Okay it all started when I was 7. Bad just came out. I loved it. I was a huge MJ fan as was every other person I knew. I remember me and my family would sit around watching mtv just waiting for MJ videos to come on. Then it seemed like MJ disappeared for a little while. When I was 10 I remember watching the debut of black or white on the news. I was a huge fanatic. And I mean huge. I taped all of his marathons and watched his vidoes all the time. I owned Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad, and Dangerous. At 10 years old I was dancing just like him. And I was really good. Even won a talent show at my school dancing to black or white. Everybody knew me as the kid who could dance like Michael Jackson.
When I was eleven years old Michael was accused of child molestation. Thats when the taunting began at school. Remember, everybody knew me as the kid who could dance like Michael Jackson. So at age 12 I hung up the dancing shoes and threw away my MJ stuff. I didn't want to be known as the MJ kid anymore and get made fun of. I started getting into bands like Metallica and Aerosmith. I started dresssing like it too. I had ripped jeans, flanel shirts and long hair. When I went into junior high and met a lot of new people, I didn't want people to know that I used to dance like MJ. I wanted to fit in and be popular.
Fast forward to 20 years old. It's been eight years since I've watched MJ, heard MJ, or even attempted to dance. He was almost a forgotten memory. It's 2 a.m. in the morning and I'm with two of my best friends at a restaurant stoned out of our minds. One of whom I've known for 8 years, and the other I've known for one year. The one I've known for one year was named Pat. Pat starts asking me what schools I went to as a kid. He asks me if I went to Whittier, and I said yeah, and he told me he used to go there too. Then he says "Were you the kid that used to dance like Michael Jackson?" He said that he was thinking about it, and realized that I looked just like the kid.
I admitted it was me, and I was extremely embarassed. It was like this big secret I didn't want people to know. After I told him it was me, he goes "Dude you were awesome! Can you still do it?" I didn't know if I could still do it, because it had been almost a decade and I certainly didn't want to try. I even made fun of Mj a little there trying to further distance myself from my past.
Patrick tells me he's got Beat it and Billie Jean in the car. We all leave the restaurant. Pat puts on Beat it. It's the first time I"ve heard MJ in a decade, and I'm thinking man that's a really good song. He played it again, and now I'm like really getting into it. I say hey man stop at Block Buster video. I've got to rent a video. I go in and rent History voume 2 the vidoes. We all go back to my place and watch it. At this point I'm dying and exploding with anticipation to watch Smooth Criminal, for it had been my absolute favorite music video as a kid. Watching that video felt so dang good! I was loving it and thinking about what I missed out on for the last 10 years. After my friends left I watched the entire video tape. I was just amazed. Even though I loved him as a kid, I was still too young too appreciate the serious level of talent this guy had. I was just blown away by is vocals. Needless to say I stayed up the whole night watching his videos.
The next day I went and bought Dangerous and Bad. And then I danced again for the first time in almost nine years.
And it felt so gooooood! And Michael Jackson was officially my all time favorite musician again!
That was five years ago now. I'm still a fanatic, and I can dance better now than I ever could. I've gotten pretty dang good, and it's totally a high. It's like a rush that comes over me when I'm really getting into it. I can do it all. I can do the moonwalk in place, the sideways moonwalk, of course the regular moonwalk, the robot and I just love doing it. I don't do it for the sake of immitating him. I just do it, because it makes the music feel so much better.
And now I will be a Michael Jackson fan for most certainly the rest of my life.:)
How I became an MJ fan again
-
Great story.
It's interessting to hear those, every MJ Fan has his own experience with MJ.
And every is different. -
Man, that story put a smile on my face... Thanks for sharing it!
Being an MJ fan in 90ies was tough, real tough. Just like it is now. But it's especially tough for kids, because they get hurt real bad when someone makes fun of or verbally abuses someone they love.I imagine that it was worse in America than anywhere else... Because he was the biggest in America, so the fall was the worst. He was loved the most in America and now he is hated the most in America.
And I also imagine that a lot of kids have gone through a somewhat similar experience as far as fandom goes.
When I was at school, I too was "that kid who dances like MJ" and it was always a mixed pleasure. On the one hand people admired the dancing, on the other hand others called you a fag and all sorts of stuff.
I remember when I was around 15-16 I developed a "I don't give a fuck"-attitude and told anyone who asked who my favorite artist was and if they had something to say, they better have some time on their hands because I would spend hours preaching to them about how what they believe to be fact is nothing but idiotic rumors.
It just furthered my reputation as a weird sort of guy, but nobody dared make fun of me anymore... Because by then I was friends with the toughest and most-feared guys in the whole school.
And they really weren't that bad. They were into Metal and dressed that way too, so they seemed tough and rough and some teachers thought they were taking drugs (and warned me :lol) - well they did, but only pot.
But really they were nice guys and faithful friends to me. And even though they hated Michael's music (apart from Beat It :lol), they always respected my love of his music and gave me props for my dancing skills... Which I by the way have pretty much lost since then :lol
But that's alright, because now my main artistic MJ-connection is playing his songs on piano. -
well ,it´s nice to hear your story and I thank you for sharing it !
I appreciate that you are honest but I can´t understand why people can react like this and throw everything away !!?
of course it was tough at this time to be a michael jackson fan but it has always been in a way --like last year and I never even thought about ONE thought to give michael up
I dont want to attack you personally because its everyone´s own decision but for me its hard to understand I could never feel emberassed about him or lying about him or make fun of him only because it is "uncool"to like and admire him.
but let´s make it positive, i´m glad you realized what you missed and passed and went back to the routes and took michael back into your heart and I hope you will never let him out there again*lol* -
P.S. For thsoe that don't know. Pat is short for Patrick. I dont' know if anybody has that name in Germany.
Our:kraehe 3rd admin
would get very upset 
-
@SpiderBite: Gr8 story. It gave me GooseBumps.
When I was at school, I too was "that kid who dances like MJ" and it was always a mixed pleasure. On the one hand people admired the dancing, on the other hand others called you a fag and all sorts of stuff.
I remember when I was around 15-16 I developed a "I don't give a fuck"-attitude and told anyone who asked who my favorite artist was.Du sprichst mir aus der Seele. Geht mir auch so.
Jetzt mitmachen!
Du hast noch kein Benutzerkonto auf unserer Seite? Registriere dich kostenlos und nimm an unserer Community teil!