Tish Tindall was as surprised as anyone when she heard David Gest wanted to meet her. It is not that Tindall was new to showbiz – she is the co-owner of Lossie Entertainment Academy Studios, a podcast host and a prolific songwriter. But the Inverurie-born musician and teacher is hardly the type to hang out with someone like Gest, a friend of Michael Jackson, ex-husband of Liza Minnelli and contender on I’m A Celebrity. What could this Hollywood publicist and producer possibly want from her?
The answer, it seems, was authenticity. Gest, who died in 2016, had a passion for Robert Burns and, through a mutual friend, wanted Tindall to help turn the Ayrshire poet’s life into a musical. This was a long-standing obsession of his; one he claimed was shared by his childhood friend Michael Jackson who, he said, had used Tam O’ Shanter as an inspiration for Thriller. [READ MORE]