The King of Pop died in 2009 after having a lifelong career in the music industry.

But maybe he didn't. Follow me to the rabbit hole. I'm your host, Danny, and today we are talking about Michael Jackson. Thank you, Rachel, for your suggestion of this episode.

This is just another episode in our series of fake death episodes.

You guys know that I'm trying to cover as many as I can.

And you guys are sending me requests of more fake deaths.

So we're just going down the line of fake deaths here at the rabbit hole.

So let's jump in.

Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana.

He was the eighth of ten children to Catherine and Joseph Jackson.

And Catherine worked at the Sears Department store part-time. She also played

the clarinet and piano. She always wanted to be a country and western performer, and she was a

Jehovah's Witness. Joe was a former boxer and crane operator. He played the guitar with the local

R&B band to help supplement the family's income.

They were super poor when they were really young. So Michael had three sisters, Maureen, LaToya,

and Janet, and five brothers, Jackie Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy. Marlin was a twin, but Brandon, his twin, died shortly after birth.

In 1964, at the age of six, Michael joined the family band. So Marlin also joined the band at the same time.

The two were backup musicians because Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine were already members of this band.

But this wasn't a super fun experience. He explained in one of his autobiographies that Joe,

the dad, was really abusive to the boys, like verbally and physically. He would literally just,

like, sit in a chair during rehearsal with a belt in his

hands, ready to punish the kids for any mistake. He wanted them to be perfect. The older brothers

never really considered this abuse, just like it was just discipline of the time. But Michael

...