Siedah Garrett talks Michael Jackson, writing ‘Man In The Mirror’
With the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Bad being re-released in a brand new box set, MJ fans old and new will get to experience the King of Pop in a way they haven’t before. Siedah Garrett is a Grammy-award-winning singer-songwriter who co-wrote one of King of Pop’s trademark songs, “Man in The Mirror,” and was featured on the chart-topping duet “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.” TheGrio sat down with Garrett to talk about the process of making “Man In The Mirror,” the impact that it’s had on her fans, and Jackson’s unique spirit.
The 25th anniversary of Bad has just passed. You had the pleasure of crafting one of Michael Jackson’s signature songs within his catalog. What was the creative process behind the making of “Man in the Mirror”?
I was called into Quincy’s house for a meeting along with six of his signed songwriters. Quincy wanted to see if we could come up with one more song to round out and finish what we now know as the ‘Bad’ album. I took a few notes and went to my writing partner Glen Ballard’s house and pretty much gave him the notes and shared with him what I got from the meeting and he said, “okay let’s see what we come up with.” At that moment I sat down on the floor of his studio…two years before that day with Glen Ballard, I was having a writing session with my dear friend John Beasley, an amazing jazz keyboard player.
We were in the process of writing and the phone rang, and instead of letting the machine pick it up, he answers the phone and begins this very long, benign conversation. I’m flipping through my lyric book seething, going, “No he is not just taking this casual conversation when we’re trying to write.”
I’m flipping through my book and I hear him say “The man, what man? Oh the man in the mirror.” So, I wrote down the phrase ‘Man in the Mirror’ and two years later at Glen Ballard’s house, he gets up to find a sound on the keyboard and he just starts playing the intro and I just started flipping through the book and the phrase “Man in the Mirror” pops out so clearly. I started writing feverishly, I couldn’t write fast enough and within 10-12 minutes we had the first verse and the first chorus of ‘Man in the Mirror.’ Glen said “You go home and finish the lyrics, and I’ll finish the track (it was Wednesday), and we’ll meet here on Friday and do the demo.” It was a message, it was coming through me. I was a pure vessel at that moment.
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Does it blow your mind when people come up to you and you hear the stories of inspiration that come from that song?
I live for that. Back when I toured with Michael, when we were in Germany in the middle of the afternoon, in the middle of a soccer field, I remember the band being on stage and I wanted to hear what “Man in the Mirror” sounded like from the audience’s point of view. I hightailed it out to the middle of this field and I’m listening to the band play and then this woman comes out to the field that happens to be the secretary for Kenny Ortega, I think her name was Penny and says, “Excuse me, do you know Bill W?” I said, “No, who’s Bill W? Why are you asking me?” She said, “I just assumed you knew Bill W because he created AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), and the first few lines of “Man in the Mirror” I just knew you knew Bill W.”
She began to tell me her story and said, “I want you to know that a few months ago I was very despondent and I was seriously considering ending my miserable life. I was really in a bad place and I had just bought the album, and “Man In the Mirror” came on and I played it over and over and over again. By the time I finished playing that record, I didn’t want to kill myself anymore.” We both were standing in the middle of field, in the middle of Germany, in the middle of the afternoon bawling our eyes out because of what she just told me. That meant so much, as a songwriter, that means everything. She told me that those words saved her life. Music is a life saver and that’s when I knew that for real.
What was MJ’s reaction on the first time he heard “Man in the Mirror?”
He loved it. I wasn’t with him the moment he heard it but when I met him, he shared with me how he felt about the song. He loved my voice and he was quick to share that with me when I first talked to him. It was kind of weird because I gave the song to Quincy that night Glen and I finished the demo, and it was too late to turn it in to Quest Music Publishing because it was Friday evening. I knew I couldn’t wait until Monday to turn in this song so I had to call Quincy and you heard Michael talking in the background and…he puts Michael Jackson on the phone.
I don’t know about you, but I grew up with all of my sisters and cousins [and we all] had a Jackson husband. My husband was Michael, so to me in my mind I’m on the phone with my husband. I’m freaking out in my mind like, “No he did not just put Michael freaking Jackson on the phone!” But MJ was sweet. “How can I help you?” Michael said. “I love your voice and I love your song,” and then he starts telling me what he would like to say in the next few lines of our song. I’m listening to him and all I know is I have to come up with the next few lines so he doesn’t have to. I came up with six different stanzas and the one he choose is “You gotta get it right; while you go the time cuz when you close your heart then you close your mind.”
Related: Is ‘Bad’ better than ‘Thriller’?
During that very important time within Michael’s life, was there anything that you witnessed on tour or something that he did backstage that most people didn’t know about Michael?
I’ll tell you what I found most interesting about him that I didn’t know. When he appreciates what you did, he really honored the best and relished in what the best did well. He looked at anyone whom he admired and respected and took what they did and did his whole little twist on it. When Quincy presented the demo to him, the key was one step higher than he was comfortable with. He asked if I would sing the song in the new lower key and I said sure. As I’m singing the song in the new lower key, Michael takes out a video camera and he starts filming me singing this demo.
I remember asking him, “What are you doing? Why are you filming me?” and he said, “Because I want to sing the song like you do. I just love the way you sing the song.” I looked at him and was like, “Great Mike, all my friends are really gonna believe me when I tell them you wanted to sing the song just like me. Thanks.” He was a sponge and he wanted to absorb everything that you did and flip it and make it his own.
Do you see any glimpse of super stardom that would even close to MJ in this current generation at all?
Yes there are many that try to emulate his style and many that are influenced by his music and dance movements, like Chris Brown, Usher, Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber.
But is there anyone who has that Michael ‘It’ factor?
I don’t know if the ‘it’ is there to be ‘got’ at this point. The way the music industry is, there’s no way anyone is ever going to sell as many records as he sold. That is just not possible anymore because of the way music is sold and distributed. That album came at a really unique time when you actually had to buy the record.
Any final words about MJ’s character?
He was the ultimate perfectionist and he honored the creative artistry in others. He respected that and wanted to flip it and make it his. A lot of the dance moves he does was Fred Astaire, but no one of my generation or the generation after have even heard of or witnessed what Fred Astaire did. Michael studied it. Michael had all of his films and would study all of the choreography, and he would take a move of Fred’s and make it his own. I was with him the day Fred died and when Michael found out that Fred was gone, that was the end of our day. He went into the studio and just wept, they were friends. When I toured with him, we were in countries where we didn’t know what he did on our days off. We didn’t know what he did until we picked up the papers the next day when he was at the children’s hospital or the orphanage. We didn’t know the things that he did until after they were done. I appreciate the fact that he did what he did and no one knew what it was until he died.
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