As has been said, I've never been that big into his adult career, but I did listen to a best of the Jackson 5 CD coincidentally earlier in the week and have to admit he was extraordinarily talented as a child.
I DO think it's sad the way society has a tendency to make celebrities so much bigger than life and then, once they're big, tear them down because they're too big.
For all his adult weirdness, and I HAVE been vocal about that weirdness to friends over the years, I try to remember that it's likely that we made him that way. How easy it must be to lose touch with reality when you're under a microscope since your childhood, have access to virtually unlimited money, are surrounded by "yes men", idolized by the public, and separated from them at the same time.
I'm not defending him, but I DO think it's us that made him that way.
