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For 40 of his 50 years, Michael Jackson was famous. And at times, he was more than that. At times, he was the most famous man on the planet.
Jackson, whose lifetime of hits helped sell more than 750 million albums worldwide, and whose penchant for headline-making helped burnish his brand, and, following child-abuse allegations, helped tarnish it as well, died today after being found unconscious at his Los Angeles home.
Pop music's eternal Peter Pan was 50.
"I'm very proud that we opened doors, that it helped tear down a lot. Going around the world, doing tours, in stadiums, you see the influence of the music," Jackson told Ebony magazine on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his landmark album, Thriller.
"When you just look out over the stage, as far as the naked eye could see, you see people. And it's a wonderful feeling, but it came with a lot of pain, a lot of pain."
Released in 1982, Thriller represented the pinnacle of Jackson's recording career. Back before albums were cherry-picked by iTunes-downloading consumers, Thriller produced seven hit singles—and there were only nine songs in the collection all told. The album of "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and more won Jackson a record seven Grammys, and sold more than 104 million copies worldwide.
Born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary, Ind., Jackson became a star at age 11 as the number-one focus of the Jackson 5. The sibling group, which costarred Jackson's brothers Jackie, Marlon, Tito and Jermaine, burst onto the Motown scene with the hits, "I Want You Back" and "ABC."
Jackson released his first solo album in 1979, Off the Wall.
In 2005, Jackson was acquitted of child-molestation charges in a sensational trial.
More to come...