Santa Rosa man recalls his 4 months with Michael Jackson

<p>Michael Jackson “would never remember me,” said Mike Harkins of Santa Rosa, who worked as road manager on the King of Pop’s “Bad” tour in 1987.</p><p>But one night, during a private party for the Jackson entourage at Disneyland in Tokyo, Harkins figures he made an impression on the man whose “moonwalk” enthused millions of fans.</p><p>Called over to settle a bet, Harkins, now a 55-year-old freelance writer and video producer, performed a physical stunt — a one-arm, one-thumb pushup — with the superstar looking on.</p><p>“He would remember that night,” Harkins said Friday. “He was impressed.”</p><p>The thumb push-up, Harkins said, was “a martial arts thing I learned as a kid.”</p><p>A laminated crew pass from the Jackson tour is among Harkins’ mementos from his 10-year career in the pop music business, on the road with bands like Journey, Santana, the Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen and The Police.</p><p>That “very lucky decade” culminated with four months as a road manager with Jackson’s “Bad” tour of Australia and Japan when the 29-year-old entertainer was perhaps at the peak of his creative powers.</p><p>“It was quite a time, quite wonderful,” said Harkins, who settled in Santa Rosa 11 years ago with his wife, Elizabeth Palmer, an attorney.</p><p>His relationship with Jackson was professional, not personal, Harkins said, and he saw nothing of the singer’s darker side that seemed to shape his persona from the 1990s on.</p><p>“I have no dirty revelations about Michael Jackson,” Harkins said. “I was in his professional life for a few months.”</p><p>His job was handling logistics for the “A Party,” consisting of Jackson, his attorneys, accountants, nutritionist and others, Harkins said.</p><p>The B and C parties included the band, dancers, musicians, wardrobe and makeup people and the production crew, a force capable of staging live performances of “Thriller,” the 1982 video that helped propel Jackson to global fame.</p><p>One detail Harkins recalled is that Jackson required a parquet floor in his hotel suite because “he danced all day,” Harkins said.</p><p>When the entourage rented the entire floor of a luxury hotel, Harkins said it had more to do with security concerns than ostentation.</p><p>Harkins said he has been asked repeatedly asked if he knew of Jackson’s “eccentricities,” and that his answer always has been: “No, I didn’t see those things.”</p><p>But he bluntly blames Jackson for some of the blotches on his reputation, such as the repeated allegations that he molested young boys. “You can’t forgive some of his missteps,” Harkins said.</p><p>On a lighter side, Harkins said that during the 1987 tour he had to dispel rumors that Jackson was bathing only in Avian water and that the crew had to carry cases of it.</p><p>“Absolutely false,” he said.</p><p>Harkins also cautioned people against thinking they know much about the personal lives of celebrities. Most of what gets written about a star like Jackson is carefully crafted by a publicity machine.</p><p>“It’s all manufactured,” Harkins said.</p><p>Raised on the south side of Chicago, Harkins said he dropped out of art school to go on the road with the band Journey in 1976. When the “Bad” tour shifted to the United States, Jackson’s people swept out dozens of crew members and Harkins decided to quit the entertainment business.</p><p>“I’d had a good ride,” he said.</p><p>One of his recent projects as a freelancer, Harkins said, is “At the Speed of Curlin,” a tribute DVD to the retiring racehorse Curlin, owned by Santa Rosa wine magnate Jess Jackson.</p><p>As news of Michael Jackson’s death was reported on Thursday, Harkins wrote a blog that ended:</p><p>“I guess my whole point here is that, yep, I met him, talked with him, worked in his bubble, and I know some things and I don’t know a lot of things. I was in it for few cosmic blinks of an eye, I’m thankful and grateful I had that opportunity. And I’m a little sad.”</p>