Gregg Musgrove, a former California Highway Patrol officer and now stay-at-home dad, has made an impressive new find in his “treasure hunting” hobby. The 56-year-old recently uncovered a set of cassette and DAT tapes containing unreleased Michael Jackson tracks in a San Fernando Valley storage unit.
Musgrove found the tapes in an abandoned storage unit he purchased that once belonged to music producer and singer Bryan Loren.
There were some 12 unreleased tracks from when Jackson before his “Dangerous” album, circa 1989 to 1991.
Musgrove told The Hollywood Reporter, “I’ve gone to all the fan sites. Some of [the songs] are rumored to exist, and some of them have been leaked a little bit. A couple aren’t even out there in the world.”
The full inventory of what Musgrove found is impressive; there are full tracks and snippets of other unreleased songs.
Jackson and Loren can be heard on some of the tapes discussing the recording and creative process of the found tracks.
Musgrove told the outlet, “I’m listening to this stuff, and I would get goosebumps because nobody’s ever heard this stuff before. To hear Michael Jackson actually talk and kind of joke back and forth, it was really, really cool.”
One of the unreleased tracks, “Don’t Believe It,” seems to reference the swirling rumors surrounding the pop star in the media at the time. On another tape, Jackson explains the meaning behind his song “Seven Digits” as being about the identification number of bodies received in a morgue.
One of the most notable tracks on the cassette tapes is “Truth on Youth,” which reportedly includes Jackson and LL Cool J.
The exact value of Musgrove’s findings is estimated to be in the seven-digit range. He revealed that he plans to take the tapes to several major auction houses shortly to get a proper bid on them.
After finding the tapes, Musgrove and his attorney contacted the Jackson Estate, but the estate declined to purchase them and instead sent him a letter outlining what the recordings could be used for.
The estate told THR that they have the master recordings.
“The Estate of Michael Jackson was presented with DAT copies, NOT master recordings of Michael’s music, and we confirmed that the actual master recordings were, in fact, already located in the
Estate’s vaults,” an estate representative said. “It should be clear to all that ownership and rights of exploitation to the recordings remain vested in MJJP Records and that nothing commercial or otherwise can be done with the DAT copies.”RELATED CONTENT: Michael Jackson Hits Milestone Record As Second Album Charts On Billboard 200 For Decade