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Jackson: I don't like pop
27/11/2002 17:01 - (SA)
Erik Kirschbaum
Berlin - Pop star Michael Jackson, who has sold more than 210 million records in his career, made an astonishing revelation in a rare interview published in a German magazine on Wednesday - "I don't like pop music".
Jackson was explaining to Bunte magazine why he bought two classical music compact discs, but no pop, during a shopping excursion in Berlin last week while in the city to accept a German television pop artist lifetime achievement award.
The "King of Pop" dropped into a CD store unannounced, without bodyguards, and no one at first noticed he was there.
"I'd like to go shopping again for CDs in Berlin," Jackson said, adding: "It's just unbelieveable. No matter where I am I'm always being followed...I need the experience that I can walk into a store as a completely normal person going shopping."
Jackson had a busy week in Berlin visiting tourist sites, meeting poor families, attending charity auctions - and getting caught up in controversy for dangling his baby son out of a hotel window.
German police had started a probe into whether Jackson committed a crime by dangling his son from the fourth-floor window of his five-star hotel before hundreds of fans last week, a frightening moment captured on film and widely broadcast.
Jackson apologised, saying he was caught up in the emotion of the cheering fans. He had held his baby, whose head was covered by a towel, over a balcony with one arm. Fans screaming his name on the street below gasped in horror.
Berlin police opted against starting a formal investigation.
Jackson also dismissed criticism about covering the faces of his children with veils - believed to be an attempt to thwart potential kidnappers - as they toured Berlin's zoo.
"They love the Spiderman scarves," Jackson said. "They've seen the film a dozen times. It's terrible. I know the whole film by heart myself. I try to vary the film programme by showing them Disney films. But they only want to see Spiderman."
Jackson complained about journalists who pursued him and his children in Berlin. "It was terrible. With their big cameras they almost crushed us," he said.
Jackson has three children, two by ex-wife Debbie Rowe, five-year-old son Prince Michael and daughter Paris, 4. He has not revealed the mother of his baby son, less than a year old.
Jackson, who Bunte - a weekly celebrity magazine - said was wearing a touch of make-up and lipstick for the interview in the Adlon Hotel, said his children were only allowed to take home two presents from Berlin.
"But Playstations or computers are not allowed in the house," he said, adding that he reads his children fairy tales during breakfast. "And they're only allowed to watch television when I'm around."
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South Africa
