Bad

An Inside View into the Dark Side of a Music Icon

He was the King of Pop, a superstar without equal, the idol of millions of young people around the world. But was Michael Jackson also a sexual predator without equal, someone who preyed on the very fans who adored him?
 
Bad is the revelatory untold true story of the strange and larger-than-life career of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. In the wake of the controversial two-part documentary Leaving Neverland, which told the stories of two young boys who were befriended by the singer and have claimed they suffered years of agonizing abuse, Dylan Howard set out to investigate Jackson’s life and death in unprecedented depth, to determine—as one lawyer suggested—that the pop star ran “the most sophisticated child sexual abuse procurement and facilitation operation the world has known.”
 
After all the highly publicized trials and unfounded accusations, stunning new information has finally come to light: irrefutable evidence that one of the best-known, best-loved figures in the world was a monster behind closed doors—a foul-mouthed, abusive, drug-sodden freak whose deeds and the reasons for those deeds are revealed now for the first time.
 
A dramatic narrative account based on dozens of interviews, Howard shares Jackson’s own riveting personal journal—obtained exclusively for this book—interviews with family members, multiple first-person sources—some of whom have asked to remain anonymous—as well as thousands of pages of court documents. What he uncovers is a man who was both naive and Machiavellian, unorthodox, a devoted father, shrewd businessman, and drug addict whose life was cut short but whose sound and style have influenced artists of various genres and generations.
 
Remarkably though, in death, there remains two portraits of Michael Jackson: the reigning King of Pop, and a pedophile whose pattern of abuse ruined his reputation. Fans and individuals alike will forever be asking if the insidious claims being made about MJ are true. This is the new narrative and the sad legacy of one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
 
Here is his life story, told for the first time with stories and testimony that will leave you shaken.

As a man with unprecedented access to the facts and a reporter who is one of the most feared journalists in Hollywood, investigative reporter Dylan Howard has cracked open scandals that have brought down the careers of Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Hulk Hogan, and Paula Dean and others.

Howard’s sense for news saw him rise to become the undisputed most powerful gossip editor in the world, publishing dozens of salacious tabloid magazines each week, including Us Weekly, The National Enquirer, Star, In Touch, Life & Style, RadarOnline.com, and more.

Described by the New Yorker magazine’s Jeffrey Toobin as "a tabloid prodigy” and AdWeek as “the king of Hollywood scoops,” Dylan also brought to light: the hate-fueled audiotapes of Oscar-winning actor/director Gibson blasting former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva; the scandal-plagued death of screen darling Farrah Fawcett; the naming of the mother of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child; the demise of star-on-the-rise politician Anthony Weiner; and the Tiger Woods sex scandal. He also broke the story of the A-list high-stakes poker scam that was later made into the Oscar-nominated film Molly’s Game.

Most recently, Howard made a name for himself with a stunning exposé of Sheen that revealed Hollywood’s most unapologetic hedonist was HIV positive. It also was a story of extraordinary corruption, violence, lies, intimidation, death threats, and millions of dollars paid out in hush money—a story that he chronicled in a first-person essay for The Hollywood Reporter that AdWeek called “jaw dropping.”

In 2011, Howard was named Entertainment Journalist of the Year at the National Entertainment Journalism Awards, where the judges labelled him the "go-to guy for authoritative showbiz news and analysis on cable and over-the air television."

Howard lives in New York City.