Jackson's Scrawls Show State of Mind
Auction house is putting unused lyrics and more on the block
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One of Michael Jackson's famed jackets from his "Bad" era is up on the auction block, and the company that owns it says they've heard people will pay up to $100,000 for it.
The King of Pop’s own handwritten letters show just how sad and pained Michael Jackson was through the years.
“Life is an Agravator [sic],” it appers he wrote. “I plan to give it up.”
The documents are some of those up for grabs at Alexander Autographs, an auction house in Stamford. There’s also a signed legal document handing over his royalties from “We Are the World”, a leather jacket he may have worn around the time the “Bad” album came out, and Jackson’s Songwriter Hall of Fame award.
Perhaps the most interesting handwritten note is scrawled in pencil. The auction house, Alexander Autographs, thinks these may have been intendend song lyrics written around 1986, only some of which made it into the song “Cheater” from 2004.
The lines include:
I hurt my backbone baby
I start to givin’ up
Life is an aggravator
The bills are pillin’ up
I broke my radiator
No time to fix it now
No place to lay my body
This stuff ain’t good for me
I really want to shout
Life is an Agravator
I plan to give it up
The auction house hopes the lyrics and the “We Are the World” documents will each fetch between $30,000 and $50,000.
There’s also a more paranoid note the singer the auctioneers claim Jackson penned in red marker back in 1985: “Candy … put the rest of the Beta’s I gave you in Tucker’s vault or make copies of each and give him one and you keep one out here. When is my survival food coming and what does that company recommend for drinking during a crisis! M.J.”
The entire Rock n’ Roll auction is scheduled for mid-to-late August and will include two Jimi Hendrix guitars, an Elvis guitar and an outfit worn by Prince. But of course, they’re not getting top billing this time around.
