Kim Wilde has revealed that touring with Michael Jackson at the height of his fame made her seriously consider leaving the music industry behind. The singer, who became one of the biggest pop stars of the 1980s after the success of her debut hit Kids in America, said witnessing Jackson's level of celebrity showed her the darker side of superstardom.
"Touring with Michael Jackson in 1988 made me realise how frightening extreme fame is," Wilde told the i newspaper. "It forces you to live inside, in a gilded cage. I saw how isolated he had become, so I felt very grateful I was the support act and still had all the fun."
The experience proved to be a turning point for the chart star, who enjoyed 25 UK Top 50 singles and became the most-charted female singer of the decade. "I got to travel, then go home and have a life - get my groceries without a bodyguard," she said. "That tour experience was the beginning of me thinking about leaving the music industry and finding another world."
Wilde, now 65, explained that fame had never come as a shock because she grew up around it. The daughter of singer-songwriter Marty Wilde, she said celebrity was already part of family life before her own career took off. When Kids in America was released in 1981, the then-20-year-old was still living at home but quickly found herself travelling the globe.
After stepping away from music to raise her children, Wilde pursued a new passion and enrolled in horticulture classes at the age of 36. The move eventually led to a successful career presenting gardening programmes and winning a Gold Award at the Chelsea Flower Show. She added that leaving the music industry came with very few regrets.
