"I had a jeep made up for Michael, and he would take it on tour, and he would hide behind it, like a curtain"
About this Quote
The funniest part is how casually it lands: a jeep, purpose-built not for transportation but for concealment, like stagecraft with tires. Rick Dees is talking about celebrity logistics the way a roadie might talk about duct tape - practical, slightly absurd, and totally normal inside the bubble. That normalization is the point. When fame reaches a certain voltage, the equipment list starts including things that function as psychological armor.
The line sketches Michael (Jackson is the obvious referent) as both hyper-visible and desperately trying to disappear. A jeep becomes a movable wall, a prop that lets him control sightlines: who gets access, who gets a glimpse, when the gaze is allowed to land. Calling it "like a curtain" is doing heavy work. Curtains are theatrical, but theyre also domestic; they separate public performance from private vulnerability. Dees is implying that even offstage, the tour is still a show, and privacy has to be manufactured the same way lighting cues are.
There is a sly indictment in the offhand generosity: "I had a jeep made up for Michael". It frames care as customization, but also exposes how the machine of entertainment solves human problems with hardware. Instead of asking why someone needs to hide, the system builds a hiding place and keeps the schedule moving. The subtext is less about one eccentric star than about an industry that treats fear, anxiety, or trauma as technical challenges to engineer around - until the person behind the curtain becomes inseparable from the apparatus meant to protect them.
The line sketches Michael (Jackson is the obvious referent) as both hyper-visible and desperately trying to disappear. A jeep becomes a movable wall, a prop that lets him control sightlines: who gets access, who gets a glimpse, when the gaze is allowed to land. Calling it "like a curtain" is doing heavy work. Curtains are theatrical, but theyre also domestic; they separate public performance from private vulnerability. Dees is implying that even offstage, the tour is still a show, and privacy has to be manufactured the same way lighting cues are.
There is a sly indictment in the offhand generosity: "I had a jeep made up for Michael". It frames care as customization, but also exposes how the machine of entertainment solves human problems with hardware. Instead of asking why someone needs to hide, the system builds a hiding place and keeps the schedule moving. The subtext is less about one eccentric star than about an industry that treats fear, anxiety, or trauma as technical challenges to engineer around - until the person behind the curtain becomes inseparable from the apparatus meant to protect them.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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