A tortured and troubled life. I can remember a time when preachers used to use him as a role model. I was once told a story about him appearing somewhere with the Jackson 5 as a teenager, and some music bigwig offered him money for sex. He turned it down, and the guy says something about how it’d be different if only he were a woman, and Michael reportedly replied that he was saving himself for marriage. Then the Pepsi fire happened, and he was never really the same.
Frankly, I’m surprised he lasted as long as he did, in a world where, from the age of 8, he was surrounded by people who saw him as a golden goose, to be fattened and flattered. The golden goose is dead, long live the golden eggs he has laid.
As I stream the Jackson Family tribute playlist, I can’t help but wonder who’s going to make out from the cash windfall that Michael nostalgia will bring. Maybe we could build the statue from HIStory as an economic booster program.
