At the time of writing this article the world awaits the jury's verdict in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial.
Michael Jackson born in 1958 was sheltered from the outside world by his mother's Jehovah's Witness faith and his dad's strict and ill-tempered style. When MJ was just a toddler his dad was already working on the first incarnation of what would later become the Jackson 5. The first Jackson 5 album came out in 1969 when MJ was just 11 and from that point on he was a celebrity and a prepubescent sex symbol. When Thriller came out in 1982 he went from celebrity to the most famous singer on the planet, ever, he was 25. He received 9 Grammys the next year and by the time he was 31 he received an American Music Lifetime Achievement award. He was inducted into the Rock n' Roll hall of fame TWICE. He was born a performer, became quickly famous, remained famous throughout his life and hence has no perspective on reality. Of course his parents are due a lot of the blame for his lack of perspective yet since I am one of the people that make up the entertainment consuming public I can not help but feel somehow responsible.
We, the masses, allowed his behavior to go unchecked for too long. We cut him too much slack during our drunk euphoric appreciation of his Thriller album. Maybe because he had the first "feature length" video for the title song Thriller, maybe it was the way he lit up the sidewalk during the Billy Jean video. Somewhere along the way one of us should have stood up and said something. Looking back I can't believe we the public allowed him to go around in a matching red leather outfit with one diamond studded glove. We actually mimicked him in mass quantity, it was hard NOT to find a jacket at Mervyn's with less than ten zippers, the malls were filled with odd looking MJ clones, both black AND white. We looked the other way when he bought a pet tiger and then eventually a pet monkey, we ignored his cry for help in the form of the song titles Beat It, I'm Bad, Dirty Diana and Smooth Criminal.
At which point did we the public notice something had changed? What was the definitive moment when he transitioned from King of Pop to Wacko Jacko? There are so many to choose from. Was it when he took hormones to preserve his girlish voice or was it when he was rumored to have purchased the skeleton of the Elephant Man? Was it his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley or his friendship with Emmanuel Lewis? By the time he dangled his infant Prince over a balcony we were no longer surprised. Hire a Voodoo doctor to put a hex on fellow celebrities? No problem. Live a life of a child's fantasy, create an amusement park in your backyard and collect zoo animals? Why not, he IS Michael Jackson after all. Talk about the virtues of sleeping with young boys in your bedroom on national television? Uh sure o kay, wait a minute... what? Somewhere between ABC and You Rock My World he lost his way.
I'm not sure how you got to where you are today Michael but I should have said something earlier, and for that I am sorry.
Click here to see how Michael would look today without cosmetic surgery.
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