Michael Jackson’s Agent Takes a Look at the Man in the Mirror

Frank Dileo and Michael Jackson are the odd couple of pop music.

“You couldn’t find two more different people,” said Dileo. “He won’t eat meat; I’ll run out to get a cheeseburger. I’ll take a drink; he won’t touch the stuff. I’ll sit and watch football; he’ll go crazy if I’m doing it.

“Just look at us--he’s skinny, I’m fat. If we stand next to each other, we look like the number 10.”

Dileo, who was vice president of promotion for Jackson’s record company, Epic, before being tapped five years ago to become the singer’s manager, said the bonds that unite them are their love for “music, perfection and hard work.”

“I think our relationship is just two people who are different (on the surface and yet) our basic needs are really the same,” Dileo said. “We go out together a lot at night. We go to record and clothing stores on Ventura Boulevard goofing around. We ride around looking at the sights. We have a ball.”

Though Dileo and Jackson are just 11 years apart in age, their relationship sometimes seems like father-and-son. When Dileo recounts an illness that kept him from aggressively promoting a recent Jackson single which wound up breaking a long string of Top 10 hits, it is with the pained regret of a father who let his son down at a crucial moment.

And when Dileo and his wife bought a new home in Ojai recently, they made sure to get one with a guest room.

“We’ve got a nice room set up for Michael because he spends a lot of time at my house,” said Dileo.

The Pittsburgh native has no other clients--at Jackson’s request. “When I first signed with Michael, he asked that I be exclusive,” Dileo said.

“He has redone my contract twice since then, but that clause never comes out for some reason,” he added with mock bemused smile.