When I think of Michael Jackson and the impact he’s had on my life, I’ve got a few memories stuck in my head. The first one that comes to mind is the Bad tape. I remember growing up there were only a select few artists that I idolized, and Michael Jackson was definitely at the top of that list. I just remember the white Bad cassette tape that I played every day of my life. Specifically loving songs like ‘Dirty Diana’ and ‘Man in the Mirror’ – these are songs that I was in love with as a kid, and really defined my childhood.
I’ll never forget, the day that the Dangerous album came out. I don’t remember how old I was, I must have been around 7 years old or something crazy like that, but I remember the day that album was released like it was yesterday. My mom knew how big of a fan I was, and how bad I wanted that album. She surprised me that day by picking me up from school. I didn’t take the bus that day because she was there at school waiting on me. We went to Paradise, the little local record store we had, and she bought the Dangerous album for me. I unwrapped the cd before I even got home, I went home threw it in my CD player and just played it for probably like a month straight. Just little things like that as far spring to mind, I was really obsessed with Michael Jackson when I was younger.
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I often get asked what my favorite MJ song is, and I come up with a different answer every time. At this point, I would probably say ‘Dirty Diana’ is my favorite, just because I remember being so young and not even knowing what the song was about at that age, but just loving it. Just feeling the music. So as I got older and figured out what it was about it became even more special to me.’ I remember things like the ‘Remember the Time’ video. That was one of them moments. He was on top of the world at that point. To my generation, my age group that was like ‘Man!’ He was in another league.
Michael’s music of course was a huge influence on me, but what really I really admired most about MH was his perception of life and how he handled things. He was a real ‘big idea’ guy. Any time he talked in an interview I noticed that he was really big on ideas and the power they hold. I also admire energy and though he put into everything he did. That’s one thing I really learned from him. I really feel like he visualized his whole career, being the biggest star on earth, and watched it happen. That’s something that’s motivational to an artist like me, if I wanna get where I want to go all I gotta do is dream and believe, and the rest will fall into place.
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When I think about whether another artist will ever be as big as MJ, my first instinct is to say ‘No, no one will ever be that big’ for a number of reasons. We’re in a different day and age. Nobody can have that mystique anymore that Michael Jackson had, where the only time you can see him is on T
