The Victory Tour was a concert tour of the United States and Canada by the Jacksons from July to December 1984. It was the only tour with all six Jackson brothers, even though Jackie was injured for some of it. The group performed 55 concerts to an audience of approximately 2 million. In the 22 locations performed, 19 of the locations were performed in large stadia. Many came to see Michael, whose album Thriller was dominating the popular music world at the time. Many consider it to be his Thriller tour, with most of the songs on the set list coming from his Thriller and Off the Wall albums. The tour reportedly grossed approximately $75 million ($196 million in 2021 dollars[1]) and set a new record for the highest-grossing tour. It showcased Michael's single decorated glove, black sequined jacket and moonwalk. The tour was choreographed by Paula Abdul,[2][3] and promoted by Don King. Despite the billing of being a 'world tour', the shows were stayed to the United States and Canada alone.
Tensions between Michael and his brothers increased during the tour. Michael stayed at his own hotels and flew between stops on a private jet while the rest of the family flew commercial. At one point he demanded that a publicist be fired and when he found out right before a show that she had not been, he refused to go on until she was. Michael was also disappointed that his idol James Brown had declined his invitation to join the group on stage at Madison Square Garden in New York City due to Brown's continued outrage about the ticket lottery.[12]
The other Jacksons also had grievances with Michael. He turned down a multimillion-dollar offer from Paramount Pictures to film one of the shows that his brothers had accepted, only to have a crew he had hired show up to shoot its own film several nights later (they subsequently blocked its release). Despite a pretour agreement that only the Jacksons themselves could ride in the van chartered to take them to shows, Michael began taking child star Emmanuel Lewis along with them. Later, after a similar agreement over a helicopter that took the brothers to a show at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Michael showed up with Sean Lennon (son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono), and his brothers glared at him for the entire flight.
Before the tour was halfway completed, the brothers were taking separate vehicles to concerts,[12] staying on different floors of their hotels, and refusing to talk to each other on the way to shows. Meetings broke down among factions, with two lawyers frequently representing Michael's interests, another Jermaine's, and one more for Jackie, Tito and Marlon. "It was the worst experience Michael had ever had with his brothers", said a longtime family friend. "Some were jealous, there was denial, the whole gamut of human emotions."[12]