Joe Jackson has no plans to take Michael Jackson's grieving kids on the road as the "Jackson 3," the family patriarch vowed Monday.
"I'm not encouraging them to do nothing. They have to be what they are, kids at the moment," he said on "Larry King Live," distancing himself from earlier statements that he saw star quality in the youngsters.
He called the "Jackson Three" rumor "a bunch of jive."
Jackson also denied ever hitting his late son, despite Michael's accusations to the contrary.
"I never abused my son," the former crane operator and boxer from Gary, Indiana, said. "Michael was never beaten."
In his first live interview since his son's sudden death of a suspected drug overdose, Jackson backed away from earlier comments to ABC that he wanted to help raise Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and Blanket, 7, so they could "grow up to be strong Jacksons."
"I keep watching Paris…she wants to do something," he previously told ABC. "And Blanket, he can really dance."
Joe revealed he didn't know the locaton of Michael's body, said he hadn't seen any results from the family's private autopsy and repeated his claim that he suspected "foul play" in Michael's death.
He again pointed the finger at Dr. Conrad Murray, the personal physician who found his superstar son unconscious and with only a faint pulse in bed on June 25. Investigators later found prescription drugs and the surgery-strength sedative propofol in the King of Pop's house.
Murray's lawyer has said nothing the doctor gave Jackson "should have" caused his death.
"The doctor gave him something to make him rest and he don't wake up no more," Joe Jackson said on Larry King. "Something is wrong."
Speaking about his grandchildren, Jackson was quick to point out that he lives in Vegas while the kids are at home in Encino, Calif., with his wife Katherine, their temporary court-appointed guardian.
Joe Jackson's influence on the kids is an issue for Michael's ex-wife Debbie Rowe, who is considering a bid for custody, a source told the Daily News.
Rowe is the biological mother to the two eldest kids and wants to take an active roles in their lives, her friend and former attorney Iris Finsilver said Monday, also appearing on Larry King Live.
"She would like to have a relationship with her children," Finsilver said, citing recent conversations with Rowe. "I don't know if she wants everyday hands on custody with the kids."
A source earlier told the Daily News that Joe Jackson was willing to step aside if it would help Katherine's bid to gain permanent guardianship.
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