Don King was the loudest man in boxing.
He had that electric hair shooting straight up, plus a booming voice and a big grin. He’d promoted Muhammad Ali’s most famous fights, including the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Africa.
But he had never run a rock tour in his life.
That didn’t stop him. In 1983, King wanted the biggest act on Earth, and that was Michael Jackson. Thriller had come out the year before and was breaking every sales record there was.
Michael’s brothers wanted one more family tour, the first with Michael since 1981. Their father, Joe Jackson, had managed the boys since they were kids in Gary, Indiana. Their mother, Katherine, wanted her sons together again.
King made sure the parents had a seat at the table.
Michael’s brother Jermaine later explained why King got the job. He said King “was the only one who wanted to get my mother and father involved,” according to a 1984 UPI report.
Michael went along mostly for his mother. Rolling Stone reported at the time that he didn’t really want to do the tour and didn’t trust King.
In late November 1983, the brothers faced a wall of cameras in New York to announce the tour, with King’s money behind it. This is how that day looked.
Michael Jackson & The Jacksons announce Victory Tour – 1983
King showed up with a $3 million advance on the table and a big sponsorship deal with Pepsi already signed. Michael agreed to make the Pepsi commercials, though he reportedly didn’t even drink the stuff, and he asked that his face barely be shown.
The ticket plan came next.
Every ticket cost $30, far more than most concert tickets in 1984. And you couldn’t buy just one. Fans had to mail in a $120 money order for a block of four, then wait for a lottery.
Only about one in ten would get tickets. Everyone else would get a refund eventually, and in the meantime the organizers planned to earn interest on millions of fans’ dollars.
Michael warned his family it would be a public relations disaster. He was outvoted.
King saw it differently. “You get what you pay for,” he told reporters.
The backlash was fierce. TV news shows tore into the Jacksons, and many Black fans felt shut out. By spring, the brothers had brought in other promoters, and King’s grip on the tour was slipping.
Nightline was one of the shows that dug into the whole mess.
ABC Nightline 1984 – The Jacksons Victory Tour controversy
Then a letter showed up.
It came from a girl in Texas named Ladonnia Jones. She’d been saving money from odd jobs to see Michael, but she could never afford four tickets at once. In her letter, she reportedly called the Jacksons and their promoters selfish.
Michael read it, and it got to him.
On July 5, 1984, the day before the first show in Kansas City, Michael stepped up to the microphone at a press conference with his brothers sitting beside him. Nobody in the room knew what he planned to say.