This article is adapted from Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days, by Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard, with Tanner Colby.

On Dec. 22, 2006, Michael Jackson’s private jet touched down at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Eighteen months earlier, Jackson had fled his native country, taking his three children and going into self-imposed exile, trying to escape the swarm of tabloid media coverage that had attended his 2005 trial on charges of child molestation. The trial exonerated Jackson of any wrongdoing, but he’d been devastated by the ordeal nonetheless—financially, physically, and emotionally—and hoped to find peace living overseas, first in the Middle Eastern kingdom of Bahrain and later in Ireland.

The singer likely would have stayed abroad for good, but mounting legal and financial problems forced him to return to the U.S., where an offer to perform as a headliner at a Vegas casino promised a steady income and a stable home for his family. World famous since the age of 10, Jackson had always relied on a personal security detail shadowing his every move, and upon his arrival in Vegas, the singer decided to replace the team that had served him overseas. The two men he hired for the new detail were Bill Whitfield, who’d previously served as head of security for Sean “P.Diddy” Combs, and Javon Beard, a trusted family member of one of Jackson’s associates.

For the next 2½ years, Whitfield and Beard worked as Jackson’s personal security team, stationed at his side almost 24 hours a day, often serving as the only gatekeepers between the outside world and the increasingly isolated King of Pop. In that time, they came to know a quiet man and a loving father very different from the figure depicted in the tabloids, and they were given a front-row seat for the unending parade of problems that had driven Jackson to live a life of seclusion behind the gates of his Las Vegas mansion.

Bill Whitfield: Prior to working for Mr. Jackson, my main job had always been handling external threats—stalkers, the paparazzi. That type of stuff I knew how to deal with. But what Mr. Jackson was really paranoid about, the thing he felt he needed most from us, was protection from the people who were already in his life. He wanted us there so he could hide his movements from his own lawyers and managers. He wanted us there to be a buffer between him and his own family. No one in his family was allowed past the front gate without advance notice, with the exception of Mrs. Jackson, his mother. If she showed up, we’d open up the gate and she’d go right on into the house. She could come unannounced. Everyone else needed an appointment, and that was a very delicate situation to handle.

We had fans that did drive-bys all the time. They’d come, circle the block, stop, look around, drive off. On this one particular day, would have been in early February, we saw a burgundy PT Cruiser going back and forth in front of the house. It had tinted windows, so we couldn’t see who it was. This car circled the block maybe four times and drove off. The next day, the same PT Cruiser came and pulled right up to the gate. Javon stayed in the trailer to watch the monitors. I went down to the gate to see what was what.

I got down there, and Mr. Jackson’s father, Joe Jackson, was getting out of the car. I stuck my hand through the gate to shake his and said, “How you doing, Mr. Jackson?”

He wouldn’t shake my hand. He just eyed me and said, “You’re probably one of those putting needles in my son’s arm.” I didn’t respond. He said, “I’m here to see Michael.”

I said, “OK,” left him there, and went back to the house to get Mr. Jackson. He was in his room, listening to music very loud. I knocked on the door and he came out, and I said, “Sir, your father’s outside.”

He said, “Does he have an appointment? Is he on the calendar?”

“I don’t believe so, sir.”

“No, no, no. I’m working. I cannot be disturbed when I’m being creative. Tell him he has to come back and make an appointment.”

I walked back out to the gate, thinking, Damn, I’ve got to go tell this man that he needs an appointment? To see his son? Uh-uh. I wasn’t doing that. I was gonna have to ad lib this one. I went down to the gate and told him that Mr. Jackson was busy, but if he came back tomorrow, I’d make sure to let his son know he wanted to visit. Then I held out my business card for him. He wouldn’t take it. He just went off on me. “I don’t need your damn number! If it wasn’t for me, none of you bastards would have a job! I’m the one started this shit!”

Once he started rapping all that? Our conversation was over. I walked off. He just stood there on the sidewalk, yelling at nobody in particular. Eventually he got in his little car and left. At that point, I started to wonder what kind of situation we’d walked into. I hadn’t signed up for this part, getting involved with family.

Javon Beard: Mr. Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor were old friends, and she was having a 75th birthday party at a resort out at Lake Las Vegas, this big, red-carpet affair. Her people had heard that Mr. Jackson was living here now, and they reached out to his manager to ask if he would attend. Of course Mr. Jackson wanted to go. So about two weeks out from the event, word came down to us, and things started to gear up.

First thing Mr. Jackson did was call Roberto Cavalli, the designer, to create a custom outfit for him for the party. Cavalli took an emergency flight out here. We picked him up from the MGM Grand, brought him to the house, and he and Mr. Jackson started designing this whole new thing for him just for the party.

Mr. Jackson was obsessing over every detail. He flew his hair-stylist and his makeup artist in too. Once we saw that? We knew he was really taking this seriously. We’d been working for him for over a month, and this was the first detail where he said, “Make sure you have on new suits.” Not just suits, new suits. “Clean the cars. Wax the cars. Make sure your shoes are shined like mirrors.” He never did that kind of thing before. This was the first time we’d be stepping out in public, where we knew that the paparazzi and the press were going to be there. So every day, Mr. Jackson was like, “You guys have to look great. I want everybody to look great.”

Whitfield: We hit the mall a few times, slipping in and out in disguises. Went to Tiffany’s, to Hallmark. He picked out some gifts, a birthday card. We’d hear him talking in the car about how amped he was. We were getting excited just being around him. It was the first time we’d really seen him like this.

Day of the party, he was in good spirits all day long. It was infectious. It spread to everybody in the house. “Hey, Mr. Jackson’s in a good mood!” Everybody was pumped. The whole atmosphere of the place changed. The security team, we were checking each other out, making sure we were all set. Suits pressed. Shoes shined. Even our weapons were polished. Shit, we looked good.

Beard: We were getting ready to walk out on the red carpet with Michael Jackson. It was surreal to us. We’re security, but we’re fans too. How could you not be? We were escorting the King of Pop to Elizabeth Taylor’s birthday party. This was top of the line. A-list.

Whitfield: We were ready to roll out, the cars were in the driveway, all set to go, and Mr. Jackson was taking forever to get ready. While we waited, I left to go and gas up one of the vehicles. I came back and they opened the gate for me and I pulled in on the right-hand side of the circular driveway. The gate was closing behind me. I was getting out of the car and the gate was just a couple feet from closing when all of a sudden—BAM!—there was this loud crash. I turned around to see this gray Mercedes SUV come smashing full speed into the gate. It started to wobble back open, like a garage door does when it can’t close. The Mercedes punched forward, scraping through the opening, and then it raced up the left side of the driveway. I was thinking this was some deranged person about to crash his car into the house. I pulled out my weapon and ran toward the car.

Beard: I was in the garage, waiting to lock up behind Mr. Jackson, who was on his way down. I heard the crash and looked up and saw Bill pull out his joint. The boss was coming through the garage door at that same moment. I screamed, “Mr. Jackson! No!” I grabbed him and pushed him back into the house and locked him inside. He was all freaked out, going, “What’s happening? Is everything okay?”

Whitfield: Everything felt like it was moving at super speed and in slow motion at the same time. The Mercedes came screeching to a halt right in front of the main door. I came between it and the house, drew my pistol and took aim at the driver. I had the laser sight right on his chest and the only thing running through my mind was, Whoever this is, they’re about to get shot.

The driver ducked down and out the corner of my eye I saw this woman in the passenger seat. That threw me. I wasn’t expecting to see a woman. Then the driver lifted his head up and I saw who it was and I froze. Holy shit, I thought. That’s his brother. That’s Randy Jackson. I was only a split second away from pulling the trigger. All I could think about was the madness that would have broken loose if I’d taken that shot. I could see the headlines: Michael Jackson’s Brother Shot by King of Pop’s Bodyguards.

Randy cracked his window open and yelled, “Get that gun out my face before I call the press.”

The press? That was the last thing the boss needed. I went up to the window and said, “Mr. Jackson, you can’t be doin’ this.”

“I’m here to see my brother,” he said.

“Not like this, you’re not. I’d appreciate it if you’d go back outside the gate. Go back outside, and I’ll inform Mr. Jackson that you’re here.”

“I ain’t moving until I see my brother!”

Beard: He started screaming, cussing his brains out, rapping all this stuff about money he’s owed and how he’s not leaving without it.

Whitfield: I left Javon and the others to watch Randy and went in the house to talk to Mr. Jackson. “Your brother Randy’s crashed the gate,” I told him. “He says he’s here to see you about some financial matters, and he won’t leave until he talks to you.”

Mr. Jackson raised his eyebrows for a moment. Then he winced and looked away. “Get rid of him,” he said.

I went back down to try to talk to Randy again. He wouldn’t move.

Beard: I had the idea to block Randy in with one of the trucks, bring the boss out through the side entrance, hop into a different car, and then slip away. But Mr. Jackson shot it down. He said, “He’ll just find out how to follow us to Liz’s party and cause a huge scene; she doesn’t deserve that.”

Whitfield: After about 30 more minutes, I went in the house and told Mr. Jackson again that Randy wasn’t leaving. Mr. Jackson sat there for a moment, then he let out a sigh and said, “OK. I’m just going to go to bed.”

He went upstairs, closed the door, and didn’t come back out.

Beard: That killed us. We were devastated, for Mr. Jackson and for ourselves. I was proud to work for him, and I wanted the chance to do that in public, to show people I worked for Michael Jackson. We had brand-new suits; we were very excited. Elizabeth Taylor’s birthday party? Are you kiddin’ me?! I’m just a normal guy. It was just human nature for us to be excited.

And Mr. Jackson? He’d been making plans for two weeks. This was so important to him. So for him to write it off and go to bed? That was a moment that let us know, okay, this family has some real power over him. It threw off his whole night.

After that, Mr. Jackson didn’t leave the house for three days. We didn’t hear from him. No phone calls, no communication, nothing. He just shut down.

Whitfield: A couple of weeks later, the whole family showed up—all of them. Around midnight, we walked out to the front and saw a bunch of people standing outside the gate. There were a whole lot of familiar faces. Looked like everybody except Randy and Marlon. For a minute it was like I was looking at some kind of Jackson reunion special.

Beard: They all had on hats and sunglasses. It was very incognito, this big family of famous people standing out on the sidewalk in the middle of the night, and quiet all around.

Whitfield: I walked up to the gate, asked them what their business was this time of night. They said, “We heard our brother’s sick. We came to make sure he’s OK.”

I told them I hadn’t seen any signs that Mr. Jackson wasn’t okay. They told me they wanted to see for themselves and weren’t leaving until they did. So now I was in a jam. We had strict instructions from Mr. Jackson not to bother him, but at the same time we couldn’t just leave the entire Jackson family standing in the street at 1 a.m. without it turning into a scene, which Mr. Jackson also wouldn’t want.

I told them to hold on. I went back to the house, rang the doorbell. When Mr. Jackson came to the door, I said, “Sir, your family is out front, and they insist on seeing you.”

He was not happy. He was pissed, and I could tell he was pissed at me for not handling the situation myself. I said, “They heard you were sick and they want to know if you’re okay.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he said. “Tell them I’m fine.”

“Sir, they’re not leaving until they see you.”

He went quiet for a moment, then said, “OK, I’ll meet with them. But I don’t want them in the house.”

“I can bring them over to the security trailer. You can talk to them in there.”

“Fine. But I’ll only speak to my brothers.”

Then he asked if Randy was there. I said I didn’t see him. “Good,” he said. “I don’t want to see Randy.”

I went back to the gate and said, “Mr. Jackson just wants to see his brothers.”

This voice from the back said, “What about me?”

At first I couldn’t see who it was. Then I realized it was Janet.

“Sorry, ma’am. He said only his brothers.” She was not happy about that.

The brothers came in. I escorted them over to the trailer, and they stepped inside. Then I called Mr. Jackson and he came down and joined them. They closed the door and talked for about 20 minutes. Mr. Jackson came out first. Walked straight into the house. Didn’t say anything. The brothers came out, walked to the gate, and that was it. What they talked about, I don’t know.

Beard: They’d come because of a rumor they’d heard that their brother was sick, but Mr. Jackson wasn’t sick. The kids were. Back in January, they’d all come down with colds. Arrangements were made to see a private doctor at his office one evening, after regular hours. The receptionist in that office leaked the story that Michael Jackson had come in, and the family had heard about it. It seemed suspicious to them. They heard he was seen going to a doctor’s office in the middle of the night, and they wanted to make sure he was okay.

Whitfield: That was the difficulty of being Michael Jackson and trying to move around in the world. Just to take his kids to the doctor required days of planning and advance work. You’d use every precaution, and all it took was 15 seconds walking past the wrong person, some nosy receptionist, and all of a sudden you’ve got this rumor circulating.

Paris didn’t get better. Her cold wouldn’t go away, and Mr. Jackson was worried she was coming down with the flu. We couldn’t go to the emergency room, and Mr. Jackson didn’t trust going back to some strange office. He wanted a doctor who would come to the house. So the word was put out there to find a private physician who made house calls. I was given a name and told when to expect him.

On the scheduled night, this silver BMW 745i pulled up to the driveway and a tall, slender gentleman stepped out. He was wearing light blue medical scrubs. He walked up to the gate and introduced himself. “I’m Dr. Conrad Murray,” he said. “I’m here for a visit.”

I told him he was expected, opened the gate, and directed him as to where he could pull his vehicle in. He drove in, parked, and got out.

I had a confidentiality form waiting. Before I pulled it out, I asked him if he knew who he was here to see. He said no. I told him he’d need to sign the agreement before I could allow him to go inside. He said sure. I pulled it out, and he glanced at the heading on the document and saw the name Michael Jackson. His eyebrows raised up and he gave me this look, like, Are you serious?

I gave him a nod. He signed his name. We walked to the front of the house, and I rang the bell and we waited. I could see the silhouette of Mr. Jackson through the glass as he came over toward us. He opened the door, and I said, “Mr. Jackson, this is Dr. Murray. Dr. Murray, this is Mr. Jackson.”

It’s hard to be humble when you’re Kanye West. But when the rap superstar met Michael Jackson, his notoriously braggadocios demeanor gave way to reveal a visibly starstruck fan awed by the presence of his idol.
According to Business Insider, West’s fanboy moment with Jackson is among the revelations found in Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days, a new book by two of the pop stars former bodyguards, Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard.
“Once Kanye saw Mr. Jackson, he was the one who was starstruck,” Whitfield and Beard write in the book, which was released today (June 3).
The two were meeting about a remix of Jackson’s “Billie Jean” for the Thriller 25 anniversary reissue.
Related: Michael Jackson Becomes First Artist with Top 10 Singles Over 5 Decades
“He started gushing. ‘Oh my God, Mr. Jackson, it’s such a pleasure and an honor to meet you. You just don’t know. I’m your biggest fan. I love you so much,’” they write. “The whole time, Kanye was like a kid in a candy store. I’ve never seen somebody be so humble. To see him that way was surreal. Everybody knows that Kanye can be very arrogant, and here he was just amazed to be in the same room as Mr. Jackson.”
Kanye West wasn’t the only pop star awed when meeting the King of Pop. The authors also detailed when R&B singer Ne-Yo met Jackson, and how he “couldn’t stop shaking… Experiences like that made you remember just how special Mr. Jackson was to people.”
Working as Michael Jackson’s bodyguards wasn’t all just gushing pop star encounters. An excerpt from the book published by Slate outlines a bizarre encounter with Jackson’s brother Randy, who literally crashed through the front gates of his sibling’s home, causing Michael to miss Elizabeth Taylor’s 75th birthday party. Another incident found most of the Jackson clan camped out front of the home in the middle of the night, and not leaving until Michael had a brief meeting with his brothers in a security trailer.
The book release comes not a month after Jackson’s estate released the first album of new music from the pop star in over a decade. Xscape hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 upon its release and spawned his first top 10 single of the decade — meaning he’s the first artist with top 10 singles over five decades.

Our friends over at MJJ Community have done an excellent interview with Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard, the authors of the new book ‘Remember The Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in his final days‘. The book is out now and available to purchase at Amazon. Congratulations also to our five competition winners who each won a free copy last week before it was released.

Below is the complete interview from MJJC:

What made you want to write a book?
We wrote Remember the Time because we had a story to tell about the Michael Jackson we knew. If you’re a Michael Jackson fan and supporter, you deserve to know him more on a personal side, not just who he was but what he endured as a man, and as a father. You deserve a true account from those that were there, not from those who can only repeat what they heard second hand.

We wrestled a long time with whether or not was should write a book. Fundamentally, we agree with those who say Mr. Jackson deserves his privacy and deserves to rest in peace. But ultimately we came to the conclusion that his fans deserve to know and, hopefully, in some way it will bring closure to some and truth to others. We also felt an obligation to tell the world about our time with Mr. Jackson because there really is no one else to tell this part of the story. During the time Mr. Jackson spent in Las Vegas, between his return from Ireland and the start of “This Is It,” there simply weren’t a lot of people around. Very often the only people there were us, Mr. Jackson, and the three children. Mr. Jackson has been robbed of the opportunity to tell his own story, and the children were too young to really know a lot of what was going on at the time. That leaves us. If the world ever wants to fully understand what happened to this beloved and incredible man, this is a story that needs to be told. We already know how Michael Jackson died. Our aim is to help people understand why.

How long did it take you to write the book? Was it a challenge putting the experience of protecting Michael Jackson into words? Please tell us about this experience.
The longest and hardest part of the process was finding the right publisher who understood our approach and our philosophy. When he was alive, Mr. Jackson’s world was full of vultures looking to take advantage of him in every way possible. We saw that with him and we saw it again after he passed away, in the way people approached us about our story. There was a long, on and off process of interviewing possible collaborators, close to two years. Once we found the right partners, people that we trusted and felt comfortable with, the actual writing of the book actually took about a year. We spent several days sitting down, reminiscing and just telling our story, and then over the next several months, spent hours on the phone going over chapters, making edits, and so forth.

In the beginning, it was difficult talking about our experiences. Often times it made us angry, thinking, “Was there more we could have done?” It was also painful to relive some of the bad things that happened to him. He was not at peace a lot of the time, because of how bad he was portrayed in the media, because there were so many people he couldn’t trust. We always wanted to shield him from it, but there were some things you just couldn’t control. But the more we wrote and relived the moments we shared with Mr. Jackson, the more we knew we were doing the right thing.

Most books about Michael are written with lots of sensationalism. Yours is not. Why is that, and why have you taken the approach of a general spoken account?
Sensationalism was the opposite of what we wanted to write. First of all, our time with Mr. Jackson was not “sensational” in either a good way or a bad way. There were no big tabloid scandals, but there weren’t any sold-out stadium concerts, either. Most of our two and a half years with Mr. Jackson were a quiet time when he was focused almost entirely on raising his children and giving them a home. There was a lot of tension and drama going on with his family and with his business affairs, but no big spectacle, so telling our story is an opportunity to see who the man really was away from the cameras.

We always tell people we didn’t work for the King of Pop. We worked for Michael Jackson. Those were two different people. It was only at the very end, when the machinery of This Is It started winding up in Los Angeles, that we saw the tabloid spectacle take over, and not in a healthy way. But we were not a direct party to that. We stayed in Vegas, handling some of Mr. Jackson’s business there, and we were slated to rejoin him in London to handle security on the estate he was going to rent.

We chose to tell the story in the way we did, through our own personal, conversational voices, to give readers the sense of being there as things happened. A lot of what you read about Michael Jackson either puts him on a pedestal or throws him in the gutter. We wanted a book that gave Mr. Jackson his proper respect and honored his legacy, but also a book that was down to earth and showed him as a real, everyday person, because that’s what most people misunderstand about him. The tabloids always wanted to paint him as some kind of cartoon, but behind the King of Pop spectacle there was a real human being who was full of great love and generosity, but who also suffered from pain and loneliness. We wanted to show the world that real human being, because Michael Jackson deserves to be treated like a person.

We also chose to tell the story from our own point of view in order to avoid all the second-hand speculation and the recycling of tabloid stories that other Michael Jackson books always rely on. Given the way the media treated Mr. Jackson’s life, to this day we don’t really trust anything written about him that we didn’t witness first-hand. Other than referencing well-documented information about Mr. Jackson’s past (like how many albums Thriller sold) and using some basic facts established in public records (like how the mortgage on Neverland was handled) the book is strictly an account of what we saw and heard and what our reactions and feelings were. We wanted it to be as honest and real as possible.

Lots of people from Michael’s past have used knowing/working with him to make money. Can you tell us if that was your motivation for writing this book?
Money was and never has been our motivation. We turned down cash offers from tabloids that wanted us to dish dirt on the more scandalous elements of Mr. Jackson’s life. (We didn’t actually have much dirt to give them, because that’s not the man that we knew.) As we discuss in the intro to the book, we did not sell this for a huge advance to a big publisher looking for tabloid secrets. We went with a small publisher who was willing to pay a modest advance to take a chance on the kind of book we wanted to write. We also did not take any of the upfront money ourselves. We invested it in making sure Mr. Jackson’s story was done well. We paid most of it to a writer, Tanner Colby, a New York Times bestselling author, who we felt would handle the story with the respect it deserves. The rest of it went to cover various expenses, like travel to meet with our editors and so forth. The only way we will make money from this book is on the back end. If you, the fans, decide that we have done a good job and this is a book you choose to support, that will be our reward.

What was your opinion of Michael before you started working for him? Did your opinions change after working for him?
Both of us were always huge fans of Michael even before working for him. Bill still has all the old 45 singles from growing up with the Jackson 5. Javon literally had “Smooth Criminal” set up as his ringtone when he got the call to come and work for Mr. Jackson. Neither of us ever believed the allegations made against him, or any of the other crazy things printed in the media. He always seemed so sweet and soft spoken, like he couldn’t hurt a fly.

Unfortunately, as with many celebrities whose lives are distorted by the tabloids, you don’t believe what’s being said but you you don’t have the personal knowledge to say different. So when we were given the opportunity to work for him, we paid more attention to him and his actions and we saw things that validated what we’d always wanted to believe about him. We saw how much of a hands-on father he was, how he cared so much for the less fortunate. So, our opinions of him didn’t really change, but it was nice to learn that that the Michael Jackson we supported as fans was not the Michael Jackson that had been reported in the media.

Did Michael have a favourite radio station/songs to listen to while in the car/SUV?
Mr. Jackson only listened to classical music in the car. Sometimes, if one of us had the radio on an R&B station, he’d ask us to leave it, but otherwise it was pretty much always classical—with one exception. There was one song that happen to come on the radio, and after hearing it he had us go to Best Buy and purchase it for him. Then he played it over and over again in the car, singing along in the backseat—and he sang that song with conviciton. It was song that really spoke to him and the challenges he was dealing with. But for that you have to read the book.

Did Michael ever invite fans inside his home to hang out?
Mr. Jackson often invited fans in to visit at Neverland, but the houses he rented in Las Vegas were not the same. They were not homes he wanted to show off and entertain in. They were just places to stay, really. So we never had the fans come inside. Most of the time we spent visiting with the fans was in the car, on the way in and out of the house. We’d always stop and he’d say hello and chat for a bit.

While living in Las Vegas, Mr. Jackson was looking for a new limousine, and one summer evening we arranged for him to take a test drive in an SUV stretch limousine. The vehicle seated sixteen people. As we pulled out from the driveway, there were about five fans sitting outside the gate. Mr. Jackson directed the driver to stop the vehicle, he rolled the window down, and asked the fans if they wanted to go for a ride. Then he opened the door and they jumped in. We drove around for about 45 minutes, and Mr. Jackson and his fans just casually chatted. As nerve racking as it was for us as security, all went well. He loved it and so did they.

Did you ever hear Michael talk without his falsetto?
No. Mr. Jackson always spoke in the same quiet, soft-spoken voice he used in public.

Michael loved reading a lot. As far as you know, did he like novels or did he prefer to read autobiographies or books that tell real stories? If he preferred novels, what was his favourite genre?
Mr. Jackson read just about anything he could get his hands on. We were constantly taking trips to Barnes & Noble, dropping five, ten thousand dollars on books in a single night. If there was a particular preference he had, we couldn’t say. If there was one book we saw him reading most frequently, it would be the Bible.

Can you tell us the differences between the public Michael and the private Michael?
The public Michael Jackson was an entertainer. The private Michael Jackson was a father, a son. The public Michael was very image conscious. When he knew he was going somewhere and there were going to be a lot of cameras, he would fly in his hairstylist and get a one-of-a-kind outfit made by a top designer.

He would spend 4 to 5 hours just preparing himself for the cameras and the bright lights. The private Michael just loved being with his kids, watching movies, eating popcorn, and walking around the house in pajamas without a care in the world.

Two of Michael Jackson’s bodyguards, Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard, have written Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days. with Tanner Colby. The book provides some amazing insights into the last two and half years of Jackson’s life, and the lives of his children.
The book is written in a conversational form with the two taking turns writing their own thoughts about different situations. There was a difference, they write, between who Michael Jackson really was and the King of Pop. They believe they worked for Michael Jackson and his three young children, and really didn’t see the King of Pop much until towards the end of their assignment.
Whitfield writes, “When he got up in front of the cameras, it was like a bright light turned on inside him. His whole demeanor changed. This was my first time meeting the King of Pop. Up to that point, I’d only ever worked for Michael Jackson. Those were two different people, I realized.”
Why They Wrote Remember the Time
Whitfield started as Jackson’s bodyguard in December of 2006 and worked for him until his death in June 2009. Beard started shortly after Whitfield did. The two wanted to write the book to let the world see a different side of Jackson’s life.
“We wanted the world to see a glimpse of the good man and wonderful father that we had the privilege of serving,” Whitfield writes. “We decided that a book written by us—a direct account unfiltered by reporters and commentators—would be the most effective means to set the record straight.”
During most of the two bodyguards’ time working for Jackson, the singer was in serious financial trouble and was traveling from city to city and hotel to hotel or rented home to rented home. Once, Whitfield had to buy iPhones for Jackson and Jackson’s mother because Jackson didn’t have credit to do so himself. Whitfield and Beard were with Jackson 24/7 almost from the beginning of their time with him, giving up their own family lives to serve Jackson and his family. There were times toward the end of their story that they both went without pay for months, putting their own financial status in jeopardy.
The reader gets the sense this was more of a mission for them and less of a job. They both felt they needed to be there for Jackson and his kids. With all of the people coming and going in the Jackson family’s lives, the two believed they were there to provide some form of normalcy and routine.
Stories of Jackson’s Life
The authors relate a number of stories about Jackson, including his need to ride in his own SUVs for security reasons. They also write about Jackson’s abandonment of his ranch, Neverland. They include stories about some of Jackson’s obsessions, such as checking the locks on the doors throughout the night.
They also write about the star’s relationship with his family. They write about the first time they met Dr. Conrad Murray, later convicted of involuntary manslaughter for causing Jackson’s death, when he came to the house to help one of the kids who was sick. There are also stories about Jackson’s fans and the relationship he had with them.
The stories are firsthand and show the reader how the most recognized person in the world tried to live a decent life and provide his kids a life of privilege while at the same time infusing some form of normalcy. The authors write about how much the kids loved their father and enjoyed being with him.
Noteworthy Points
The book is well written and does give an aerial view of the life of Jackson and how he protected his kids. I say aerial because the two were only with Jackson for a short time. While they do write about the child molestation trials that Jackson endured, they don’t discuss the rumored drug use until the end of the book. They also don’t write about the plastic surgeries.
They did not experience most of the other controversies surrounding his early life and career that led Jackson to be in the condition he was in when they joined his security team. The authors have tried to find the positive sides of Jackson’s life during the time they served him and that’s what they try to write about the most in this book.The book is a good read. For someone who grew up listening to the Jackson Five and then Michael Jackson as a solo artist, it was a relief to read that Jackson did try to take care of his kids in the best manner he could.
Jackson’s story is proof that fame and fortune are not always what they appear to be on the surface. Regardless of what you believe is true regarding the child molestation charges, Jackson paid a huge price for his talent and tenacity. He gave the ultimate price by giving up his privacy, his trust of others including his siblings, and his right to live freely and openly.

Professional bodyguards Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard, the authors of “Michael Jackson: Remember The Time” didn’t set out to destroy Michael Jackson’s credibility or reputation in their new book. They wanted to pay homage to the man they worked for for almost two years and give his fans some insight into how difficult his life had become in its last years.
Though they were not working with or around Jackson in the last months of his life, their experiences working with him gave them a glimpse into the challenges he faced. The ill-fated 50-date London tour, cancelled due to his death in 2009, they say, was not something Jackson wholeheartedly wanted to do.
“He wanted to do the tour but he didn’t want to do 50 shows,” Beard told the Tom Joyner Morning Show. “He would tell us all the time that when people come to my concerts, they expect me to perform from the beginning to the end. I can’t do that any more. I’m 50 years old. I can’t sit on a stool like the Osmonds and perform my hits.
“When people come to my shows, they want me to perform from beginning to end. He was such a perfectionist. He always took pride in performing from beginning to end. He used to tell us a story that he would consume 6,000 to 8,000 calories every day before a show because he would lose 1-3 pounds per show.”
The bodyguards, who worked for free for part of their time with Jackson because he was in such financial disarray, were not bound by the standard non-disclosure agreement. They say things were so unorganized in his camp that they were often the ones ensuring other staffers signed them.
The book, according to fans and readers who have posted their feedback on it, also details Jackson’s devotion to fatherhood. His children were central to his life. Beard and Whitfield say that they don’t believe the pedophilia allegations that haunted Jackson throughout his career were true. (He was acquitted of child molestation in a sensational 2005 trial.)
They say he did have female friends – they would take him to visit two women while Jackson was on vacation in Virginia.
“The young ladies who came to visit him, they didn’t come to his house where his kids were. That only happened when we were on vacation in Virginia. These two women we would take him to them and they’d hang out, go to dinner, walk around downtown D.C.”
But Whitfield says that the women never stayed overnight with Jackson.
The bodyguards also provide some insight on how Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011 for providing Jackon with a cocktail of drugs including propofol, an overdose of which killed him, became the singer’s personal physician.When one of Jackson’s children fell ill in Vegas, a late night trip to a doctor’s office led the media to believe Jackson was ill instead. After that, the bodyguards say, he wanted a doctor who could come directly to the house for any medical issue. That is how he came under the care of Murray.
One of the biggest surprises for his guards was Jackson’s love for classical music. It’s what he enjoyed most when he was listening to music on his own, both in the car and in his home. And they confirm his legendary work ethic as well a a penchant for takeout food that included ice cream, popcorn and hot wings.
“When he went into his studio mode, we wouldn’t even disturb him,” says Beard. “You got to know him enough that you wouldn’t disturb him. We would call him or we would ring the doorbell. He would come to the door.”
The bodyguards laugh when asked about Jackson’s nose, rumored to have been whittled down to gristle after his multiple plastic surgeries.
“Not true that he didn’t have a nose,” says Whitfield. “He always had a nose We’ve seen his nose a million times.”
Though neither man was with Jackson in the last days of his life, both had a feeling that things were getting bad for him.
“I certainly got the vibe that it was totally different [when Jackson was rehearsing for the London shows.] I’m starting to see this whole King of Pop thing form,” says Whitfield. When asked if they felt bad about his declining physical condition in the time before his death, they both say yes.
“Sad for him, all the time,” Whitfield says. “I didn’t think he would not [make the tour] but I didn’t think he was enthused.”

When one of Jackson’s children fell ill in Vegas, a late night trip to a doctor’s office led the media to believe Jackson was ill instead. After that, the bodyguards say, he wanted a doctor who could come directly to the house for any medical issue. That is how he came under the care of Murray.
One of the biggest surprises for his guards was Jackson’s love for classical music. It’s what he enjoyed most when he was listening to music on his own, both in the car and in his home. And they confirm his legendary work ethic as well a a penchant for takeout food that included ice cream, popcorn and hot wings.
“When he went into his studio mode, we wouldn’t even disturb him,” says Beard. “You got to know him enough that you wouldn’t disturb him. We would call him or we would ring the doorbell. He would come to the door.”
The bodyguards laugh when asked about Jackson’s nose, rumored to have been whittled down to gristle after his multiple plastic surgeries.
“Not true that he didn’t have a nose,” says Whitfield. “He always had a nose We’ve seen his nose a million times.”
Though neither man was with Jackson in the last days of his life, both had a feeling that things were getting bad for him.
“I certainly got the vibe that it was totally different [when Jackson was rehearsing for the London shows.] I’m starting to see this whole King of Pop thing form,” says Whitfield. When asked if they felt bad about his declining physical condition in the time before his death, they both say yes.
“Sad for him, all the time,” Whitfield says. “I didn’t think he would not [make the tour] but I didn’t think he was enthused.”

Michael Jackson’s bodyguards, Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard, have written a book giving their account of the final years of Jackson’s life. The two men spent two-and-a-half years working for Jackson, even continuing out of loyalty once he could no longer afford to pay them. They insist that Jackson was a good father and a good man: “We worked for Mr Jackson. We didn’t work for the King of Pop. We got to see him as a man and a father. It was so good to see the side of him which was so in tune as a parent, from helping them with their homework and making sure they were eating right, to putting them to bed.”

They address the rumour that had dogged Jackson in the years leading up to his death and that has lingered since - that he was a paedophile. Both Whitfield and Beard deny that Jackson was sexually attracted to children, instead claiming he had two secret affairs with women. While they deny that Jackson was a paedophile, they do admit he was eccentric: “He was certainly eccentric…He would go into a store and buy everything. When we stayed in hotels he would buy thousands of books. At one point, he bought a whole bookstore.”Whenever he travelled he would take a silver briefcase which contained a pair of Oscars won by 1939 classic movie Gone With The Wind, and another suitcase stuffed with thousands of dollars in cash. In his house he stored hundreds of bottles of Tobasco sauce and would make his family arrange appointments if they wanted to see him.
The children were never allowed to leave the house without masks covering their faces: “That’s all they knew. They knew to cover up and call each other code names in public.” They had no idea their father was known as “Wacko Jacko,” or in fact what any perception of their father from the outside world was. Javon explains: “He didn’t have any internet in the house. The kids couldn’t watch regular TV, so they never saw how he was portrayed.”

Jackson’s three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket, were homeschooled so had no other friends and they rarely saw anyone other than their nanny and tutor. Jackson would have toy stores and cinemas closed if they went shopping or to see a movie.
After Jackson passed away in 2009 Whitfield tried to keep in touch with the kids, but he hasn’t spoken to Paris in over a year now. “I miss them…I didn’t want to push the contact but now I’m hoping the book will encourage them to reach out to us.”

On June 25 it would be five years since Michael Jackson, the King of Pop went to bed and never woke up — he died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication. Hitting the stands later this month is, Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in his Final Days, written by MJ's former bodyguards, Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard along with bestselling author Tanner Colby. Excerpts from the book, exclusive to Bangalore Mirror; published with permission from HarperCollins India
Javon: The schoolteacher, Ms. Ilean... was an Asian woman from Bahrain....Mr. Jackson was no joke when it came to the kids' education. School started at 8:00 a.m. sharp. A spare room on the first floor was converted into a classroom. Like, it was an actual classroom....bookshelves, maps, educational posters with the alphabet and multiplication tables, all that. The kids each had their own desk. It looked like any classroom you'd see at any regular elementary school. It was the same whenever we were traveling and staying in hotels. A separate room was always reserved and we'd have the hotel set up desks in there, and that room would be used as the kids' classroom.
Bill: As up and down as their lives could be, Mr. Jackson insisted that there be structure and routine in the kids' educational environment. They even wore school uniforms. Prince and Blanket wore white shirts with black slacks and ties. Paris wore patent leather shoes and a dress, like a little Catholic schoolgirl dress. They were always well groomed. Hair combed, uniforms pressed. And Monday through Friday, every morning, the kids woke up, got dressed, came downstairs for breakfast, and then they "went to school."
The State Board of Education has all kinds of requirements for homeschooling, which includes the children passing exams to make them eligible to move on to the next grade. Ms. Ilean organized her lesson plans to meet all of those benchmarks. She doled out homework, required book reports, instituted study hall periods. The quality of their schooling was as good as or better than what you'd see at any top-level private school. Those were some smart kids. They were constantly reading. Their brains were like little sponges, always curious, always asking questions. When we drove them out to dinner or to go to the movies, Mr. Jackson would be in the backseat, quizzing them on whatever they'd learned that day. He knew exactly what they were studying. He sat down every week with the teacher to go over her lesson plans and keep tabs on what was being taught. He'd help them with their homework, too, in the afternoon and at night. They would come to him all the time. "Daddy, will you help me with my homework?" That was one of his favorite things to do.

Very little television was watched in that house. They'd have movie nights, watch DVDs together as a family, but it wasn't like a lot of households where you see kids just camped out in front of the TV.
Javon: There were lots of extracurricular activities, too. The kids had PE every day.... In class, the kids would read and study about the subjects, then we'd take them on field trips and they'd have to turn in reports on them.
Bill: ....People have often wondered why Mr. Jackson kept his children's faces covered with masks and veils when they were in public. The tabloids said it was weird and crazy, but they didn't understand the reason for it. If no one knew what his children looked like, they could occasionally go to public places without him and have a somewhat normal experience. When they were away from their dad, they could be everyday kids doing everyday things.
Javon: People laughed at the idea of him being a father, laughed at the kids' names and the masks and all that. Like, how weird it must be for Michael Jackson to be a father. But the more you got to know him you saw that being a father was the most normal thing about him. We were on post this one time, and he called down to say he'd run out of laundry detergent and could somebody run and pick him up some more. Before that moment, I'd never stopped to imagine Michael Jackson in the laundry room, washing his kids' clothes, but that's really how he was a lot of the time.
He didn't spoil them, either. There were the extravagant trips to FAO Schwarz and all that, but that was only for holidays and birthdays, or as a specific reward for doing well on a test or doing their chores. If they didn't do well, he was just as quick to take their privileges away.
...You see all these celebrity kids on TV all the time, bratty and spoiled and arrogant. Michael Jackson's kids were the opposite. They never asked for much, and when they did, it was always "please" and "thank you" for everything. And when one of them did misbehave, it didn't take too much discipline to straighten them out. One little talk or one little time-out and they'd learn their lesson.....
Bill: ....We always tried to run everything on a tight schedule. To make that schedule work, we always tried to leave at a certain time. But with Michael Jackson? It was rare that we left on time. His look had to be flawless before he'd go to any public event. There were times he'd get all the way to the car and say, "Wait, wait, I have to go back." And he'd turn around and go back in. He had a hair out of place or something—and this was after the stylist had worked on him for two and a half hours. Prince was the only one brave enough to literally grab his dad and say, "Let's go!" He'd go through the house, making sure his little brother and sister were dressed, putting them in the car. If we got somewhere on time, it was usually thanks to Prince.
Javon: All three of them were familiar with the nature of their father's life. It was like they were born ready for everything that he had to go through. The motorcade shows up at four in the morning, you get in, go here, fly there, have school in a hotel room. Ireland one day, Las Vegas the next. It was second nature to them....
Javon: Paris was Daddy's Little Girl. She was this little girl surrounded by nothing but men. She had a big brother telling her what to do. She's got a little brother telling her what to do. Mr. Jackson telling her what to do. You'd think she'd maybe be a little tomboyish because of that, but she was always very much a girly-girl. Always smiling, always cheerful. She has these bright blue-green eyes that just light up a room. Loved playing with dolls, having little dresses....The boys couldn't get away with much, but Paris could...
Javon: Any time we closed down a bookstore to go shopping, Mr. Jackson wanted everyone to go through the store together, section by section, so that they wouldn't get separated. They'd do the History section, then the Science Fiction section, and so on
Javon: Mr. Jackson was always concerned that we were taking good care of ourselves. He'd always say to us, "Do you guys work out? Do you guys eat right? Don't eat a lot of junk food; it's not good for you." For the most part, he and the kids were very healthy eaters. He'd let them go to McDonald's sometimes, go get hot wings, ice cream, pizza, or whatever, but that was only as a treat.....The biggest indulgences for the kids were their birthday parties. For those, Mr. Jackson went all out....
Javon: Whoever's birthday it was, we'd follow the same routine. We'd arrange to have FAO Schwarz closed down so they could shop undisturbed. Then we took them out to a special birthday lunch. Chinese food most of the time. The Wing Lei restaurant at the Wynn hotel, that was one of their favorites; there was a private room in the back they'd reserve for Mr. Jackson whenever he came. After lunch, he'd rent out a movie theater so the kids could go see a movie. And while they were out at the toy store and the movies, the house was being decorated. They'd come back and: "Surprise! " We'd have the magician, the clown with the balloons, the cotton candy. The whole place would be decked out for a party.
Bill: And there'd be nobody there. There were no other guests, no other children. It was just the clowns, Mr. Jackson, me and Javon, sometimes the teacher or the nanny. The kids didn't have any friends.
Javon: The only person who was ever there was Marlon Brando's son Miko; they were friendly because Mr. Jackson and Marlon Brando were tight. A couple times, Miko and his kids came by to celebrate, but it was usually just us.
Bill: It was hard to witness, hard to accept: nobody coming around, ringing the bell, and bringing gifts. No famous aunts and uncles calling to say happy birthday. Didn't matter if it was the kids' birthdays, his birthday, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July—there was nothing, nobody. It was just us. You kind of got used to it.
Javon:....Sometimes you'd feel sad about how they were so isolated, but they were always so happy just being together. When Mr. Jackson had to leave the kids behind at the house for a business meeting, they would always come to the door as a group to see him off. They'd follow him right to the car and they'd each say, "I love you, Daddy." And he'd say, "I love you more." That was their little ritual every time he left the house. And when he got home, didn't matter if he was gone for two hours or twenty minutes, they'd run to meet him, screaming, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"
Bill: They were like this little unit, just the four of them. All they had was each other...

**********

Bill: Mr. Jackson's manager, Raymone Bain, came out to Vegas in February....she didn't fly because she was bringing Mr. Jackson a briefcase that had a couple hundred thousand in cash in it. You can't take that kind of money through airport security without having to answer a lot of questions. So she drove.
Her car pulled into the driveway; Feldman came out and got the briefcase, leaving her in the car, and took the case into the house. ........We were out there for a good thirty, forty-five minutes, and by then it was pretty clear that Mr. Jackson wasn't going to ask her to come into the house, that he didn't even want to see her....His own manager drives across the country to see him after he's been overseas for months, and they don't even speak? ...Raymone was the point person. She kept the schedule, organized his affairs. Most mornings, she would send an itinerary over: go here, go there, call this person, etc. Sometimes Mr. Jackson would go through that schedule and follow it to the letter. Other times, he'd look at some appointment she'd made and say, "Oh, she has an ulterior motive for that. We're not going there."
We started to feel uneasy about their relationship. He didn't speak highly of her, yet here she was handling his business... Javon: ..... Our pay was never on time. It was never consistent.... You'd hear things in the media about his finances, but from where we stood, there was just no way a man like Michael Jackson could be broke. He had stashes all over the place, stacks of cash hidden away. Like that briefcase Ms. Raymone brought him. The same day our pay was late we'd be going somewhere to spend twenty thousand dollars on something. He's flat broke and he's worth millions at the same time? That's what we never got.

*********

It started in the early 1990s, the first time he was accused of child molestation. Things started to unravel then. But the second time he got accused? He was here in Vegas when it happened, staying at the Mirage the day the sheriff's department turned Neverland upside down looking for evidence.... Mr.Jackson went back after they raided it. He went back, once, saw what they'd done, and then he just turned around and left. After they destroyed Neverland, he was never the same person again.

******

Javon: I'd actually been to Neverland, as a kid. I went with my church when I was fourteen years old.... Mr. Jackson would invite groups like ours to come and ride the rides and play with the animals and such...I remember you had to get on a train to even get on the estate... It was beautiful. He had monkeys. He had flamingos. He had a pond with all these exotic fish in it. I can remember riding the carousel and the mini roller coaster. He had the teacups where you spin and turn. There was unlimited ice cream and candy and popcorn, too. The vending machines didn't take money. You just picked whatever you wanted. No charge. It was real nice. It was a blast. We loved it. Bill: My only trip to Neverland was that March. There were some things Mr. Jackson wanted, some pictures, a few personal items, so he sent me to pick them up. The house had been abandoned for a while. The only person there was a security guard stationed at the entrance....you could tell that it was not being maintained. All the carnival rides just sitting there. Whole place dead quiet. Nothing lit up. No animals in the zoo. All the plants and trees overgrown. There was a lake near the house, a little pond, and it was dirty, real dirty, filled with algae. The inside of the house looked ransacked. After the sheriffs went through there, nothing was ever put back into place. Drawers left open, boxes overturned, everything covered with dust. It was eerie. The whole time I kept thinking about what the guard told me at the gate on the way in. "Be careful," he said. "There's snakes." "Snakes?" "Yeah. Rattlesnakes. Lots of 'em."

************



TANNER COLBY answers Did you discover the real Michael Jackson during the course of writing this book? The real Michael Jackson was not the King of Pop. Those were two different people. The latter was stylish and had a commanding presence. The former was soft-spoken, deferential, and mostly wore V-neck t-shirts and pajama bottoms around the house. Michael was a loving father and a generous humanitarian on one hand and a tortured soul, beset by loneliness and sadness, on the other. What were his last years like? Michael Jackson's last few years were an endless quest to find peace and solace. Everyone wanted a piece of him. He would occasionally steal a few days of pure joy with his kids, only to have the vultures and the paparazzi track him down and invade his privacy and put their hands back in his pockets. He didn't know how to escape them. He didn't know how to find the peace he was searching for. Give us a glimpse of his famous quirks. MJ did have his eccentricities. He had cases of Tabasco sauce in his kitchen pantry — he really liked it — and he was always sending Bill and Javon out on odd errands to buy this or that, like the time he bought a life-sized Simpsons movie display at a theater. But as Bill himself noted, he always considered Mr. Jackson to be different. "Never weird, just different." What look like eccentric quirks to us were often the natural result of the closed off, insular world he lived in. If you were too famous to leave your own house or do your own grocery shopping, you might stock up on hot sauce, too. If you suffered from chronic insomnia, you'd be up dancing at 4 in the morning also. What has been the reaction of MJ's family to the book? To my knowledge, no one from his family has responded publicly to the book. If they have read it, what their private opinions are I cannot say. What about the accusations of MJ being a pedophile? The thing people seem to forget about the accusations against Michael Jackson is that they were proven false, in a court of law. He was fully acquitted on all counts, and the facts of the case are available to anyone with five minutes and an Internet connection. Just as convincing is the eyewitness testimony of Bill and Javon, who are both fathers themselves. If they had harbored any doubts they never would have worked for him. But the man they knew was a kind and loving and devoted father.



FACT FILE: MJ was a voracious reader and loved to listen to English classical music.
He was painfully isolated from everyone, including his sister.

Janet Jackson who had to make appointments to see him (and be refused).

MJ had secret affairs with two women whom he "made out with" in the back of a limousine.

He would organise elaborate birthday parties for his kids Prince, Paris and Blanket who had no friends at all.

MJ was raised a Jehovah's Witness; they do not celebrate Christmas. But Jackson did for his kids. One night he went Christmas shopping all alone, after the store was closed for the night for customers. He bought $10,000 worth of toys — train sets, action figures and lots of "girly-girly" stuff for his daughter Paris — and had them all gift-wrapped and placed under the Christmas tree in his house before dawn.

MJ's security guards carried semiautomatic Glock pistols with extended magazines; Tasers that could deliver 1.2 million volts; MP5 fully automatic submachine guns; military style AR15s, 12-guage automatic shotguns; close to 3000 rounds of ammunition for everything they had. But MJ didn't like his kids seeing any kind of weapon.