Michael Jackson Dead at 50

I'm a classic rock and alternative/punk rock music guy. Boston. Eagles. Styxs. And the list goes on. Then there is U2. The Alarm. Black Flag. The Clash. And the list goes on via the alternative front, too.

But in the 80's, when music was defining more and more of my generation, Michael Jackson exploded onto the scene with the album: Thriller. It was huge. It came off the hugely successful Off The Wall album and preceded Bad. But it is Thriller that made me into a closet pop music fan.

I remember as a kid living in Omaha, NE, when we got our first color TV and subsequently cable TV that MTV actually played music videos...all the time. 24/7. No lie. And it was Micheal Jackson the blew up the cable channel with the music video to the song, Thriller. I remember the premiere and I remember it playing EVERY hour on the hour for what seemed like the next week/month (even though it may have only been a couple of days and/or the weekend). Regardless, it was huge!

On this day, I am going to choose to remember Michael as the insanely talented musical genius and dance savant who wowed billions with is art. The man with perfect pitch. The dancer to rival Fred Astaire. The international music icon to surpass Elvis.

It saddens me how far this star fell. How he bought into lies of externals and the pain of his heart the stemmed from his family/father dynamics. It's a lesson to us all to deal with our heat and soul as much as we would be relentless about pursuing the love or passions of our lives and careers.

This performance below is the from the Motown 25 year special that I watched live when I was a kid. His performance of Billy Jean launched him into the stratosphere and was the beginning of the "King of Pop".