East Tennesseans remember Michael Jackson

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Janet Testerman, left, and her mother Janet Testerman-Crossley, pose with photos taken of themselves with Michael Jackson during The Jacksons’ Victory Tour concert in August 1984 in Knoxville. The Testermans got to meet the Jacksons backstage.

Photo by Adam Brimer

Janet Testerman, left, and her mother Janet Testerman-Crossley, pose with photos taken of themselves with Michael Jackson during The Jacksons’ Victory Tour concert in August 1984 in Knoxville. The Testermans got to meet the Jacksons backstage.

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Retired Knoxville Police Department Investigator Stan McCroskey, who oversaw security for the Jackson family during their three-day stay in Knoxville in 1984, recalls Michael Jackson as "a strange puppy."

"If he wasn't strange, there isn't a cow in Texas," said McCroskey, who now serves as court bailiff for Knox County Criminal Court Judge Bobby McGee. "But he was a very talented person."

McCroskey said Jackson's four brothers were "great."

Members of the media provided more challenges than the public for the 300-person security force McCroskey said he cobbled together from the ranks of the KPD, Knox County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Marshals Service. One man who telephoned a threat to Michael Jackson was held in jail until the star left on a plane, he said.

McCroskey met Michael Jackson "only briefly," he said, but the star was cordial. "He stayed in his room most of the time," the former investigator said.

Michael Jackson's inner circle was "bizarre," McCroskey said, with some wearing turbans and others "being the typical celebrity entourage" of colorful characters.

McCroskey said he had to threaten a lawsuit to collect the $17,000 bill for security. The bill was paid three days after an attorney for McCroskey contacted Jackson's representatives.

- Don Jacobs

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The city went wild when Michael Jackson came to town, and Janet Testerman and her mother had a front-row seat.

Testerman, then the teenage daughter of Knoxville Mayor Kyle Testerman, got a trip backstage with her mother, Janet Testerman-Crossley, when Jackson performed in Knoxville in 1984. They attended all three nights.

"Looking back, it wasn't surprising that he became more of a recluse in later years," said Testerman, now the editor of Skirt! Magazine and executive editor of Knoxville Magazine. "He was very quiet, very withdrawn. But when he took the stage, it was like watching two completely different people. He was a true genius - maybe a freak show in a lot of people's opinions later, but a true genius. There will never be anybody else like him."

Testerman-Crossley said she's met only one other person she could compare to Jackson - Elvis Presley, a comparison often made by others.

"Most people can go to their own little corner of the world to hide, and neither of them could go anywhere," the mother said. "He was like a prisoner in his own realm - very shy and very uncomfortable around people up close."

- Matt Lakin

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A day after Jackson's death, the fans started lining up Friday morning.

Ripley's Guinness World Records Museum in Gatlinburg boasts a selection of Michael Jackson memorabilia that includes zippered jackets, a framed platinum "Thriller" album and a life-sized wax cast of Jackson made for a music video.

"When we got to work this morning, there were already flowers laid at the door," said Ryan DeSear, the museum's general manager. "There are maybe 10 in front of the door now. It's really been a very popular response."

- Matt Lakin

*

Michael Strickland, whose Bandit Lites has provided concert lighting for superstars internationally, never had Jackson as a client but attended several performances.

"He arrived at venues just in time … and left as soon as he finished," Strickland recalled. "He was very quiet and pleasant and not at all demanding. He spoke directly and quietly and everyone listened. … He was a major force within our industry his entire life. His talent and drive will be sorely missed."

- David Keim

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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