Goodbye MJ

I remember the day my Dad brought the shiny black album home. He put it on our turntable stereo and we listened to it all night long. We bought the cassette and listened in the car. I listened in my room. The album, Thriller, was very loved in my home.

Like so many of you, I lost an icon from my youth today. Michael Jackson helped to usher in my teenage years with songs like Billie Jean, Beat It and of course Thriller. They are the background music to my years of discovering boys, clothes, make-up and middle school.

I remember clearly when MTV debuted Thriller. It was a highlight as we huddled around our TV to watch.

I remember his climb to superstardom and how loved he was. I remember the good he did when he sang We are the World. He seemed to genuinely be one of the first pop stars to care about the world hunger problem.

I remember putting away my Thriller music and moving on to other pop, punk rock and 8o's big hair bands.

Then I remember how the world accused him, tore him down and watched as he became more of a sideshow than the mega watt superstar he once was. It was one of the saddest things to watch the world embrace and then reject him.

He had it all so it seemed. All the money, all the fame but not all the happiness.

Goodbye MJ - thanks for your contribution to pop music. May the family find peace very soon at this unexpected loss.