Jacko has a special Gest on Burns CD
The close friends share a passion for the Scottish bard's work and have given his poems a 21st century makeover.
'Our favourite poet in the world is Robbie Burns,' said 55-year-old Gest.
'Michael and I were originally going to do a musical on his life with Gene Kelly directing and Anthony Perkins as executive producer – but they both died. So Michael and I put all the poems to contemporary music in his studio in Encino.'
The 49-year-old King of Pop and Liza Minnelli's former husband have reinvented poems such as Ae Fond Kiss and Tam O'Shanter.
'It is beautiful and I still have the recordings. I am thinking more and more about bringing Red, Red Rose back to life because I went on that bridge when I was last in Scotland looking for Tam O'Shanter. I felt like I was a little kid looking for all those things Burns wrote about and the curator let me lie on the bed Burns slept in at his family home.'