Michael Jackson's technical director has revealed unreleased material by the King of Pop has been stolen.
Catch up on the drama here:
Sound engineer Brad Sundberg spent '18 years in the studio with Michael Jackson' and now gives seminars sharing his experiences working with the singer-songwriter.
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However, on Saturday 28 January, Sundberg took to In the Studio with MJ's Instagram page to speak out after his laptop and a hard disk were stolen during one of his seminars in Brussels - the laptop and hard disk containing unreleased content by Michael Jackson.
Sundberg collaborated with Jackson from 1985 until the pop star died and the pair worked on a number of albums together, including Dangerous, Blood on the Dance Floor, HIStory and Bad - albums of which Sundberg had unreleased material from the studio sessions of.
Taking to Instagram on Saturday, 28 January, Brad told followers: "A really difficult day in the studio as we were the victims of what appears to be a targeted theft of one of my laptops. We are working with Brussels police and doing all we can to retrieve my material. The entire event is backed up so we will be returning in full force tomorrow.
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"Thank you for all of your love, kindness, and support. See you in the studio. -Brad."
In the video, he continues: "It seems one of our guests stole my laptop and one of our hard drives. I'm not going to name names [...] but we do know who it is. We are working with the police and doing all we can to bring this to some sort of resolution.
"[...] There's some really cool material they're now in possession of and for all I know it's going to be offered for sale, uploaded, who knows."
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While thankfully Brad has back-ups of the material, unfortunately, it does appear some of the stolen unreleased MJ content has been uploaded to the internet.
In an update, Brad appealed to followers to report 'any and all stolen materials on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc'.
He adds: "I, along with my family and friends, greatly appreciate your prayers, love, friendship and support as we deal with this challenging situation head-on."
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Followers of the sound engineer have been quick to leap to his support.
One wrote: "Empty, bad and characterless people. They cannot be treated like fans or ordinary people. They are criminals! I’ll not share any link of this. Stay well and strong Brad."
"I hate that it was released and stolen! Not something an MJ fan should do, and I know Brad you been an amazing friend and supporter and continue to push MJ legacy, I know the fans are tired of the estate holding priceless videos of mic and unreleased videos and music that the fans really wanna see I hope sooner than later in the future all these things will be released not just only for a few to see but the world of fans," another said.
A third commented: "Fans are not entitled to Michaels clips as they think they are. This was Brads property and as such, it shouldn’t be repeatedly shared. I wish fans would understand that. It’s disingenuous to send condolences while simultaneously sharing the clips. It’s a gift to even experience it being shared by Brad and others who worked with Michael to begin with."
Topics: Michael Jackson, Music, Crime
Poppy Bilderbeck