John McClain, a co-executor of Michael Jackson‘s estate, died in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was 71. Diana Baron, a representative of the estate, confirmed McClain’s death. The cause was complications from a fall.
After an illustrious career behind the scenes of the music industry, McClain became close to the Jackson family in the early Eighties, setting up Janet for superstardom. Michael Jackson named McClain as his estate executors, alongside lawyer John Branca, in his will. McClain was instrumental in guiding Jackson’s posthumous resurgence, including the release of two albums of archival material, two Cirque du Soleil shows, the Broadway hit MJ: The Musical, various films and documentaries, and the recently released hit movie, Michael. Forbes has reported that Jackson’s estate has earned more than $3 billion since the singer’s 2009 death.
“I am profoundly grieved at the loss of my partner and brother John McClain,” Branca said in a statement. “One of the great innovators in the world of music and music marketing, John was a visionary, seeing past the mundane and into the future.
“When we were named in Michael’s will, I knew that he would bring great insight into Michael’s music and that his friendship and dedication to Michael would underscore all the great projects that we could bring to the world,” he continued. “He brought a passion and sense of conviction to all that he did and was the most generous of friends. It is difficult to imagine a world without him.”
“He recently produced the MEGA HIT, Michael, and I’m so happy that he got to witness its success before he passed!” Tracey Edmonds, entertainment producer for Edmonds Entertainment, commented on Instagram. “He was one of the smartest and wittiest men I ever met, but on-top of ALL THAT… he was such a KIND and THOUGHTFUL SOUL in my life.”
Born in Los Angeles to parents who were part of the city’s jazz scene and raised by his aunt, McClain’s musical interests developed when he began taking piano lessons at age 3. Inspired by Jimi Hendrix, he switched to guitar in his teens and entered the Jackson family orbit, befriending Michael. McClain’s guitar skills earned him a place in the R&B group the Silvers, becoming their musical director, and he subsequently played guitar in sessions for Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, and Shalimar.
Making headway in the music business, he assumed the role of director of Black music for A&M in 1984. While there, he signed the Human League, Atlantic Starr, and Jesse Johnson, among others. His biggest success was Janet Jackson.
Recognizing the talents of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who were members of the Prince-associated funk group the Time, McClain fostered their budding production career, which had included recordings with Klymaxx, Patti Austin, and the S.O.S. Band, by linking them with Janet Jackson. She went from the 1984 album Dream Street, bowing at Number 147 on the Billboard Top 200 to a Number One hit with Control, which contained the hit title track and “Nasty,” both of which Jackson co-wrote with the producers. They repeated the feat together in 1989 with Rhythm Nation 1814.
In 1987, McClain told Spin he felt he’d received too much credit for Janet Jackson’s resurgence and explained what his vision for her career was. “I told her, ‘Let Whitney [Houston] and Patti [LaBelle] sing their lungs out,” he said. “Just concentrate on being a female Michael Jackson, and you’ll give the people something that’s even more exciting.”
“John McClain put A&M; back on the map in a blink,” Sylvia Rhone, chairwoman of Time Warner’s Elektra Entertainment division, a competitor to A&M, told Los Angeles Times in 1998. “The man is a genius.”
After moving to Interscope in 1989, McClain helped inspire Dr. Dre to form his own Death Row Records label, playing the rapper’s demo tape for Jimmy Iovine, and for Interscope to tap into gospel and R&B music with releases by Kirk Franklin and Teddy Riley. He returned to A&M in 1997, working with Atlantic Starr, Barry White, Ice Cube, Kurupt, and Shaquille O’Neal in various capacities. A DreamWorks stint, which began in 2001, found him working with Ron Isley and Burt Bacharach.
The 1998 Times article reported that he had negotiated a deal to bring Jackson’s label into A&M, even though Jackson remained linked with Sony. They were also working on a Jackson 5 album at the time, as it was a year after their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The paper reported he was in the studio with the brothers with hopes of putting out an album by the end of the year, but the album never materialized.
When Michael Jackson died in 2009, he named McClain as one of the estate’s co-executors alongside Branca, per a 2002 will. Jackson’s mother, Katherine, initially fought their appointments, wanting to manage the estate herself and accusing them of conflicts of interest. Eventually a judge ruled that they would become the executors.
McClain, who kept a low profile and allowed Branca to become the estate’s spokesman, helped organize the release of two posthumous albums, Michael (2010) and Xscape (2014), and worked with Branca on cultivating a legacy for the singer beyond albums with theatrical releases and movies. His most recent success was as a producer of Michael, the hit biopic, which Box Office Mojo reports has brought in $321 million domestically since its April release.
“I’m not the kind of guy who needs to take a survey to figure out whether a song is good or not,” McClain told L.A. Times in 1998. “I’m a musician. And what I aim to do at A&M; is bring back the art form. I want this company to bring in great songwriters and players who know how to improvise. I want A&M; to create music that makes the hair on your forearms stand up.”
