Michael Jackson’s Dad, Joe Jackson, Dies From Terminal Cancer

Michael Jackson’s dad, Joe Jackson, has died at the age of 89 after a battle with cancer that hospitalized him in June.

TMZ reports that Joe’s official time of death is listed as 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 27.

Joe reportedly was diagnosed with the illness months before his passing, but it was only recently revealed by his son Jermaine. He did previously suffer from a stroke in 2015, which left him with blurry vision following his recovery.

A somewhat controversial figure in pop-culture history, Joe is responsible for the success of The Jackson 5, the legendary singing group from the 1970s that was the catalyst for Michael’s rise to fame.

With Joe as his manager, Michael Jackson would go on to become The King of Pop, and the most awarded musician in all of pop music.

Before all of that though, Joe began life in Fountain Hill, Arkansas in 1928 as the eldest of five children. His father — Samuel Jackson — was a university professor and, according to Joe, a very strict and domineering man.

His parents eventually separated and Joe went to live with his father in Oakland, California while his mother, sister, and two brothers went to live in East Chicago, Indiana.

Joe later ended up moving to Chicago after his father remarried, hoping to begin a career as a boxer. He married Katherine Scruse (Katherine Jackson) in 1949, and the couple went on to have 10 children (Joe also has one child as the result of an extramarital affair). Sadly, their son Brandon Jackson died mere hours after being born.

In the 1950s, Joe pursued fame in a blues band, but that ultimately did not end up working out. He then set his sights on helping his sons achieve success with their group, The Jackson Brothers — later changed to The Jackson 5.

The group did go on to become incredibly successful, charting numerous hit singles such as “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” and “I’ll Be There.” More importantly, The Jackson 5’s popularity paved the way for Michael’s solo career, giving the world one of the greatest — if not the greatest — musical performer of all time.

Joe’s legacy in Michael’s success has been shadowed, however, by accusations that he was abusive and controlling when the boys were young. This is a fact that Joe himself refuted, explaining that he was simply enacting tough love.

“I had to be like that way because during those times, it was hard, and you have a lot of gangs there, you know, in the area where we were living,” Jackson told Piers Morgan in a 2013 interview. “This was Gary, Indiana, and I had to make sure that they didn’t get in any type of trouble, and things of that sort.”

He went on to reveal that Michael attempted to reach out to him before his death in 2009, but that representatives for Michael told them they could not get in touch with Joe. “But they didn’t get in touch with me. They said they couldn’t find me, but I was right there,” Joe said.

Joe Jackson is survived by his wife and nine of his children.