It's been five years since the death of pop icon Michael Jackson and the world is still honoring his legacy and remembering how he changed the music industry for the better. At the age of 50, Jackson died on June 25, 2009 from a lethal dose of propofol and other drugs.
A couple months before Jackson's death, Oprah Winfrey interviewed the "Billie Jean" singer in one of the most-watched interviews where he talked about his belief in God, why he calls himself "an instrument of nature" and where he got the famous moonwalk from.
Check out some of the highlights from the Sept. 16, 2009 interview below:
On if he was a spiritual person and believes in God:
I believe in God absolutely. Absolutely. Very much.
On what his purpose on earth was:
To give in the best way I can through song, through dance, through music. I am committed to my art. I believe that all art has its ultimate goal - the union between the material and the spiritual - the human and the divine. I believe that to be the reason for the very existence of art. I feel I was chosen as an instrument to give music and love and harmony to the world.
On what he wanted the world to know about him:
I would love people to love what I do. I simply want to be loved wherever I go.
On where he got the moonwalk:
"The moonwalk came from these beautiful black kids who live in the ghettos in the inner cities, who are brilliant," Jackson said. "They just have that natural talent for dancing any of the new, hot dances. They come up with these dances. All I did was enhance the dance."
Jackson also opened about very personal things in his life like his relationship with his father, Joe Jackson, and whether or not he has ever bleached his skin. He told Winfrey how his father used to call him ugly and beat him. Jackson said he was scared of Joe.
"I love my father, but I don't know him... Sometimes I do get angry," Jackson said. "I don't know him the way I'd like to know him," Jackson told Oprah. "My mother's wonderful. To me, she's perfection. I just wish I could understand my father."
As far as skin bleaching rumors, Jackson revealed to the TV veteran that he suffered from a disease that destroyed his pigmentation called Vitiligo.
"It is something I cannot help," he said. "When people make up stories that I don't want to be who I am, it hurts me. It's a problem for me. I can't control it. But what about all the millions of people who sit in the sun to become darker, to become other than what they are. Nobody says nothing about that."
In a blog on Oprah.com from a few years ago, Winfrey said that her interview with Jackson was "the most exciting interview I had ever done."
What do you miss the most about the late Michael Jackson?
