I never realized until his death just how much Michael Jackson's music has been the soundtrack of my life. My first memory of any song is the song "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)". Before that I have no memory of music in my life. The first musical I ever saw was not "Grease" or even like most children, "The Wizard of Oz", but "the Wiz". I was 5. I remember my mom dressing us all up in our Sunday best and driving to Detroit (we lived in Ann Arbor at the time, but my mom wanted us to see it in the Detroit theatre) to watch it the day it premiered. The first album cover I remember looking at is the "Off the Wall" cover. I remember being a tyke, sitting cross-legged on the floor, studying that album cover like it was yesterday.

In 1983, the economy in Michigan was in a quick downward spiral. My mom lost her business and we had nothing. She packed us up and moved us cross-country to California. I was young and scared. We had no money, no place of our own to live, I had no friends, a new school, to me, things couldn't have felt worse. The first day of school, I met a friendly girl that decided to be nice to the new kid. We went to her house after school and I heard "Thriller" for the first time. We became fast friends and we would listen to "Thriller" everyday after school. As corny as it sounds, when I listened to that album, it was like I knew everything would be alright here in this new, strange, place - and it was.

I could go on and on, talk about my nightmares the first time I saw the Thriller video, the night my mom let us stay up late to watch him Moonwalk for the world, Remember the Time, Bad, Black and White, Smooth Criminal, etc. etc. etc. the list goes on and on.

Michael, your music has been and always will be the soundtrack of my life. I just wish that it did not take your untimely death for me to realize it.

I am confident that you have finally found the peace in the next life that proved so elusive in this one.

RIP, Michael Joseph Jackson, King of Pop 1958-2009