One visit to a storage unit made a stay-at-home dad the owner of unreleased music Michael Jackson recorded between 1989 and 1991.
Imagine a visit to a storage unit that leads you to a treasure trove of unreleased music by the King of Pop. Recently, Gregg Musgrove, a former California Highway Patrol officer turned stay-at-home dad, discovered a multitude of records by Michael Jackson while visiting an associate’s storage unit. It all began with a call about a recently purchased storage unit in Van Nuys. That unit once belonged to Bryan Loren, a music producer and singer who worked with Jackson on his eighth studio album, “Dangerous” (1991), and other artists like Whitney Houston, Barry White and more.
According to Musgrove, Loren’s whereabouts are currently unknown. However, the producer’s abandoned storage unit held a collection of tapes that featured 12 unreleased tracks by Jackson recorded between 1989 and 1991.
“I’ve gone to all the fan sites. Some of [the songs] are rumored to exist, some of them have been leaked a little bit,” Musgrove told The Hollywood Reporter. “A couple aren’t even out there in the world.”
Musgrove’s new treasure included completed tracks and snippets of unreleased songs that seem to address media rumors about the late King of Pop. Additionally, Musgrove’s discovery showcased Jackson’s expansive musical range as it featured the megastar rapping with LL Cool J. Beyond the musical archive, the tapes offer a glimpse into Jackson’s creative process, including audio of him joking around and explaining the intended meanings behind some of the unreleased songs, one of which is titled “Seven Digits.”
“I’m listening to this stuff, and I would get goosebumps because nobody’s ever heard this stuff before,” Musgrove explained “To hear Michael Jackson actually talk and kind of joke back and forth … it was really, really cool.”
Sadly, fans will likely never be able to hear Musgrove’s findings. Earlier this year, the 56-year-old and his attorney reached out to Jackson’s estate about the tapes, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. After conducting its own research, the star’s estate declined Musgrove’s offer to purchase the tapes without explanation. However, they did provide him with an official letter acknowledging that though the estate does not claim ownership of the tapes, they do own the copyrights for the musical content recorded on them. This means that Musgrove and anyone else who might purchase these tapes in the future do not own the copyright on the recordings or the compositions, so these tapes will likely never be released by the public.
The publication reports that Musgrove’s attorney is storing the tapes in a secure facility, with plans to eventually bring them to an auction house for celebrity memorabilia archivists.
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