Remembering MJ

I Got A Story to Tell!

It was October 31st 1995 and the streets were painted with witches, mini football & basketball players, even evil doctors. Kind of a weird sight to see for an 8 year old who had never celebrated Halloween… for some 8 year olds it may have been torture, not being able to join in the trick or treat fun. But Not Me! I had bigger fish to fry. I had a LIVE performance by the King of Pop himself on my schedule. And while some kids wanted to be the next NBA star or like their father or their favorite superhero.. I had known all of my life, or since i was 4 years old at least, that I wanted to be like MIKE! The one who does the moonwalk.. I had been studying his vocals and dance moves for 4 years now.. I was gonna be the next MJ & there wasn’t anything anyone could tell me.

So as we sit in the audience of the Shrine Auditorium at the Soul Train Music Awards, eagerly waiting for MJ’s performance.. my mom is approached by an old friend named Jeffrey.(who we later found out was dancer Jeffrey Daniels, the man responsible for teaching MJ the moonwalk.. max cool points for mom) They exchange “long time no see”s & “how have you been”s and then he asks my mom if we would like to stand behind MJ during his performance.. Wait! What?! I’m only 8 at the time but suddenly I felt like i MUST have been hard of hearing.. I look at my mom wondering why she’s taking longer than a

The time comes, Michael does an incredible rendition of “Dangerous” and it was time for all the kids to file up for the end of his next number “You Are Not Alone”. We’re back there swaying back and forth with invisible lighters, singing along to every lyric of the song. We figured life could not get too much better than this…But, I was wrong…

After the song all the kids were told to rush off the stage and wait in the wings before being told to go back to our seats… while we wait next to the director of the show & Mr. Soul Train himself, Don Cornelius(RIP).. Michael comes running off the stage like his last name was Johnson…and before he passes he taps my head and says “Nice hat kid”.. I look up, see his white hand and he runs off. You can imagine the look on my face. If you can’t… it was something like your shoulders touching your ears, every tooth, even the molars showing and your eyebrows doing a little broadway musical dance… I looked at my sister Brooke & said “DID YOU HEAR THAT??!!!”.. she looked at me like The Hater of the Century and said “Yea, I heard it”… First time in my life I witnessed hate.haha But it wouldn’t be the Last.

I’m almost 100% sure I went straight home, put on my “Got To Be There” album by the Jackson 5 and got to work. If I was ever unsure about what I wanted to be.. that right there? Definitely solidified it!! I wanted.. I want… I WILL Be like Mike!.. he gave me the OK when I was 8 years old.

Thanx Mike for giving me fuel to keep fighting for the dream. You Still are and will Always be The King! Rest in Peace.

-Pop