The King is Dead

Its nothing short of shocking on every level imaginable.

I know that, as I write this, everyone and everybody is writing about the death of Michael Jackson. They're either keeping it short and simple, telling you about the death, or telling you odd stories about their memories that, in the end, you don't really care about. Then you have the odd story that you either stumble upon or someone sent you, or the one you did during a random search of the net.

I don't know, frankly, what to say. It feels shocking, really, that he died. He was Michael Jackson, the boy from Neverland who never wanted to grow up. He was Michael Jackson, infamous for his actions and praised for his creative genius. He was Michael Jackson, THE King of Pop.

I have no idea what teenagers are thinking right now. I remember in 1997 when Princess Diana died and the nearly insane amount of coverage of it drove me up a wall at the age of 12. I didn't know who this person was, and I really never cared, and I was sick of the coverage after 2 days. I think teenagers have an idea who he was... if not... well, I feel old at the age of 24.

Oddly enough, the man who hates everything, the man who has listened to Megadeth and Slayer and NOFX and Discharge, the man who has shredded on his guitar with reckless abandon and has simply enjoyed insulting the pop-icons of his age, from Britney Spears to Christina Aguilara to the insipid crap that is hailed today.... I was a Michael Jackson fan.

The year was 1995... or at least, I think it was. His album, "HIStory: Past, History, and Future, Book 1", was coming out. VH1 and MTV were playing his videos almost non-stop and it did, in a way, brainwash me. But he was awesome. By 1997, I was basically done with him and I sold the only CD I had.

Now he's dead...

It feels weird, but losing someone really does force you to remember the good times.

If it wasn't for this man, we wouldn't have gotten 90% of the decent pop music we got since then. He redefined pop music, he was big, and frankly, after the death of Elvis, he WAS Elvis! A man larger than life, a man who was bigger than the myth that surrounded him, and a man who redefined the world with a voice and talent that will never be seen again.

It's odd looking back at his life and thinking about how much I got from him. From the moves on my skateboard, to the faces I like to make... and to a degree, the sense of melody and rhythm in even my most insane of guitar playing (although Devin Townsend highly influenced that, too!)... I owe a great debt to the man in many ways that I can't imagine.

To that end, I want to say the most metal pop-song ever has to be "Smooth Criminal".







And Billie Jean? The song reached across genres and styles and, hands down... the most bad-ass Michael Jackson song ever. Hey, it doesn't have to be heavy, but lyrically and in terms of delivery, it is just bad-ass!

He was a genius, and I will miss him.