Plenty of musicians get a quick photo with a president. Almost none get invited back by a second one. Michael Jackson walked through the doors of the White House as an honored guest twice, under two different administrations.
The first time was May 1984. Michael was at the absolute peak of Thriller mania, and he’d lent his hit Beat It to a national campaign against drunk driving. President Reagan welcomed him to the White House to thank him, opening with a grin and the line, well, isn’t this a thriller.
Michael honored at Reagan’s White House (1984)
Reagan called him one of the most talented and exciting young stars in music, and credited him with helping warn millions of young Americans about the dangers of drinking and driving. For a pop star barely into his twenties, that is a remarkable thing to hear from a sitting president, in that building, in front of those cameras.
Then he went and did it again. In April 1990, Michael returned to the White House, this time to be named Artist of the Decade by President George H.W. Bush. The honor recognized not just the music that had defined the whole of the 1980s but his work for children around the world.
Michael’s 1990 White House visit under President Bush
What gets me is the span of it. The same young man, walking back through the same famous doors six years apart, welcomed each time by a different president who wanted to honor what he’d done. And they weren’t honoring a scandal. They were honoring his music and the way he gave back.
We remember the records and the dance moves and the glove. It’s easy to forget that, right at the height of all of it, the most powerful office on earth kept rolling out the carpet for him, more than once.