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"Joe Jackson has rejected claims by his late son Michael that he never had a childhood. Speaking to German newspaper Bild, Joe said that he limited Michael and his brothers&amp;#039; exposure to other children for their own good. Joe said: &amp;quot;He claimed he had no childhood, but that&amp;#039;s not true. The truth is that I didn&amp;#039;t want to allow my kids to play with the kids of the neighbourhood. It was a no-good neighbourhood where we lived. &amp;quot;The children from then are now drug addicts or have gone to prison. I wanted to protect my children from that. Michael had eight siblings who could play with. They frolicked, played basketball.&amp;quot; He continued: &amp;quot;I took the boys firmly in hand, that&amp;#039;s true. But I also promised to make them the greatest stars in the world. That was the plan and they agreed. &amp;quot;I smacked them sometimes but not constantly. How could I do that? I was rarely at home. I had two jobs to earn the money for their instruments and I had to feed a 11-person family. I abused nobody. I insist on that! &amp;quot;Back then it was like that. If a child didn&amp;#039;t toe the line then they got slapped in the face. The teacher at school did that also. Nowadays the methods of education are different and I would act differently.&amp;quot; Joe added: &amp;quot;It was difficult, I was his father and also his manager. It&amp;#039;s difficult to divide, you know, we were black people in a business dominated by white people. &amp;quot;I knew Michael could become bigger than Elvis, but the white people would never allow it. I had to lead Michael through a shark tank. And if you ask me, he became bigger than Elvis.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/michael-jackson-1958-2009/news/a178584/joe-jackson-michael-had-a-childhood/>