During Sunday’s telecast of the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, the show will feature the never-before-seen 3-D mini-movie for Earth Song that was created by Michael Jackson for his This Is It tour. Grammys executive producer Ken Ehrlich talked to EW.com about the decision to air the film, and how he tried to persuade Jackson to appear on the awards show last year.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Tell us about your decision to pay tribute to Michael Jackson.
KEN EHRLICH: Last year at this time, it was the 25th anniversary of Thriller and I was talking about having Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown – before the troubles – and Ne-Yo do a whole thing that ended with Michael. It would have started with two or three of them pretending to be Michael, and then Michael would be revealed. I pitched it to him, and I thought I had him. And he just said, “I’m not ready.. .I’ll be with you next year.” It wasn’t to be.

I came to Michael’s last rehearsal for the live show to meet about another project and coincidentally, he was watching the 3-D film for Earth Song. I could see what it meant to him. He told me it was as important or more important than anything else in the concert show because there was the message about preserving the earth. After we did his memorial service and started thinking about what to do for the Grammys, I did think about what (tributes) were done on other shows. Whenever I worked with Michael he’d say, “Kenny, let’s do something that no one has ever done before.” This is something that no one’s ever done before – certainly not on an awards show. I’m an old guy, kind of emotional. There is a part of me that thinks he is looking down at this and saying they are doing right by me. READ FULL STORY »