Bryan Loren on Michael's disguises, hat hair and Bubbles

I remember going with him into a room there where he kept a lot of the wardrobe from the ‘Bad’ tour. He showed me a jacket that I’d seen him wear on stage during the ‘Thriller’ performance. It looked like the one in the video, with the exception that it was loaded with neon lights that he would turn on during the dance routine. I put it on. This jacket was HEAVY. It seemed to have weighed 30 or more pounds. To think, he wore this during a big dance routine. It was then that I realized how strong he was for his very lean frame. On several occasions, we drove in this big white pick-up truck he used to drive, to Tower Records. Before going into the store, he would put on some glasses, a hat and these really weird teeth. Invariably, someone would recognize and watch him, but usually people would repectfully allow him to shop. I remember once being on the 101 freeway coming from the Hideout on the way to the studio in my car, with Michael in my passenger seat. At some point, a man driving on the passenger side of my car looks in the window at Mike, curly hair and Fedora in tow. Does a double-take and shruggs his shoulders as if to say ‘nah, couldn’t be’. Now that was funny.

I still have the Fedora I took off his head while he was annoyingly poking at a plate of food I was eating at the studio one day, making him recoil because he had ‘hat-hair’(lol). I remember clearly the day he brought Bubbles(the chimp) to the studio, and Bubbles hit me(open-hand) in my chest(that s$%t hurt!). I wanted nothing to do with the chimp after that. Michael said it meant he liked me. He could not have been more amused. We shared laughter about things that only we knew. We could be in a room full of people, and either one of us could make the other laugh about something that would have others thinking ‘what’s so funny?’ It really made me feel special when Michael told me how talented he thought I was, knowing what the whole world thought of him. Likewise it was a special feeling working with him.