Michael Jackson

The first album I ever bought was the Jackson 5's greatest hits. I remain a huge fan of old Motown material, and the early Jackson 5 records were a significant part of that. As for Michael solo, I liked "Off the Wall" and "Thriller", then almost entirely lost interest. It's probably not cool for a rock musician like myself to admit to this, but good is good, and whatever you thought of him or his music, Michael Jackson was obviously an incredibly talented guy with enormous impact on the music world.

And then he became the poster child for celebrity weirdness. When history looks back at our culture from this time, I'm sure the excesses of top-earning musicians will be one of the quirks that leaves future people wondering how the heck some of this stuff ever happened. The obvious question is why somebody didn't say something to these people before they went too far over the top, and the equally obvious answer is that nobody wanted to get shoved off the gravy train while there was so much money being made. I think we're going to see fewer musicians like this now that money in the music industry is being distributed more broadly.

At the end of the day, I feel really bad for these people who have everything and yet have nothing. I have to wonder why more of them don't reach a point where they realize that what they have isn't making them happy and bring those amazing material resources to bear in ways that might actually help them. George Harrison, for example, seemed to reach a point where he understood the limits of material success and started looking for something more. Michael Jackson's religious beliefs ultimately didn't seem to be helpful to him. Maybe it's just not in the nature of some people to look further, even when they're unhappy, while others just haven't found the belief set that works for them in time to save them.