Michael Jackson

Howdy my rockin' Nimrod, how are you doing today?

The always funny, "Weird" Al Yankovic took a moment and discussed the major influence Michael Jackson had on his career in a Rolling Stone article. Not only this, but also he goes into detail about how two of his parodies came to be!

It all happened when Yankovic approached Jackson for a song parody, which according to Al was "a shot in the dark." Turns out, the pop star thought it was a
funny idea and returned the phone calls with his seal of approval for "Eat-it". Eventually Jackson also ended up letting Al use the subway set for "Bad" on Al's second parody "Fat".

Al reminisces about the very first time he met the pop star. "The first time I met him in person was long after I had gotten
permission to do "Eat It" back in 1984. There's a contract
somewhere that has his signature next to mine, proving that we are
the co-writers of "Eat It," which is surrealistic in and of itself."

Four years after the "Even Worse" record was out, Al ran into Michael backstage at one of his
concerts. The king of pop was busy mingling with a lot of people, when Yankovic presented a gold record of
"Even Worse" to him. Michael was very thankful and gracious and had some very nice words to say to the goofy star. After meeting, Yankovic thought to himself, "that's probably the last thing Michael Jackson needs, another gold record for his storage locker." Al describes the encounter by saying that "Seeing him in person
was amazing, it was otherworldly. He was and continues to be so
iconic, it's hard to even conceive of him as a human being. He
always was bigger than life."

Later on, they met for a second time at a TV show taping where Jackson performed "Black or White". Al recalls Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, being onstage as well. Afterwords, Al briefly spoke to Jackson about some interesting things. One of which happened to be about how Michael would play Yankovic's movie "UHF" for his buddies at Neverland Ranch. The California native remembers the pop star as always being quiet, soft-spoken, and super nice to him.

He was considering parodying "Black or White" at the time, but MJ wasn't so into the idea. He felt that the song was quite personal and that it had strong message behind the infectious pop beat. Al was quite thankful because he didn't want to just be known as just a  "Michael Jackson" impersonator, he wanted to expand his horizons. This turned Al to Seattle grunge band Nirvana, thus the the rocking tune, "Smells Like Nirvana" was born. This in turn gave his career a good rejuvenating jolt!

Al is thankful to Michael for giving his music career a head start. "I don't know what kind of
career I would have today if it hadn't been for Michael Jackson. In
a very real sense, he jump-started my career. "Eat It" basically
changed me from an unknown into a guy that got recognized at Burger
King."

Michael Jackson was a huge influence on pop music, and will always continue to be. He will be sorely missed, may he rest in peace!

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