Joe Jackson, Michael Jackson Father died at 89

JOE Jackson, the father of Michael Jackson and the brains behind the Jackson 5 group which launched his son’s pop career, has died aged 89.

According to TMZ, he passed away at 3.30am this morning in Los Angeles with his wife Katherine at his bedside.

The website reported he had suffered health problems for many years, with trips to hospital in 2015 and 2016 for heart attacks and high fevers respectively.

Just two days ago, Joe sent his last featuring himself look out across a sunset.

He captioned it: “I have seen more sunsets than I have left to see. The sun rises when the time comes and whether you like it or not the sun sets when the time comes.”

In the 1960s Joe oversaw the creation of the Jackson 5, the group featuring five of his sons.

The group also acted as a springboard for member Michael’s solo career – which eventually led to him becoming one of the biggest pop stars in history.

However, Joe was plagued by claims that he was abusive towards his children and was a physically domineering manager.

Many of the kids, including Michael, would later describe his emotional and physical abuse and they all eventually ended their business relationship with him.

But he remained unrepentant about the so-called “discipline”.

In 2013, Joe told CNN: “I had to be like that way because during those times, it was hard, and you have a lot of gangs there, you know, in the area where we were living.

“This was Gary, Indiana, and I had to make sure that they didn’t get in any type of trouble, and things of that sort.