The future king of pop, Michael Joseph Jackson, was born on August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana.

Joe Jackson, Michael's dad, was a former boxer and crane operator at U.S. Steel during the 1950s in Gary – according to a fantastic article by Rolling Stone, quoted in the book; Dave Marsh's Trapped: Michael Jackson and the Crossover Dream, there were actual quotas in place on how many black workers were allowed to move up the ladder into skilled trades in the city's mills. This idiocy meant black workers were paid less than white workers. Unfortunately, this also meant they were subject to higher rates of fatal industry-related illnesses – but Papa Joe hoped that music would lift his life. Michael's mother, Katherine Scruse, was from Alabama but lived in East Chicago, Indiana when she met Joe. Momma Katherine played clarinet and piano, had dreams of being a country-and-western performer, worked part-time at Sears, and was a Jehovah's Witness. She grew up listening to country & western music, and even though she had a dream to be a musician, she was stricken with a bout of polio that had left her with an unfortunate and permanent limp. Papa Joe and Momma Katherine were young when they married in 1949 and started on the idea of a big ol family. The first of the bunch was Maureen (aka Rebbie) in 1950, then Sigmund (aka Jackie) in 1951, Toriano (Tito) followed up in 1953, Jermaine in 1954, La Toya in 1956, Marlon in 1957. Then there came Michael in 1958, Randy in 1961, and little baby Janet in 1966, making her 16 years younger than Rebbie. Marlon was actually a twin but their brother, Brandon, died shortly after birth.

M.J. and his cluster of brothers and sisters constantly had music around them. Papa Joe was super into the new electric R&B sound tearing up Chicago, which wasn't far away, not to mention the beginning stages of early rock & roll. So Papa Joe formed a band with his brothers called "the Falcons," making some extra coin in the surrounding area at parties and small clubs. In his 1988 autobiography, Moonwalk, Michael wrote, "They would do some of the great early rock & roll and blues songs by Chuck Berry, Little Richard … you name it," Going on to say, "All those styles were amazing, and each had an influence on … us, though we were too young to know it at the time."

The Falcons eventually broke up, and Papa Joe put down his guitar and hid it in his bedroom closet. He wouldn't let anyone near it, let alone touch it, giving us insight into his control over the household. Regardless of Papa Joe's musical dismay, Momma Katherine taught her flock of kiddies how to harmonize while listening to her favorite country/western songs. Tito, just like daddy, was drawn to music and one day thought it was a bright idea to snag Papa Joe's precious guitar from the closet and take it to practice with his brothers. Well, guess what? He broke a string. Michael later said Joe whipped Tito for the infraction and, "he let him have it,." After the whoopin', Papa Joe told Tito to show him what he could do on the guitar. Well, Papa joe was floored. Tito impressed the crap out of him.

Is it possible that at that very moment, Papa Joe's lightbulb blew a breaker and saw his musical dreams come to fruition vicariously through his kids? First, he bought Tito his own guitar and taught him some Ray Charles music, then he got Jermaine a bass. Soon he was working all his sons into an ensemble. So, I'm going to say yes, the breaker blew. Papa Joe loved the blues, but he appreciated that his kids liked the new R&B – Motown and soul – and more than likely saw dollar signs every time they mentioned it. Joe wanted Jermaine to be the lead singer with Jackie and Tito, and Michael and Marlon playing the tambourine and congas. Michael has said that his father told him he had a "fat nose" (just a little foreshadowing here) and abused him during rehearsals. Michael recalled that Joe often sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as his children rehearsed, ready to punish any mistakes. Joe acknowledged that he regularly whipped Michael. Katherine said that although whipping came to be considered abuse, it was a common way to discipline children when Michael was growing up. Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon have said that their father wasn't abusive and that the whippings, which were harder on Michael because he was younger, kept them disciplined and out of trouble. Michael said his childhood was lonely and isolated.

At just four years old, Momma Katherine saw Michael singing along to a James Brown song, and she saw – in both his voice and moves – he was already better than his older brother. So she told Joe, "I think we have another lead singer." Katherine would later say that sometimes Michael's precocious abilities frightened her – she probably saw that his childhood might give way to stardom – but she also noticed that there was something undeniable about his young voice. Michael was also a natural entertainer. He absolutely loved singing and dancing, and because he was so young, the choice was clear, Michael was young, AND Michael was BAD. Get it? No? He was fantastic, OK?

Joe Jackson was good at what he did. "He knew exactly what I had to do to become a professional," Michael later said. "He taught me exactly how to hold a mic, make gestures to the crowd, and handle an audience." But by Joe's own admission, he was also unrelenting. "When I found out that my kids were interested in becoming entertainers, I really went to work with them," he told the time in 1984. "I rehearsed them about three years before I turned them loose. That's practically every day, for at least two or three hours. … They got a little upset about the whole thing in the beginning because the other kids were out having a good time. … Then I saw that after they became better, they enjoyed it more." That isn't always how Michael remembered it. "We'd perform for him, and he'd critique us," he wrote in Moonwalk. "If you messed up, you got hit, sometimes with a belt, sometimes with a switch. … I'd get beaten for things that happened mostly outside rehearsal. Dad would make me so mad and hurt that I'd try to get back at him and get beaten all the more. I'd take a shoe and throw it at him, or I'd just fight back, swinging my fists. That's why I got it more than all my brothers combined. I'd fight back, and my father would kill me, just tear me up." Those moments – and probably many more – created a loss that Jackson never got over. He was essential to the family's music-making, but there was no other bond between father and son. Again, from Moonwalk: "One of the few things I regret most is never being able to have a real closeness with him. He built a shell around himself over the years, and once he stopped talking about our family business, he found it hard to relate to us. We'd all be together, and he'd just leave the room."

Around 1964, Joe began entering the Jackson brothers in talent contests, many of which they handily won. Michael started sharing lead vocals with Jermaine, and the group's name was changed to the Jackson 5. In 1965, the group won a talent show; Michael performed the dance to Robert Parker's 1965 song "Barefootin'" and sang the Temptations' "My Girl." From 1966 to 1968, the Jackson 5 toured the Midwest; they frequently played at a string of black clubs known as the Chitlin' Circuit as the opening act for artists such as Sam & Dave, the O'Jays, Gladys Knight, and Etta James. Oh, and James Brown. No one was as important to Michael as James Brown. 

"I knew every step, every grunt, every spin and turn," he recalled. "He would give a performance that would exhaust you, just wear you out emotionally. His whole physical presence, the fire coming out of his pores, would be phenomenal. You'd feel every bead of sweat on his face, and you'd know what he was going through….You couldn't teach a person what I've learned just standing and watching." The chitlin circuit was a collection of performance venues throughout the eastern, southern, and upper Midwest areas of the United States that provided commercial and cultural acceptance for African American musicians, comedians, and other entertainers during the era of racial segregation in the United States through the 1960s. The Jackson 5 also performed at clubs and cocktail lounges, where striptease shows were featured, and local auditoriums and high school dances. In August 1967, while touring the East Coast, they won a weekly amateur night concert at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, NY.

"At first, I told myself they were just kids," Joe said in 1971. "I soon realized they were very professional. There was nothing to wait for. The boys were ready for stage training, and I ran out of reasons to keep them from the school of hard knocks." So in 1966, he booked his sons into Gary's black nightclubs and some in Chicago. Many of the clubs served alcohol and several featured strippers. "This is quite a life for a nine-year-old," Katherine would remind her husband, but Joe was undaunted. "I used to stand in the wings of this one place in Chicago and watch a lady whose name was Mary Rose," Michael recalled. "This girl would take off her clothes and panties and throw them to the audience. The men would pick them up and sniff them and yell. My brothers and I would be watching all this, taking it in, and my father wouldn't mind." Sam Moore of Sam and Dave recalled Joe locking Michael – who was maybe 10 years old – in a dressing room while Joe went off on his own adventures. Michael sat alone for hours. He also later recalled having to go onstage even if he'd been sick in bed that day.

On those tours, the most famous place was the Apollo in New York, where the Jackson 5 won an Amateur Night show in 1967. Joe had invested everything he had in his sons' success, though any accurate recognition or