Michael Jackson In Danger of Losing Neverland Ranch Again

In what is becoming a regular news item, Michael Jackson is once again in danger of losing his Neverland Ranch to the highest bidder if he doesn't pay up the $24 million he owes by March 19th. A San Francisco title company, Financial Title Co., filed a notice of trustee's sale and set the auction date for the Santa Barbara, CA estate giving Jackson less than a month to pay his debts. Last October, we reported a similar story, with Jackson given ninety days to pay off $23 million. Despite the huge debt, Jackson is still a rich man, with a fifty-percent stake in Sony/ATV Music Publishing (which owns the rights to the Beatles songs) and strong sales on his recent twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Thriller. Thus it seems unlikely that Jackson will lose his Neverland Ranch, and extremely likely that Rock Daily will be reporting this story again in another six months.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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