Joe Jackson: There are no plans for Michael Jackson's children to become the 'Jackson 3'

LOS ANGELES -

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."