Michael Jackson's final four years form the spine of this audiobook, and Randall Sullivan uses them as a frame rather than the whole story, opening with Jackson's departure from Neverland and then working backward and forward through a life built almost entirely on contradiction. Sullivan had access most Jackson biographers never got: Jackson's own former attorney, his business manager, and a circle of inner-circle sources willing to go on record about the comeback attempt, the fifty-concert residency Jackson was rehearsing until the day before he died, and the financial unraveling underneath the spectacle. That access is Untouchable's real craft achievement, less about narrative flash than about the patience to get people who normally do not talk to actually talk.
Foster's Only Credit Is a Horror Epic
The only comparable credit I could find for Mel Foster is nearly 40 hours on Dan Simmons' horror epic Carrion Comfort, a very different genre from music-industry biography, so this is closer to a fresh assessment than a confirmed track record. What carries over honestly is stamina: Untouchable runs 28 hours and 30 minutes and covers decades of overlapping business deals, legal proceedings, and personal history, and a narrator who can sustain a multi-decade horror epic without fatiguing listeners has at least the right kind of endurance for a project this long. Whether his specific tone suits Sullivan's mix of tabloid-adjacent material and serious reporting is worth sampling before committing, since none of the reviews attached to this listing weigh in on the narration itself.
Sullivan's own reporting instinct is the more consistent asset across the whole book. He does not flinch from the ugliest material, the pedophilia allegations, the never-before-reported business dealings the synopsis promises, but he also resists flattening Jackson into either martyr or monster. The synopsis's own description, 'a man of uncountable contradictions,' undersells how deliberately Sullivan builds that contradiction: naive and cunning, devoted and reckless, desperate for a normal life while orchestrating one of the most abnormal comebacks in music history.
Sullivan's own background matters here too. He built much of his career reporting for Rolling Stone on entertainment and true crime, which explains both strengths and limits of this book: the pacing and structure owe more to long-form magazine journalism than to academic biography, favoring narrative momentum over exhaustive documentation at every turn. That magazine instinct is part of why the book reads faster than its 28-hour runtime might suggest, even when the underlying material is this dense.
The Book Opens With Jackson's Final Years
The inner-circle access is the entire reason to choose this book over the dozens of other Jackson biographies on the market. Reviewer Podkayne Fries notes that Jackson's own former lawyer 'has come out in defence of this book,' a detail that matters less as a marketing point and more as evidence that Sullivan's sourcing holds up under scrutiny from people positioned to know if it did not. Candygirl's review backs this up from a different angle, praising how 'thoroughly researched' the financial and legal material is, material Sullivan had genuine documentary and testimonial access to rather than secondhand tabloid recycling.
The book also earns points for structure. Rather than a cradle-to-grave chronology, Sullivan opens with the Neverland departure and the final four years, which keeps the comeback attempt, the fifty-show residency, and the business collapse underneath it in sharp focus before circling back to the childhood and career history that explain how Jackson got there. Stinky Greg's review calls it 'a journey' rather than just a book, and that structural choice, starting near the end and working outward, is exactly why it lands that way.
Written Before Leaving Neverland Renewed Scrutiny
Untouchable was published years before the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland renewed public scrutiny of the abuse allegations, which is worth knowing as context rather than a knock against the book. Sullivan's reporting reflects what was verifiable and on-record at the time of writing, not a response to that later documentary or the conversations it reopened, and listeners should treat this as a snapshot of the case built from Sullivan's own sourcing rather than the most current word on the subject.
Untouchable also stands apart from Jackson's own 1988 autobiography, Moonwalk, in an obvious but important way: that earlier book was Jackson's own controlled narrative of his life and career, while Sullivan's account was assembled independently, without Jackson's cooperation or approval, from people who knew him well enough to speak on the record. Listeners who have only encountered the Jackson-authored version of his own story will find this a genuinely different, more skeptical vantage point on the same life, one built from the outside looking in rather than from Jackson's own carefully managed public narrative.
Refusing to Manufacture a False Certainty
This audiobook does not resolve the central controversy of Jackson's life, and it should not be expected to. Candygirl's review is honest about this directly: 'Was Michael Jackson a pedophile? Who really knows.' Sullivan presents the allegations, the settlements, and the testimony he gathered without manufacturing a false certainty the historical record does not support, which is the responsible choice but will frustrate listeners hoping for a definitive verdict either way.
At 28 hours and 30 minutes, this is a serious time commitment, and Podkayne Fries's review title, 'Why are there so many haters here?,' hints at something worth knowing before starting: this book has attracted organized pushback from parts of Jackson's fanbase who consider Sullivan's reporting hostile to Jackson's legacy. Listeners should go in aware that the material is genuinely contested, not settled history, and that the 4.2-star rating from 523 ratings likely reflects some of that polarization rather than a purely craft-based assessment.
Prepared to Sit With Genuine Moral Ambiguity
This audiobook suits listeners who want serious, source-driven music-industry journalism rather than a hagiography or a hit piece, and who are prepared to sit with genuine moral ambiguity instead of a tidy conclusion. It is also a strong choice for anyone interested in the business mechanics of celebrity, how a global brand like Jackson's could come this close to financial collapse behind the scenes of a career still generating enormous public adoration.
This audiobook also suits listeners specifically interested in celebrity finance and brand collapse, since Sullivan spends real time on the mechanics of how Jackson's business empire nearly failed behind the glittering public image, an angle true-crime-only readers sometimes overlook.
Skip this one if you want your Jackson listening experience to stay purely celebratory, focused on the music and the artistry without the business and legal complications, or if 28-plus hours of dense, contested biographical material sounds exhausting rather than absorbing. This is not background listening; Sullivan's reporting rewards focused attention, and going in expecting a breezy career retrospective will leave you disappointed by how much legal and financial detail the book actually contains.
- Narrator: Mel Foster's track record is in horror fiction rather than biography, so this is an unconfirmed but plausible fit; no attached review comments on his performance directly.
- Subjects: Celebrity contradiction, inner-circle access journalism, the business collapse behind a comeback
- Tone: Heavy, contested, and unresolved rather than tidy or celebratory
- Bottom line: Serious, well-sourced Jackson journalism for listeners ready to sit with genuine ambiguity, not a quick or comfortable listen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this audiobook take a side on the allegations against Michael Jackson?
No. Sullivan presents the allegations, settlements, and inner-circle testimony he gathered without asserting a final verdict, a choice one reviewer describes bluntly as leaving the real question, who really knows, genuinely open.
How long is the Untouchable audiobook?
It runs 28 hours and 30 minutes, covering Jackson's full life with particular focus on his final four years.
Is this audiobook sympathetic or critical toward Michael Jackson?
Neither consistently. Sullivan builds a portrait of contradictions, describing Jackson as both naive and shrewd, a devoted father and a business figure whose failures nearly sank a megacorporation, rather than committing to either a defense or a takedown.
