Michael Jackson's father Joe Jackson has died. The 89-year-old music mogul passed away early Wednesday while in hospice care in Las Vegas, the Clark County coroner confirmed to E! News. "We are reviewing the circumstances, but as of now there is no reason to believe anything other than a natural death," coroner John Fudenberg told E! News. A source close to the Jackson family told E! News, "The family is together and they are grieving." "We are deeply saddened by Mr. Jackson's passing and extend our heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Katherine Jackson and the family," John Branca and John McClain, co-executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson, said in a statement. "Joe was a strong man who acknowledged his own imperfections and heroically delivered his sons and daughters from the steel mills of Gary, Indiana to worldwide pop superstardom." "Mr. Jackson's contributions to the history of music are enormous," their statement continued. "They were acknowledged by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 in a proclamation naming him as Best Entertainment Manager of All Time; he was inducted into Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2014 and his son Michael acknowledged him with a Joe Jackson Day at Neverland. We had developed a warm relationship with Joe in recent years and will miss him tremendously."<doc-sep>The Jackson family patriarch had been battling terminal pancreatic cancer and was "not doing well" as of late, a source previously told PEOPLE Joe Jackson, the music manager and father of 11, died early Wednesday morning, the family confirms to PEOPLE. He was 89. “We want to thank you all for the support you have shown us as we grieve for the patriarch of our family. We mourn the loss of our father and celebrate the life of a man who sacrificed so much to give us the life and success we have today. Thank you for respecting our privacy during this time,” the family said in a statement. Get push notifications with news, features and more. The Jackson family patriarch had been battling terminal pancreatic cancer and was “not doing well” as of late, a source previously told PEOPLE. Grandsons Randy Jackson Jr. and Taj Jackson acknowledged the news in tweets Wednesday afternoon, writing, “RIP to the king that made everything possible! I love you grandpa” and “Joe was loved by the entire family and our hearts are in pain. Let us grieve.” Prince Michael Jackson, grandson of Joe and son of Michael, captioned a photo on Instagram. “This man is and always will be an example or sheer willpower and dedication. He didn’t choose the path that was the easiest but he choose the path that was best for his family,” he wrote. “You taught me to take pride in the Jackson name and what it really means, you taught me dedication in the face of adversity and most of all you showed me strength and fearlessness. There is and never will be someone like you. Fly free and until we meet again The Hawk.” Daughter LaToya added, “I will always love you! You gave us strength, you made us one of the most famous families in the world. I am extremely appreciative of that, I will never forget our moments together and how you told me how much you cared. #RIP Joe Jackson” EBONY MAGAZINE ANNUAL HOLLYWOOD IN HARLEM PRE OSCAR PARTY, CRUSTACEAN, LOS ANGELES, AMERICA - 24 FEB 2005 Joe Jackson | Credit: D Steinberg/BEI/REX/Shutterstock On June 21, son Jermaine told the Daily Mail, “He’s very, very frail, he doesn’t have long. The family needs to be by his bedside — that’s our only intention in his final days.” Just days later, Jackson appeared to share an emotional tweet hinting at his worsening health struggles. “I have seen more sunsets than I have left to see,” read the caption on a photo of Jackson, in his trademark hat, silhouetted against sun rays. “The sun rises when the time comes and whether you like it or not the sun sets when the time comes.” However, his granddaughter Paris claimed that the message was in fact not written by the family head. “My grandfather did not tweet this,” she commented. “I’m not sure if he’s ever used this account.” Over the years, Jackson — who was born on July 26, 1928, in Fountain Hill, Arkansas — had a series of health problems. In November 2012, he recovered from a minor stroke at his Las Vegas home. Three years later, daughter Janet had to put rehearsals for her Unbreakable World Tour on hold when he suffered another stroke and heart arrhythmia in Brazil on his 87th birthday in July 2015. In May 2016, he was hospitalized due to a high fever and in June 2017, he was released from the hospital after a car accident in Las Vegas. joe-jackson Joe Jackson in May 2014 | Credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage Joe is survived by his wife Katherine and their children Maureen, 68, Jackie, 67, Tito, 64, Jermaine, 63, La Toya, 62, Marlon, 61, Randy, 56, and Janet, 52. Son Michael died from an apparent cardiac arrest at age 50 on June 25, 2009. Son Brandon died at birth in 1957. Joe was also the father of Joh’Vonnie Jackson, 43, the daughter of Cheryl Terrell, whom he had a 25-year-long affair with. Katherine filed for divorce twice but never went through with the separation. In 1963, Joe noticed his children’s musical talents after he discovered son Tito’s guitar talents. Soon after, Joe served as the manager for The Jackson Brothers, a band formed by sons Jackie, Tito and Jermaine. Then in 1965, Marlon and Michael joined the group and renamed themselves The Jackson 5 in 1966. Anchored by a 7-year-old Michael, The Jackson 5 found immediate success, becoming the first American group to have four singles land the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Soon after, Joe moved the entire family from Indiana to California. In 1968, Joe signed a Motown contract—without reading it—that gave the company ironclad control over everything recorded by The Jackson 5, a move that cost the family millions. Michael fired his father as manager in 1983. In addition, Joe was known as the stern patriarch who was physically and emotionally abusive. In her 1991 memoir, La Toya wrote that he abused her and terrorized her brothers, often pointing guns at the kids to get their attention. During an Oprah special in 1993, Michael admitted his father had beaten him. Joe’s estranged relationship with son Michael resulted in him being completely left out of the King of Pop’s will after his 2009 death. Katherine continues to receive more than $1 million annually from the Michael Jackson estate. Jackson 5 & Gladys Knight & The Pips At The Grammys Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty In a 2010 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Joe said, “I don’t [regret the beatings]. It kept them out of jail and kept them right.” In 2014, Joe opened up about his health in an open letter to daughter Janet. “When I suffered four strokes last year, and was in the hospital recovering, only two people in my family traveled all the way to see in the hospital. My granddaughter Brandi (Jackie’s daughter) and my baby girl Janet,” Joe wrote. “She sat right next to me as I lay in bed, spent time with me, talking about a lot together. It meant a lot to me. I lay there listening to her as she talked about how she was going to get married. I am happy for her and wish her nothing but the best! I never tell you this, but I am proud of you Janet.”<doc-sep>Joe Jackson, the domineering father and manager who molded his sons into the immensely popular Jackson 5 and helped launch his son Michael and his daughter Janet on explosive solo careers before alienating all of them because of his abusive behavior, has died in Las Vegas. He was 89. The Clark County coroner’s office in Nevada confirmed the death but did not say when or precisely where he died. The celebrity news website TMZ said he died early Wednesday morning. He had a home in Las Vegas. Mr. Jackson had been hospitalized on Friday with terminal cancer, according to news reports. A crane operator and an unsuccessful rhythm-and-blues musician, Mr. Jackson was struggling to provide for his wife, Katherine, and their many children in the mid-1960s when he discovered his sons’ budding talents and began pushing them into the music business. He saw music as a path out of their cramped home in Gary, Ind. “Something inside of me told me there was more to life than this,” Mr. Jackson was quoted as saying in “Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story,” J. Randy Taraborrelli’s biography, first published in 1991.<doc-sep>
Joe Jackson, father of pop icon Michael Jackson and patriarch of the Jackson family, died Wednesday at the age of 89. Jackson's death followed reports that he had been battling cancer and had reached "the end stages." Jackson was best known as the father of the Jackson family music group, which gave way to successful music careers for both his late son, Michael, and his daughter Janet. Following his death, two of Jackson's grandchildren took to social media to share their grief. "RIP to the king that made everything possible!!! I love you grandpa," tweeted Randy Jackson Jr. His grandson, Taj Jackson, criticized the comments made about his grandfather's death "by those who didn't even know him," adding, "Joe was loved by our ENTIRE family and our hearts are in pain. Let us grieve without the nastiness." Jackson and his son Michael were known to have a tumultuous relationship. The pop idol spoke at length about his complicated relationship with his father. In a 1993 interview with Oprah, Michael Jackson revealed that he feared his father. "I don't know if I was his golden child or whatever it was," he said. "Some may call him a strict disciplinarian or whatever, but he was very strict. He was very hard. Just a look would scare…but I do forgive him." Michael Jackson opened up about his father in a 30-hour-long conversation with Rabbi Scmuley Boteach, according to Today. The singer revealed that his father once threatened to stop loving his children if they stopped singing. "God bless my father, because he did some wonderful things and he was brilliant. He was a genius, but one day he said, 'If you guys ever stop singing I will drop you like a hot potato.' It hurt me," he said in the 2009 interview. The pop star, however, acknowledged that his father had changed with time. "Time and age has changed him, and he sees his grandchildren and he wants to be a better father," he said. "It is almost like the ship has sailed its course, and it is so hard to for me to accept this other guy that is not the guy I was raised with. I just wished he had learned that earlier."