“You were there to protect us with unselfish love, and because you were there, we are here.”
That’s what Michael Jackson told his parents on May 6, 1997, in Cleveland, Ohio. The Jackson 5 had just been voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Michael ran up on stage ahead of his brothers.
He was 38 years old by then, in a black jacket covered in gold braid. But the night was really about five boys from Gary, Indiana, and the record company that took a chance on them.
That company was Motown, and its boss was Berry Gordy. He signed the brothers when Michael was just 10. Back then, Gordy told the boys something about their very first records. It was a big promise for anyone to make to a group of kids nobody had heard of yet.
So it made sense who was asked to welcome them into the Hall of Fame. It was Diana Ross, Motown’s biggest star. She’d helped introduce the brothers to America in 1969, and their first album even carried her name on the cover.
Here she is bringing them up on stage.
Diana Ross welcomes the Jackson 5 into the Hall of Fame
Gordy was sitting out in the crowd that night, smiling and clapping along.
Michael didn’t leave him there. Partway through the brothers’ thank-yous, Michael brought him up to join them, and the two shared a big hug in front of everyone.
Then Michael turned to the man who’d signed him almost 30 years earlier and spoke to him straight. He didn’t need a long speech. He had one thing he wanted Gordy to hear, about that promise from 1969.
Here’s the whole moment, straight from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Michael brings Berry Gordy up on stage
According to Michael’s official website, his words to Gordy were simple: “Berry Gordy, you promised us four consecutive number one records, and you delivered them all.” And he did. “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There” all went to number one in a row.
When it was Gordy’s turn to talk, he said the Jackson 5 had been far more than a group that made hit records. He called them a kind of cultural revolution, because young Black kids finally had heroes on TV who looked just like them.
Michael kept things light, too. At one point he told a cameraman he didn’t like the angle and held up his hand to cover the lens, and the room laughed.
Four years later, in 2001, Michael went into the Hall of Fame a second time, this time on his own. Not many artists have been let in twice.