Right. now I'm in front of a computer I am going to write this thing out properly and show up the lack of simple intelligence and logical thinking in some people's brains.
Michael Jackson was not a paedophile. Michael was another unfortunate product of parents trying to live their dreams through their kids. YES he was strange, but think this through. This guy had been a global megastar for 45 years, ie since he was 5. I could barely tie my shoe laces at 5, never mind get on stage, perform a dance routine and sing my guts out.
And why could he do this? Because he was tortured and abused by his father. If those kids didn't do things right, they would be beaten both mentally and physically by their father. Did you know that once just to punish the boys for leaving a window open once on a hot night, he climbed in through that window with a mask on and scared the shit out of them all, this with the youngest being 5! Michael had nightmares about that for years after and this is just one in thousands of damaging incidents.
Then take the fact he was what he was. A worldwide singing and dancing sensation at the age of 5. They were the darlings of Motown. That meant touring endlessly, never really having anything close to a normal life, being tutored on the road, having all this pressure on them and none of the releases a kid should have. Michael Jackson, basically, did not have a childhood.
So I can see that he was trying to be a kid when he was older, trying to have what he never had. And he could in a sense, he was a multi millionaire, so he could do what he wanted. And all this time all the people around him, all his advisors and friends never really looked out for him and tried to get him help.
I can probably see this better than most people, though I hope in writing this they will also see. I am close to someone who though in a completely different way has similiar problems to Michael Jackson in that they lost their childhood. Their father left home when they were 5, their mother was an abusive alcoholic, and they were left to fend for themselves and bring up their little sister. I will not tell you who this person is out of respect of privacy, but will say this, that this person has has an incredibly hard time as an adult because of having their childhood stolen from them. And in a lot of ways because of this aspects of their personality can appear to be childish, as they grab on to something they never had. If you judged these people purely on this, then you would miss what a warm, caring amazing people they really are.
Essentially Michael left himself open to child abuse allegation, with the time he spent with kids. But there are a few really big clues that he was completely innocent.
1st, and this is the lesser of the two. If you watch the Martin Bashir interview, when questioned about sleeping the same room as kids, Michael said "yes I sleep in the same room as kids" without a seconds thought. He clearly didn't see anything wrong with this. We do, because obviously for some reason we see some kind of sexual connotation there, but he obviously doesn't. I suppose what I'm trying to say, is if he had done something wrong (he wasn't stupid, he knew the law), then he would never have admitted to even staying in the same room as a child, never mind so readily.
2nd, and here's the big one, if your kid had been molested by ANYONE, then you would want to see that fucker nailed to the wall. So I ask you this, if Jackson really did molest those two kids, why did the first family accept money to fuck off and leave him alone, and why did the second family actually offer to go away if he paid them money (where MJ said "not this time, I'm gonna be proven innocent)?. It's not rocket science. If they honestly believed Michael had molested their kids, no amount of money would have made that better.
Also, this is a very serious allegation. Even if the family dropped the case, if their had been any substance to it then the police would have followed it up and kept it going, just as if someone had been murdered, because you can't leave a paedophile/murderer out there just because the family don't want to pursue it
The courts say it didn't happen, the clues say it didn't happen. If you don't like Michael Jackson, fine. But stop bringing up the paedophile stuff, because it just makes you look like an ignorant close minded prick who, like with most things said by the media, will just accept whatever was spoon fed to you by the tabloids as gospel rather than going out and actually uncovering facts from reliable sources and doing some thinking of your own. And bottom line is, he was proven innocent, that should be the end of it. If you had been accused of something and then cleared of it, I'm sure you would get angry if people kept saying you did it, however you probably don't see the same in doing it to Jackson.
With that rant being over, which I hope people will read and absorb and actually think about. I want to focus on how I will remember MIchael Jackson.
Everyone who knows me on here knows that first and foremost, when you mention music to me, Papa Roach fly out of my mouth. They are the reason I am here, and I live and breathe them. But Papa Roach were formed in 1993 and didn't reach a global audience til 1999, ie until I was sixteen. Long before Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Slipknot etc etc, there was Michael Jackson.
Dangerous was the first album I ever owned. I remember the christmas well. I got a Sega Mastersystem with Sonic The Hedgehog built into it (first game I ever completed :-) ), a Terminator 2 figure, a personal cassette player and a copy of Dangerous. I used to lie there at night when I went to bed and listen to it from beginning to end.
Michael was at the end of the day an unrivalled musical genius. Genius is a word that gets thrown around too often these days, but it was true in his case. This man had a career spanning 4 decades for a reason, because he was the best in the business bar none. It would be one of the hardest things on earth for you to do to find someone who doesn't like at least one Michael Jackson song. I remember playing Billie Jean on the stereo at Rock Am Ring this year and everyone around our tent started singing along.
This man influenced more musicians today across every genre than anyone save the classical composers themselves (who basically invented music as we know it).
If you were to talk about figures in history in order of their relevance to music, the list would probably go something like Mozart, Beethoven, then Elvis and Michael Jackson. Not Sinatra, Iron Maiden, Madonna, Metallica or any other legendary name you care to mention outside of the three previously named individuals in that list (you MIGHT add a few more composers, let's face it, I'm hardly a classical buff) have impacted music the way Michael did. Christ, Elvis had to invent rock and roll to be up there!
The fact is, that as time has gone on Michael Jacksons music is as popular as it is ever was.
I'm a rock/metal fan. I challenge you to find a 7 year old who listens to AC/DC. And I hate to say it, but in 50 years, I leave the challenge open to find anyone listening to Papa Roach who is under 40.
I bet you will hear Thriller on the radio though.
