This article: Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana, near Chicago, on August 29, 1958. He was the eighth of ten children in the Jackson family, a working-class African-American family living in a two-bedroom house on Jackson Street. His mother, Katherine Esther Jackson (née Scruse), played clarinet and piano, had aspired to be a country-and-western performer, and worked part-time at Sears. She was a Jehovah's Witness. His father, Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson, a former boxer, was a crane operator at U.S. Steel and played guitar with a local rhythm and blues band, the Falcons, to supplement the family's income. His father's great-grandfather, July "Jack" Gale, was a Native American medicine man and US Army scout. Michael grew up with three sisters (Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet) and five brothers (Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy). A sixth brother, Marlon's twin Brandon, died shortly after birth.Joe acknowledged that he regularly whipped Michael; Michael said his father told him he had a "fat nose", and regularly physically and emotionally abused him during rehearsals. He recalled that Joe often sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as he and his siblings rehearsed, ready to physically punish any mistakes. Katherine Jackson stated that although whipping is considered abuse in more modern times, it was a common way to discipline children when Michael was growing up. Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon have said that their father was not abusive and that the whippings, which were harder on Michael because he was younger, kept them disciplined and out of trouble. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1993, Jackson said that his youth had been lonely and isolating.In 1964, Michael and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers—a band formed by their father which included Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine—as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine. In 1965, Michael began sharing lead vocals with Jermaine, and the group's name was changed to the Jackson 5. The following year, the group won a talent show; Michael performed... contains an answer for the question: What is the first name of the person whose father was a former boxer?, what is it ?


Michael