Michael Jackson built an enormous adventure playground and named it Neverland in honour of the Peter Pan fairytale. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to understand why in the story the children had to leave this magical land. In some ways Michael Jackson was the eternal Peter Pan.
Remember The Time shows how through his life, Michael Jackson was cosseted, protected and manipulated. He couldn’t and wasn’t encouraged to grow up, preferring instead to give others his adult responsibilities, even when such trust was misdirected and abused.
For two and a half years, Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard were Michael Jackson‘s personal security team. Like Michael Jackson, both Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard were single fathers and the erratic beyond description of their employer resulted in disrupted family lives.
Whitfield, a former police officer, and Beard, a young, relatively green rookie, in alternating paragraphs reveal the facts of Jackson’s last years: his life in seclusion with his children, his financial crises, his preparations for the This Is It tour, and the weeks leading up to his death at age fifty in Los Angeles on June 25, 2009.
In order to show the world who Michael Jackson truly was, Whitfield and Beard have produced the only definitive, first-person account of Michael Jackson‘s last years: the extreme measures necessary to protect Jackson and his family, the simple moments of happiness they managed to share in a time of great stress, the special relationship Jackson shared with his fans, and the tragic events that culminated in the singer’s ill-fated comeback, This Is It. The truth is far more compelling than anything you’ve yet heard.
Remember The Time is an overwhelmingly desperately sad story. While the whole world wanted a piece of Michael Jackson and he was unable to cope with this stark reality.
Remember The Time is a book worth reading.