Goodbye, Mike

Michael Jackson is dead.

This sucks. The King of Pop was my guy. Yes, he was weird, and yes, he had a bunch of erratic (and sometimes illegal) behavior that was hard to defend. But the man made some of my favorite songs of all-time. "Beat It", "Billie Jean", "P.Y.T.", "Thriller", "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", "Black or White", "You Are Not Alone", and I could go on forever. That doesn't even consider the body of work he put together with his brothers in the Jackson 5.

I still can't believe it, really. Nor can millions of other people around the world who were big fans of his. I was born in 1985, and I really, really liked Michael Jackson. But I don't come close to liking him as much as the people who were around in 1984 for the "Thriller" explosion, or the people who were around for the heyday of the Jackson 5. He was popular beyond belief, far beyond anything we have now. To say that he had more fans than any musician since he began recording isn't hyperbole. Michael Jackson was that famous.

I don't really have much else to say. I loved the guy's music, I was happy to hear that he was going back on tour this summer, and was hopeful that it'd be the first step in him getting his personal life back in control. But now he's gone and we'll never really know what could've happened had he continued to work on his personal demons.

Rest in peace, Mike. We'll always love you.

~~ Lank