summer
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Here are answers to some of the questions separately. I put all the answers to the questions about seeing Michael on stage, album releases, tours etc in the longer āera by eraā posts. I still have HIStory, Invincible and This Is It eras to write, and the 2003-2005 allegations,trial, Number Ones era, so Iāll post them as soon as I have typed them.
1. How do you cope with the fake Michael Jackson songs. Likeā¦ā¦you know?
I was SO EXCITED to get to hear ānewā MJ songs after his death. Even though just hearing his voice made me cry my eyes out and I couldnāt listen to his songs other wise because it made me too sad. But the idea of NEVER getting to hear him again was absolutely unbearable. So because of that, I was excited to get SOMETHING! I was SO SAD that I just needed SOMETHING. Something to get me excited again. Something to look forward to again. I loved the cover of the āMichaelā album. It reminded me of the Dangerous cover. Really REALLY liked it. Still do! And thenā¦ I listened to the songs and I was likeā¦..WTF?!!! This is NOT Michael singing?!!!!! I knew it was Michael on: Best of Joy, Much Too Soon, Hold My Hand, Hollywood Tonight, The Way You Love Me, Another Day and Behind The Mask. That was OBVIOUS. But the restā¦.seriouslyā¦WTF?!!!! I was SO OFFENDED that people tried to make us believe that was Michael!!! I had been studying music since I was about 6-7 years old. I went to a performing art school, majoring in music (not that I ever wanted to become an artist but because I loved music) ..MY EARS ARE TRAINED. I GREW UP ANALYZING MUSIC because thatās what I had been taught in school since I was 9 years old. I have been listening and STUDYING Michaelās voice for DECADESā¦since I was a little kid!! I know EVERY SINGLE NUANCE of his voice!!! So it just felt absolutely INSULTING to have people trying to tell you āthatās himā!! NO IT IS NOT!!! I listened to the songs a few times and just came to the same conclusion every single time: Nope, nope, NO!!!! So I never listened to those songs again. Ever. And it was SUCH a disappointment to know they were coming from the Cascios because that was the one family that I thought would NEVER betray Michael or try to take an advantage of himā¦.and then here we are. THAT was really difficult to take. It just made me feel so INCREDIABLY sad. Likeā¦did he have ANY real friends?!!!!! Were they ALL the same?!!!! And then to know I would have NEVER EVER done anything to betray him or use himā¦but I never got a chance to be his friendā¦.but all these people who betrayed him and used him got to spend time with himā¦.it just made me really sad.
2. What are your thoughts and your feelings towards the biopic in progress?
Iām excited! Especially now that I know that Jafaar will play Michael and have seen some pics from the setā¦.WOW!!! Really think they are on the right track! I just hope it will include his adult life until his death too. It feels there have been so many things done about his early days so something that includes the later eras would be welcome. But Bohemian Rhapsody was AMAZING so I have faith that this one will be great too. And since Jafaar and Taj and Prince are involved, I know they wonāt make Michael look like some sad cartoon character. That has always bothered me the most in everything I have seen beforeā¦where MJ is made to look like this serious, sad, odd, weak person when he was anything BUT! He had SUCH a great sense of humor and his LAUGH is almost like one of his trademarks and he was STRONG and RESILIANT and HIGHLY INTELLIGENT and GIVING and KIND and had such a great spirit! So I have faith they will show him as that considering the right people are involved! And I do hope they include the allegations. The media is going to mention them at every article anyways (as we have already seen), regardless if they are in the movie or not, so it would be a missed opportunity in my opinion if they were not included. Make the audience feel what MJ felt. Show them what it was REALLY like for him. Make them hurt and cry for him the way they hurt and made him cry while he lived. I think thatās the best way to make the general public understand him. If they can feel the pain through the movie.
3.Any MJ posters that you recall being a fave? books etc.
I had this huge poster with a photo of Michael from the Bad tour. He didnāt have the silver shirt on but a red one. And his arm is up and heās singing in it and sweaty and it is in a close upā¦so close you can see the sweat. And I just LOVED that poster!!! It was on my roomās door..on the inside of course, so that I could look at it! I just thought (and still do) that Michael was the most GORGEOUS HUMAN I had EVER seen so that poster just made me go I think I most likely still have that poster somewhere. As for booksā¦ I remember buying Taraborelliās āThe Magic and the Madnessā around 1991 and it was thick like a brick but I read it like in two days!! I know better now, but back then, I actually thought it was pretty good. (The very first version.) I kept going back to read parts of it and it was like an encyclopedia. I also bought Katherineās book around that time too and I loved that too. And of course Michaelās own book āMoonwalkā.
4.Thoughts on when m released Dancing The Dream?
I knew it was out but it was SO DIFFICULT to find!! You couldnāt get it ANYWHERE!!! Finally I was able to borrow a copy from somewhere (I have no idea from where)ā¦.and I made my dad copy the whole thing for me at work!! I just wanted to get Michaelās poems and get to read them!! And as alwaysā¦I was so impressed by it. Not only a talented songwriter, singer, dancer, entertainer, actorā¦.but a poet too!! And I loved the pictures in the book! Later on in 1994, I was FINALLY able to find a copy at a book store in Germany! Like, just randomly found it there and immmediately was like āAAAAHHHH!!!!!ā And yes, OF COURSE I bought it!
5.Best song from Bad?
If I only had to choose oneā¦Well, I canāt!! But Iād say Smooth Criminal or Man In The Mirrorā¦if I HAD to choose only one or two. Love both of those songs!! Man In The Mirror live is SOMETHING ELSE!!! And I loooove Smooth Criminal and the video to it is GENIUS!!
6.When would you say MJ was at his most famous? Was it during the Thriller days, the Bad days or around the Super Bowl performance?
Iād say around the Super Bowl. His fame just grew and grew and he was such a PIONEER and such a VISIONARY and everyone was basically just waiting to see what he does next!! Everyone LOVED him! Like I saidā¦he was like the KING of the world!! Only God knows what he couldāve accomplished if there wouldnāt have been the allegations.
7.Was the fame that MJ had back when he had just died comparable to the fame he had in the early 90ās, or even the 80ās?
No. Because back then everyone loved him for the right reasons. After he died, all the worms and snakes who had ridiculed him all his life came out to tell everyone how they really actually loved Michael and the media kept yapping about how unfairly he was treated all his life and it was like āWell gee..THANKS!!! A bit LATE now!!! You all kept TORTURING him while he lived and all of you are a part of the reason he DIED!!!! You couldāve said you loved and appreciated him WHILE HE LIVEDā¦.Maybe he would still be with us today, had you done that!!!! A bit late now!!!ā (And now the same media people who were telling what a wonderful person he was after he diedā¦once again slander him at every turn. And yes, Iām ONLY talking about the media (excluding the radio stations because they play his music almost daily), not the average person, because I havenāt come across a person who wouldnāt love Michael yet or would have believed the LN lies. Not one. (In real life that is.)
8.Back when the Bad album came out, did people think it was a worthy successor to Thriller or did people think it was a downgrade?
They absolutely thought it was a worthy successor and by no means a downgrade! He took it to yet another level with a new look and new sound and the āMichaelmaniaā was definitely BACK immediately!
9.Are you able to talk more about the times you met Michael? Do you remember how the conversations went and if there are photos from those days?
I unfortunately never got to meet Michael. As in āMEETā him so that I could have had a conversation with him or even say him. But Iāve seen him lots of times and sort of interacted with him. I was SUPPOSED to meet him in Prague before the HIStory tour show butā¦ā¦as faith would have itā¦nothing came of it. Iāll write more about that in the HIStory era post. I did get to go to an amusement park with him though once. That was such an amazing experience! Iāll write more about that too in my HIStory era post which will be the next one Iāll write and post here! And the last time I saw him was in London 3 months before he died and he was RIGHT in front of me but since Iām REALLY shy, I didnāt say anything. I just smiled like an idiot. Like, I was pretty much this emoji: Or this: I tried to hand him a letter I had for him but he didnāt take it. Later on Iāve wondered if he thought I was just trying to grab him because I was trying to reach out as far as I could so that he could take it without anyone grabbing his hand (that was my reasoning and I knew I wasnāt going to grab himā¦but of course HE didnāt know that ) or if he thought I was asking him to sign something. So right away afterwards I was like (I need the head bang against the wall emoji ) āYOU IDIOT!!! WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!!! He probably thought youāre trying to grab him or were begging for an autograph!!! Whyyyyyy did you do that?!!! And why didnāt you SAY anything to him?!!!ā Like if REGRET was an emojiā¦.it would be the banging head against the wall one! I have one photo from the amusement park and photos and videos of when I saw him for the very last time. I saw him several times at his hotelsā¦at the London Sony demo and the Killer Thriller fan party, etc. (will write more about those too later on in the era posts! ) I guess it was sort of my own fault in a way that I never got to meet him to even really say hi. I WANTED to meet himā¦REALLY BAD..but I also didnāt want to bother him. (Nor would I ever have had enough money to travel to everywhere he went even if I would have wanted to..I was lucky to be able to scrape together enough to even go to the ones I did go! ) He kept saying how he canāt go anywhere so I wanted to give him his space. Not at all judging any of the fans who followed him everywhere he went and I was very aware that a lot of fans got to meet him that way so I guessed he didnāt mindā¦ But everyone has to do what they think is right and I just couldnāt do it. I personally wouldnāt have felt good about meeting him that way. Again, that was just against MY own principles. Not judging others. I did go to his hotels to catch a glimpse and see him wave at the window. I figured that at least he can choose if he wants to see us or not. If he doesnāt want to, he wonāt come to the windowā¦if he doesā¦he will come to the window. That was sort of my ācompromiseā with myself and as far as I felt comfortable. So when he left the hotel to go shopping etcā¦I never followed. Or lie to get into places where he was that wouldāve other wise been off limits. It just didnāt feel right to me, so I never did it. Have I regretted it and gone through all kinds of āwhat ifā scenarios and āYou idiotā¦why didnāt you just do it, everyone else did too and he got to know them that way and they got to spend more time with himā conversations in my mindā¦especially after he diedā¦Yes. A lot of times. But Iām a pretty shy and quiet person and like I saidā¦I had such huge respect for Michael and his space so even if I would have wanted toā¦I donāt know if I could have done itā¦EVEN while knowing I probably missed out on a LOT of great opportunities to meet him and spend time with him. But as I saidā¦at the end of the day it is ME who has to live with myselfā¦so I can only do what feels right to ME and what Iām comfortable with. But do I have regrets? Yes. Many. Would I change it if I could go backā¦knowing myself..probably not because I know I wouldnāt be able to live with myself. (Talking about standing in oneās own wayā¦!)
10.Do you think that supporting m for over 4 decades shaped your mind, thoughts, values & core beliefs /how you are as a person? Did you see him as a teacher of sorts?ā¦If so, what did he teach you that pethaps other artists at that time couldnāt?
Absolutely, 100%!! I absolutely saw him as a role model. He just seemed so STRONG and WISE and KINDā¦.like just an overall good person. I loved that he lived such a healthy lifestyle and didnāt drink alcohol or smoke or anything and was a vegetarian. I was never interested in alcohol or smoking or drugs but as you got older, it was like you were EXPECTED to drink or you were āweirdā and āno funā, and I just didnāt want to drink or do any of that so MJ was the reason that helped me fight the peer pressure. Like, even though Michael didnāt know me..I just wanted to make him proud of me. I know it sounds weird and I donāt know if anyone can relate, but I just thought that I wanna be the best I can be to make him proud! He always talked about studying hard and working hard and I remember hearing him having said āEven if youāre a janitor..be the BEST janitor you can be! Do your work with pride and try to learn as MUCH as you can about it!ā (Something along those lines.) So that really stuck with me and inspired me! And Michael always reminding about the importance of being kind and to ābe like childrenā¦to have the innocence of children and look at the world through the eyes of wonderment and magicāā¦that stuck with me too. As in, be kindā¦and be āinnocentā in a sense that you never try to use people or take an adantage of them or stab them in the back and all that (while still not being a doormat either). And ābe the voice of the voicelessāā¦as inā¦stand up for those who canāt defend themselves or who are being mistreated or who have been abandoned and forgotten by othersā¦Stand up for what is right, even if youāre the only one standing and help those who are too weak or defeated to defend themseives. Try to promote peace. Try to do everything in your power to make this world a better placeā¦do your part and try to inspire others to do theirs. Try to be tolerant. Through Michael I learned about climate change and the need to treat our planet wellā¦.before it even became a āthingā. I became aware of world hunger, poverty, racism, police brutalityā¦.I could go on and on but basically in a nut shell: Be a good, kind human being. Work and study hard. Be the best you can be and help others. Oh and be a PIONEER! Andā¦Michael made me start running!! Because I wanted to be at the FRONT at his shows(this was in the 90ās when everyone still had an equal chance in getting to the front, if you just went there to wait early enough) ā¦so in order to get thereā¦you had to be able to run fast and run the whole way from the gates to the front at that pace too so that you could outrun other fansā¦Soā¦I ran every day to be in good enough shape to get to the front!! So that was my motivation for running!!! Michael just inspired me in every possible way! Like, I even remember him talking about how children are so creative because they have not learned societyās limitations yet. For them, anything is possible. So for example, when painting a pictureā¦āthe sky doesnāt have to be blueā. Or something along those lines. So that has stuck with me tooā¦to try to think outside of the box. And of course: āStudy the greats and become greater.ā There are SO MANY things I learned from Michael. About history, art historyā¦you name it! I even learned another language, just to be able to read and understand the articles about him in the magazines!! I just canāt recall ever hearing much anything from other artists that wouldāve inspired me or taught me much anything.
1. How do you cope with the fake Michael Jackson songs. Likeā¦ā¦you know?
I was SO EXCITED to get to hear ānewā MJ songs after his death. Even though just hearing his voice made me cry my eyes out and I couldnāt listen to his songs other wise because it made me too sad. But the idea of NEVER getting to hear him again was absolutely unbearable. So because of that, I was excited to get SOMETHING! I was SO SAD that I just needed SOMETHING. Something to get me excited again. Something to look forward to again. I loved the cover of the āMichaelā album. It reminded me of the Dangerous cover. Really REALLY liked it. Still do! And thenā¦ I listened to the songs and I was likeā¦..WTF?!!! This is NOT Michael singing?!!!!! I knew it was Michael on: Best of Joy, Much Too Soon, Hold My Hand, Hollywood Tonight, The Way You Love Me, Another Day and Behind The Mask. That was OBVIOUS. But the restā¦.seriouslyā¦WTF?!!!! I was SO OFFENDED that people tried to make us believe that was Michael!!! I had been studying music since I was about 6-7 years old. I went to a performing art school, majoring in music (not that I ever wanted to become an artist but because I loved music) ..MY EARS ARE TRAINED. I GREW UP ANALYZING MUSIC because thatās what I had been taught in school since I was 9 years old. I have been listening and STUDYING Michaelās voice for DECADESā¦since I was a little kid!! I know EVERY SINGLE NUANCE of his voice!!! So it just felt absolutely INSULTING to have people trying to tell you āthatās himā!! NO IT IS NOT!!! I listened to the songs a few times and just came to the same conclusion every single time: Nope, nope, NO!!!! So I never listened to those songs again. Ever. And it was SUCH a disappointment to know they were coming from the Cascios because that was the one family that I thought would NEVER betray Michael or try to take an advantage of himā¦.and then here we are. THAT was really difficult to take. It just made me feel so INCREDIABLY sad. Likeā¦did he have ANY real friends?!!!!! Were they ALL the same?!!!! And then to know I would have NEVER EVER done anything to betray him or use himā¦but I never got a chance to be his friendā¦.but all these people who betrayed him and used him got to spend time with himā¦.it just made me really sad.
2. What are your thoughts and your feelings towards the biopic in progress?
Iām excited! Especially now that I know that Jafaar will play Michael and have seen some pics from the setā¦.WOW!!! Really think they are on the right track! I just hope it will include his adult life until his death too. It feels there have been so many things done about his early days so something that includes the later eras would be welcome. But Bohemian Rhapsody was AMAZING so I have faith that this one will be great too. And since Jafaar and Taj and Prince are involved, I know they wonāt make Michael look like some sad cartoon character. That has always bothered me the most in everything I have seen beforeā¦where MJ is made to look like this serious, sad, odd, weak person when he was anything BUT! He had SUCH a great sense of humor and his LAUGH is almost like one of his trademarks and he was STRONG and RESILIANT and HIGHLY INTELLIGENT and GIVING and KIND and had such a great spirit! So I have faith they will show him as that considering the right people are involved! And I do hope they include the allegations. The media is going to mention them at every article anyways (as we have already seen), regardless if they are in the movie or not, so it would be a missed opportunity in my opinion if they were not included. Make the audience feel what MJ felt. Show them what it was REALLY like for him. Make them hurt and cry for him the way they hurt and made him cry while he lived. I think thatās the best way to make the general public understand him. If they can feel the pain through the movie.
3.Any MJ posters that you recall being a fave? books etc.
I had this huge poster with a photo of Michael from the Bad tour. He didnāt have the silver shirt on but a red one. And his arm is up and heās singing in it and sweaty and it is in a close upā¦so close you can see the sweat. And I just LOVED that poster!!! It was on my roomās door..on the inside of course, so that I could look at it! I just thought (and still do) that Michael was the most GORGEOUS HUMAN I had EVER seen so that poster just made me go I think I most likely still have that poster somewhere. As for booksā¦ I remember buying Taraborelliās āThe Magic and the Madnessā around 1991 and it was thick like a brick but I read it like in two days!! I know better now, but back then, I actually thought it was pretty good. (The very first version.) I kept going back to read parts of it and it was like an encyclopedia. I also bought Katherineās book around that time too and I loved that too. And of course Michaelās own book āMoonwalkā.
4.Thoughts on when m released Dancing The Dream?
I knew it was out but it was SO DIFFICULT to find!! You couldnāt get it ANYWHERE!!! Finally I was able to borrow a copy from somewhere (I have no idea from where)ā¦.and I made my dad copy the whole thing for me at work!! I just wanted to get Michaelās poems and get to read them!! And as alwaysā¦I was so impressed by it. Not only a talented songwriter, singer, dancer, entertainer, actorā¦.but a poet too!! And I loved the pictures in the book! Later on in 1994, I was FINALLY able to find a copy at a book store in Germany! Like, just randomly found it there and immmediately was like āAAAAHHHH!!!!!ā And yes, OF COURSE I bought it!
5.Best song from Bad?
If I only had to choose oneā¦Well, I canāt!! But Iād say Smooth Criminal or Man In The Mirrorā¦if I HAD to choose only one or two. Love both of those songs!! Man In The Mirror live is SOMETHING ELSE!!! And I loooove Smooth Criminal and the video to it is GENIUS!!
6.When would you say MJ was at his most famous? Was it during the Thriller days, the Bad days or around the Super Bowl performance?
Iād say around the Super Bowl. His fame just grew and grew and he was such a PIONEER and such a VISIONARY and everyone was basically just waiting to see what he does next!! Everyone LOVED him! Like I saidā¦he was like the KING of the world!! Only God knows what he couldāve accomplished if there wouldnāt have been the allegations.
7.Was the fame that MJ had back when he had just died comparable to the fame he had in the early 90ās, or even the 80ās?
No. Because back then everyone loved him for the right reasons. After he died, all the worms and snakes who had ridiculed him all his life came out to tell everyone how they really actually loved Michael and the media kept yapping about how unfairly he was treated all his life and it was like āWell gee..THANKS!!! A bit LATE now!!! You all kept TORTURING him while he lived and all of you are a part of the reason he DIED!!!! You couldāve said you loved and appreciated him WHILE HE LIVEDā¦.Maybe he would still be with us today, had you done that!!!! A bit late now!!!ā (And now the same media people who were telling what a wonderful person he was after he diedā¦once again slander him at every turn. And yes, Iām ONLY talking about the media (excluding the radio stations because they play his music almost daily), not the average person, because I havenāt come across a person who wouldnāt love Michael yet or would have believed the LN lies. Not one. (In real life that is.)
8.Back when the Bad album came out, did people think it was a worthy successor to Thriller or did people think it was a downgrade?
They absolutely thought it was a worthy successor and by no means a downgrade! He took it to yet another level with a new look and new sound and the āMichaelmaniaā was definitely BACK immediately!
9.Are you able to talk more about the times you met Michael? Do you remember how the conversations went and if there are photos from those days?
I unfortunately never got to meet Michael. As in āMEETā him so that I could have had a conversation with him or even say him. But Iāve seen him lots of times and sort of interacted with him. I was SUPPOSED to meet him in Prague before the HIStory tour show butā¦ā¦as faith would have itā¦nothing came of it. Iāll write more about that in the HIStory era post. I did get to go to an amusement park with him though once. That was such an amazing experience! Iāll write more about that too in my HIStory era post which will be the next one Iāll write and post here! And the last time I saw him was in London 3 months before he died and he was RIGHT in front of me but since Iām REALLY shy, I didnāt say anything. I just smiled like an idiot. Like, I was pretty much this emoji: Or this: I tried to hand him a letter I had for him but he didnāt take it. Later on Iāve wondered if he thought I was just trying to grab him because I was trying to reach out as far as I could so that he could take it without anyone grabbing his hand (that was my reasoning and I knew I wasnāt going to grab himā¦but of course HE didnāt know that ) or if he thought I was asking him to sign something. So right away afterwards I was like (I need the head bang against the wall emoji ) āYOU IDIOT!!! WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!!! He probably thought youāre trying to grab him or were begging for an autograph!!! Whyyyyyy did you do that?!!! And why didnāt you SAY anything to him?!!!ā Like if REGRET was an emojiā¦.it would be the banging head against the wall one! I have one photo from the amusement park and photos and videos of when I saw him for the very last time. I saw him several times at his hotelsā¦at the London Sony demo and the Killer Thriller fan party, etc. (will write more about those too later on in the era posts! ) I guess it was sort of my own fault in a way that I never got to meet him to even really say hi. I WANTED to meet himā¦REALLY BAD..but I also didnāt want to bother him. (Nor would I ever have had enough money to travel to everywhere he went even if I would have wanted to..I was lucky to be able to scrape together enough to even go to the ones I did go! ) He kept saying how he canāt go anywhere so I wanted to give him his space. Not at all judging any of the fans who followed him everywhere he went and I was very aware that a lot of fans got to meet him that way so I guessed he didnāt mindā¦ But everyone has to do what they think is right and I just couldnāt do it. I personally wouldnāt have felt good about meeting him that way. Again, that was just against MY own principles. Not judging others. I did go to his hotels to catch a glimpse and see him wave at the window. I figured that at least he can choose if he wants to see us or not. If he doesnāt want to, he wonāt come to the windowā¦if he doesā¦he will come to the window. That was sort of my ācompromiseā with myself and as far as I felt comfortable. So when he left the hotel to go shopping etcā¦I never followed. Or lie to get into places where he was that wouldāve other wise been off limits. It just didnāt feel right to me, so I never did it. Have I regretted it and gone through all kinds of āwhat ifā scenarios and āYou idiotā¦why didnāt you just do it, everyone else did too and he got to know them that way and they got to spend more time with himā conversations in my mindā¦especially after he diedā¦Yes. A lot of times. But Iām a pretty shy and quiet person and like I saidā¦I had such huge respect for Michael and his space so even if I would have wanted toā¦I donāt know if I could have done itā¦EVEN while knowing I probably missed out on a LOT of great opportunities to meet him and spend time with him. But as I saidā¦at the end of the day it is ME who has to live with myselfā¦so I can only do what feels right to ME and what Iām comfortable with. But do I have regrets? Yes. Many. Would I change it if I could go backā¦knowing myself..probably not because I know I wouldnāt be able to live with myself. (Talking about standing in oneās own wayā¦!)
10.Do you think that supporting m for over 4 decades shaped your mind, thoughts, values & core beliefs /how you are as a person? Did you see him as a teacher of sorts?ā¦If so, what did he teach you that pethaps other artists at that time couldnāt?
Absolutely, 100%!! I absolutely saw him as a role model. He just seemed so STRONG and WISE and KINDā¦.like just an overall good person. I loved that he lived such a healthy lifestyle and didnāt drink alcohol or smoke or anything and was a vegetarian. I was never interested in alcohol or smoking or drugs but as you got older, it was like you were EXPECTED to drink or you were āweirdā and āno funā, and I just didnāt want to drink or do any of that so MJ was the reason that helped me fight the peer pressure. Like, even though Michael didnāt know me..I just wanted to make him proud of me. I know it sounds weird and I donāt know if anyone can relate, but I just thought that I wanna be the best I can be to make him proud! He always talked about studying hard and working hard and I remember hearing him having said āEven if youāre a janitor..be the BEST janitor you can be! Do your work with pride and try to learn as MUCH as you can about it!ā (Something along those lines.) So that really stuck with me and inspired me! And Michael always reminding about the importance of being kind and to ābe like childrenā¦to have the innocence of children and look at the world through the eyes of wonderment and magicāā¦that stuck with me too. As in, be kindā¦and be āinnocentā in a sense that you never try to use people or take an adantage of them or stab them in the back and all that (while still not being a doormat either). And ābe the voice of the voicelessāā¦as inā¦stand up for those who canāt defend themselves or who are being mistreated or who have been abandoned and forgotten by othersā¦Stand up for what is right, even if youāre the only one standing and help those who are too weak or defeated to defend themseives. Try to promote peace. Try to do everything in your power to make this world a better placeā¦do your part and try to inspire others to do theirs. Try to be tolerant. Through Michael I learned about climate change and the need to treat our planet wellā¦.before it even became a āthingā. I became aware of world hunger, poverty, racism, police brutalityā¦.I could go on and on but basically in a nut shell: Be a good, kind human being. Work and study hard. Be the best you can be and help others. Oh and be a PIONEER! Andā¦Michael made me start running!! Because I wanted to be at the FRONT at his shows(this was in the 90ās when everyone still had an equal chance in getting to the front, if you just went there to wait early enough) ā¦so in order to get thereā¦you had to be able to run fast and run the whole way from the gates to the front at that pace too so that you could outrun other fansā¦Soā¦I ran every day to be in good enough shape to get to the front!! So that was my motivation for running!!! Michael just inspired me in every possible way! Like, I even remember him talking about how children are so creative because they have not learned societyās limitations yet. For them, anything is possible. So for example, when painting a pictureā¦āthe sky doesnāt have to be blueā. Or something along those lines. So that has stuck with me tooā¦to try to think outside of the box. And of course: āStudy the greats and become greater.ā There are SO MANY things I learned from Michael. About history, art historyā¦you name it! I even learned another language, just to be able to read and understand the articles about him in the magazines!! I just canāt recall ever hearing much anything from other artists that wouldāve inspired me or taught me much anything.