On Nature and Animals

“As corny as it sounds, natural highs are the greatest highs in the world. The stars, the mountains, children, babies smiling are just magic.”

Michael Jackson, JET Magazine, 1979

“I am not street smart at all. I hate the city. I love nature.”

Michael Jackson

"A lot of people just stay in the cities when they travel. They should get out and see the real country. Wherever you go, man-made things are man-made, but you’ve got to get out and see God’s beauty of the world."

"I like to hear the sound of water and birds chirping and laughter. I love all the real natural, innocent things."

Michael Jackson

"Music started with nature. Music is nature. Birds make music. Oceans make music. Wind makes music. Any natural sound is music. And that’s where it started."

Michael Jackson

“I try to be loving, and I try to find love and see love in all things. I love nature, I love the forest. I love the grace, the gentleness, the easiness of how gentle nature is. It is just giving. I love that.”

Michael Jackson

"What delight Nature must feel when she makes stars out of swirling gas and empty space. She flings them like spangles from a velvet cape, a billion reasons for us to awaken in pure joy. When we open our hearts and appreciate all she has given us, Nature finds her reward. The sound of applause rolls across the universe, and she bows."

“...I enjoy nature too much.... I know the tree feels it when the wind blows through it. It probably goes, “Ohhhh, this is wonderful.” And that´s how I feel when I´m singing some songs. It´s wonderful.”

"Plus, I’m crazy for birds and animals and puppies. And I love exotic things. I’ve had llamas, peacocks, a rhea, which is the second largest bird in the world, a macaw, which is the largest parrot from South America, pheasants, racoons, chickens….everything. Now, I’m gonna get a faun. And a flamingo.... I want a chimpanzee – they’re so sweet. Oh, I have such a good time with the animals. I have a wonderful relationship with animals, they really understand me.... I’d like to get into the whole veterinarian thing and learn the behaviour of animals. Dogs may see in black and white. Dogs might even see the wind. And what about the king cobra – what makes him come up when they play that pipe?"

Michael Jackson, Melody Maker music newspaper, 1980

"I remember how in the 80´s you turned Hayvenhurst into a mini-zoo, with giant snakes, llamas, tigers, parrots and monkeys. I remember how one day the snake escaped and we were so scared, especially La Toya, Janet and mother (Taj thought that was pretty funny)."

Jackie Jackson

"A MOUSE HAD BEEN RUNNING loose around the house and Joseph was desperate to catch it because it was driving the girls crazy. When we heard them scream, we knew thes rodent had scurried in for a visit. An exasperated couldn't understand why we suddenly had this problem. What he didn't account for was the start of Michael's lifelong affinity with animals.

Unknown to any of us, he'd been treating this mouse like a pet, encouraging its visits with bits of lettuce and cheese. Looking back, it was obvious whenever Mother screamed and Joseph cursed, Michael fell uspiciously quiet and slid away. He was only three years of age: who was going to suspect his cunning?  But it was only a matter of time before he was found

out. That moment arrived when Joseph crept into the kitchen and caught him red-handed, kneeling on  the floor, feeding the mouse behind the fridge. The house shook when Joseph bellowed, "WAIT FOR ME IN YOUR ROOM!

What Michael did next surprised everyone. He

bolted. He started running around the house like a  terrified rabbit. Joseph chased him with the belt and  grabbed the back of his shirt, but my brother was a flexible, agile little dynamo, and he wriggled and fought and pulled his arms out of the sleeper, and ran on. He darted into Joseph's room, up and over the bed, and pinned himself against the wall, right into the corner, knowing the belt couldn't reach him without first striking the wall.

I hadn't seen Joseph so angry. He dropped the belt, grabbed Michael and spanked him so hard that he screamed the house down."

Jermaine Jackson in his book "You Are Not Alone, Michael: Through a Brother’s Eyes"

"Michael Jackson was very shy. Once the little tiger was brought into the studio, Michael started to relax.  He had a way to interact and connect with the animal that was significant. It was absolutely fascinating to work with such a person. Michael is truly unique, and one day, maybe in 100 or 1000 years, the world will get it.  The tiger was named Little William and was much more nervous than Michael. But, Michael’s tender personality, and spirit helped him to calm down. The harmony between the tiger and Michael inspired the entire team and more than 300 pictures were taken that day. In the end, Michael and the tiger were inseparable.”

Dick Zimmerman, photographer (photo below)

"Right in the middle of writing this song (We are the World) we´re eating downstairs and there´s this dog barking hysterically. And then we heard, ´Shut up, shut up!´

I´m thinking to myself, ´What´s going on, Michael?´ He said, ´That´s the bird. That´s the bird having an argument with the dog.´ So we went back into the kitchen and there´s the Mynah bird in the cage and Michael´s dog in barking at the bird and the bird is going, ´Shut up,, shut up.´ 

It gets worse, I´m laying on the floor and we´re working on the lyrics... and I hear a ´hssss...´ and I´m looking at Michael and all of a sudden I´m looking out the corner of my eye and the albums against the wall are falling down and there´s an albino python. And he goes, ´There he is Lionel, we found him, we found him! We knew he was in the room somewhere, Lionel. He wants to come out and play with you.´ I was screaming like the last woman in a horror movie. I was screaming so loud. 

I know you want a spiritual tale about how we brought this song to you, but that´s how it was for three days."

Lionel Richie talking about making of We Are The World

"He was such a sensitive guy that when we would go out to dinner -- he was a vegetarian -- he would apologize to each vegetable before he ate it. He ordered steamed vegetables and he literally would say, "I'm sorry, Mr. Carrot" and "I'm sorry, Mr. Broccoli." He was so empathetic to other people and all living things -- that's really what I remember most about Michael, even more than his dancing and singing. When you talked to Michael, you really felt he was feeling what you were feeling."

Michael Jackson in 1980´s

"He was not a big eater. He thought it was a waste of his time. When I met him he was a vegetarian, but later added fried chicken that was something he enjoyed."

Karen Faye via Twitter (2014, 2016)

“I don’t like eating anything that used to be alive and now it’s dead on my plate. I want to be a strict vegetarian, but my doctors keep trying to throw in chicken and fish” 

Michael Jackson speaking to Rabbi Schmuley Boteach (2000-2001) in the Michael Jackson Tapes

Planet Earth

Planet Earth, my home, my place
A capricious anomaly in the sea of space
Planet Earth are you just
Floating by, a cloud of dust
A minor globe, about to bust
A piece of metal bound to rust
A speck of matter in a mindless void
A lonely spaceship, a large asteroid
Cold as a rock without a hue
Held together with a bit of glue
Something tells me this isn’t true
You are my sweetheart, soft and blue
Do you care, have you a part
In the deepest emotions of my own heart
Tender with breezes, caressing and whole
Alive with music, haunting my soul.
In my veins I’ve felt the mystery
Of corridors of time, books of history
Life songs of ages throbbing in my blood
Have danced the rhythm of the tide and flood
Your misty clouds, your electric storm
Were turbulent tempests in my own form
I’ve licked the salt, the bitter, the sweet
Of every encounter, of passion, of heat
Your riotous color, your fragrance, your taste
Have thrilled my senses beyond all haste
In your beauty, I’ve known the how
Of timeless bliss, this moment of now
Planet Earth are you just
Floating by, a cloud of dust
A minor globe, about to bust
A piece of metal bound to rust
A speck of matter in a mindless void
A lonely spaceship, a large asteroid
Cold as a rock without a hue
Held together with a bit of glue
Something tells me this isn’t true
You are my sweetheart gentle and blue
Do you care, have you a part
In the deepest emotions of my own heart
Tender with breezes, caressing and whole
Alive with music, haunting my soul.
Planet Earth, gentle and blue
With all my heart, I love you.

Michael Jackson talking about clouds (Greek subtitles):

“When I see the clouds whisked away from a snow-capped peak, I feel like shouting ‘Bravo! Nature,” the best of all magicians, has delivered another thrill.”

Michael Jackson

“Many people made fun of me, with my animals, you know?.. If I come home from a hard day at the studio, what I come home [to are] my deer or my chimps, and I can hug them and they don’t ask you anything, they don’t complain, you know, they don’t gossip, they just want a hug and some love and they get on with it. You know, ‘Where’s the pizza? Get up, put back the ice cream’, ‘cause the chimps, they love snacks. And, you know, they run around, they help me clean the room and they help me fix up things, you know, and they’re very – their DNA is literally identical to ours if you look in the microscope. And they’re amazing. […] Yeah, yeah, they help me clean my room, they help me dust, they’re doing windows, they flush the toilet after they use the bathroom, and (…) Bubbles would go by himself. And he’d sit at the table and he picks up the spoon and his fork and he eats, he’s very polite, and they’re very intelligent.”

Michael Jackson in “Take Two” The Footage You Were Never Meant To See” (2002)

"How could you be mean or cruel to an animal? That's like being cruel to a small child."

Michael Jackson

"I love animals because all they really want from you is love. Too bad that's even too much to ask for from some people.”

Michael Jackson

"From the moment I met Michael in New York last year, I knew he had a greater capacity for empathy than almost any other person I had encountered. We spoke of deer hunting — a common sport in the United Kingdom. Michael’s eyes teared slightly and he probed me with his questioning gaze: ´I don’t understand how someone could shoot something that helpless?´”

Rabbi Schmuley Boteach, 2000

"I remember he cried once because a little spider died."

HIStory Tour, Munich 1997: The Bug - "Don't kill it though...don't kill it!"

Michael feeding a bird:

WIth a crocodile:

Michael at dusk:

"My favourite part of the day is dusk. It just gives you an unexplainable feeling, I thank God for that feeling.”

Michael Jackson

"I respect the secrets and magic of nature. That's why it makes me so angry when I see these things that are happening, that every second, I hear, the size of a football field is torn down in the Amazon. I mean, that kind of stuff really bothers me. That's why I write these kinds of songs, you know. It gives some sense of awareness and awakening and hope to people. I love the Planet, I love the trees. I have this thing for trees - the colors and changing of leaves. I love it. I respect those kind of things. I really feel that nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the planet. Because the planet is sick, like a fever. If we don't fix it now, it's at the point of no return. This is our last chance to fix this problem that we have, where it's like a runway train. And the times has come, This Is It. People are always saying: 'They'll take care of it. The government'll--Don't worry, they'll--' 'They' who? It starts with us. It's us. Or else it'll never be done... We have four years to get it right. After that it would be irreversible. Let's take care of the planet."

Michael Jackson, This Is It reheasals, 2009

"The Earth we all share isn’t a rock tossed through space, but a living, nurturing being."

Michael Jackson

“Before AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, before AVATAR and WALL-E, before “going green’ became a catchphrase, came MICHAEL JACKSON’S “EARTH SONG,” one of the most unusual, audacious protest songs in popular music history.”

Joseph Vogel

"I remember writing "Earth Song" when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And I was feeling so much pain and so much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, this is Earth's Song, because I think nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the Earth. And with the ecological unbalance going on, and a lot of the problems in the environment, I think earth feels the pain, and she has wounds, and it's about some of the joys of the planet as well. But this is my chance to pretty much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is "Earth Song." And that's what inspired it. And it just suddenly dropped into my lap, when I was on tour in Austria."

Michael Jackson

Twitter conversation from August 2019 when Siberia and Amazonian rainforest are burning and looking exactly like what we see in MJ´s short movie (P.S. That famous singer from Taj´s tweet was Sting.)

“I have always felt compassion for the planet. Sometime I just start to get emotional. I cry because I can almost feel the pain in the air. I put it in words and in song and in dance I think that is what artistry is.”

Michael Jackson

"I’m very concerned about the plight of the international global warming phenomenon. I knew it was coming, but I wish they would have gotten people’s interest sooner. But it’s never too late. It’s been described as a runaway train; if we don’t stop it, we’ll never get it back. So we have to fix it now. That’s what I was trying to do with "Earth Song", "Heal The World", "We Are The World", writing those songs to open up people’s consciousness. I wish people would listen to every word."

"I just wish they (including the authorities) would do more for the babies and children, help them more. That would be great, wouldn’t it?"

Michael Jackson in Ebony Magazine, 2007

Michael reciting his poem Planet Earth:

“...Look, we don´t have control over the grounds, they can shake. We don´t have control over the seas, they can have tsunamis. We don´t have control over the skies, there are storms. We´re all in God´s hands. I think that man has to take that into consideration.”

Michael Jackson, Ebony Magazine interview, 2007

"I love the Planet, I love the trees. I have this thing for trees - the colors and changing of leaves. I love it. I respect those kind of things. I really feel that nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the planet. Because the planet is sick, like a fever. If we don't fix it now, it's at the point of no return. This is our last chance to fix this problem that we have, where it's like a runway train. And the times has come, This Is It."

Michael Jackson in 2009

Look Again, Baby Seal

One of the most touching nature photographs is of a baby fur seal lying on the ice alone. I'm sure you have seen it ďż˝ the picture seems to be all eyes, the trusting dark eyes of a small animal gazing up at the camera and into your heart. When I first looked at them, the eyes asked, "Are you going to hurt me?" I knew the answer was yes, because thousands of baby seals were being killed every year.

Many people were touched by one baby seal's helplessness. They gave money to save the seals, and public awareness started to shift. As I returned to the picture, those two wide eyes began to say something different. Now they asked, "Do you know me?" This time I didn't feel so much heartache as when I felt the violence man inflicts upon animals. But I realized that there was still a big gap. How much did I really know about life on earth? What responsibility did I feel for creatures outside my little space? How could I lead my life so that every cell of living matter was also benefited?

Everyone who began to wonder about these things found, I think, that their feelings were shifting away from fear toward more closeness with life as a whole. The beauty and wonder of life began to seem very personal; the possibility of making the planet a garden for all of us to grow in began to dawn. I looked into the eyes of the baby seal, and for the first time they smiled. "Thank you," they said. "You have given me hope."

Is that enough? Hope is such a beautiful word, but it often seems very fragile. Life is still being needlessly hurt and destroyed. The image of one baby seal alone on the ice or one baby girl orphaned in war is still frightening in its helplessness. I realized that nothing would finally save life on earth but trust in life itself, in its power to heal, in its ability to survive our mistakes and welcome us back when we learn to correct those mistakes.

With these thoughts in my heart, I looked at the picture again. The seal's eyes seemed much deeper now, and I saw something in them that I had missed before: unconquerable strength. "You have not hurt me," they said. "I am not one baby alone. I am life, and life can never be killed. It is the power that brought me forth from the emptiness of space; it cared for me and nourished my existence against all dangers. I am safe because I am that power. And so are you. Be with me, and let us feel the power of life together, as one creature here on earth."

Baby seal, forgive us. Look at us again and again to see how we are doing. Those men who raise their clubs over you are also fathers and brothers and sons. They have loved and cared for others. One day they will extend that love to you. Be sure of it and trust.

Michael Jackson in his book "Dancing The Dream"

"(...) One thing I know: I never feel alone when I am earth's child. I do not have to cling to my personal survival as long as I realize, day by day, that all of life is in me. The children and their pain; the children and their joy. The ocean swelling under the sun; the ocean weeping with black oil. The animals hunted in fear; the animals bursting with the sheer joy of being alive.

This sense of "the world in me" is how I always want to feel.(...)"

Michael Jackson in his book "Dancing The Dream"

"I realized that nothing would finally save my life on Earth but trust in life itself, in its power to heal, in its ability to survive our mistakes and welcome us back when we learn to correct those mistakes."

Michael Jackson in his book "Dancing The Dream

So The Elephants March

A curious fact about elephants is this: In order to survive, they mustn’t fall down. Every other animal can stumble and get back up again. But an elephant always stands up, even to sleep. If one of the herd slips and falls, it is helpless. It lies on its side, a prisoner of its own weight. Although the other elephants will press close around it in distress and try to lift it up again, there isn’t usually much they can do. With slow heaving breaths, the fallen elephant dies. The others stand vigil, then slowly move on.

This is what I learned from nature books, but I wonder if they are right. Isn’t there another reason why elephants can’t fall down? Perhaps they have decided not to. Not to fall down is their mission. As the wisest and most patient of the animals, they made a pact — I imagine it was eons ago, when the ice ages were ending. Moving in great herds across the face of the earth, the elephants first spied tiny men prowling the tall grasses with their flint spears.

“What fear and anger this creature has,” the elephants thought.

“But he is going to inherit the earth. We are wise enough to see that. Let us set an example for him.”

Then the elephants put their grizzled heads together and pondered. What kind of example could they show to man? They could show him that their power was much greater that his, for that was certainly true. They could display their anger before him, which was terrible enough to uproot whole forests. Or they could lord it over man through fear, trampling his fields and crushing his huts.

In moments of great frustration, wild elephants will do all of these things, but as a group, putting their heads together, they decided that man would learn best from a kinder message.

“Let us show him our reverence for life,” they said. And from that day on, elephants have been silent, patient, peaceful creatures. They let men ride them and harness them like slaves. They permit children to laugh at their tricks in the circus, exiled from the great African plains where they once lived as lords.

But the elephants’ most important message is in their movement. For they know that to live is to move. Dawn after dawn, age after age, the herds march on, one great mass of life that never falls down, an unstoppable force of peace.

Innocent animals, they do not suspect that after all this time, they will fall from a bullet by the thousands. They will lie in the dust, mutilated by our shameless greed. The great males fall first, so that their tusks can be made into trinkets. Then the females fall, so that men may have trophies. The babies run screaming from the smell of their own mothers’ blood, but it does them no good to run from the guns. Silently, with no one to nurse them, they will die, too, and all their bones bleach in the sun.

In the midst of so much death, the elephants could just give up. All they have to do is drop to the ground. That is enough. They don’t need a bullet: Nature has given them the dignity to lie down and find their rest. But they remember their ancient pact and their pledge to us, which is sacred.

So the elephants march on, and every tread beats out words in the dust: “Watch, learn, love. Watch, learn, love.” Can you hear them? One day in shame, the ghosts of ten thousand lords of the plains will say, “We do not hate you. Don’t you see at last? We were willing to fall, so that you, dear small ones, will never fall again.”

Michael Jackson in his book Dancing the Dream