The Man Who Turned Michael Jackson's Legacy Into Billions Is Gone

When Michael Jackson died in 2009, his estate was drowning in debt. Seventeen years later, it’s worth billions—and that transformation is almost entirely the work of two people: John Branca and John McClain. This week, we lost one of them. McClain, the co-executor of the Michael Jackson estate, died Tuesday at 71 in Malibu after being sick for several years.

The numbers tell the story. When McClain and Branca took over, they didn’t just stabilize a financial mess—they built an empire. The Michael biopic, the Broadway musical, Cirque du Soleil, This Is It, posthumous hits like Love Never Felt So Good and Much Too Soon. Every major revenue stream tied to Michael Jackson’s name over the past decade-plus has McClain’s fingerprints on it somewhere.

But McClain’s reach extended far beyond the King of Pop’s vault. As an A&R executive at A&M Records, he oversaw Janet Jackson’s breakthrough album Control and championed new acts like Marky Mark&The Funky Bunch. He produced hits for Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. In an industry built on relationships and instinct, McClain had both in abundance—the kind of taste that could spot talent before anyone else and the clout to make it happen.

What happens to the Jackson estate now is an open question. Branca remains, but losing a co-executor of seventeen years means losing institutional memory, established relationships, and a creative voice that helped shape how Michael’s legacy is presented to the world. The machine will keep running—it’s too profitable not to—but it won’t be quite the same.