Michael Jackson no longer lives in a world that even remotely resembles our own, as Grammy organizers discovered when Michael began making demands ahead of his scheduled appearance on the program.Michael, according to the New York Post, asked for some of the most outrageous things in the history of the world (even crazier than the shit Jennifer Lopez asks for). First off, Michael wanted to be introduced by a "special honoree," whatever the hell that means (maybe the chimp he burned to death was going to be brought back from the dead for him). Then, Michael wanted to have the entire show dedicated to him. And he wanted to be given a special award - not just a regular lifetime achievement award, but a Michael-only award that would never be given to anyone else again until the end of time. Also, he wanted other people on the show to refer to him as "The King of Pop" at least 30 times during the program.
And for some reason the Grammys didn't go for this.
Michael of course got his revenge - the Grammy telecast was one of the lowest-rated in the history of the awards. But what would those ratings have been if Michael had been scheduled to show up? They would've gone through the roof, just from people wanting to see how fucked-up he has gotten.
So the Grammys sort of dropped the ball. However, you can understand why they didn't cave to his demands. No one wants to be perceived as kowtowing to a child molesting mummy-faced corpse-man. There's a limit even to what TV execs will stoop to in the name of ratings.
