The “Thriller” video is the most famous music video ever made. It sent an album that was already the biggest in history flying even higher. It was the first video anyone treated like a proper little movie, rather than a band playing to a camera. And in 2009, the US government picked it to be saved forever in a national film collection — the same collection that protects the greatest films America has ever produced. No music video had ever been chosen before.
And a few weeks before the world got to see it, Michael Jackson tried to get it destroyed.
The reason was his religion. Michael had grown up as a Jehovah’s Witness, and in 1983 he still took it very seriously. He really did go knocking on doors to talk to people about his faith — sometimes wearing a fake mustache so nobody would recognize him. Then he made a video full of zombies, a graveyard, and a man turning into a werewolf.
Michael Jackson – Thriller (Official 4K Video)
To the leaders of his church, that was not harmless fun. They believed it was promoting evil spirits and dark magic, which their religion strictly forbids. So they came down on him hard. By several accounts, he was warned that if the video were released, he would be thrown out of the church, for a Jehovah’s Witness that is not a small thing. Being thrown out usually means being cut off by everyone you know, including your own family.
Think about where that left him. He was 25 years old. He was the most famous person on the planet. And the people he had grown up with were telling him he had made something wicked.
He fell apart. Reports say he shut himself in his room for days and would not come out or eat. Then he made the call. He told his lawyer, John Branca, to destroy the film.
Why Michael Jackson Almost Destroyed The “Thriller” Video
Branca said no. Instead, he hid the film somewhere Michael could not get to it, and suggested something else. Release the video — but put a message on the screen at the start saying Michael did not personally believe in any of it. Some accounts credit the director, John Landis, with hiding the reels instead. Either way, somebody refused to burn it, and that is the only reason it still exists.
That message is still there today. Watch “Thriller” right now and before a single frame plays, you will see: “Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult.” In plain English, he is saying, “I do not believe in this stuff.” It has been sitting there for over forty years, and millions of people scroll straight past it every year without knowing what it cost him to put it there.
He meant it, too. He said the same thing again in a Jehovah’s Witness magazine called Awake!: “I just intended to do a good, fun short film, not to purposely bring to the screen something to scare people or to do anything bad. I want to do what’s right. I would never do anything like that again.” He even tried to stop people advertising it.
The video came out on MTV on 2 December 1983 and changed music forever. And there is a quiet ending to all of it. Four years later, in 1987, Michael stopped attending Jehovah’s Witnesses meetings. He kept the video. He kept the message on the front, too.