Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Michael Jackson recorded new song ‘Hold My Hand’ at Palms, but had ‘artistic differences’ with Playboy suite

Michael Jackson news conference

Associated Press

Michael Jackson at a press conference at O2 Arena in London on March 5, 2009.

It’s all fun and games -- until Michael Jackson starts covering nude portraits in the suite you arranged for him in the Las Vegas resort that you actually own.

This is what George Maloof learned in November 2007. This was the period during which Jackson was living in Las Vegas while working on a new CD featuring a few songs for which he collaborated with some of his favorite vocalists.

That CD, titled simply “Michael,” is to be released Dec. 14. The album’s first single, “Hold My Hand,” a duet with Jackson and Akon, is set for release Monday, and that song was recorded at the Studio at the Palms. Reportedly, “Hold My Hand” was chosen because a person representing Jackson’s estate found, after his death, a note written by Jackson indicating that he wanted that song to be released first. The song will debut at 12:01 a.m. and is then available for download.

Michael Jackson and Akon's Hold My Hand

Click to enlarge photo

Akon talks with Bill Werde, editorial director for Billboard magazine, about music in the digital age.

Click to enlarge photo

Palms owner George Maloof and Jenny McCarthy at the Fourth Annual Midsummer Night's Dream at Palms Pool & Bungalows on Aug. 14, 2010.

Palms Studio

Zoe Thrall, studio director, points out musician signatures on a wall at the Studio at the Palms Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009.  Launch slideshow »

Jackson had wanted to record at The Studio at the Palms, a favored studio among many contemporary artists when visiting Las Vegas. Those who ran the studio were, predictably, thrilled.

“We are so proud to have been a part of ‘Hold My Hand’ with Michael and Akon,” Zoe Thrall, director of Studio at the Palms, said Friday via e-mail. “When Michael was here, all of us at the studio knew we were part of something beyond cool.”

Not surprisingly, “Hold My Hand” has been leaked online ahead of its official release Monday in various stages and forms (TMZ's mp3 sounds the same as the YouTube video).

Meanwhile, Jackson's legacy is as strong as ever more than one year after his death, and nowhere is it more apparent than in Las Vegas. My colleague URL (Ubiquitous Robin Leach) broke the story about the two Cirque du Soleil Jackson productions underway, one of them set to debut at Mandalay Bay in December 2011; “This Is It” had a red carpet premiere at the Palms attended by his father, Las Vegas resident Joe Jackson; his doctor (you may have heard of him), cardiologist Conrad Murray, resides here; and a tribute show to the late King of Pop featured many Strip stars and headliners.

Staying at the Palms

As he recorded at the Palms, Jackson also sought to stay at the hotel with his young children, Prince, Paris and Prince Michael II (aka Blanket).

Naturally, Jackson wanted complete privacy for his family. His known residence was a rented 10-acre mansion on Monte Cristo Way in northwest Las Vegas (at the time, Jackson also was considering a “Neverland”-style development in Henderson).

The finest, and most secure, accommodations Maloof could offer on his property were the Hugh Hefner Suite in the Fantasy Tower. The villa was beautiful, spacious and safe. No one would think Jackson and his kids would be hanging out up there.

But there was one problem. Call it “artistic differences.”

“I came in there one day, and Michael had covered up all the nude pictures,” Maloof recalled Friday morning. “This was because of the kids. He didn’t want them looking at those pictures.”

Maloof then helped Jackson move to a two-story Sky Villa just below the Hef suite. It was just Jackson, the three kids and him.

“No one else could help with this because nobody else knew he was at the hotel,” Maloof said. “He was having issues with his security guard, and he was actually fired the second day he was there. So it was just us, moving all of these belongings, carrying them down the stairs because he didn’t want to use the elevator and risk someone recognizing him.”

Jackson spent a few days in the two-story suite before being moved once more because the space had long been booked for a high-roller party by a group who also had reserved 300 rooms on the property. Without complaint, Jackson moved once more, in another Sky Villa suite one floor below the two-story residence.

“It was brutal,” Maloof said. “The second move was harder than the first because they’d brought more stuff in -- but he understood our situation.”

Jackson was a guest at the Palms far longer than Maloof expected, about 4 months.

“It was very hush-hush,” Maloof said. “Nobody knew he was there. It’s only now that the CD is coming out that we can talk about it. But we want people to know, yeah, that he did a lot of work at the Palms. It’s pretty remarkable, remembering it all now, actually.”

Arts & Entertainment Editor Don Chareunsy contributed to this report.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.

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