DAVID GEST - JACKSON BEGAN GEST'S COLLECTING OBSESSION

JACKSON BEGAN GEST'S COLLECTING OBSESSION

Reality TV star DAVID GEST has credited superstar MICHAEL JACKSON for introducing him to his hobby of collecting music and movie memorabilia. The 54-year-old, who extended his Memphis, Tennessee mansion with a third storey to accommodate his growing collection, explains childhood friend Jackson gifted him with his first showbiz souvenirs. He says, "When I was a kid, I was dating LaToya Jackson. I went to her house one day but she was ill and couldn't go out, and Mrs Jackson said, 'Could you drive Michael to the memorabilia show?' Michael said, 'David, you gotta get into memorabilia, you gonna love it.' He said, 'You see all these posters I got up here?' and he's got this poster of Jimi Hendrix, signed, and a poster of James Brown at the Apollo, signed, and I thought, 'This is pretty cool.' "So we went to the show, and he got mobbed, but he was buying things and saying, 'I'm gonna buy this for you,' and I began to start loving all this and I thought, 'What a great idea for stuff to collect.'"