Ask a famous singer about his dreams and you can usually guess what’s coming. Another hit, a big tour, maybe one more award for the shelf.
Michael Jackson didn’t go that way.
In early 2002, Vibe magazine visited him at Neverland, his ranch in California. The writer found him there with “his son, Prince, 5, and daughter Paris, 3.” Prince was his oldest child, and Paris was his little girl. Michael was a single dad by then, and the way he talked about it, he was loving every minute.
All through the interview, he sounds like a dad comparing notes with other parents.
“I never had so much fun in all my life. That’s the truth,” he said.
He also admitted something a lot of parents will recognize right away.
“I learn more from them than they learn from me.”
The interview ran in Vibe’s March 2002 issue. It covered plenty of ground, and at one point the magazine asked him a big, open question.
“Do you have a fantasy of something that you’d like to see in your lifetime?”
He could have said anything. He was the King of Pop after all. You’d probably guess he named something huge and musical. Or maybe he went straight for the classic answer everyone gives.
He did give that classic answer. But only second.
His first answer was about children.
“I would like to see an international children’s holiday to honor our children, because the family bond has been broken.”
Then he explained his thinking in words any parent could have said at the kitchen table.
“There’s a Mother’s Day, and there’s a Father’s Day, but there’s no children’s day.”
And then this.
“It would mean a lot. It really would.”
Only after all that did he add a second wish. “World peace.”
The order matters. The King of Pop was asked for the one thing he most wanted to see, and before he got to the big global dream, he asked for a day set aside just for kids. He was raising two little ones at the time, and it’s hard not to think of them when you read it.
Here’s a nice twist for anyone who loved his answer. There actually is a day like the one he described, and it’s coming up soon.
The United Nations marks Universal Children’s Day, also called World Children’s Day, every Nov 20, which falls next Friday. The UN day dates back to 1954. UNICEF, the UN’s children’s agency, made this short video about it.
UNICEF explains World Children’s Day
Michael never mentioned it in the interview, and there’s no sign he had it in mind. It’s simply still little known here in the US.
So if you’re looking for a reason to call the grandkids next Friday, Michael Jackson gave you one back in 2002.