Liza Minelli – re: Michael Jackson

Ellen:I just think that as someone who is a really huge fan of Michael Jackson, I never had a chance to meet him and I’m sorry that I didn’t but know you were close friends with him but, just as a fan watching that trial, it was heartbreaking, are you watching it or trying hard not to watch it?

Liza:I watched some of it and then when it becomes “showbiz” I think, “Come on, everybody’s trying to make money”, they are just making money off him again, you know?

Ellen:Yeah.

Liza:That kid really never had a life without someone saying “you know we can make money off of this Michael”. I think.

Ellen:Yeah. When you knew him did you see.. I mean that must be hard to see that, because you must have experienced that yourself, everybody wanting to make money off you, did you..?

Liza:No I didn’t. I was so lucky because in Hollywood, I didn’t care anything about it. I wanted to go to New York, so I went by myself. I was lucky enough to not have anyone on me like that. I made furniture for shows, I did anything, but with Michael it’s .. when I first met Michael, he was a kid you know, and as he grew up, he was funny… he was so funny.

Ellen:I heard he was funny.

Liza:and he was interested in everything. He loved my dad and so I used to take him over to visit my dad and he would have dinner with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, and the Gregory Peck(s) and all these people. He was like a sponge for information and a wonderful conversationalist, really, but then he had to go back to whatever he had to go back to and it just went wrong and who knows what happened.

Ellen:Yeah. How long before he died had you seen him?

Liza:Oh boy, I think the last time I saw him was 2000. I was on his show (smiling)

Ellen:On his show:

Liza:One of his shows that he did?

Ellen:While he was touring?

Liza:A special, one of his specials for TV.

Ellen:That special that he was going to do looked like it was going to be amazing, that he was planning for.

Liza:Yeah, see he worked liked nobody else. We would go to Martha Graham, because I knew Martha Graham because I was in one of her ballets. So we would go over there and we would sit in the corner, the two of us and we would watch and then everybody would break and we would run into the other room and try and remember what we had seen.

Ellen:Wow!

Liza:And we would do it! It was fun.

Ellen:I would love to see those tapes. That’s amazing. Incredible!

Much love and appreciation for our dedicated transcriptionist – 💞