Imagine a brand new Jacksons album, made in the middle of the nineties, with Michael right back in the thick of it alongside his brothers. It very nearly happened. It even had a name. And then it quietly slipped away.
Back in 1995, Michael and his brother Jermaine reportedly signed on for a new family reunion album. The title was Humanity. For anyone who grew up on the Jackson 5, the thought of the brothers back in a studio together was the stuff of dreams.
Michael clearly had family on his mind around then. He was busy mentoring his nephews, Tito’s sons, the group known as 3T, and he even recorded with them.
3T’s ‘Why’, featuring Michael himself
That collaboration was real, and you can still hear it. The song Why, by 3T, has Michael himself right there on it. So the idea of him working closely with the next generation of Jacksons wasn’t some fantasy. It was already happening in the studio.
Years later, the story goes, Michael mentioned the reunion project in a radio interview, talking about doing some songs for his brothers and some with 3T. The pieces all seemed to be in place. The will seemed to be there too.
So what happened? Most likely, life and schedules just swallowed it. Michael was buried under the HIStory tour, new projects and the early stirrings of what would eventually become Invincible. The reunion album kept getting pushed back until, in the end, it simply never came. The brothers would share a stage again at his big anniversary shows, but a finished family record stayed a dream.
His nephew Taj on recording with Uncle Michael
Humanity is one of the great what-ifs in his whole story. A full album that lived for a while as a plan and a promise, then faded out before anyone outside the family ever got to hear a single note of it.