I’m really sad to hear about the passing of Michael Jackson.

I was at dinner tonight with my friend, Laura, at a local sports bar and our waitress came up to our table. “I just heard Michael Jackson died. Did you guys hear that? Do you think it’s true?” Laura, the entertainment editor at our local newspaper, called into work, and another editor said there were reports he was taken to hospital. We didn’t think it was anything serious.

We kept eating and chatting, and then the TVs in the sportsbar flashed photos of Michael Jackson. We turned the channel on the TV at our table to a news station and turned up the volume. And then I watched with incredible sadness as they announced his passing.

I’m not gonna lie, I know he was a weird guy. But I think he was a guy that never grew up, and tried to surround himself with youth so he could relive the childhood he missed. Could I be wrong and could he really have exploited children? Sure, but that’s not what I believe.

I had a disk cassette player when I was little, and I had this purple case to hold all my cassette tapes. It was full of Michael Jackson albums. I LOVED the “Dangerous” album (released in 1991). I’m sort of obsessive when it comes to music. When I find an artist I like, I try to get my hands on everything they’ve ever done and read everything I can about them (example: my Avenged Sevenfold obsession right now). Anyway, I used my allowance money or cried to my parents until they bought me “Bad,” “Thriller” and others.

We took a lot of trips when I was little, because my brother played for a traveling soccer team. Most weekends involved car rides to some tournament. Michael Jackson came with me on all those trips (along with animated Disney movie soundtracks, haha). On American Idol this year, Allison Iraheta sang “Give in to Me” from the “Dangerous” album, and she was sort of criticized for picking an obscure song. What?!?! I didn’t consider it obscure; I loved that song!

Anyway, Michael Jackson opened me up to music that wasn’t Disney movie theme songs. He told me it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white. He influenced countless musicians whose music we can enjoy today. And he gave the world “Thriller.” ‘Nuff said.

Thanks MJ. RIP.