Michael Jackson’s song “Billie Jean” is about groupies. From ‘Thriller’ circa 1983
Jackson said that "Billie Jean" was based on
groupies he and his brothers encountered while they performed as
the Jackson 5.
[2][3][4] "They would hang around backstage doors, and any band that would come to town they would have a relationship with, and I think I wrote this out of experience with my brothers when I was little. There were a lot of Billie Jeans out there. Every girl claimed that their son was related to one of my brothers."
[5]
According to Jackson's biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, "Billie Jean" was inspired by letters Jackson received in 1981 from a woman claiming he was the father of one of her twins.
[6][7] Jackson, who regularly received letters of this kind, had never met the woman and ignored those claims. However, she continued to send letters stating that she loved him and wanted to be with him, asking how he could ignore his own flesh and blood. The letters disturbed him to the extent that he suffered nightmares.
[6]
Eventually, Jackson received a parcel containing a photograph of the fan, a gun, and a letter instructing him to kill himself at a particular time. The fan would do the same once she had killed "their" baby, so they could be together in the "next life". To his mother's dismay, Jackson had the photograph of the woman framed and hung above the dining room table of their family home.[
clarification needed] The Jacksons later discovered that the fan had been sent to a
psychiatric hospital.
[6]