Joe Jackson, Patriarch Of The Musical Jackson Family, Has Died

LOS ANGELES, CA — Joe Jackson, patriarch of the famed Jackson family and manager of The Jackson 5, died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer.

The father of late singer Michael Jackson died at a Los Angeles hospital early Wednesday morning, TMZ reported. Jackson left his controversial stamp on the American music scene through his children, engineering the careers of Michael and Janet Jackson as a relentless taskmaster and a shrewd manager. Jackson managed his sons' breakout band the Jackson 5 and started his own record label Ivory Tower International Records. The 89- year-old had been battling cancer for a long time after having bounced back from multiple strokes.

His wife, Katherine, had been at his bedside recently, as had some of his children and grandchildren. Jackson had a complicated relationship with his children. Known for driving them to the heights of fame, some of his children, including Michael, accused him of emotional and physical abuse. The elder Jackson admitted to the abuse, but offered no apologies, instead arguing that his stern ways kept his children out of trouble and taught them the discipline needed to make it in the music industry, TMZ reported. In the end, however, it cost him. He spent his final years living apart from his wife of 60 years and estranged from some of his 10 children.

Though he's best known for managing his children's blockbuster careers, Jackson was a prominent talent manager, earning a place in the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. His path to the music business was an unlikely one.

The son of a steel worker, Jackson was born in Arkansas but lived a nomadic childhood, bouncing from Chicago to Oakland between his mother and father. He dropped out of high school and became a boxer in in the Golden Gloves Program. The discipline and ethos of a fighter would define his later career when he began managing his young sons' band in the early 60s.

Jackson coached his sons Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Jackie and Michael in the band that became The Jackson 5. Jackson refused to accept early rejection. He maintained a strict rehearsal schedule with his children and famously kept them on the road performing at any venue that could grow their audience. They started out in local talent shows but were soon playing the Apollo Theater and boasting hit singles such as "ABC" and "I'll Be There."

Soul pop group the Jackson Five, comprising of the Jackson brothers (left to right) Jermaine, Tito, Jackie, Michael, Marlon and at the back, Randy. (Photo by William Milsom/Getty Images)

In his autobiography, “Moonwalk" Michael Jackson described a childhood devoid of carefree play. At the peek of his stardom, he openly broke from his father over what he described as an abusive childhood. Joe Jackson never publicly apologized for the way he raised his children, crediting his stern approach for keeping Michael Jackson from the gangs and violence that plagued their neighborhood. “I hit him with a switch and a belt. I never beat him. You beat someone with a stick,” he belligerently told the Times.

Despite their turbulent relationship, Jackson and his most famous son played outsized roles in each other's lives. Joe Jackson was his son's most fierce defender when he was accused of child molestation.

Over time, Michael Jackson would come to appreciate what his father did for the family.

“Who could have imagined what it was like to grow up a poor black man in the South, robbed of dignity, bereft of hope … working long hours in the steel mills?” Jackson mused to the Los Angeles Times in 2001. “Is it any wonder why he pushed his sons so hard to succeed as performers?”

Joe Jackson's survivors include his wife, Katherine, and children: La Toya, Rebbie, Randy, Jackie, Marlon, Tito, Janet, and Jermaine Jackson.

His daughter La Toya summed up her father's legacy on Twitter Wednesday.

"I will always love you," she wrote. "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."

City News Service contributed to this story. Photo Credit: Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock