By January 1985, the Victory tour was history. Though it hadn't been an easy experience, Michael did find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: Chuck Sullivan gave him eighteen million dollars, cash, to develop a clothing line. Michael barely got a few fashions into the stores – which didn't sell – when Chuck went bankrupt. Michael got to keep the eighteen million.
The Jacksons made a lot of money on the Victory tour, even if the promoters didn't; each brother made about $7 million, one-sixth of the share after all expenses, net. Michael donated his take to charity; his brothers spent theirs on a lavish lifestyle and, before very many years, would need to work again.
Michael has never again gone on the road with his brothers – though they have repeatedly tried to convince him to do ‘just one more tour’.
Once he got home to Encino, one of the first things Michael did was get into LaToya's black Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL and speed off without any security. He simply wanted some freedom – as if he could ever have it! As always, there were about two dozen fans waiting at the front gate for someone – anyone – who looked like a Jackson. They never dreamed they might actually catch a glimpse of the Jackson. When they saw him pull out of the gate, they jumped into their cars and followed in hot pursuit. Michael tried to lose them, but to no avail. He was almost to Quincy Jones's house, miles away, when the vehicle car ran out of gas. Michael jumped out of the car, leaving it in the middle of the street, and then ran for blocks, with his stalkers following him, until he reached Quincy's home, where he found refuge.
After the Victory tour, Michael became involved in ‘We Are the World’, the historic effort to feed the hungry of Ethiopia. For some time, Harry Belafonte had been making plans to draw together some of the biggest artists in the entertainment business to record a song, the proceeds of which would go to a new nonprofit foundation, USA for Africa, to feed the starving masses. In addition to providing emergency food, medical relief, and self-help programmes to stricken areas of Africa, the undertaking was also to set aside funds for hunger relief in the United States. Harry contacted Ken Kragen, an entertainment manager with a history of fund-raising, to ask if he could enlist his clients, Kenny Rogers and Lionel Richie, in the endeavour. Kenny and Lionel, in turn, obtained the cooperation of Stevie Wonder to add more name value to the project. Lionel then telephoned Michael to ask if he would perform on the recording. He not only wanted to sing on the song, Michael said, he also wanted to help Lionel write it.
Michael has always been empathetic to the plight of the hungry, homeless and sick, especially children. In the past, Frank Dileo has told many heartbreaking stories of Michael's influence on dying children. It is as though an unexplainable part within Michael is able to reach children close to death; his touch seems to act as some kind of soothing balm for kids facing a frightening time. It's an important, positive side of Michael, and one he thinks is the best thing about himself.
For instance, a small child suffering from a brain tumour and spinal cancer was brought to Michael on a stretcher one night after a show. When the boy reached up to Michael, Michael grabbed his hand and held tight. The child smiled. Frank Dileo turned away and broke into tears. ‘He's not afraid to look into the worst suffering and find the smallest part that's positive and beautiful,’ Frank concluded.
Seth Riggs, his voice teacher who has travelled with Michael on tours, recalled, ‘Every night the kids would come in on stretchers, so sick they could hardly hold their heads up. Michael would kneel down at the stretchers and put his face right down beside theirs so that he could have his picture taken with them, and then give them a copy to remember the moment. I couldn't handle it. I'd be in the bathroom crying. The kids would perk right up in his presence. If it gave them a couple days' more energy, to Michael it was worth it.’
While working on ‘We Are the World’, Lionel Richie went to Hayvenhurst every night for a week where he and Michael sequestered themselves in Michael's room to labour on lyrics and melodies. They knew that what they wanted was some sort of anthem, a song both easy to sing and memorable. Though Michael and Lionel have never said as much publicly, LaToya – who watched the pair work – claims that Lionel only wrote a couple of lines of the song. She contends that 99 per cent of the lyrics were written by Michael, ‘but he's never felt it necessary to say that.’ The lyrics and the melody were finished on 21 January 1985, just one night before the recording session.
While Michael and Lionel were composing, Ken Kragen went about the business of lining up the all-star cast: Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Bette Midler, Billy Joel, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, The Pointer Sisters, Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, Bob Dylan and many others, forty-five in all. Another fifty artists had to be turned down to keep the project from becoming too unwieldy. Michael asked LaToya to show up, and she did. (She got to stand next to Bette Midler in the line-up.) Marlon, Jackie, Tito and Randy were also there.
Quincy Jones took time away from producing the film The Colour Purple to produce and arrange (with Tom Bahler) the Jackson – Richie collaboration at A&M Studios in Hollywood. Because the American Music Awards had been held that same night, many of the artists came directly from those festivities. When the performers showed up, the first thing they saw was a sign outside Studio A: ‘Please check your egos at the door.’ It was astonishing that so many artists of diverse backgrounds and individual renown were able to do just that: there were no ego problems, at all. Diana Ross could not conceal her excitement and asked the other stars for autographs. The Pointer Sisters took pictures of Michael. ‘I've never before felt that strong sense of community,’ Kenny Loggins observed.
At around ten p.m., the proceedings turned solemn. Ken Kragen addressed the group to assure them that money generated from the recording would, indeed, ‘go to the right places’. Bob Geldof, the leader of the Boomtown Rats and organizer of the British Band Aid musical charity effort, which produced the single, ‘Do They Know It's Christmas?’ told of his visits to Ethiopia. Two Ethiopian women, whose presence had been arranged by Stevie Wonder, reported on the horrible suffering there.
Finally, Michael addressed the assemblage of stars. Very quietly and somewhat awkwardly, he explained his and Lionel's composition as ‘A love song to inspire concern about a faraway place close to home.’
The musical tracks had been recorded earlier in the day, so it was just a matter of fine-tuning the lyrics – ‘Should it be “brighter day” or “better day”?’ – and adding the voices. Michael taught the artists the melody and lyrics – most had already been sent taped demos of the song with Michael performing – and worked with them on vocal arrangements.
As integral as Michael Jackson had become to the process, he was also very much separated from it. Whereas everyone else present was filmed (by six cameras) as they performed for the ‘We Are the World’ video, Michael's solo was taped later, privately, and spliced into the final version. He never took off his shades. Some people speculate that he chose not to record with the rest because he was so awestruck by his fellow celebrities. The ultimate perfectionist, he would feel that he could not perform to the best of his abilities in front of them. Others offer a more cynical explanation: Michael likes to feel he is different from everybody and emphasizes this difference by erecting barriers between him and his fans, his peers and his family. Indeed, in the video of ‘We Are the World’, the shot of Michael begins at his Bass Weejun shoes and trademark sequined socks, and then pans upward to his carefully made-up face, all at Michael's direction. ‘People will know it's me as soon as they see the socks,’ he said, proudly, and he was right about that. ‘Try taking footage of Bruce Springsteen's socks and see if anyone knows who they belong to,’ he added with a grin.
The recording and taping session took all night. Who would sing what and with whom had been decided a couple of days earlier by Lionel Richie, producer Quincy Jones, and arranger Tom Bahler. Some of the interesting vocal pairings included Tina Turner with Billy Joel, Dionne Warwick with Willie Nelson, and, of course, Diana Ross with Michael Jackson. The only hint of things not going as planned involved the pairing of Michael and Prince. Michael didn't like Prince, but for charity he would sing with him. However, Prince didn't even show up. At six the next morning, he called the studio to ask if he might come in and lay down a guitar part. Quincy told him it was too late.
By seven-thirty in the morning, the job was done and the artists began to leave. ‘Michael was as exhausted as anyone,’ Jeffrey Osborne reported. ‘He didn't say much, maybe something about being very happy, but I could tell that he was delighted.’
‘I did expect to see more ego,’ Paul Simon reported. ‘You know, “The Gloved One” meets “The Boss” and things like that, but it just didn't happen.’ ‘I just don't want this night to end,’ Diana Ross said as she hugged Tina Turner.
It would seem that everyone who participated in the ‘We Are the World’ recording session shared Diana's sentiments. The gentle, uplifting spirit of the song also touched the public's emotions when it was finally released on 7 March 1985. The initial shipment of 800,000 records sold out within three days of its release. The song was number one in America for a month, and also spent a couple of weeks at the top spot in Britain, as well as in other countries. The ‘We Are the World’ video lent itself well to the benevolent spirit of the celebration and helped to sell four million records in all, earning about eight million dollars for the USA for Africa fund.