Video: The strangely compelling “Jacko’s hair catches on fire” clip
posted at 8:23 pm on July 15, 2009 by Allahpundit
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Not sure what it is, exactly, but there’s something haunting about this. Us magazine is pushing it as the smoking gun in his death insofar as it led to his painkiller addiction, but who knows if that’s true. I think it’s a combo of the eerie silence, the jarring sight of Jacko from back when he looked like a human being, and the fact that this is a hugely famous event which, inexplicably, no one’s ever seen the footage of before. How was it suppressed for fully 25 years, especially given how perfectly positioned the camera was to film his head bursting into flames? Whatever the reason, I felt more sympathy for him after watching it than I did on the day he died. Go figure.
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just saw that on Oreilly ten seconds ago
uigh i just pity this man
blatantblue on July 15, 2009 at 8:25 PM
Ouch.
I’ll never gripe about my baldness again.
Yakko77 on July 15, 2009 at 8:26 PM
I’m sure the good Reverend Al had something to do with the release. Trying to set the stage for the lawsuits.
Vigilante on July 15, 2009 at 8:26 PM
I’ve often wondered if there was any litigation w.r.t. this incident? And if so, how was it resolved?
CyberCipher on July 15, 2009 at 8:27 PM
Funny, Michael Jackson (stu) calls Glenn for a third time. This story has reminded me that Jackson is still dead. I almost forgot.
V15J on July 15, 2009 at 8:28 PM
I saw this and the end is hard to stomach. I remember when that happened it was awful.
Brat4life on July 15, 2009 at 8:29 PM
I have often wondered about this video. Now I am still sorta wishing I had never seen it. Sad.
XWing5 on July 15, 2009 at 8:29 PM
Rest in Peace, Michael…………
……….. Rest in Peace.
Seven Percent Solution on July 15, 2009 at 8:29 PM
What was he using in his hair, Sterno maybe?
Cicero43 on July 15, 2009 at 8:29 PM
Harvey Levin of TMZ was on O’Reilly and said that many close to Jackson acknowledged that this event caused his down-whirl spiral into painkiller addiction. He was even in the Betty Ford clinic for that (which I didn’t know).
jencab on July 15, 2009 at 8:32 PM
Kind of makes at least his intro into plastic surgery a lot more understandable.
LevStrauss on July 15, 2009 at 8:33 PM
That’s what I was wondering.
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 8:34 PM
I have wondered if the work he was putting into the upcoming show was kicking his butt. Video of the rehearsals seem to show that he was working hard and was going to give an excellent performance. It’s harder to do that at 50 and I bet his body was screaming.
Cindy Munford on July 15, 2009 at 8:34 PM
I started to watch the video earlier today, and then stopped before the actual accident. I don’t want to see it. i don’t need to see someone catching on fire. I don’t need to see the reason why MJ went from eccentric to Wacko Jacko.
He suffered enough. Hopefully, he’s in a better place. Let him be.
nukemhill on July 15, 2009 at 8:36 PM
If he suffered 3rd degree burns on his scalp and face, then some of the plastic surgery makes sense…
Emily M. on July 15, 2009 at 8:36 PM
I know a lot of people have disdain for Michael. I do not know if he was a molester.
However, what I do know is that from a very very young age, he was used by some of his closest people in his life. His father used him, and merely packaged him as a product.
He NEVER had a childhood. He NEVER had privacy. Fame destroyed him.
I remember hearing a recording of a Q and A he did with some young kids about being a star, and one kid asked him if he could do one thing, what would it be. He said that if he could, he’d love to be able to just go to a store, without anyone bothering him, and talk about normal stuff with normal people.
He loved Halloween because he could hide his identity and just be himself in public. He was the result of man who NEVER had the luxury we have — anonymous existence. Try to think about NEVER being able to go ANYWHERE without having some huge posse and 500 people going “heyyyy!!!!!”
I truly pity the man. Used in life by others close to him, and used in death by them.
blatantblue on July 15, 2009 at 8:36 PM
I seem to remember from the Metallica incident during the GNR Tour that pyrotechnics burn a hell of a lot hotter than a normal flame, that might have something to do with it as well, but I’m not anything near an expert on this. Also I’d imagine for a TV commercial that there was probably a lot of product in his hair.
LevStrauss on July 15, 2009 at 8:37 PM
Moral of the video… never wear petroleum based hair products while in close proximity to open flames, sparks, and pyrotechnics.
SilverStar830 on July 15, 2009 at 8:38 PM
blatantblue on July 15, 2009 at 8:36 PM
Very well said BB.
txag92 on July 15, 2009 at 8:38 PM
Don’t know why but it reminds me of Annakin Skywalker/Darth Vader . . .
Special K on July 15, 2009 at 8:39 PM
I am sure having a dozen guys including Marlon Brando’s son tackle him helped alot.
RobCon on July 15, 2009 at 8:40 PM
I’m slightly suprised he kept dancing for so long after he caught fire. But, I guess maybe under the heat of the lights he just didn’t realize it.
boomer on July 15, 2009 at 8:43 PM
People say horrible things about his death and I am dismayed at it
Michael Jackson was the aggregate result of being packaged as product, with all of his “friends” really being people looking to make a quick f*cking buck, and never being able to do a single damn normal thing people do without being stalked, followed, and having someone around to ask him for an autograph.
We create these people. Then we have the nerve to hate on them in death.
blatantblue on July 15, 2009 at 8:43 PM
Good Lord. Enough already. Let the guy go.
BacaDog on July 15, 2009 at 8:43 PM
Couldn’t have hurt….bet you thousands would have loved to tackle him after he walked on his *ahem* “hobby”….
sven10077 on July 15, 2009 at 8:44 PM
who is this “we” you type of?
I never bought ANYTHING he sold thanks.
sven10077 on July 15, 2009 at 8:46 PM
What no “OBLIGATORY” on this post’s title? slipping.
redrock on July 15, 2009 at 8:48 PM
Nah AP is likely “really moved” by the human torch impersonation….
I just don’t buy into the “poor poor Michael” routine we’re getting that sort of overlooks his many flaws….
MJ liked to con people by bemoaning his lack of “normal”….well he NEVER sought it when able no?
sven10077 on July 15, 2009 at 8:50 PM
Not inexplicable at all. In 2009, this would be viral before the flames were out. In 1984, this would probably have been considered too graphic to run raw (though I do remember some pictures of them trying to put Jackson’s hair out showing up). By the time the technology was around, nobody cared.
I don’t feel sympathy for him in the sense that this is being used as the excuse for his descent into darkness and drug addiction. Of course it is horrifying to see it on film but he is hardly the first burn victim Walter Reed and Bethesda has wards of them who were injured in far more heroic ways than plugging a soft drink. Firefighters constantly face the same dangers. It may have been a contributing factor but Jackson supposedly had drugs around him that are so controlled you shouldn’t be seeing them outside a hospital. Jackson clearly had enabling factors including an adoring public demanding the “old” Michael, his entourage, and his own inability to help himself.
Exit question. The USPS had the “fat Elvis” “Thin Elvis” controversy. How long before we get the retrospective of all the different “Michaels” that we’ve seen?
highhopes on July 15, 2009 at 8:51 PM
Enough already.
Talon on July 15, 2009 at 8:52 PM
talking our society in general
and our culture of celebrity
blatantblue on July 15, 2009 at 8:52 PM
Black MJ, Mocha MJ, White MJ, Elf MJ…….
I think there are about a half dozen
sven10077 on July 15, 2009 at 8:53 PM
Well said, BB.
Fallen Sparrow on July 15, 2009 at 8:53 PM
getting picked by “society” to have access to more wealth than your entire hometown had in your youth by the time you’re thirty is not a pass for his *ahem* “hobbies”
sven10077 on July 15, 2009 at 8:54 PM
nor did I say it was a pass.
blatantblue on July 15, 2009 at 8:55 PM
That was awful. No wonder he had so many surgeries, makeup and – yes – wigs!
I sure feel sorry for him.
newton on July 15, 2009 at 8:55 PM
The the “hair fire” turn him into a child molester?
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 8:56 PM
I wouldn’t call that his intro. By that video it’s already obvious he’d had something done to his nose.
Esthier on July 15, 2009 at 8:57 PM
I remember seeing the frontal video on the news lots at the time. Don’t recall seeing this particular angle before.
TheBigOldDog on July 15, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Usually, I’d agree with you completely but after seeing Joe Jackson, it gives pause to think that perhaps Michael Jackson never new normal has some merit. Sudden and then unrelenting fame for decades from the age of 11 is definitely not normal. I’d suggest that Michael Jackson never had the moral grounding to seek normal. Latest evidence is the way Joe Jackson is plugging his album in the midst of the media circus.
highhopes on July 15, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Well of course, silly.. the fire burned all his *normal* brain cells.
redrock on July 15, 2009 at 8:58 PM
Sorry, but I still can’t find it in me to pity the man for anything: the relentless and abusive stage father and stolen childhood, the slow and painful disfigurement of his body as a result of surgery addiction, the flaming hair: none of it. I happen to believe there’s a strong likelihood Jackson molested children on multiple occasions, and can regret only that his death came too late for the kids he’s already hurt. I know: it isn’t right for me to think this way about a man who was never convicted or to speak/write ill of the dead, but that’s how I feel.
troyriser_gopftw on July 15, 2009 at 8:59 PM
So sad…making him even more uncomfortable about his looks…I wish he knew he looked good.
RIP MJ
bridgetown on July 15, 2009 at 9:01 PM
When would that have been? When he was three?
Esthier on July 15, 2009 at 9:01 PM
That explains it! Thanks!
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 9:04 PM
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 8:56 PM
lol, no, he didn’t molest children.
bridgetown on July 15, 2009 at 9:04 PM
Guy had more money than Croesus and a nicely dodged molestation case…..
I’d have bought an island hired the best shrink available tryed to not get plastic surgery that made me look like Gandalf’s stunt dancer and then snuck into “normal” after the therapy and surgery took….
YMMV
sven10077 on July 15, 2009 at 9:07 PM
I’ve got some oceanfront land in Nebraska to sell you.
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 9:09 PM
I’m not even a fan of MJ, but I’ll bet it was more than compelling to him. Bad choice of words.
Ugly on July 15, 2009 at 9:10 PM
He was an addict and a degenerate because his hair caught fire?
Wow. I thought it was because Jermaine teased him once about looking like ole Joe. Eeee-Hee……
DeweyWins on July 15, 2009 at 9:10 PM
Of course, I must recuse myself, as a burn victim and having had head trauma and broken bones. I judge no one.
Ugly on July 15, 2009 at 9:12 PM
he was a child molester so he’s roasting in worse fires now…
reliapundit on July 15, 2009 at 9:14 PM
He bought his own “island”. What’d you think Neverland was? And yet he never could even go to the grocery store without being mauled by fans. And who wants to live in isolation your entire life?
Say he was f-ed up all you want. Say he was wrong, a criminal, whatever. But it’s insane to pretend that he ever had a shot at a normal life.
Short of getting plastic surgery to hide his identity (assuming he could pay the surgeons enough to shut up about it) and then leaving the country under an assumed name, there really isn’t much someone like him could have done.
Esthier on July 15, 2009 at 9:17 PM
That is your HOPE, yes
Not a certainty. I agree that he was HUGELY suspect. Andhe did settle out of court.
But he was never found guilty.
Ugly on July 15, 2009 at 9:17 PM
“He who hath no sin cast the first stone!”
Seems like there alot of people on this thread without any sin! Quick to judge, rest in peace Michael.
milemarker2020 on July 15, 2009 at 9:24 PM
I must have missed the part where Jesus said….hey you you have a parking ticket and may have schtupped another gal besides your wife so leave the child buggerer alone….
care to point out where all sins are “equal” before God?
sven10077 on July 15, 2009 at 9:26 PM
Sorry,I must of drank too much “Jesus Juice”
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 9:27 PM
True.
The guy who died looked just like the guy in that video.
Typhoon on July 15, 2009 at 9:28 PM
Oh, the humanity!
behiker on July 15, 2009 at 9:30 PM
The resulting settlement from the fire all went to charity as a collabrative between MJ and Pepsi. MJ was not a monster. The American media and it’s consumers thereof are the monsters. Horrible lying manipulative monsters.
Griz on July 15, 2009 at 9:30 PM
I guess all those thinking MJ innocent would be perfectly happy having their kids “spend a weekend” alone with him.
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 9:40 PM
Griz on July 15, 2009 at 9:30 PM
yep, and I’m sure this video being out now came with blood money as well. sad.
bridgetown on July 15, 2009 at 9:41 PM
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 9:40 PM
I’d have no problem.
bridgetown on July 15, 2009 at 9:41 PM
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 9:40 PM
I’d have no problem.
bridgetown on July 15, 2009 at 9:41 PM
You’d be perfectly happy having a grown man, a stranger sleeping with little kids and giving them wine, “Jesus Juice”?
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 9:43 PM
Jesus, I feel so bad for Michael Jackson. I’m with the Onion on this one, though. I think they swapped him for Whacko Jacko here. I refuse to believe it got so bad.
alliebobbitt on July 15, 2009 at 9:45 PM
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 9:40 PM
His (air quotes) kids want to be with Janet J
Ugly on July 15, 2009 at 9:51 PM
sven10077 on July 15, 2009 at 9:26 PM
Boffo, Chapter 1, Verse Sixty Eight:
I can has excuse?
Ugly on July 15, 2009 at 9:56 PM
That’s one sad deal.
Jeff from WI on July 15, 2009 at 9:56 PM
I don’t care.
I’m not watching the clip.
He’s dead. Let it go already!
madmonkphotog on July 15, 2009 at 9:57 PM
His alter ego when he is in drag….the whole thing is faked…”Michael” lives…
sven10077 on July 15, 2009 at 9:57 PM
That last little spin he did served him well… could be the first time a dance move put a fire out. Just sayin’.
pleaseandthankyou on July 15, 2009 at 10:03 PM
I wonder how long that would have lasted if he had just insisted on trying to be normal. How long would they have kept mauling him if he started wearing jeans and a tee-shirt and just walked to the nearest grocery story?
Wouldn’t the novelty of it being MICHAEL JACKSON!!!!!!11!!! have worn off at some point, at least to the point that he could have eventually had the ability to do normal things outside of a bubble?
I don’t know, and with regard to Michael Jackson I guess we’ll never know, but I sure would like to know for some reason.
Kensington on July 15, 2009 at 10:06 PM
Kensington on July 15, 2009 at 10:06 PM
Morbid Curiosity. We’re all guilty of it.
Ugly on July 15, 2009 at 10:13 PM
One, he had already turned himself into a replica of Diana Ross long before the accident.
Two, the burn on his head was about the size of a palm. It is in an area where one doesn’t get contractures afterwards that have to be constantly debrided. Granted, no burn is fun, but it is a stretch to claim that this led him to addiction because his introduction to prescription drugs preceded it.
Blake on July 15, 2009 at 10:25 PM
We’ve seen plenty of celebrities who had all but fallen off the grid and were still hounded by reporters, especially after anything tragic happens in their lives.
This wasn’t some random musician.
I don’t know. Maybe it could have happened eventually, but I think we’re talking over a decade at least, and that’s only assuming he never married, got divorced, had children, or any other random milestone.
And I’m not saying he ever even wanted to be normal. It’s entirely likely he didn’t. I’m just not convinced he could have pulled it off as an adult.
Esthier on July 15, 2009 at 10:32 PM
Third-degree burns to the face?
Explains the plastic surgery fixation. Awful.
Techie on July 15, 2009 at 10:32 PM
Jacko who?
rmgraha on July 15, 2009 at 10:35 PM
Granted, no burn is fun, but it is a stretch to claim that this led him to addiction because his introduction to prescription drugs preceded it.
Blake on July 15, 2009 at 10:25 PM
Ugly on July 15, 2009 at 10:38 PM
Everyone’s pain tolerance is different.
RedRobin145 on July 15, 2009 at 10:47 PM
ROFL! Sorry y’all, I must be getting a little desensitized from MJ overload. I’m usually not a cruel person. Really.
kg598301 on July 15, 2009 at 10:52 PM
Robot Chicken had a bit that said this was the moment the Aliens used to replace him.
- The Cat
P.S. Pepsi killed MJ!!
MirCat on July 15, 2009 at 11:26 PM
Honestly, didn’t care that much either way for the pedophile. Just desserts.
I’m just sick of the coverage of the man and want to see something else for a change.
scrubbiedude on July 15, 2009 at 11:29 PM
This incident was a turning point in his life. I was not a Thriller fan but the guy had talent. I pity the guy and what he went through.
lexhamfox on July 15, 2009 at 11:34 PM
I’ve long preferred their version of his downfall. It makes far more sense anyway.
Esthier on July 15, 2009 at 11:36 PM
Molester or not – I’m not going to convict or aquit him on the word of the Media – or his family. I’ll let God make that call.
As for his childhood. I remember his Jackson 5 days. I think he was pushed more then anything into the limelight. First by his father then his family then his ‘associates’. Never had a real childhood – no chance at adolescence or being a young adult and feeling of freedom and basic authority over your own life. I think other people _ran_ his life and he simply could not get out from under their thumb.
He couldn’t even go out to the grocery store. Forget about down to the lake – to a park or a football game and just be a fan or anyplace else there were normal people. Just to be able to sit down at the local tavern and have a few brews after work with friends and strangers was something he could never have.
No wonder he went wacko. Wouldn’t you?
I just hope he finally finds peace.
CrazyFool on July 15, 2009 at 11:47 PM
Yes. He never had an adulthood either.
exception on July 15, 2009 at 11:53 PM
Oh Indeed!
For instance, my father molested many kids. I knew about it. It happened to me. Many kids knew about it in my ‘burb. I had to endure life in HS knowing everyone KNEW… and knowing nothing would be done. I told my mom about the sh!t when I was 13. She asked me if I wanted her to leave my dad. YES YES I said.
She said “I can’t do that”
I was beaten, thrown off a bridge, ridiculed, challenged to fight people I didn’t want to fight; persona non grata in my own family because I told the truth.
Ugly on July 16, 2009 at 12:07 AM
Soul Glo?
rihar on July 16, 2009 at 12:12 AM
awful awful awful
D2Boston on July 16, 2009 at 12:18 AM
I’m so sorry. The whole thing sounds awful. Parents are supposed to protect their children, but unfortunately it sounds like yours did the opposite.
Esthier on July 16, 2009 at 12:54 AM
Esthier on July 16, 2009 at 12:54 AM
My whole family is…not normal.
My older sis & I tried to get our dad into a courtroom. A lawyer told us it would cost us more to travel to FL because my DAD’s lawyer would enter a stay or some sh!t.
Ugly on July 16, 2009 at 1:13 AM
My nephew was molested as well. No lie. I hate to say this but it is true
Ugly on July 16, 2009 at 1:14 AM
But according to the law… nothing can be done
Ugly on July 16, 2009 at 1:15 AM
This is why I have kept my kids AWAY from my dad.
I’ll explain later, I guess.
Ugly on July 16, 2009 at 1:20 AM
Funny thing though, if you watch the video, there doesn’t appear to be much, if any damage to his face. His scalp was clearly injured, but his face…not so much, or so it appeared.
xblade on July 16, 2009 at 2:02 AM
Hence my nick.
Ugly on July 16, 2009 at 2:04 AM
How many scars do you have?
Ugly on July 16, 2009 at 2:06 AM
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