Bad (debt)

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An iconic popstar, Jackson’s 1982 album ‘Thriller’ netted him close to $125m; ‘Bad’ sold 30 million copies; while ‘Dangerous’ led to a record $65m deal with Sony Music.

He was an undisputed music icon, a multimillion-selling artist who changed the face of the industry. Yet his musical legacy is only matched by his mountain of debt. So what happened to Michael’s millions?

Racking up the bills proved as easy as 1-2-3 for music icon Michael Jackson. A star from the age of six, he amassed worldwide record sales of 750 million, cleared $400m in concerts, endorsements and videos alone, and fronted the biggest-earning tours on the planet. Yet at the age of 50 he died, mired in debt to the tune of $500m and on the cusp of a comeback driven by the need to chip back his dues. So how did the King of Pop blow a four-decade fortune?

Largely, it would seem, by shopping. Jackson was often described by industry insiders as a millionaire spending like a billionaire. Between his profligate shopping, streams of legal scandals and burgeoning bank loans, the 13-time Grammy winner moonwalked his way into the red as early as the 1980s.

That the King of Pop earned royal sums for his music is undisputed. His 1982 album ‘Thriller’, which is still the biggest-selling record of all time, netted him an estimated $125m. Five years later, ‘Bad’ sold another 30 million copies, while his eighth album ‘Dangerous’ came hot on the heels of a $65m signing with Sony Music; then a record-breaking deal. In 1996, Forbes magazine put Jackson’s annual earnings at around $35m.

At the time of his death, Jackson was still raking in a cool $19m-a-year income; $12m of which was generated from royalties for his back catalogue.

The entertainer also made some shrewd investments. In 1985 he paid $47.5m for ATV Music Publishing, whose back catalogue included 251 Beatles songs and went on to make him millions over the next decade.

But little else about Jackson’s finances was savvy. The same decade that witnessed the release of ‘Thriller’ also saw the star pay out $14.6m for the sprawling Neverland ranch at Santa Barbara, California. It would, he said, give him the childhood that fame denied him. “It’s like stepping into Oz,” he once said. “When you come in the gates, the outside world does not exist.”

The 2,500-acre property soon housed a zoo, fairground and miniature railway and ate up $5m annually. At one point, the estate had a staff of 150 — complete with an estimated wage bill of $10m.

Crucially, as Jackson’s hits thinned, his legendary spending habits didn’t. Standout sprees include a $4m splurge in one Las Vegas emporium, where he picked up a giant marble chess set and 10ft tall glass urns, and a failed $1m bid to buy the bones of the Elephant Man, John Merrick. One forensic accountant testified that the singer had an “ongoing cash crisis”, and was burning through $20 to $30m more per year than he earned.

Worse, dissuaded by Jackson’s increasingly bizarre private life, lucrative sponsorship deals from brand names such as Pepsi and LA Gear fell by the wayside.

By this time, Jackson’s spending woes were playing out against a background of costly court battles, which battered his finances and marked the start of his prolonged fall from grace. In 1994, the singer paid a reported $22m in an out-of-court deal to the family of Jordan Chandler, a 13-year-old who had accused Jackson of abuse. It was, said Michael Levine, his publicist at the time, “the beginning of the walk down a tragic path”.

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