When asked why he wrote the song, Jackson replied, "I remember writing 'Earth Song' when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And I was feeling so much pain and so much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, this is Earth's Song, because I think nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the Earth. And with the ecological unbalance going on, and a lot of the problems in the environment, I think earth feels the pain, and she has wounds, and it's about some of the joys of the planet as well. But this is my chance to pretty much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is 'Earth Song.' And that's what inspired it. And it just suddenly dropped into my lap when I was on tour in Austria".
Jackson was 37 years old at the time of filming.
One of the biggest selling songs in the UK.
On his HIStory tour, Jackson would perform the song by bringing out his employees and some fans dressed as people who were affected by war. As that was going on, a tank that was built for the concert would come out and have one of his background dancers dressed up as a military person aiming a rifle at all of them. But in the end, Michael would put his hand on the gun and lowers it. The military man would start to cry as a child brought him a flower.
During preparations for the O2 arena shows, Jackson was developing a 3D version of this song as well as "Thriller". Unfortunately, he never saw his vision for this fulfilled due to untimely death in June 2009.
Michael Jackson: [clothes] Michael wears a similar outfit onstage in the live shows of the HIStory tour when performing this song in the video. The only difference is that he wears a white V-neck shirt, black slacks, black loafers, and a light weight jacket with red stripes on the side.