Michael Jackson with 10 year old Jimmy Safechuck on the tour plane, 1988. Photo / Getty Images
Michael Jackson with 10 year old Jimmy Safechuck on the tour plane, 1988. Photo / Getty Images
Singer Sheryl Crow has opened up about what she saw while touring with Michael Jackson at the time he was on the road with his sexual assault accuser Jimmy Safechuck.
Crow spent almost two years over the course of 1987-89 as a back-up singer on Jackson's Bad tour, having landed the gig just a couple of years after leaving college.
The tour saw her duetting with Jackson every night, on his hit I Just Can't Stop Loving You.
It was a dream gig for a singer starting her career, but according to the documentary Leaving Neverland, it was also the tour which enabled Jackson to sexually abuse Jimmy Safechuck, who was just 10 at the time.
Speaking to the Guardian, Crow recalled seeing the documentary for the first time on TV.
"They showed clips of the young man who was on the Jackson tour with us and it made me… I mean, I still feel really… It's like a death in the family. It's sad.
"[Safechuck] was a great kid and the whole time he was with us – which was the better half of an 18-month tour – I always wondered: 'What in the world are his parents doing?', you know?"
When asked whether she had any hunch that something was off, Crow answered: "Honestly, I think that there were a lot of exceptions made because of the damage that [Jackson could do].
"I mean, he didn't intentionally project it, but it was part of his aura – this almost being untouchable and almost alien-like. And yeah, I'm sad, and I'm mad at a lot of people. I feel like there was just a huge network of people that allowed all that to go on. It's just tragic."
Sheryl Crow and Michael Jackson perform during the Bad Tour circa 1988. Photo / Getty Images
Earlier this year, a journalist called Sam Smyth revealed in the Irish Mail that he became so concerned about Jackson's "deeply suspicious" relationship with Safechuck on tour that he reached out to the boy.
Smyth was covering one of the singer's concerts in 1988 and staying at the same hotel as Jackson and his entourage.
Staff reported Safechuck, whose room was next to Jackson's, remained in his room the whole time the singer was out performing with a "do not disturb" sign up and sheets covering the windows.
Smyth and another journalist then sent a letter to Safechuck's room which read: "Dear Little Jimmy Safechuck, we are in the residents' lounge … and if you are being held against your will or if you need rescuing contact us."
They gave the note to a hotel porter to deliver, but they never heard from Safechuck.
