The trickle of music from late pop icon Michael Jackson since his death in 2009 has frustrated some fans who anticipated a more robust posthumous stream of unheard tracks from the notorious studio rat musician. And while no new albums have been announced from the team running the King of Pop’s estate recently, a rare collection of mostly unheard songs is going under the gavel starting July 19th.
Jackson’s unreleased songs will be part of the Gotta Have Rock and Roll auction house’s upcoming public online auction of rock and pop memorabilia, which will also include items from Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones and U2. According to a listing for Lot #236 (“Michael Jackson Personally Owned Unreleased Last Album”), one lucky bidder will get the chance to own a disc with the handwritten title Bible scrawled on it that is described as “Michael Jackson’s personally owned copy of his final album consisting of 12 finished tracks, all with finished vocals.”
The lot promises that all the tracks are “master quality” and while the first three songs (“Monster,” “Breaking News” and “Stay”) have been released before with different mixes on the 2010 posthumous album Michael, while the other nine songs are reported to be previously unreleased.
The track listing for the album:
“Monster”
“Breaking News”
“Stay”
“Keep Your Head Up”
“Everything’s Just Fine”
“Black Widow”
“Burn Tonight”
“All I Need”
“Water”
“Let Me Fall in Love”
“Ready to Win”
“Soldier Boy”
The album is described as being in “very good condition,” sourced from a personal friend and personal assistant to Jackson “whose family was very close to Michael for many years, traveling all over the world with him.” The auction lasts from July 19-28 with a minimum bid of $50,000. Spokespeople for the Jackson estate and Gotta have Rock and Roll could not be reached for comment at press time.
According to Rolling Stone, organizers said they expect the final bid to potentially reach $1 million, though the owner will not have rights to the songs and cannot distribute or reproduce them. The album is just one of several intriguing Jackson-related items up for sale in the auction, including a stage worn and signed “Smooth Criminal” white fedora, an MJ-worn Trump Plaza baseball hat, one of the singer’s teddy bears, his Star Wars sleeping bag, a “Best Daddy in the World” Oscar statuette gifted to MJ from his children, and a pair of the singer’s worn colorful boxer shorts.
The same auction will also include the now-infamous handwritten letter Tupac Shakur sent to Madonna during his 1995 prison stint in which he explained to her why they had to break up.