In 2010, Damien Shields, then 22, repeatedly loaded Michael Jackson's official website from his home in Australia, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the much-hyped unreleased track 'Breaking News'. When he arrived, he was disappointed – then angry. He believed the King of Pop, who died on June 25, 2009, was not singing on the song. He was a fraud. “I was outraged, as were thousands of other fans,” says Shields. “But unlike those other fans, I wanted to do something about it.”
This moment led to a 14-year, DIY investigative journalism project, which included expensive trips to interview Jackson's nephew, Taryl Jackson in Los Angeles and to search the archives of the US Copyright Office in Washington, D.C. It was originally intended to be a book, Shields' new, 12-part podcast, False Michaelwhich is available on major podcast platforms, is the “untold story of the biggest fraud in music,” he says.
The true crime podcast, as Shields calls it, was inspired by NPR's Series and makes a methodical case that two of Jackson's producers and friends, Eddie Cascio and James Porte, faked the vocals on “Breaking News,” “Monster” and “Keep Your Head Up” and bilked Jackson's fortune and longtime record label Sony Music. In 2010, the estate made a $250 million deal with Sony for 10 albums, including deluxe reissues of Jackson's previous albums and new and unreleased material. Shields maintains, however, that the estate was under pressure to provide new tracks and made a deal with Cascio and Porte, who Shields accuses of hiring a rogue singer named Jason Malachi.
According to False Michaelwhen super-producer Teddy Riley and Taryll began post-production on the tracks in August 2010, Taryll concluded that his late uncle's vocals were missing from the songs and complained on social media. The podcast also reports that the estate asked the producers for their expert opinions, but ignored their feedback and released the tracks anyway in December 2010.
After fans filed a class-action lawsuit against the estate and Sony, the parties agreed to an undisclosed settlement in 2022. The label had previously pulled the three disputed tracks from the 2010 album Michael. A Sony representative declined to comment, and a representative for Jackson's estate did not respond to requests for comment. an attorney who represented Cascio and Porte in the lawsuit did not respond to requests for comment. But Shields, now 36, demurred False Michael by Zoom from Australia.
What should listeners take away from your podcast?
This is art forgery.
How did you finance all this research?
It is self-funded. When I started taking it seriously and traveling abroad, it was very difficult. I was working a minimum wage type job at a marketing company and had no money. I would save, then go on a trip, do my research and come back completely broke, then save and do it all over again. In 2017, I quit my job to work on this full time. To fund it, I started ride-sharing. One of the interviews I did was with Teddy Riley's manager, Lavender [Lane]. [According to the podcast, Riley, who had worked with Jackson, received $50,000 per track for Michael, including the Cascio-Porte material.] I have been trying to get Lawanda for 11 years. He texted me at two in the morning Australian time: “Hey Damien, I'm ready to talk.” I said, “Now?” She said, “I can be ready in 10 minutes.” So I turned off my ride-share app, drove home, and interviewed her for four and a half hours. This is one of the cornerstone interviews.
The podcast suggests that Sony and the estate made the deal with Cascio and Porte because they were desperate to release unheard Jackson music soon after his death. How did they fall into this?
There were terms in the deal that you would release X amount of songs on Y amount of projects over Z years. When the estate was dealing with the vocal issue and people were saying, “Well, that's not Michael,” they had to weigh that against, “What would be the implication of releasing it anyway?” compared to the impact of breach of contract.
Why do you think the estate was so desperate for unreleased Jackson material during this time?
The material that Michael worked on in the last years of his life — he didn't really do anything [with it]. Work with me [singer] Akon for two or three years, and he did a verse and some ad-libs in a duet. Work with me [producer] RedOne for two years. RedOne thinks he had a song that could possibly be released, but it would have to be “We Are the World” style, with multiple artists, because he didn't have enough with Michael. [The estate] he wanted final year songs [from 2009]. They couldn't do it, because there were no songs from the last year. And Cascio's tracks were [allegedly] songs of the last year.
Transfer snippets of recorded music, including featured songs Michael and unreleased studio recordings. Did you have to clear things up with the estate and Sony?
Much of the material that Cascio and Porte provided to Sony was leaked online in the spring of 2015. [It’s unclear who was responsible for the leak.] The source material was out there on the internet. You have to let listeners hear it, but you have to respect the copyright guidelines for fair use. [The recordings are] it is only used when I am talking about something to prove my point. Ethics is at the top of my list.
And you don't want the co-executor of Jackson's estate, John Branca, following you.
I hope so John Branca will appreciate this. As much as it makes the estate look silly, it proves that it was the victim of fraud. The estate should listen to it and say, “We need to contact the authorities.”
Have you heard from Cascio or Porte or anyone from the estate or Sony?
No. We haven't had any backlash or pushback from people depicted in it. Even though we're talking about what I consider to be the biggest scam in the history of music, I've made a very conscious effort not to attack anyone's character. Actions speak for themselves.
What's next?
I want to sleep well!
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