Danny Bonaduce was walking out of the school office, “in trouble for something,” when Michael Jackson came down the hallway toward him.
They weren’t strangers. Danny, the redheaded kid who played Danny Partridge on “The Partridge Family,” had known Michael for years. But at this school, Michael never said a word to him. So that day, Danny stopped him and asked why.
He told the whole story on the Pop Culture Retro podcast, in an episode that came out on May 28, 2026. It starts a long way from that hallway, on a Hollywood studio lot.
“I met Michael on stage, he was filming something on the Columbia lot,” Danny said. Both boys had Schwinn Sting-Ray bikes, the kind with the long banana seat. “So we both had Stingrays, so we rode around for a while.”
That’s how it began. Two kids from two different shows, pedaling around the Columbia lot.
Years later, Danny changed schools and ended up at what he calls “this weird place called Cal Prep.” When he got there, Michael was a student too.
A lot had happened to Michael by then. “I see Michael again, and you know, he was a pretty big star at that point,” Danny said. “Not what he would become, but he’s a pretty big star.”
That changed how Danny acted around his old bike buddy. “I just kind of held back a little,” he said. “I said, ‘Nice to see you again.'”
After that, nothing. As Danny remembers it, Michael just didn’t talk to him. They walked the same halls, and the boy he’d ridden bikes with stayed quiet.
Then came the day outside the office. “One day he’s walking to the office, and I was walking probably out of the office because I was in trouble for something,” Danny said. “And he’s walking by, and I look at him, I said, ‘You know, Michael, I’ve known you forever. How come you never speak?'”
Danny Bonaduce tells his Cal Prep story on Pop Culture Retro
Listen for the moment Danny stops Michael outside the office. The whole story takes just over a minute.
This is the full episode from the official Pop Culture Retro channel. Danny starts talking about Michael at about 14:16, gets to Cal Prep at about 14:30 and reaches the hallway at about 14:55.
So what did Michael say?
He gave Danny a straight answer. “Because I’m in constant remembrance of God,” Michael told him. You can hear Danny repeat it at about 15:03.
Danny was a kid, and he answered like one. “Well, that’s cool, but what about chicks?” he said.
That was the end of the conversation. “Boom. Gone,” Danny said with a laugh, according to Complex. “Just gone like a ninja.”
For a moment on the podcast, Danny called that exchange his last words to Michael Jackson. Then he stopped himself.
“Oh no, they weren’t,” he said. “He invited me up to his home, me and my kids.”
That’s the part he tells last, at about 15:10. The boy who wouldn’t talk to him at Cal Prep was the same man who, years later, asked Danny to bring his children up to the house.