EBONY Magazine, December 2007: Speaking of showmanship: MTV, they didn´t play Black folks. How hard was that for you?
Michael Jackson answer: They said they don´t play [Black artists]. It broke my heart, but at the same time it lit something. I was saying to myself, ´I have to do something where they… I just refuse to be ignored.´ So yeah, “Billie Jean,” they said, ´We won´t play it.´
But when they played it, it set the all-time record. Then they were asking me for EVERYTHING we had. They were knocking our door down. Then Prince came, it opened the door for Prince and all the other Black artists. It was 24-hour heavy metal, just a potpourri of crazy images…
They came to me so many times in the past and said, ´Michael, if it wasn´t for you, there would be no MTV.´ They told me that, over and over, personally. I guess they didn´t hear it at the time…but I´m sure they didn´t mean any pure malice [laughter].
