Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days
Weinstein Books, June 2014
Michael Jackson's former bodyguards reveal the amazing truths of the late superstar's last years -- his life in seclusion with his children, his financial crises, his preparations for the This Is It tour, and the weeks leading up to his shocking death.
Hounded by the tabloid media, driven from his self-made sanctuary at Neverland, Michael Jackson spent his final years moving from city to city, living with his three children in virtual seclusion-a futile attempt to escape a world that wouldn't leave him alone. During that time, two men served as the singer's personal security team: Bill Whitfield, a former cop and veteran of the security profession, and Javon Beard, a brash, untested rookie, both single fathers themselves.
Stationed at his side nearly 24/7, their job was to see and hear everything that transpired, and to keep everyone else out, making them the only two men who know what 60 million fans around the world still want to know: What really happened to the King of Pop?
Driven by a desire to show the world who Michael Jackson truly was, Whitfield and Beard have produced the only definitive, first-person account of Michael Jackson's last years: the extreme measures necessary to protect Jackson and his family, the simple moments of happiness they managed to share in a time of great stress, the special relationship Jackson shared with his fans, and the tragic events that culminated in the singer's ill-fated comeback, This Is It. The truth is far more compelling than anything you've yet heard.
An indispensable piece of pop-culture history, Remember the Time is the story of a man struggling to live a normal life under extraordinary circumstances, the story of a father fighting to protect and provide for his children. Remember the Time is the book that dismantles the tabloid myths once and for all to give Michael Jackson back his humanity.
hardcover | ISBN: 9781602862500 | Publication Date: June 2014
Reviews:
"Remember the Time foregoes sensationalism in favor of a
sympathetic, but unsentimental examination of life behind the
gates in Michael Jackson's final years. Told in conversational
accounts by Jackson's former bodyguards, Bill Whitfield and Javon
Beard, the narrative is by turns absorbing, routine, humorous and
tragic. A single father facing enormous financial pressures and a
vagabond existence while trying to find some peace and joy with
his three young children, Jackson is revealed, not as the "freak
show" the media so often presented him, but as human. These
recollections not only help fill in some of the biographical gaps
in Jackson's life but demonstrate with unflinching detail the
real-life price of fame."
-- Joseph Vogel, author of Man in the Music: The
Creative Life & Work of Michael Jackson
