Michael Jackson was only 10 when the Jackson 5 arrived at Motown, yet people around the label quickly noticed something unusual about him. Smokey Robinson remembered taking young Michael to the golf course with Jackson 5 mentor Bobby Taylor. Michael had never even played golf, but that apparently did not stop him from becoming their most outspoken critic.
Michael would ride around in the golf cart watching the adults play. When Robinson hit a bad shot, Michael laughed and started explaining what he believed had gone wrong with his stance. He did the same thing to Taylor, confidently pointing out problems with his club position despite never having picked up a golf club himself.
Smokey Robinson Remembers Meeting a 10-Year-Old Michael Jackson
Robinson remembered the whole thing affectionately, calling Michael a fun kid. But what really stunned him was how mature the boy seemed. Robinson famously said Michael was 10 but seemed 30 when he sang and danced. He had already seen Michael perform James Brown material at Motown and could hardly understand how someone so young possessed that much confidence.
That confidence soon made sense to everyone else. Bobby Taylor had helped bring the Jackson 5 to Motown, where the brothers quickly broke through with “I Want You Back.” Michael became the unmistakable young voice at the center of the group as their first four Motown singles all reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The golf story captures something audiences were already hearing in Michael’s voice. Smokey had written “Who’s Lovin’ You” as an adult, yet Michael performed the heartbreak in that song with such maturity that Robinson later wondered how a child could possibly understand it. Even away from the microphone, that unusually grown-up confidence apparently followed him.
Michael Jackson would eventually grow from the tiny Jackson 5 frontman into the artist behind Off the Wall, Thriller and some of pop music’s most famous performances. Yet Smokey Robinson remembered seeing that extraordinary self-belief before almost anyone knew Michael’s name. Watch Robinson describe the young singer who arrived at Motown ready to impress everyone, even when he was only riding around in a golf cart.