michael Jackson and his sister Janet - who wasn’t in the band - and record labels including Sony in order to get the music released. Altomare says, “I’ve personally talked to Michael and Janet on the phone about the tapes, and even played on a couple of songs for them. “At first there was silence on the other end of the line, but that was quickly followed by giggles as if it brought them back to the day those songs were recorded.”

Source: Contact Music

A London woman who claims she is the real mother of Michael Jackson’s three children was denied a role Wednesday in the singer’s custody settlement with his ex-wife, Deborah Rowe.

Nona Paris Lola Jackson, 36, asked a judge to grant her joint physical custody of Jackson’s 10-year-old son, Prince Michael, and 9-year-old daughter, Paris. She also claims to be the mother of 5-year-old Prince Michael II.

“I feel her evidence fails to establish any genetic relationship between herself and the Jackson-Rowe children,” Superior Court Judge Robert A. Schnider said.

Schnider also denied the woman’s request to nullify Jackson’s marriages with Rowe and with Lisa Marie Presley, both of which ended in divorce.

Nona Jackson was heard in the courtroom through a telephone and loudspeaker. Jackson and Rowe were not present.

Jackson settled a custody fight with Rowe over his two eldest children in September. Details of that agreement have not been released. Jackson has not identified the mother of Prince Michael II.

Nona Jackson also asked the court to grant her child support in an amount to be determined by Jackson, along with possession of his Neverland Ranch and a San Fernando Valley home.

“Debbie’s hospital records will prove that my kids are not hers because of DNA,” she stated.

In court papers, Nona Jackson contended that “Michael and I are a sexually active couple and have been this way from the beginning.” She also claimed to have written more than 3,000 songs for him.

The woman’s three previous attempts to have a say in the custody battle were rejected by the same judge last November and in February and May on grounds that she had failed to notify Jackson and Rowe of the hearings.

With Wednesday’s ruling, it was unclear if she had any more legal options.

“I guess it’s possible she could always do something else,” said Marta B. Almli, Rowe’s attorney.

Source: Associated Press

Yolanda Davis (45), a woman from Gary, Indiana, USA, pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter in connection with the stabbing death of her boyfriend Johnny Jackson Jr. Jackson was the stage drummer for the Jackson Five from 1967–75, though he was not related to Michael Jackson or his brothers.

Davis faces an agreed term of two years in prison when she is sentenced September 24, 2007 by Lake Superior Court Judge Clarence Murray in connection with the death.

On March 1, 2006, Davis was dating the 55-year-old Jackson when they began arguing in their residence in Gary. The argument became physical, with Jackson striking Davis across the nose. Davis then got a steak knife from the kitchen, ran back into the living room and stabbed Jackson in the chest when he lunged at her again. Davis, thinking the injury was not severe, left the home. However the wound had caused a tear in Jackson’s heart, which resulted in internal bleeding and death, according to a release from the prosecutor`s office.

Source: WBBM 780