Me and CFK saw the Victory Tour, here in Knoxville. There's a video news story about it here.
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=54529&catid=2And since everything in life is a closed loop, and it's all about me, it's critical that I explain that I was only two degrees away from the King of Pop; at the end of the video piece, they interview Bo Roberts, the promoter of the shows. I lived in the home of Mr. Roberts (and his gracious wife S___, and sons Sam, A___, and M___,) for four months during the summer of 1981. Bo's son Sam was a close friend of mine in college. He had his skull split in the spring of 1981 by an incoming throw from right field. Sam was trying to stretch a routine single into a double in intramural softball, a sport we took very very seriously. (In fact, we participated in an intramural organization called Sons of Sam. We used to enter the Sons of Sam in offbeat sports tournaments we knew absolutely nothing about, like water polo and tug of war, in an attempt to score points in the intramural all-sports trophy. It actually worked, because oftentimes no one else would sign up in our division.)
The seeing-eye throw hit Sam squarely in the ear on a fly, shredding his ear drum, and creating a large S-shaped crack in his skull that started just above the ear and snaked its way up to the top center of his head. He had emergency brain surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. At that time he wore a full Fleet Foxes-style beard. After they shaved his head to drill the holes, he looked like the famous professional wrestler Ivan Koloff, the "Russian Bear"
http://www.johnsmainevent.com/images/ivan_8zxn.jpg. Sam was very proud of this resemblance, and would occasionally stop and flex, Hans and Frans style.
Bo Roberts was the President of the 1982 World's Fair Corporation.
http://web.knoxnews.com/special/fair25/ That's the one where they built the Sunsphere, which Bart Simpson and his buddies visited years after it had ended, and discovered that it had been converted into a wig warehouse.
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/silence/archives/sunsphere.jpg (Not really. It's still here; you can book it for business meetings if you're in town.)
In the late spring and summer of 1981 Bo and S___ were due to be traveling, negotiating last minute details for the fair. Since they were scheduled to be out of town so frequently, they asked me to move into the house, mainly to help Sam up and down the steep steps to the boys' loft, but also generally to help out with simple tasks and keep an eye on him. So I did that, and at the end of the summer, with Sam back on his feet, in addition to the 4 months free rent and free food, S___ gave each of us guitars, mine as a sort of reward, Sam so we could play together, at which point we joined the previously discussed Vessel of Knoxville.
http://www.myspace.com/vesselknoxville1980s In fact, if you look at the picture at that site, Sam is the handsome guy leaning against the post on the far left. I am the ugly troll with the Blego haircut hunkered down as much as possible behind the structure.
In the summer of 1982, we played a few times at a small open pavilion at the World's Fair, including a very brief stint (less than two minutes) for Imelda Marcos. I will save that story for later (or never, as, after mentioning her name, there's not much more to tell.) Two years later Mr. Roberts was booking the Victory Tour concerts.
So that's my Michael Jackson story; I knew Bo Roberts very well, and he met the Jacksons before the Victory Tour concerts in Knoxville, so we were clearly close as thieves.
