Jackson's skin had been a medium-brown color for the entire duration of his youth, but starting in the mid 1980s, it gradually grew paler. The change gained widespread media coverage, including rumors that he was bleaching his skin.
According to
J. Randy Taraborrelli's biography, in 1986, Jackson was diagnosed with
vitiligo and
lupus; the vitiligo partially lightened his skin, and the lupus was in
remission; both illnesses made him sensitive to sunlight. The treatments he used for his condition further lightened his skin tone, and, with the application of pancake makeup to even out blotches, he could appear very pale.
Jackson was also diagnosed with vitiligo in his autopsy.
Several surgeons speculated that he had undergone various nasal surgeries, a forehead lift, thinned lips, and cheekbone surgery—although Jackson denied this and insisted that he only had surgery on his nose.
Jackson claimed that he had only two rhinoplasties and no other surgery on his face, although at one point he mentioned having a dimple created in his chin.
Jackson lost weight in the early 1980s because of a change in diet and a desire for "a dancer's body".
Witnesses reported that he was often dizzy and speculated that he was suffering from
anorexia nervosa; periods of weight loss would become a recurring problem later in life.
During the course of his treatment, Jackson made two close friends: his dermatologist, Dr.
Arnold Klein, and Klein's nurse
Debbie Rowe. Rowe eventually became Jackson's second wife and the mother of his two eldest children. Long before becoming romantically involved with her, Jackson relied heavily on Rowe for emotional support. He also relied heavily on Klein, for medical and business advice.
Jackson two years after he was diagnosed with
vitiligo, here in the early stages of the disease
Jackson became the subject of increasingly sensational reports. In 1986, the tabloids ran a story claiming that Jackson slept in a
hyperbaric oxygen chamber to slow the aging process; he was pictured lying down in a glass box. Although the claim was untrue, according to tabloid reports that are widely cited, Jackson had disseminated the fabricated story himself.
When Jackson bought a chimpanzee called
Bubbles from a laboratory, he was reported to be increasingly detached from reality.
It was reported that Jackson had offered to buy the bones of
Joseph Merrick (the "elephant man") and although untrue, Jackson did not deny the story.
Although initially he saw these stories as opportunities for publicity, he stopped leaking untruths to the press as they became more sensational. Consequently the media began making up their own stories.
These reports became embedded in the public consciousness, inspiring the nickname "Wacko Jacko," which Jackson came to despise.
Responding to the gossip, Jackson remarked to Taraborrelli:
Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything
you say, because
you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, "I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight," people would say, "Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is
nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a single word that comes out of his mouth."
Jackson wore a gold-plated military style jacket with belt in the
Bad era
Jackson collaborated with
Francis Ford Coppola on the 17-minute
3-D film Captain EO, which debuted in September 1986 at both the original
Disneyland and at
EPCOT in Florida, and in March 1987 at
Tokyo Disneyland. The $30 million movie was a popular attraction at all three parks. A Captain EO attraction was later featured at
Euro Disneyland after that park opened in 1992. All four parks' Captain EO installations stayed open well into the 1990s: Paris' installation was the last one to close, in 1998.
The attraction would later return to Disneyland after Jackson's death in 2010.
In 1987, Jackson disassociated himself from the Jehovah's Witnesses, in response to their disapproval of the
Thriller video.
With the industry expecting another major hit, Jackson's first album in five years,
Bad (1987), was highly anticipated.
It did not top
Thriller as a commercial or artistic triumph, but
Bad was still a substantial success in its own right.
The
Bad album spawned seven hit singles in the U.S., five of which ("
I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "
Bad", "
The Way You Make Me Feel", "
Man in the Mirror" and "
Dirty Diana") reached number one on the
Billboard Hot 100 charts. This was a record for most number one Hot 100 singles from any one album, including
Thriller. Although the title track's video was arguably derivative of the video for the earlier single "
Beat It", the
"Bad" video still proved to be one of Jackson's iconic moments. It was a gritty but colorful epic set against the backdrop of the
New York City Subway system, with costuming and choreography inspired by
West Side Story. As of 2008, the album had sold 30 million copies worldwide.
Thanks to the
Bad album, Bruce Swedien and
Humberto Gatica won one Grammy in 1988 for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical and Michael Jackson won one Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form for "
Leave Me Alone" in 1989.
In the same year, Jackson won an Award of Achievement at the American Music Awards because
Bad is the first album ever to generate five number one singles in the US, the first album to top in 25 countries and the best-selling album worldwide in 1987 and in 1988.
In 1988, "Bad" won an American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Single.
The
Bad World Tour began on September 12 that year, finishing on January 14, 1989.
In Japan alone, the tour had 14 sellouts and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record of 200,000 in a single tour.
Jackson broke a
Guinness World Record when 504,000 people attended seven sold-out shows at
Wembley Stadium. He performed a total of 123 concerts to an audience of 4.4 million people. The Bad Tour turned out to be the last of Jackson's concert tours to include shows in the continental United States, although later tours did make it to Hawai.
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