On Aug. 29, 2016, Kevin Bacon sat down on Jimmy Fallon’s couch at “The Tonight Show” to talk about music. The date fit what he was about to say. Aug. 29 is Michael Jackson’s birthday.
Most people know Kevin from the movies. He danced through “Footloose” in 1984 and starred in “Mystic River” in 2003. Music has always been there too. He and his older brother, Michael Bacon, play together as the Bacon Brothers, and their sound leans folk and country.
That night Kevin went back a lot further than the band. He went back to the very first song he ever wrote, and to the singer he wrote it for.
“I’m a giant Jackson 5 fan,” he told Fallon, as Noise11 reported that week. “The first song I ever wrote, in my mind, I wrote it for Michael Jackson.”
Kevin and Michael were close in age. Noise11 noted that Kevin grew up loving Michael’s more sentimental songs, and on the couch he explained why his own song came out sad.
“I was a very, very romantic child. I mean, I remember always being heartbroken from the time I was little,” he said with a laugh. “Being in love with the girl in school, the teacher, the girl next door, Barbara Eden in a bottle… I was always in love, so the songs I wrote were always heartbreak songs.”
Barbara Eden, if you missed the ’60s, was the star of “I Dream of Jeannie,” the sitcom about a genie who lived in a bottle. Kevin’s crushes ran all the way from his classroom to prime-time TV.
If you want to see the young Michael that Kevin was such a fan of, start here. The Jackson 5 made their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Dec. 14, 1969. Listen for the slow song in the middle of the set. It’s a heartbreak song, the kind Kevin says he always wrote.
The Jackson 5 on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” Dec. 14, 1969
This is the official upload from “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The brothers open with “Stand!,” then Michael sings the ballad “Who’s Loving You” before they close with “I Want You Back.”
So what did Kevin call his song, and did Michael ever hear it?
The title was “All the World Looks Lonely Through Lonely Eyes.” It’s every bit the sad little tune he promised.
And no, it never got to Michael. Kevin was only a boy, and that’s as far as the song went. “I was 11, so it didn’t make its way to Michael,” he told Fallon. Noise11 and Yahoo Entertainment both reported the line from the show.
So he did the next best thing on national TV. As the show’s own description puts it, he gave Jimmy “a taste of what the sad tune” would have sounded like if the King of Pop had performed it.
Kevin Bacon tells Jimmy Fallon about the song he wrote for Michael
This is the official clip from “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” Kevin tells the story from the couch and gives Jimmy a taste of the song he wrote for Michael.
The music didn’t stop there that night. After the interview, Kevin joined Fallon on stage for the show’s “First Drafts of Rock” bit. Kevin did his Tom Petty impression for a mock early version of “Free Fallin'” called “Free Horses.” Fallon was dressed as Mike Campbell, Petty’s longtime guitarist.