Bob Jones, the longtime publicist for Michael Jackson who said he dubbed the singer “the king of pop” and who co-wrote “The Man Behind the Mask,” an unauthorized biography critical of the star, has died. Jones, 72, died Sept. 20 of an apparent heart attack at his Los Angeles home.

From 1987 to 2004, Jones helped guide Jackson through “the hailstorms and minefields of unprecedented celebrity,” Jones and journalist Stacy Brown wrote in their 2005 book.

Jones was Jackson’s spokesman at a time when the singer’s behavior caused the public to view the pop star as a cultural oddity.

The eccentricities reported about Jackson were often the result of leaks that Jones orchestrated to make the singer seem more mysterious, Jones told The Irish Times in 2005. Initial reports about Jackson sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber and the importance of his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles, admittedly came from the publicist. “I saw a mad genius in Michael Jackson,” Jones wrote.

After being fired by letter in 2004, Jones was broke and angry — and decided to write a critical biography of Jackson.

Jones’ loyalty to Jackson, though, was on public display, Brown said, when the publicist testified at Jackson’s 2005 trial on child-molestation charges. On the stand, Jones backed away from testimony that might have helped the prosecution. Jackson was acquitted of all charges.