Bill Bray was a retired Los Angeles police officer who started working part-time security for the Jackson 5 around 1971, when Michael was twelve. He stayed for twenty-five years — through Motown, through the split from Motown, through Thriller, and through the Bad, Dangerous and HIStory world tours.
And he became something no bodyguard is supposed to become. Rolling Stone, in a 1989 feature, described him as Michael’s “surrogate father.”
The relationship went far past security. According to that same reporting, Bray took Michael to the doctor when he was ill, advised him on business deals, and oversaw everything. People close to Jackson said Bray was involved in every part of his life.
Michael Jackson And Bill Bray, His Friend And Head Of Security For 20 Years
It also created friction at home. Rolling Stone noted that Joe Jackson — Michael’s actual father — complained to a reporter that Bray was denying him access to his own son.
Michael wrote about him in his 1988 autobiography Moonwalk, and it is one of the warmest passages in the book. “Bill is very careful and immensely professional in his job, but he doesn’t worry about things after the fact. He travels with me everywhere and occasionally he’s my only companion on short trips. I can’t imagine life without Bill; he’s warm and funny and absolutely in love with life. He’s a great man.”
Then in 2019, a handwritten note from Michael to Bray surfaced, written around 1992. In it, Michael thanked him “for being a father.”
Bill Bray: Michael Jackson’s First Bodyguard & Black Box
Bray retired in 1996, aged 70, and Michael kept him on the payroll and covered his medical costs for the rest of his life. He died in November 2005, aged 80. Michael was living abroad at the time and, by one account, became hysterical when he heard. His statement was short: “As I traveled throughout the world, Mr. Bray was there by my side.”
A sad footnote is worth noting. Reporting from 2004 and 2005 says the two men had not seen each other for years by the end, and that Bray spent his final period in poor health without visits from the family — though the bills were still being paid.
Two men who could not quite reach each other at the end. But for twenty-five years, Bill Bray stood between Michael Jackson and the world.
Read Michael’s Hand-Written Letter To Bill Right Here
