It’s been a long time since I heard news that I wished wasn’t true as much as this story. I’ll remember the first time I saw Thriller and being scared out of my mind. I’ll remember waiting for what seemed like forever to see the hyped debut of the Jam video with Michael Jordan. And I’ll definitely remember driving home from the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s concert, “parked” in traffic, cranking MJ while everyone who walked by the car, exiting a rock concert, danced and had a great time.

However, not only did MJ bring fans of different music genres together, he brought the entire world together. People from all around the globe simply loved MJ. Few have had a comparable following and were adored as he was. He IS a legend. So he returned the favor by creating… innovating… great pop music.

There are so many great places you go back to listening to MJ’s music and I actually can’t think of his music being associated with any bad moments in my life. Sure he had more bad than good times over the last 2 decades but I think he definitely has a lot more fans than foes and his legacy will definitely live on in a positive note. His catalog is just too good not to give him that.

There were the early years with probably my favorite MJ song, Rock With You, the ridiculous 80s stuff where everything was incredible, the 90s stuff which could never quite live up to the earlier music but was still great music and there were even some gems like “You Rock My World” that came out towards the end. It was a great career spanning decades.

It was always sad to see MJ pop up in the news in horrible ways but we can always crank up the tunes and forget about those times just as we can crank up his music to escape our own bad times. We can all thank him for that. He was in the spotlight for over 40 years and I guess he simply decided that he had enough. Michael Jackson was not just the King of Pop, he IS pop. Everyone else is in another genre. He will be missed.

I’m currently watching: 2009 NBA Draft