Michael Jackson really sounded like Barry White

In public, he was "Ooo-hoo!" but in private he was . . . Barry White. That's according to Michael Jackson's kooky spiritual adviser, who says the pop icon's famously high-pitched voice was fake -- an affectation he took on to sound young and boyish.

"His voice was not high pitch. It was deep, a real man's voice," said the Rev. June Gatlin, according to a Jacko documentary, "Gone Too Soon," made by author and director Ian Halperin. Halperin said: "He wanted to act like a boy. Also, he felt it was a way for the public to love him more."



Gatlin, a self-proclaimed "seer" based in Los Angeles, claims the King of Pop, who died a year ago this Friday, came to her for spiritual "cleansing," which included Scripture reading, meditation and journal writing to get him to open up, be himself and speak in his "normal" voice.

"She tried to get him to just be Michael," Halperin said. Still, Jacko never spoke in his normal voice with family, staffers said.