Introduction:
Barry Gibb and Michael Jackson recorded a duet together in 2002 but it was only released nine years later on June 25, 2011, the second anniversary of The King of Pop’s death.
The song ‘All In Your Name’ was written by Barry Gibb and Michael Jackson to reportedly protest the United States government’s impending plan to invade Iraq.
“We gravitated towards the same kind of music and we loved collaborating and he was the easiest person to write with.
“The more we got to know each other the more those ideas entwined and it all came to this song ‘All In Your Name’.
“I hope and pray that we all get to hear it in its entirety. This experience I will treasure forever.”
The footage shows Michael Jackson in a way the public rarely got to see him, relaxed and focused on making music.
Rumour has it that the collaboration was Jackson’s idea.
A Billboard report from 2002 said that MJ turned up on Barry’s doorstep with the half-finished track and was drawn to writing with the Bee Gee because both artists opposed the Iraq war, but Barry Gibb refuted these claims in 2011.
“[All in Your Name is] the message that Michael wanted to send out to all of his fans all over the world,” Gibb wrote. “That he did it all for them and for the pure love of music.”
The Bee Gees and Michael Jackson’s friendship went back decades, with Barry Gibb naming one of his sons after the singer – who was also Michael Gibb’s godfather – and Jackson attending fellow Bee Gee Maurice Gibb‘s funeral in 2003.
“We are devastated,” Barry Gibb said after MJ’s sudden death on June 25, 2009, with his brother Robin Gibb adding: “We’ve not only lost a great friend in Michael, but also lost a wonderful sensitive human being.”