Celebrities LIVE Reactions To Michael Jackson’s Death (2009)

Update you now on tonight’s breaking news. Multiple media outlets are now reporting that pop singer Michael Jackson has died. Jackson was not breathing when paramedics arrived at his home after a 911 call. >> When I first heard that Michael had died, I was in London, days away from the opening of my tour. Michael was going to perform in the same venue as me a week later.

All I could think about in that moment was I had abandoned him. That we had abandoned him. That we had allowed this magnificent creature that once set the world on fire to somehow slip through the cracks. >> On June 25th, 2009, the news came so suddenly that at first people weren’t even sure it was real.

Michael Jackson had been rushed to the hospital in Los Angeles and within hours the reports everyone feared were confirmed. Michael Jackson died at just 50 years old. >> This is a special midnight edition of Larry King Live. We have this statement from UCLA. It reveals details of Jackson’s death and it reads the legendary King of Pop, Michael Jackson, passed away on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 2:26 p.m.

It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. >> As the news spread around the world, celebrities who had known him, worked with him, or simply grown up inspired by him began reacting and some of those first reactions showed just how difficult it was for even the people closest to Michael to believe he was really gone. >> My brother, the legendary King of Pop, Michael Jackson, passed away on Thursday, June [music] 25th, 2009 at 2:26 p.m.

It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. >> For Whitney Houston, Michael’s death was much more personal than simply losing an artist she admired. She had known Michael and the Jackson family for around two decades, so there were years of memories behind her reaction. When Oprah asked her just a few months later how Michael’s death had affected her.

Whitney remembered hearing the news and simply refusing to believe it at first. >> I thought it can’t be true. No one have I ever met quite like that young man. >> Mhm. >> You know, and to have it end like that saddens me. >> Smokey Robinson could remember exactly where he was when Michael’s [music] death suddenly became real.

He was looking at properties when his wife called him, crying so hard that he could barely understand her. Smokey had known Michael since he was young, so this wasn’t a name he expected to hear on the other end of a call like that. When his wife finally managed to tell him what had happened, Smokey simply couldn’t accept it.

>> Yeah, to hear that Yeah, it broke my heart. >> Quincy Jones was dealing with that same disbelief, but there was something else he couldn’t get past. Quincy was already 76, [music] Michael was only 50. After everything they had experienced together, Quincy never imagined Michael would be the one to go first.

They had created some of the biggest music of their lives together, but their relationship had become much more personal than producer and artist. So when Quincy spoke about losing Michael, you could understand why the news hit him so hard. >> It’s very hard to accept. I I I know I’m in a big state of denial here because I can’t believe it, you know, that I’m 76 years old and he’s 50 and he’s not he’s not with me anymore because our souls had to be connected to do what we did in the ’80s, you know. So he was a

happy-go-lucky person, you know, all through his career. Um um I don’t know. It’s a it’s just a big loss. I miss my little brother, really do, and I just still cannot process the fact that he’s no longer with us. And I love him. >> For Beyoncé, Michael’s death hit especially hard because he was one of the people who had inspired her to become a performer in the first place.

She had watched him since she was a child, [music] so during her I Am a World Tour in 2009, Beyoncé took one of her own songs and turned it into an emotional tribute to the person who had helped inspire that dream. >> That was the night I saw my hero perform for the very first time. That was the night I experienced the magic of Michael Jackson.

Everyone, I want you to put your lighters in the air. Put your glow sticks in the air. Put your cell phones in the air and help me celebrate Michael’s life. >> Chris Brown had grown up under that same influence, and almost [music] exactly 1 year after Michael’s death, he honored him at the BET Awards.

At first, Chris [music] seemed completely in control as he recreated Michael’s dancing, but when the performance reached Man in the Mirror, everything [music] changed. Chris tried to sing, but the emotion finally caught up with him. Jay-Z approached Michael’s death from another angle. When he spoke about it in front of a crowd, he wasn’t interested in letting the entire moment become about sadness.

Instead, he turned Michael’s passing into a reminder about something people often realize too late. Michael had spent decades giving audiences moments they would remember for the rest of their lives, and Jay wanted people to think about how they treated and appreciated someone while that person was still here.

>> If you take one thing from this concert, I want you to take this. We don’t mourn death, we celebrate life. So, don’t wait till somebody’s going to tell them you appreciate them. It was beautiful that he had nine albums in the top 10, but wouldn’t it be more beautiful if he was here to see it.

So, we don’t mourn death, we celebrate life. One time for night show. >> [cheering] >> Madonna was in London preparing for her own tour when Michael died. While Michael himself had been preparing to perform in that same city. But after the shock wore off, Madonna began thinking about how differently the world had treated Michael over the years.

Someone who had once been celebrated everywhere had also spent years being judged and ridiculed. After his death, Madonna couldn’t help questioning how everyone had allowed that to happen. >> While he was trying to build a family and rebuild his career, we were all busy passing judgement. Most of us had turned our backs on him. In a desperate attempt to hold on to his memory, I went on the internet to watch old clips of him dancing and singing on TV and on stage.

And I thought, my god, he was so unique, so original, so rare. And there will never be anyone like him again. He was a king. >> [applause] >> But he was also a human being. And alas, we are all human beings. And sometimes we have to lose things before we can truly appreciate them. >> And Madonna didn’t only look backward. She could already see Michael’s influence continuing through another generation, including her own children.

They were discovering the same performer who had fascinated her [music] decades earlier. And as she reached the end of her tribute, Madonna made it clear that although Michael was gone, she didn’t believe anyone could truly replace him. >> I want to end this on a positive note and say that my sons, aged nine and four, are obsessed with Michael Jackson.

There’s a whole lot of crotch grabbing and moonwalking going on in my house. And it seems like a whole new generation of kids has discovered his genius and are bringing him to life again. I hope that wherever Michael is right now, he is smiling about this. Michael Jackson was a human being, but damn it, he was a king. Long live the king.

>> For Usher, Michael’s influence was almost impossible to separate from the generation of performers that followed him, but Usher had also been fortunate enough to experience Michael as more than someone he watched on television. He had met him, known him personally, and even shared a stage with him. So, when Usher was asked about the loss, there were really two sides to what Michael meant to him.

The artist who had influenced so much of what came after him, and the person whose family [music] was now dealing with something far more painful than anything happening in the music world. >> You can’t say that you were an artist in this century and was not influenced by Michael. You know, I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to share the stage [music] with him, uh to know him personally.

I I I am always going to remember. And um >> [music] >> I’ll be a fan for life. This This is a uh a tragedy, to say the least, and uh has affected all of us. My uh my heart goes out to his family. My heart goes out to his fans. Most importantly, my heart goes out to his mother and also his children. But um it’s definitely a a hard one, a big loss.

>> Justin Timberlake also had personal memories with Michael, but after Michael died, Justin began thinking about why the loss affected millions of people who had never even met him. Michael’s music had become attached to moments in people’s lives. A song or performance could immediately bring back a memory.

To Justin, that was one reason Michael’s death felt strangely personal to so many people. >> The thing about Michael, you know, is the memories I I’m I’m lucky enough to have memories actually physically with him on stage and off. He’s created so many cultural photos and and in people’s minds with his music that you know, I mean, he really he really was he really was and always will be, you know, the king of pop.

To create the things that that he created with his music, I mean it’s it’s really untouchable. It really is untouchable. >> But Justin also understood Michael’s impact as a performer. Plenty of artists could make great records, but Michael became something completely different when he [music] stepped onto a stage. Justin struggled to even compare that ability to anyone else.

And eventually, he found a much simpler way of explaining what Michael had meant to entertainment. >> He opened the minds of the world. >> Yeah. >> And to be able to do that through one piece one one medium of art is a feat not accomplished by many people, maybe only a handful of people.

And even in those handful of people I don’t think anyone ever did it like him. No one presented a song on stage like Michael. >> But I don’t know, I mean, Michael Michael was and Michael was the baddest. >> Michael’s death even reached the White House. Barack Obama had grown up listening to Michael’s music and understood just how deeply it had become part of popular culture.

And while he acknowledged that Michael’s life had become complicated in later years, Obama believed that once the immediate headlines faded, there [music] was one part of Michael’s life people would continue remembering. >> Michael Jackson is uh will go down in history as one of our greatest entertainers. Uh I grew up on his music.

Uh still have all uh all his stuff on my iPod. You know, I think that that his brilliance as a performer um uh also was paired with a tragic and uh you know, in many ways sad personal life. Um but you know, I’m glad to see that uh he is being remembered primarily for uh the great joy that he brought to a lot of people through his uh extraordinary gifts as an entertainer.

>> Pharrell Williams was caught in a much more spontaneous moment. There was no prepared speech and no tribute stage. He was simply asked how Michael’s death had [music] affected him and what he wanted to say to Michael’s family and fans. Pharrell’s answer was short, but you could tell this was still something he was struggling to put into words.

>> Hello, Pharrell. Pharrell How do you feel about the passing of Michael Jackson? You sad? >> Oh, man. Totally sad. >> It’s terrible, isn’t it? >> Yeah. >> You got to say something to his fans and his family. Thank you. Cheers, Pharrell. >> Celine Dion’s reaction came when the news was still incredibly fresh.

Michael had died only hours earlier when she appeared live with Larry King. She had idolized Michael since she was a child, long before becoming a superstar herself. Now, she was suddenly being asked to talk about his death while she was still trying to understand that he [music] was actually gone. >> I am shocked like the rest of the world.

It doesn’t sink in right now. It’s I’m I’m I’m overwhelmed by by this tragedy. I have to say to you that um Michael Jackson’s been an idol for me. >> Smokey Robinson was also struggling with one detail more than anything else. Michael was only 50. The Michael he had known always seemed energetic and young at heart.

So, when the early reports started coming out, none of it made sense to him. He wasn’t only trying to understand how Michael Jackson could suddenly be gone. He was realizing that someone he personally considered a friend was gone, too. >> But I’m happy and sad tonight >> ready? because my friend is gone. And um he will be really missed by the entire world.

And I’m sure that most of the people in the world are feeling what I’m feeling right now. Oh, of course it’s troubling to me. You know, because for a man who was as in as good of physical shape as he was, and as energetic as he was, and to be a young man of 50 years, I mean, age is so relative.

You know, there are some people when I say a young man of 50 years they say, “Oh, young man.” But he was a young man. And not only was he young chronologically, but he was young inside. When I get the news that he’s had a heart attack, I mean, that’s unbelievable. >> Ne-Yo hadn’t known Michael for nearly as long, but the loss still affected him in a way he wasn’t expecting.

Michael had simply always existed in the world Ne-Yo grew up in. His music, videos, and influence were everywhere. Suddenly imagining a world where Michael Jackson was no longer alive felt almost impossible, and Ne-Yo made a comparison that showed just how strange that reality felt to him. >> Initially, I don’t I don’t know what to feel.

It It felt like I mean, I didn’t know him really, really well, but it felt like a close personal friend had passed. You know what I mean? Like, you know, you get choked up a little bit, like, “Wow. Really? Like, I Okay, Mike was 50. So, I So, I understand Mike is a person and people die, but I didn’t I felt I really and honestly didn’t feel like Mike would die in my lifetime.

I don’t know if that sounds weird, but like that’s how I felt. I I I didn’t think I would live to see Michael Jackson die like that. Like, even now, I don’t even feel real. It doesn’t feel real. >> Jeremy found out while he was on a plane heading toward Los Angeles. By the time he arrived, the news was everywhere.

Michael had been a huge influence on him, but what struck Jeremy was how everyone seemed to be processing the same loss at once. Even with Michael’s face and name everywhere around him, it was still difficult to believe he was actually gone. >> He’s been very influential, you know, as a as a artist, entertainer himself, you know, he’s hands down the king of pop, you know, when I heard about the news, I was actually on a plane on my way here to LA and it’s just, you know, I I feel like the world is at a sad state of mind right now. It’s It’s still kind of

surreal that the fact that he’s he’s gone. >> But for LaToya, this wasn’t news about an icon. It was her brother. She was home when her father called and told her Michael was sick and that she needed to get to him. At first, she didn’t understand how serious it was. Then she was told to go directly to the hospital.

LaToya got into her car and desperately [music] tried to find out whether Michael was okay. Nobody was giving her a clear answer. Then her mother Katherine came on to the phone and LaToya finally understood what was happening. >> Where were you when you got that call? >> I was at home. And my father called me and he told me because I live about two I was living two or three minutes away from Michael.

>> Mhm. >> And he said, you got to get over to his house. That’s what he told me and he said, um they said he’s he’s sick. He’s he’s sick and he needs to go to the hospital. Then he called me back again and says, no, go to the hospital now. My mother got on the phone and it was just um it was devastating.

I I lost my way through the hospital. I didn’t know where I was going because I was so nervous and I said, how’s he doing? How’s he doing? How’s he doing? Is he okay? Is he okay? And my mother’s assistant Trent wouldn’t give me an answer. And my mother heard her yelling, who is that? He said, it’s LaToya. And she grabbed the phone and she screamed as loud as she could.

She just said, he’s dead. And when she did that, I almost crashed the car. I started crying and my head went to the steering wheel and I started begging people on the street to drive me cuz I my legs got so weak. >> Yeah. >> And I said, please drive me to the hospital. I was asking anybody. >> Yeah. >> And it was just I couldn’t believe it.

My heart just fell to the ground. >> Inside Michael’s own family, those [music] first hours were even harder to comprehend. Jermaine remembered hearing his mother say that Michael was dead [music] and being struck by the sound of of voice as she said she had lost her child. He immediately rushed across town, and as he got [music] closer to the hospital, the helicopters filling the sky told him exactly where Michael was.

Jermaine first went to comfort his mother, but he needed to see his brother for himself. And when he finally walked in and [music] saw Michael lying there lifeless, the reality of what had happened became impossible to escape. >> To hear my mother say Michael’s dead, to feel and hear the tone in her voice to say her child is dead is is is nothing that anyone could ever imagine.

And to hear her say this, and I’m her son, too, and I rushed across town, and I once I got close to UCLA, I saw the helicopters in the skies, and that’s where he is. And I rushed in the hospital, and I went straight to my mother, like tried to console her a bit, but I I wanted to see Michael. And I wanted to see my brother.

And seeing him there lifeless and breathless was very emotional for me, but I >> Brooke Shields had known a side of Michael that most people never saw. Millions knew the superstar who could take over a stadium, but Brooke remembered the person she spent time with [music] when there wasn’t an audience around. So, when she stood at Michael’s memorial, she didn’t focus on reminding everyone how famous or talented he had been.

She wanted them to know the Michael she had personally lost. >> To the outside world, Michael was a genius with unchallenged ability. To the people who were lucky enough to know him personally, he was caring and funny, honest, pure, non-jaded, and he was a lover of life. He cared so deeply for his family and his friends and his fans.

>> As Brooke continued speaking though, it became harder for her to separate those happy memories from why everyone was gathered there. She had spent much of the speech remembering their friendship, but near the end her voice began to change. The emotion started taking over and Brooke finished with one final thought for the friend she had lost.

>> Today although our hearts are aching we need to look up where he is undoubtedly perched in a crescent moon and we need to smile. >> But after hearing friends, collaborators, and some of the biggest celebrities in the world react to Michael’s death the most painful reaction came from someone who never knew him primarily as the King of Pop.

12 days after Michael died, his 11-year-old daughter Paris stood on stage at his memorial surrounded by her family. Michael had spent years protecting his children from the attention surrounding him, so the public rarely heard them speak. But near the end of the memorial, Paris suddenly walked toward the microphone and in front of millions of people she tried to explain [music] what her father had meant to her.

>> I [snorts] just wanted to say >> Speak up, sweetheart. Speak up. Speak close. >> Ever since I was born daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. And I just wanted to say I love him so much. >> Make sure to like, subscribe, and share.