The private jet had just touched down in Los Angeles when Chris Tucker got the news he’d chased for two days: “Michael Jackson wants to meet you tomorrow morning.” There was one problem. Michael was in New York, and Chris had just flown almost 2,500 miles in the other direction.
The “Rush Hour” and “Friday” star told the story to GQ in 2023. He’d flown east on a private jet for one reason. “I was in New York for two days waiting to meet MJ,” he said. “I took a private jet there.” The hours went by, and he didn’t hear a word. In the end he decided he’d waited long enough. “I said, well, I ain’t heard from him, I got to go.”
So he went home. “Took a private jet back to LA and as soon as I landed, I had a message,” he told GQ. He hadn’t even stepped off yet. “I was still on the plane.”
Most people would have gone to bed and booked the first flight out the next day. Chris didn’t wait for morning. He had already spent two days missing Michael, and a morning meeting on the other side of the country left no room for a second miss.
So he stood up, walked to the front of the plane and made an offer. “I went up to the captain and said, ‘I’ll pay you whatever you want to take me back to New York,'” Chris told GQ. The jet turned around and flew him back east, and he got his meeting with Michael. He has never said what that flight cost him.
Radio hosts retell Chris’s private jet story
This isn’t Chris on camera. The hosts of “Way Up With Angela Yee” retell his GQ story from about 2:52, and they reach the captain line just before 3:31.
That meeting turned into a close friendship, and Michael kept pushing Chris to work more. “We want to see more of you, Chris! What are you doing?” Michael would tell him. He had one line he used over and over. “He used to always say, ‘Let’s make history,'” Chris said.
Michael’s family had a hand in how he saw Chris, too. Chris told Shannon Sharpe on “Club Shay Shay” how he found out where Michael stood. “I heard from his nephews that he was a big fan of mine because they showed him the movies,” he said. Chris does a well-known Michael impression, and he says Michael “loved it.”
Chris tells Shannon Sharpe how Michael felt about his impressions
Chris talks about doing Michael from about 1:37, and the line about Michael’s nephews and the movies comes just before 2:01.
In 2001 the two made a little history of their own. Chris appears with Michael in the short film for “You Rock My World,” and the pair walk into a nightclub side by side in dark suits and hats.
Chris and Michael in the “You Rock My World” short film
This is the full version from Michael’s official channel, and it runs more than 13 minutes. Chris and Michael share the screen as the nightclub story plays out.
Chris still shows up for his friend. In August 2025 he went to Gary, Indiana, where Michael grew up, for a party on what would have been Michael’s 67th birthday. He toured the Jackson family’s childhood home, posed with Marlon and Jackie and danced to “You Rock My World” for the crowd. Michael’s mother, Katherine, was there for the celebration too.