Siedah Garrett Speaks About How It Was Working With Michael

Essence.com: Sorry to hear that you were put through the ringer. You also wrote "The Man in the Mirror" for Michael Jackson and recorded the duet "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" with him. How is he and have you spoken to him?

S.G.: I don’t know and no, I haven’t spoken to him since I toured with him. I spent more time with him when we recorded the duet, but I don’t talk to him all the time. I spent more time when we recorded the duet because we did it in French, English and Spanish in all these different languages and saw him every night for two hours.

Essence.com: So you two never spoke the entire time you worked together.

S.G.: I think he is the most talented artist on the Planet. I’ve toured with Madonna and there is no one--aside from Quincy [Jones]--who’d I tour with again except Michael. It was so much fun. He was so amazing. We saw him every night there were some nights we were on stage clapping like we’d never seen him before and we worked with him every night and the man is just incredible. His shows take two day to have the set built and he needs about that much time to regroup and rest so Michael only performs twice a week. Madonna? I was on the road for three months and practiced everyday, all day.

Essence.com: Did you two get to hang out at all?

S.G.: No, we’d go to different cities and the next day we’d read the newspaper and learn what he did in that city. Other than that I saw him in rehearsals. I’m hearing rumblings that he might be back on the road so I just put my lil’ name in the ring.

Essence.com: That’s great to hear everyone gets so caught up in celebrities public persona because that’s all we’re given.

S.G.: Awesome, truly. Michael has a really acute sense of humor. He’s very funny, but he’s also a perfectionist. And serious about his art—the singing and dancing. When I did the duet with him I didn’t know him. I just happened to be in the studio for the second day working on "Man in the Mirror" and Quincy asked me what I thought about the song. I told him it was cool and then he asked me to lay down some vocals in the booth. So I go in and the next thing I know he tells Michael to join me so he does and starts facing me at the other stand and singing. I’m trying to be all serious and Michael starts throwing peanuts at me, but Quincy doesn’t see him so everytime I’d start cracking up Quincy would be like, "Siedah you’re wasting studio time!" And Michael is over there just cracking up. He has a great sense of humor and is like a big kid.