Ex-bodyguard Recalls MJ The Prankster (Article 2009)

(I know this article is an older one but I thought I’d share something positive to cheer us up while the trial is going on).
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Andre Menzies shows off a collection of memorabilia at his home in Gentilly on Tuesday, including a jacket from the Apollo All Star Revue. Menzies was one of a handful of locals who worked for Michael Jackson and his family.

As thousands of people gathered for a memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday to mourn the King of Pop, Andre Menzies was at work in New Orleans, reminiscing about his days as one of Michael Jackson’s bodyguards and remembering the superstar as a prankster, a perfectionist and a consummate performer.

“Just being with Michael was one of the best things I’ve ever done, ” said Menzies, 55.

“When he would go sing ‘Human Nature’ or ‘I’ll Be There, ‘ it would be incredible, ” Menzies recalled. “The whole entire stadium would be waving their arms.”

Menzies, chief of security at Dillard University and a reserve officer with the New Orleans Police Department, started working with the Jackson family in 1984 for its “Victory” tour. Much of his memorabilia from those days was destroyed in the flooding after Hurricane Katrina.

“If it wasn’t for Katrina, I would have had all kinds of stuff, ” Menzies said. “I stayed friends with them (the Jackson family) until now. I still can’t believe Michael’s dead.”

Menzies is one of a small coterie of New Orleanians with connections to the Jackson family. Marlon Jackson is married to Carol Parker, a New Orleanian. Wayne and Skip Nagin, cousins of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, worked security for various members of the Jackson clan.

“I’m really just very distraught, ” Skip Nagin said. “We all know Michael was a great entertainer, but I’d rather not speak on it right now.”

It seems that Jermaine Jackson is the central figure in the Jackson connection to New Orleans. He hired Menzies and helped bring Jonathan “Sugarfoot” Moffett, a New Orleans drummer, to his brothers’ attention. Moffett has become a fixture in the bands of all the Jackson brothers as well as those of pop stars Madonna and Elton John.

Jermaine Jackson also helped New Orleans twins Lolita Minor and Tarita Walker land roles in the 1992 television biography “The Jacksons: An American Dream.”

Though Menzies was hired specifically to work as a bodyguard for Jermaine Jackson, roles on the “Victory” tour were fluid. Often Menzies would be reassigned to accompany Michael Jackson to a news conference or other events.

Jackson the prankster

While on that tour, he said he saw the Jackson family as warm and friendly, an image that is at odds with tabloid coverage.

Michael Jackson would often enlist his younger brother, Randy, as well as Menzies in one of his favorite pranks. Late at night, the trio would gather the room service trays left by guests in the hotel’s hallway. Then they would target one of the other brothers and stack all the trays in front of his door.

“In the morning, when they had to run out, they would run into all those dishes, ” Menzies said.

In later years, Jackson was dogged by allegations of child molestation, and the Jackson family has been accused of being dysfunctional.

From his limited vantage point, Menzies said he saw no evidence of
either.

“The man was not a child molester, not a freak. He was just a genius that we will never find in an artist again in life, ” Menzies said.

“Those guys didn’t drink. They didn’t smoke, they didn’t use drugs. They were the best people in the world to work for. They made us feel like a million dollars, ” Menzies said.

Pork and sweet potatoes

The Jacksons have another New Orleans tie: They ate at Dooky Chase restaurant on Orleans Avenue in the 1970s.

READ MORE: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/exbodyguard_for_michael_jackso.html

Source: Nola / MJ-Upbeat.com