Michael Jackson and his music weren't my cup of tea, but I recognize and respect exceptionally talented individuals and he was most certainly that.

My gut feeling about the man, is that he was essentially a good man, a kind hearted man. A man that didn't ask for the life that was given to him but it was given none the less, and he did his best with it. Regarding the kiddie thing. Again, my hunch is that he was just not a very sexual person, maybe it will come out he'd been impotent his whole life or something like that - and that he liked the company of kids because he missed out on it when he, himself, was a kid. Can you imagine having never played football with your mates after school? Or going to Slough for the first time to nick stuff from the BMX shop? Or Going fishing all night on the Thames in Marlow and sleeping in a tent in a graveyard and someone does that Scooby Doo ghost noise trick on you?

He had a lot of surgery and made himself look more Latino than black - so what? His life, he had the money, good luck to him. He was weird, yes. I'm often been called a little weird, and I quite like being a little weird, because it means you get to know, observe and understand the workings of the non-weird.

I didn't feel overly sad about his death. I think his life reached its natural conclusion.

John LS, I didn't want to let that Marc B quote pass by either. It's the quote people use to excuse why they haven't written a great song yet.

Lucian