'I whipped Michael with a switch and belt'

It could be weeks before the world finally knows what killed Michael Jackson. What became clearer than ever in the week since the unexpected death of the legendary singer was that the self-proclaimed King of Pop was just a knight in mournful armour, a deeply insecure, lonely child who seemed to have never grown up.

A key figure in the unhappy life of Michael Jackson was his father Joe, 79, who through the often chaotic years of his life kept emerging, unwelcome, into the spotlight.

Even in the days after his death, Joe Jackson was glad-handing at the Black Entertainment Television awards, promoting his own record label and welcoming the adoration by fans, laughing as he said it was too bad Michael had not lived to see the outpouring of emotions for his son.

No mention is made at all of Joe Jackson in Michael's will, which was filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The King of Pop named his mother, Katherine, as guardian of his three children. In case his mother became incapacitated, the back-up designation for guardianship named Diana Ross, the legendary Motown entertainer with her own string of hits including Ain't No Mountain High Enough.

In 1993, Michael Jackson told talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey that his father teased him and beat him. "He was very strict, very hard, very stern. Just a look would scare you," Jackson said. "There's been times when he'd come to see me, I'd get sick, I'd start to regurgitate."

Joe Jackson's reaction said it all. "Yeah, he regurgitated all the way to the bank," the father said.

His mother, on the other hand, was "perfection", Michael said. His parents apparently live separated from one another.

Joe Jackson was a crane operator at the steel yards in the early years of his marriage to Katherine in the grimy, industrial city of Gary, Indiana. After failing in his bid to launch a band with his brother, he turned his ambition onto his nine children.

Determined to see his musically gifted kids write the family success story, he pushed the Jackson 5 boys hard onto the stage, with little patience, indulgence or even a loving touch, Michael said.

Afterward, Joe Jackson confirmed that he had indeed physically punished Michael. "I whipped him with a switch and a belt...I never beat him. You beat someone with a stick," he told the BBC in 2003.

MJ's memorial to be held, Tuesday