December 14, 2024
The tapes were found in an abandoned storage unit that reportedly belonged to singer and producer Bryan Loren.
A former California Highway Patrol officer and now stay-at-home dad named Gregg Musgrove has picked up an impressive new find from his Gregg “treasure hunting” hobby. The 56-year-old recently uncovered a set of cassette and DAT tapes containing unreleased Michael Jackson tracks in a San Fernando Valley storage unit.
Musgrove found the tapes in a storage unit he purchased that had been abandoned and that once belonged to music producer and singer Bryan Loren.
There were some 12 unreleased tracks from when Jackson was working before his “Dangerous” album, circa 1989 to 1991.
Musgrove told The Hollywood Reporter, “I’ve gone to all the fan sites. Some of [the songs] are rumored to exist, and some of them have been leaked a little bit. A couple aren’t even out there in the world.”
The full inventory of what Musgrove found is impressive, there are full tracks and even snippets of other unreleased songs.
Jackson and Loren can be heard on some of the tapes discussing the recording and creative process of the found tracks.
Musgrove told the outlet, “I’m listening to this stuff, and I would get goosebumps because nobody’s ever heard this stuff before. To hear Michael Jackson actually talk and kind of joke back and forth, it was really, really cool.”
One of the unreleased tracks is titled “Don’t Believe It” and seems to reference the swirling rumors that would surround the pop star in the media at the time. On another tape, Jackson explained the meaning behind his song called “Seven Digits” as being about the identification number of bodies received in a morgue.
One of the most notable tracks on the cassette tapes is called “Truth on Youth,” and it reportedly includes Jackson and LL Cool J.
The exact value of all of Musgrove’s findings are estimated to be in the seven-digit range, and he revealed that he plans to take the tapes to several major auction houses shortly to get a proper bid on them.
Musgrove and his attorney contacted the Jackson Estate after finding the tapes, but the estate declined to purchase them and instead sent him a letter outlining what the tapes could be used for.
The Estate told THR that they have the master recordings.
“The Estate of Michael Jackson was presented with DAT copies, NOT master recordings of Michael’s music, and we confirmed that the actual master recordings were, in fact, already located in the Estate’s vaults,” a representative for the estate said. “It should be clear to all that ownership and rights of exploitation to the recordings remain vested in MJJP Records and that nothing commercial or otherwise can be done with the DAT copies.”
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