Although you’ve never heard him on country radio, ever since his death late last month, artists have been making known how the King of Pop indeed affected country music.
An article on cmt.com described how Jackson did record with some country singers, Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers on the 1986 charity project “We Are the World.”
On CNN’s Larry King Live last week, Rogers said, “First of all, you start off envying, and then you’re just thankful you don’t have to go through what he went through. I mean, that would have been treacherous for anybody. And so I loved his music.”
In 2001, Jacko worked with Reba on another charity song “What More Can I Give.” She explained to CMT Insider, “he asked me to come do a line in it. And so we met at a studio in Los Angeles. ... He wore a shiny red satin shirt and black pants and was very nice ... . He’s huge. In life and death, huge, and I do hope that everybody remembers the good times. Let’s forget the bad.”
In an interview with CMT Radio, Craig Morgan said the public’s awareness of Jackson knew no boundaries.
“Here’s a guy that is probably the most famous singer in the world,” Morgan said. “he was truly global. You can go to Iraq and Afghanistan (where some) have no TV, no radio — and they know Michael Jackson. I mean, its pretty insane how famous he was.”
For many of us, Michael Jackson music was part of our childhood. Dierks Bentley, who performed last night at Country Concert in Fort Loramie, said, “if you grew up in the ’80s, and especially if you had an older sister, you couldn’t help but be influenced and awed by Michael Jackson’s music and talent.”
For Joe Nichols, “Thriller” was a milestone, “(it was) the first album I ever bought with my own money.” But not to say, other famous folks aren’t fully aware of Michael’s flaws, “he was forced to fill shoes that must have been crippling to walk in, but yet he found a reason and a way to dance in them like no one on earth” noted Rodney Atkins.
Luke Bryan made the often heard comparison, “my parents had Elvis. ... I had Michael Jackson.”
I don’t know if the King of Pop is in the same league as the King of Rock and Roll. But I do know that both were tortured souls, who gave up everything to entertain us, and for that, I will miss Michael Jackson.
Contact Nancy Wilson, a morning-radio personality, at WHKO-FM (K99.1), by e-mail through the Web site at k99online.com.
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