When I was 13 years old Michael Jackson announced his very first tour to South Africa. I begged and pleaded with my mom to let me go and eventually she agreed. So I scraped together some of my recently acquired Bar Mitzvah money, convinced my sister to let me go with her and her new boyfriend and ventured off to my very first concert.
The date was October 12 1997. A day that would change my life forever. I had been listening to the best of the Jackson 5 all day. I knew all the lyrics and was ready. I remember standing in the rain for hours while everyone took shelter under my sister’s boyfriend’s golf umbrella. I would have frozen to death if it weren’t for the sweatshirt that was leant to me. Eventually the lights dimmed and MJ appeared on the screen, in a spaceship destined for earth. From the crate of Coke on which I was standing, I witnessed HIStory. The concert blew my mind.
I went home and listened to everything Michael Jackson I could get my hands on. I spent hours and hours cooped up in my room listening to MJ cassettes. That was it. I was a fan. From then on everything was Michael Jackson to me. All the music I bought, the clothes I wore, even my school speeches were centred around my new found hero. I was hooked. All my pocket money went to MJ CDs, books and merch and when I had all that it went onto the Jackson 5 and Jacksons. Today my collection is worth tens of thousands.
I took a lot of ridicule during high school for being such a fervent Michael Jackson fan. I had pictures of him on my files and on my bedroom walls and the others laughed at me for “loving the freak”. I spent my youth defending and promoting him. Michael Jackson was the person, more than anyone else, that made me realise what I wanted to do with my life. Music.
The man that shaped my life is gone and for the first time EVER I have to venture into a world without Michael Jackson. It will never be the same again. He finally gets to rest. No more tabloids, no more ridicule, no more lost childhood. Let them remember him for the music, the videos, the dance moves, the humanity, the kindness and the way he shaped music as we know it.
The King is dead. Long Live The King.
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