“I was working as a correspondent for the Cork Examiner and the Echo at the time. I had been sent to England to cover the UK-leg of Jackson's world tour to report back. No one was allowed meet him. Very few journalists have ever got close to him, but nobody got access to him on that leg of the tour,” Power recalled.

The seed for Power's interview with Jackson in Cork was sown over a conversation with Jackson's manager Frank Di Leo in the Mayfair Hotel in London.

“While I was covering the UK leg of the tour, I got know Jackson's manager and after a while I decided I would ask for an interview with 'Jacko'. Di Leo immediately turned me down. 'It was out of the question', he told me,” Power said.

However, after accepting an invite to go to dinner with Di Leo and his wife at Jury's Hotel in Cork when the 'Bad' Tour eventually came to Ireland, Power's journalistic career was catapulted forward when Di Leo said he would organise an interview.

“Walking out of the hotel, I was on cloud nine. But the next day I was sweating because there were no specific arrangements made. I started to think the offer was the 'drink talking'. Suddenly I got a call to come down to Jury's Hotel. I was met at the entrance by a limo, which took me to Pairc Ui Chaoimh Stadium.”

When he arrived, Power was led to the pressroom and joined the rest of the media who were covering the concert.

“There was a knock on the door of the press room and my name was called out. I'll never forget the ashen face on Charlie Bird (RTE) when I told him I was off to meet Jackson. I could see the blood drain from his face as he wondered how I had landed such a scoop.”

“When I met Jackson, he immediately struck a pose in front of me. After the ice was broken, we chatted about how his concerts were going and how he was feeling. I noticed straight away that his hands were completely white in colour. We talked about Cork and I told him he should go to the Blarney Stone, which he seemed intrigued by.”

The next step was to take a photograph, a process that had the King of Pop “laughing his socks off”, Power recalled.

“When the photographs were being taken our heads bumped off one another slightly and then Di Leo couldn't get to grips with the flash on the camera. Jackson thought this was hilarious. There were no digital cameras in Ireland back then and I only had a disposable one that you had to press a button and then wait for the flash to come on before you could take the shot.”

Vincent Power said he felt “privileged to have been allowed interview him and even more so now. Despite all the controversies and incidents down through the years, Jackson's legacy and contribution to popular music will never die.”

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