It wasn’t but three weeks ago that the world heard the news that the King of Pop had left us. As many of us scurried to get our thoughts out on the social networks I decided to take step back and wait. I knew I would end up taking advantage of my blog to share some of my thoughts but I felt the need to really take some time to get some perspective on the whole situation.

MJ was the artist of my generation and it wasn’t until now that I look back and truly see what an impact he had on my life and musical career and up bringing. There are so many points where I can recall MJ popping into my life here and there and sometimes more so than others.

“Thriller” was released at the end of 1982 just a year and a half after I was born but MJ’s effect to hold quickly. By the time I was two I started to sing songs that we’re on the radio at home and when my mom drove me around. I had two favorites, “What’s Love Got To Do With It” by Tina Turner and “Billie Jean” by you know who. For Christmas that year I got a transformers boombox (it was Soundwave, the transformer whose chest was a cassette player that played other mini transformers disguised as tapes) and the first album that I got was……… you guessed it, Thriller. Let me just say that I wore that tape out to the max. To this day I can still remember taking that boombox with me where ever I went. I must have listened to human nature going to bed 1000 times, or at least it seemed that way. It wasn’t until MJ passed that I actually realized that “Thriller” was the first album I ever owned.

I became obsessed with the Thriller music video but the intro, where MJ turns into the werewolf, really scared the hell out of me. One night my family had rented the “Making of Thriller” vhs tape with all the behind the scenes highlights and everything. We stayed up late watching it and my Dad kept peaking out the window, telling me he was looking out for werewolves, just to scare me even more.

Many times after that MJ’s influence would pop up in my life but one of the instances I will always remember came during the spring in 1999. I started getting into drama senior year at my high school and was lucky enough to land the lead roll in the last play of my high school career. The play was Woody Allen’s “Don’t Drink the Water.” It was originally set in the 60’s but the director thought it would be fun to change the setting to the 80’s and add as many references to the time period as possible, and the 80’s were of course MJ’s defining decade. There was a scene where one of the characters got drunk and began to hallucinate. We thought this would be a good place to inject a dance sequence, re-creating the “Beat-It” dance, knife fight and all.

MJ wasn’t just the type of artist who just influenced music. He influenced life, because he himself was just so much larger than life. I have been a fan of Michael Jackson’s music since I can remember but I never got to see him live in concert and I never will. Instead I’ll just have to picture what it would be like watching MJ doing the moonwalk on stage, every time his music comes up on my playlists. R.I.P. Mike, it was fun while it lasted. Thanks for my very first album.