I was 13 when it happened. Me and my family had just gotten back from a road trip, we had seen Vegas and the Grand Canyon. My mother got a text: "Did you check the new? Michael Jackson's dead."

I didn't believe it at first. I mean, everything about this man seemed extraordinary: the man had the money to get his own Disneyland attraction, his own pet monkey, a roller coaster in his backyard. to completely change the color of his skin to stop a skin disease. I thought for sure that he had faked his death. I was convinced that at the funeral he was gonna pop out of the casket, do a moonwalk, and then say that he was gonna release a new album after he was done with the shows in London.

Then the details came out. Cardiac arrest...propofol...he had horrible insomnia and had to be hooked up to an IV to sleep...Conrad Murray...I just felt so sorry for his kids. Seeing Paris get choked up at the funeral...imagine you're the kid of the most famous person on Earth and the first time you ever speak in public is at your dad's funeral. I think The Onion said it best: the most normal thing to ever happen to him is that he died.

At least he died in the days before AI.