Michael Joseph Jackson

It's been a very rough night for me, and I know I'll catch some flack for this, but the death of Michael Jackson has affected me greatly. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm the guy that will always stand up for MJ when someone starts talking crap about him, and they know that I can sit and listen to his albums, or quote facts with the most hardcore of Jackson fans. I would like to try to get down to what it is about this man that drew me in so deeply for my entire life.

The first music that I remember hearing was Michael's. I have vivid memories of running around my house singing "Bad". One of the earliest memories I have is of my sister, 15 years older than me, sitting me down on the floor of her bedroom, and putting the "Thriller" LP on the turntable, and exposing to me this whole new batch of songs by this guy who sang "Bad". My first musical memories.

I credit by strong devotion to being an MJ fan with a lot of my own self confidence. Any MJ fan will tell you, it's not always easy trying to support the guy, but we do it anyway. I got teased and mocked a lot throughout my life because of the fact that I listened to his music. Standing up to people my whole life, even if just for the stupid reason of trying to 'protect' my favorite singer, gave me the confidence to always do my own thing, to not follow the crowd.

As I matured, I began to take a deeper interest in Michael's performances. I tried my best to emulate his dance moves, and I think I did pretty ok. His music would infiltrate my soul to the very core, so much so, that sometimes, it was like a drug; I just HAD to hear "Baby Be Mine" or "Lovely One" in order to get my day on track.

Though it may seem silly to mourn a celebrity, Michael Jackson has been intertwined significantly into the last 20 years of my existence. Today has been a very difficult day, and I feel like I lost a close friend. I admit, that I'm not sure how I'll react to all this tomorrow, and frankly I'm a little scared of the fact that the greatest entertainer in the world is no longer in the world. On a positive note, most of the media coverage I've watched has been resoundingly positive. It's just too bad Mike didn't get to see it. My heart goes out to Prince, Paris, Michael, his parents Katherine and Joe, his 8 siblings, and the rest of the Jackson family.