Pop culture, celebrity scandal and true-crime combine in Faking Michael—a gripping new podcast series uncovering the biggest fraud in music history.
This week, 14 years ago, Michael Jackson’s estate and Sony Music unleashed Michael—their first posthumous MJ album including 10 unreleased tracks, all purportedly by the King of Pop.
Released in the United States on December 14, 2010, the album should have been a celebration of Jackson’s music and legacy. But instead, the project descended into chaos when the pop icon’s family claimed that three songs on the album—“Breaking News,” “Monster” and “Keep Your Head Up”—were fakes, with vocals by an impostor.
“If Michael Jackson’s mother says that’s not my child [and] his brothers line up and say that’s not my brother, what are we talking about? Why is this a big discussion?” – Former Vice President of Sony Music Cory Rooney in Episode 4 of Faking Michael
In response, Sony asserted their “complete confidence” in the authenticity of the tracks. Jackson’s estate said that two forensic musicologists had authenticated the vocals, and that a room full of Jackson’s longtime collaborators agreed the vocals were “definitely” his. But the Jackson family insisted that’s not what happened.
So what did happen? I made it my mission to find out.
Since the moment the scandal erupted, I’ve spent 14 years investigating the case, tracking down key witnesses, collecting evidence and making breakthrough discoveries regarding the authenticity of the songs in question. The explosive findings of my investigation are detailed in Faking Michael.
The songs at the centre of the scandal—infamously known as the “Cascio tracks”—were sold to Jackson’s estate by his longtime friend Eddie Cascio and Cascio’s songwriting partner James Porte, who claimed that Jackson had recorded the tracks in Cascio’s basement in the fall of 2007. But according to Billboard reporter Steve Knopper, who listened to all 13 episodes of Faking Michael in preparation for an exclusive interview with me (pictured below), the podcast “makes a methodical case” that the vocals were “faked” as part of an elaborate plot to “hoodwink” Jackson’s estate out of millions of dollars, and defraud his fans with forgeries.
At the time of their release in 2010, thousands of fans raised their voice in protest of the Cascio tracks, with many believing that a soundalike singer named Jason Malachi the actual vocalist. When Malachi’s longtime producer Tony Kurtis heard the tracks, he agreed, stating in a barrage of YouTube comments that he knew “without a shadow of doubt” that Malachi was singing on the Cascio tracks. In episode 8 of Faking Michael, Kurtis recalls confronting Malachi about it. According to Kurtis, Malachi initially told him that he “could not confirm or deny” his involvement. Malachi said the same thing to journalist A.J. Dugger, who also appears in Faking Michael.
“If you say ‘I can’t confirm or deny if I did that,’ YOU DID IT!” – Jason Malachi’s former producer Tony Kurtis in Episode 8 of Faking Michael
Faking Michael recounts the events of late 2013, when fan Vera Serova engaged the services of forensic audio expert Dr George Papcun, who analysed the Cascio tracks and concluded that the vocals on them were fake. Papcun found that the vibrato on the tracks matched with Jason Malachi’s vibrato, but not with Jackson’s. Papcun also found that the Cascio vocalist sang in a completely different dialect to Jackson, but in the same dialect as Malachi.
Another forensic expert, Professor Joe Bennett, appears alongside Dr Papcun in Faking Michael. In episode 11, Bennett scientifically confirms that samples of Jackson’s real voice had been stolen from his previously released songs and pasted into Malachi’s lead vocals—something that Jackson’s family, fans and former collaborators have long believed was part of Cascio and Porte’s sophisticated plan to trick listeners into believing the tracks were legit.
“I went wait a minute! That’s an ad-lib from ‘Earth Song!’ I’m the one that busted them!” – Michael Jackson’s longtime recording engineer Michael Prince in Episode 4 of Faking Michael
Based on the evidence, in June 2014, Vera Serova filed a fraud lawsuit against Cascio, Porte, their production company, Sony Music and Jackson’s estate, demanding the removal of the Cascio tracks from Jackson’s discography and refunds for fans who were defrauded. And while refunds were never issued, after 8 years of legal wrangling, Serova prevailed in the California Supreme Court in 2022, forcing Sony and the Estate to remove the Cascio tracks from streaming platforms around the world.
Faking Michael also reveals that in 2018, after years of refusing to confirm or deny his involvement, Jason Malachi hired a lawyer and offered to confess on the record to being the Cascio vocalist, before being influenced by an attorney for the Estate and Sony to remain silent. As part of his planned confession, Malachi wanted not only to be paid for his role as the vocalist, but to have the Cascio tracks released under his name, as Jason Malachi songs. In a shocking smoking gun, included in episode 13, I obtained never before heard audio of Malachi himself confirming these events.
“He would have to be very strong to come out now and say I’m gonna tell my story. Sony has some very powerful lawyers.” – Vera Serova’s attorney Jeremy Bollinger in Episode 13 of Faking Michael
From the opposite side of the world, my UK-based co-producer Dan Villalobos weaves all of this evidence together in Faking Michael, which we describe as the “inside story of the music industry scandal you were never meant to hear about.”
Upon its release, award-winning British reporter Charles Thomson said that Faking Michael was a “truly exceptional piece of investigative journalism” which “uncovers bombshell after bombshell, meticulously building a case that ultimately proves, beyond any reasonable doubt, that [the Cascio tracks] are fake.” Thomson adds that the evidence uncovered by my research team and I has “the potential to cause seismic repercussions. He deserves to win awards for it.”
“It’s the biggest scandal in the music industry, ever!” – Producer Dan Villalobos in Episode 13 of Faking Michael
On the subject of awards, there are several major podcast award ceremonies on the horizon, including The Ambies, Webby Awards, Peabody Awards and People’s Choice Awards. My co-producer Dan and I are hoping to be nominated alongside the other great true-crime podcasts of 2024, and are turning to our dedicated listeners to help make it happen.
As our listeners may be aware, the Faking Michael podcast series was not monetised—there are no ads, no subscription fees and no paywall costs to listen. We are thrilled to have been able to publish our 14 years of research for free, and wouldn’t change that for the world. But the reality is, because we did not monetise the podcast, we don’t have a budget to submit it for awards—a process which is not free, or cheap!
If you, our listeners, would like to help, we are accepting donations. Simply click here to make your contribution. No amount is too great or too small, and we sincerely appreciate your support.
In the two months since Faking Michael was released, the podcast has been streamed almost 200,000 streams across 80 countries, and has received hundreds of 5-star ratings and reviews. We are truly humbled by the response of our listeners.
A book version of Faking Michael, packed with even more information, is currently being written, and we are in the very early stages of discussions about a documentary version of the story. More information about these ventures will be made available in the future. To stay up to date, subscribe to our mailing list at fakingmichael.com.
If you haven’t yet listened to Faking Michael, or are discovering it for the first time in this article, the complete 13-episode series can be streamed for free on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Damien Shields is the author of the book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault examining the King of Pop’s creative process, and the producer of the podcast The Genesis of Thriller which takes you inside the recording studio as Jackson and his team create the biggest selling album in music history.
