Paul Theroux remembers shy Jacko

Michael Jackson once told the American writer Paul Theroux how difficult it was to trust his so-called friends and how he hated meeting strangers. It was ten years ago that the pop star telephoned Theroux for a chat at 4 o'clock in the morning. The conversation came about because of an interview Theroux had conducted with Jackson's great friend Elizabeth Taylor, in the course of which the writer had visited Jackson's Neverland ranch in California.

Writing for the Sunday Telegraph, Theroux, author of The Great Railway Bazaar and The Mosquito Coast, told how his phone rang and he heard a breathy, unbroken, boyish voice say: "This is Michael Jackson."

Theroux began by asking about his friendship with the actress. "How would you describe Elizabeth?" he asked.

"She's a warm cuddly blanket that I love to snuggle up to and cover myself with. I can confide in her and trust her. In my business, you can't trust anyone."

"Why is that?"

"Because you don't know who's your friend. Because you're so popular, and there's so many people around you. You're isolated, too. Becoming successful means that you become a prisoner. You can't go out and do normal things. People are always looking at what you're doing."

Liz Taylor, he explained, was a real friend. "Elizabeth is someone who loves me ­ really loves me."

Theroux told Jackson how he had suggested to Taylor that she was Wendy to his Peter Pan.

"But Elizabeth is also like a mother ­ and more than that," Jackson responded. "She's Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, the Queen of England and Wendy. We have great picnics. It's so wonderful to be with her. I can really relax with her, because we've lived the same life and experienced the same thing."

"Which is?"

"The great tragedy of childhood stars. We like the same things. Circuses. Amusement parks. Animals."

Theroux asked Jackson about his vulnerability as a child star. The writer said Taylor had told him that she felt she was "owned" by the studio.

Jackson responded:  "Sometimes really late at night we'd have to go out ­ it might be three in the morning  ­ to do a show. My father forced us. He would get us up. I was seven or eight. Some of these were clubs or private parties at people's houses. We'd have to perform."

Jackson went on: "I'd be sleeping and I'd hear my father. 'Get up! There's a show!' "

"But when you were on stage, didn't you get a kind of thrill?"

"Yes. I loved being on stage. I loved doing the shows."

"What about the other side of the business ­ if someone came up after the show, did you feel awkward?"

"I didn't like it. I've never liked people-contact. Even to this day, after a show, I hate it, meeting people. It makes me shy. I don't know what to say." ·