R B Singers

"(In response to 'Did you know at the time why you were putting on the mask?' Jackson often had his children wear scarves, veils or masks to disguise their identities when they left home) Because that when we did go out without our dad, then nobody would really recognise us."

"(In response to: What do you miss the most?) Everything."

"Everyone's all 'a cook?!' like they're surprised to hear it...He was just a normal Dad. Except, I'd say he was the best dad ever."

"Daddy was supposed to be here. Daddy was going to perform this year but he couldn't perform last year … Thank you. We love you, Daddy."

"First of all, we’d like to thank God for watching over us over these past seven months, and our Grandma and Grandpa for their love and support. We would also like to thank the fans. Our father loved you so much because you were always there for him. Our father was always concerned about the planet and humanity. Through all his hard work and dedication, he has helped many charities and donated to all of them. Through all his songs, his message was simple: Love. We will continue to spread his message and help the world. Thank you. We love you, Daddy."

"You know how you either grow up in a Michael Jackson house or a prince house? for me it was Michael Jackson. I could never decide whether I wanted to be Michael Jackson or marry him. I don´t care what people say about him now because he´s a f... genius. That´s it — The end! He was robbed of his childhood, which is why he surrounds himself with children. When you´re around kids you can be a little kid yourself and pretend that life is magic and you don´t have to be one of those sweaty people going to work every day. I completely see what he´s doing"

"What is the definition of cool? Michael Jackson made “Heal the World.” He could do that because he was golden. He was himself. He didn’t have to try to be cool. Think about a lot of your favorite bands and groups. Would they make a song called “Heal the World”? No, because they are too concerned about their leather jackets. Ironically, they are probably wearing leather jackets because of Michael Jackson. Once you’re put in power, you have to take advantage of the position you’re in to make the world better. There were times when I thought I was making the world better, or maybe I just wasn’t thinking at all."

"Everyone's thinking they're the new W. Axl Rose, just running their mouths and living in this world where nothing is real. Like, it's really easy to write a couple of songs, but that doesn't mean you get to run your mouth. The only guy who can do that is Michael Jackson. He wrote Thriller, so he can say whatever the fuck he wants."

"Whether or not he has ever touched a boy inappropriately, Michael Jackson seems too emotionally stunted to act in any grown-up way, including a deviant sexual one. Naive, juvenile, and terribly damaged, he seems pathetically incapable not just of criminal intent, but of adult consciousness."

"I just love Michael Jackson. He is loved by people of all ages all over the world and is an eternal presence."

"He's sort of a fawn in a burning forest. It's a nice place where Michael comes from. I wish we could all spend some time in his world."

"The nearest thing we have to royalty in America is Michael Jackson."

"We stand up and the judge leaves, and Michael turns to me and says, "Bob, the jury system is much older than 200 years, isn't it?" I said, 'Well, yeah, it goes back to the Greeks." He says, "Oh yeah, Socrates had a jury trial, didn't he?" I said, "Yeah, well, you know how it turned out for him." Michael says, "Yeah, he had to drink the hemlock." That's just one little tidbit. We talked about psychology, Freud and Jung, Hawthorne, sociology, black history and sociology dealing with race issues. But he was very well read in the classics of psychology and history and literature."

"Michael Jackson was the one when there was no one before."

"That's how much we love Michael. We love Michael so much, we let the first kid slide."

"He dances with the breathtaking verve of his predecessor James Brown, the beguiling wispiness of Diana Ross, the ungainly pathos of Charlie Chaplin, the edgy joy of a man startled to be alive."

"I would go on YouTube and obsessively watch videos of the best performers: Michael Jackson, Usher, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, all those guys. And I would study everything: their moves, their facial expressions, the way they carry themselves onstage, everything. There's always so much to learn. Take Michael- he has so much power, and not just in the way he moves, either. I've always felt like his facial expressions are everything. I was watching a Michael video, and I put a piece of paper over his body so just his head was visible, and he was still killing it. Even just with his face, he was able to connect with the audience a hundred percent. Amazing. I was taking mental notes that whole time, and I still work on that."

"I always looked up to him--and my dad--since I was a little boy."

"I was and remain very fond of Michael. I liked him a lot. He was a sad character in that he was an abused child. And “Thriller” I guess was his peak in terms of his powers, by the time I did “Black Or White” he was mad. [Laughs.] The guy that I worked on “Thriller” was a genius and he was 20 years old, but it was like working with a gifted 10-year-old. The guy who I worked on with “Black Or White” was crazy. Michael had gone mad. [Laughs.] I just feel he’s a tragic figure. I liked him a lot and you won’t hear me say bad things about Mike. I mean, I don’t believe he was a child molester. I really do not. I think he was damn weird, no doubt about it, but in terms of sexually molesting a kid, I don’t think so. When he was on trial, I tried to go to show support, and his father wouldn’t let me in the court. His father hates me. I mean, he was surrounded by bad people, and he also created a lot of his misfortune, but he was an incredible performer. Seeing him live in a stadium—and I’ve worked with a lot of people—I’ve never seen anyone who had that kind of power onstage. But in real life he was just a skinny little guy who wasn’t there. He had no presence."

"The media first turned the trial into a freak-show by emphasizing Jackson's peculiarities rather than his humanity, and stoked the ratings with constant, trivializing coverage while other, far more important stories went under-reported or completely ignored in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, and Washington, D.C. The press might respond by saying, We gave the people what they wanted. My response would be, My job is to give them what they want. When he steps into a recording studio, it's Michael Jackson's job to give them what they want. Your job is to give the people what they need."

"This came down to a prosecutor either so sure Jackson was bad or so offended by Jackson's combination of celebrity and wackiness that he rushed into a case that looked shaky from hello. It looked worse as Tom Sneddon went along, and had become nearly ludicrous by the time Jackson's ex-wife left the stand. No matter how pure Sneddon's motives may have been (and I'm not saying they were, believe me), he began to look like a man pursuing a vendetta, one whose chief hope of securing a conviction lay in the obvious fact that the trial was a sideshow and the accused was … well, a freak."

"What I'm asking is whether this is still a country where a peculiar person such as Michael Jackson can get a fair shake and be considered innocent until proven guilty … or is this just a 21st-century American barnyard where we all feel free to turn on the moonwalking rooster … and peck it to death?"

"I'm upset at the way he's being treated in the media. I think they're really trying to slander his name, and I really think that's unfair for the way that he's contributed to the American culture since the day he was born. I think he deserves much more than that."

"I think Michael Jackson has influenced every performer on the face of the earth. What he really inspired me to do and influenced me to do is my best, and I feel like what he represented is quality and craftsmanship with his performance. He was one of the best performers of all time and it was because he put in work, he put in time, he was creative, and he wanted to be the best."

"Go to any village, any corner in India and you'll find everyone is familiar with the name Michael Jackson. There is no musician who can replace MJ."

"A thousand years from now, when the history of popular music is examined, no single performer will be as remembered and as celebrated as Michael Jackson."

"Just as Mozart could hear whole symphonies in his head, Jackson fully realized his songs before they were put down on paper. Jackson created some of the greatest pop anthems of all time, that only adds to the sense that what MJ had was a special, special gift."

"He is a very smart cookie, Michael. He knows what he wants, he knows what he is doing. I have nothing but admiration. Also, he is a very kind person."

"It was sort of frightening. He was so young. He didn't go out and play much. So if you want me to tell you the truth, I don't know where he got it. He just knew."

"He was so energetic that at five years old, he was like a leader. We saw that. So we said, 'Hey, Michael, you be the lead guy.' The audience ate it up. He was into those James Brown things at the time, you know. The speed was the thing. He would see somebody do something, and he could do it right away."

"Michael Jackson is literally walking in the shoes that no Black person has ever walked in before. If he ever writes an autobiography, it will be one of the most interesting ever. A Black man with no real formal education becomes the most powerful man in the industry, despite hatred, racism, enemies in his own camps and a media willing to be bought to the highest bidder."

"Michael Jackson gave us pride. He gave us pride in our blackness, gave us pride that we can look good and be cool and be worldwide. Michael Jackson is a fucking icon. And I believe they took Michael Jackson down because he had too much power."

"I don't think MJ knew just how much his music shaped a whole generation of Arabs — just how many fans he had here and just how devoted they remained throughout his ordeals. We might not have heard of The Beatles or Elvis Presley, but we sure knew Michael Jackson."

"In some ways Michael reminds me of the walking wounded. He's an extremely fragile person. I think that just getting on with life, making contact with people, is hard enough, much less to be worried about whither goest the world."

"He was adamantly against drugs and alcohol, he was extremely straight-laced; I couldn’t even swear around him. Being with Michael brought me back to my innocence."

"He's my biggest influence so that's why I'm very defensive. I'm ready to fight about Michael Jackson"

"What Michael Jackson did, almost pre-hip hop, is profound. What he does for black music in the beginning is mind-boggling"

"We're close, he's a good friend of mine, we definitely have a connection that most people don't have..."

"One important difference between Jackson's career and those of many others is that he was a child star who became an adult star – a very difficult transition to pull off."

"He will always be the King of Pop. He has not abdicated, nor has he been usurped."

"And if he is not credited for composing the music, it's because he was not happy with the result sound coming out of the console. At the time, game consoles did not allow an optimal sound reproduction, and Michael found it frustrating. He did not want to be associated with a product that devalued his music..."

"My wish is to meet him in heaven when I pass on"

"Though the allegations of sexual assault surrounding Jackson are serious, can you really cancel someone whose influence runs so deep and who is so omnipresent? Jenna Wortham, a culture writer for the New York Times, contemplated this question on the podcast "Still Processing." She says she's managed to cut out such entertainers as Allen, Louis CK and Chris Brown -- but Jackson is still everywhere. His songs influenced generations of musicians. It simply isn't possible to totally cancel him."

"You are the sun, you make me shine, or more like the stars, that twinkle at night. You are the moon that glows in my heart. You're my daytime, my night-time, my world...you are my life."

"Speechless, speechless, That's how you make me feel, When I'm with you I am far away, And nothing is for real."

"You can't believe it, you can't conceive it, And you can't touch me, 'cause I'm untouchable, And I know you hate it, and you can't take it, You'll never break me, 'cause I'm unbreakable."

"Just because you read it in a magazine, Or see it on a TV screen Don't make it factual."

"People say I'm strange that way, 'Cause I love such elementary things, It's been my fate to compensate For the childhood I've never known."

"Before you judge me, try hard to love me, Look within your heart then ask, Have you seen my childhood?"

"Did you ever stop to notice All the children dead from war? Did you ever stop to notice This crying earth, these weeping shores?"