Before any fans of Michael Jackson, king of pop, read on, I’d just like to say something. First, I deeply apologize if any of this offends or causes you pain. It undoubtedly will. But, it is what I’m thinking, and I have to let it out. If you are unable to read something critical of the person in this time of his recent death, I urge you, click another page, and do not read further. I make no excuses, but as you will note below, I have not been impressed by this guy for a long time. In character, or in performance.
I’m going to level with the public. I was not much of a fan after I grew up. The initial allegations of child molestation didn’t help the situation, especially after he made the decision to pay the family to make the lawsuit go away. In my opinion, you do not pay to make pedophile stories go away. That makes you guilty. Feel free to disagree, but I am of the position that the years of gossip, innuendo, did more harm than the ‘alleged’ stress of having to go through a court battle. It should have been more stressful to have paid him off, and look guilty in doing so. It would have been, had he been any other person. I was willing to let that one slide, largely because with the story out in the public, no one should let their kid anywhere near this guy again, guilty or not. Then came the antics. Dangling an infant out of a balcony window. The mardi gras masks, costumes, and veils. The constant need to get public attention, rather than make music. This solidified my opinion that Michael Jackson was *OVER* as a musical influence in the world. He was done. He had obviously no desire to make music anymore. And, to nail the coffin further, another family came forward. This time, they weren’t suing for money. They wanted him locked up in actual prison. This is what the first family should have done. But, some people want money. Some people, even in an intimate family tragedy, get greedy. Michael Jackson’s well-paid team of lawyers went to work, not trying to prove their client didn’t rape a boy, but that the family’s story was somehow altered, wrong, or they had greedy motivations. I guess they learned that much from the first case. The case ended, without conviction. I stopped watching mid-trial, so I can’t say what the verdict was. But, from what I remember, Michael Jackson never took the trial seriously. He made up a story about the police injuring his arm, only to wave it to the crowd mere minutes later, fully ‘recovered’ from his injuries. There was also him going on network television voicing his support for sharing a bed with children. It was almost as though he didn’t know what he was saying. Maybe he didn’t, but I’m sure his people did, and they didn’t even attempt to stop it. Later on, he could have been making music, something, anything, but he kept out of sight. Employee after employee had to sue him to get paid what was owed. He entered into a studio partnership with a foreign businessman, a fan of his, and them Michael Jackson took the man’s money, spent it, and dodged efforts to bring him to court over it. In the past few months, he was involved in a major concert promotion. I thought, great. Finally, this quasi-fossilized ex-pop-star was going to get off his moldy butt, and perform. Nope, he waited. News was released that he was in perfect health. Over 20 concert dates were announced. Time passed, and then Michael Jackson, honest fan-pleaser that he is, announces he was misinformed as to the number of concerts he’d be expected to work at, and wanted to shorten the tour.
So, irreverent as this might end up sounding, I think in complete honesty that Michael Jackson willingly, intentionally, killed himself. I think he realized that all he had left in the world were the fans who remained to believe in him, mostly because of memories and events that hadn’t been current for over 10 years. If he bailed, like he bailed on his partners and employees, he’d have nowhere left to run. There would be no place on earth that would accept him. A suspected pedophile, a thief, and a quitter. He’d be the joke on late night television all over again. Only, this time, it wouldn’t go away. No one would trust him to come into a studio. No one would trust him to perform live. He’d be unstable in a marketing partnership, as well.
I think, when all was said and done, the pressure just got to him, and he said “I’m done. Let me rest.” I can’t say I blame him, really. If it were me, or any of us, I think we might do the same thing. Am I sad to see him go? Yes. But, not for the reasons you might think. His fiasco with these recent concert dates left me feeling two things. On one side, I wanted him to finally fail big, so that he’d be forced to take a good hard, humble look at his life, make changes. On the other side, part of me wanted him to shine, like he did so many years ago. I wanted to see if he had any class left in him. Maybe a new dance move. A new song. Something. Anything. Now, we’ll never know.