Musical Directing Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, the Super Bowl, Whitney Houston, Madonna, and Leading the World's Biggest Stages
Michael Bearden has musical directed productions that most musicians only dream of witnessing from the audience. He was in charge of the music for Michael Jackson's This Is It -- the rehearsals captured in the concert film, the last grand creative vision of the biggest pop star who ever lived. He's done Lady Gaga's tours. He's directed music at the Super Bowl. He's worked alongside Whitney Houston and Madonna. At some point the list of what he hasn't done becomes the shorter list.
In this conversation with Elmo, Michael opens up on the full scope of what it means to be a musical director at the highest level: the relationship with Michael Jackson in those final months, what those This Is It rehearsals actually felt like from inside the room, the specific skills that separate a great MD from a merely competent one, and what Lady Gaga demands from the musicians around her that most artists don't. For anyone who has ever wondered what the person standing just out of frame is actually doing and thinking, this conversation answers every question you didn't know to ask.
"Michael didn't hire you to play the part. He hired you to be the part. Every single show."
What the This Is It rehearsals were actually like: Michael Jackson's exacting musical vision, how Bearden organized and led a band and production capable of executing that vision, the moments during those rehearsals that revealed something essential about how Jackson heard and felt music, and the weight of understanding in retrospect what those months meant.
The demands of working with one of live music's most ambitious and uncompromising performers: what Lady Gaga asks of her musical director and band that most artists don't, the creative latitude she gives versus the specificity she requires, and what Bearden learned about the relationship between conceptual ambition and musical execution from years in her corner.
What musical directing the Super Bowl halftime show actually involves: the scale of the production, the rehearsal timeline, the specific musical challenges of performing for 100 million viewers simultaneously, and what happens in the weeks and months before the show that determines whether those 14 minutes work or fall apart.
The experiences working with two of music's most defining voices: what each artist required from the musicians around them, what Bearden observed about the way greatness operates up close, and how working in those environments changed his understanding of what the musical director's role is meant to protect and serve.
The honest breakdown of the MD role: the musical responsibilities, the interpersonal ones, the organizational ones, and the invisible ones -- the way a great musical director serves as the bridge between an artist's vision and the reality of what 20 musicians can deliver live, every night, under pressure.
How Michael Bearden got to the position of being the person artists at that level call: the early career path, the mentors and collaborators who shaped his approach, the moments where he had to prove something, and his philosophy about what it means to do this job with integrity over a long career.
Michael on the This Is It rehearsals in full: what Michael Jackson was like in those rooms, the specific musical conversations they had, the moments that made Bearden understand why Jackson occupied a category entirely his own, and how he processes the experience of having been there for the final chapter of that creative life.
The moment he realized the weight of what This Is It actually was: not just a tour rehearsal, but a document of a singular artist at the end of something -- and the specific thing that happened in one of those rehearsals that he has never been able to watch or hear the same way since.
On Lady Gaga's live productions: the specific things she demands that push every musician in the room to the edge of what they're capable of, why he considers her one of the most musically rigorous artists he's ever worked with, and what working in her world did to his own understanding of what a live show can be.
What happens inside a Super Bowl production that the audience never sees: the months of preparation, the specific musical challenges of that stage and that audience, and the single biggest difference between the Super Bowl and every other live production he's worked on.
His definition of what makes a great musical director versus a great musician who happens to MD: the specific skills and qualities that separate the two, why the best MDs are often not the most technically gifted musicians in the room, and what he looks for when he's assembling a band for a major production.
His advice for musicians who want to become musical directors: the path he took, what he would do differently, the single most important thing he believes separates the people who build lasting careers in this role from the ones who plateau, and why he thinks the best MDs are also the best listeners in any room.