Do y’all remember what you were doing one year ago today when you heard the news that Michael Jakcson died?
I was blogging, as usual. It was Idol tour press day, and was scouting around the ‘net for news when the alert popped up from TMZ. First, it was that Michael had been rushed to the hospital, then a little later they broke the sad news that he died.
Despite press day, Michael’s death trumped all the other news on my blog for a couple of days. I wrote a little remembrance here, and posted condolence tweets from the Idols here.
- VIDEOS: After the JUMP, MJ Home movies, and artists, including Crystal Bowersox, reflect on MJ,
My thoughts at the time:
The Jackson 5 debut on Ed Sullivan.
I was only 12 years old, and I could not believe a kid my age could sing like that. I was big fan all the way through my early teen years, and then rediscovered Michael when he released Thriller. Everybody had that album in their collection. I totally freaked out when he moon walked across my TV in 1983.
Those of you too young to remember the old Michael–he had the respect of critics and musicians alike, and his appeal crossed genres–all the way from Pop to Rock to R&B. He influenced a generation of singers, dancers and performers.
RIP Michael. Hopefully, you’ll find some peace now.
That pretty much still sums it up for me. In the following weeks, Michael’s music sales would explode, breaking records (including one for singles sold held by David Cook) and his ailing estate would, ironically, slowly begin to work its way out of debt.
There’s going to be a glut of Michael Jackson news today–probably too much. But, looking back on the archives, I realized how much his death seemed to affect everybody. It truly was one of those moments that brought everyone together. I feel compelled to mark it in some way.
After the jump, check out some home video taken by Michael’s long-time stylist, Karen Faye. And a bit of trivia–Karen used to be my sister-in-law. She was married to my brother back in the 70s. I never mentioned that little factoid until now, because Karen is only now breaking her silence on Michael. She’s giving her first interview on Michael to ABC’s 20/20–airing tonight.
Artists, including Crystal Bowersox, talk about Michael Jackson
