26 years ago, together with two friends, I travelled to the USA to warn Michael about things that were happening with Sony in Europe. I had been travelling for quite some years by then and usually, successfully, tried to be at all the events in Europe where Michael Jackson appeared. (In another MJ Memories story, I’ll go into more detail about the 2000 trip.)
25 years ago, I heard Michael would celebrate his 30th anniversary as a solo artist with two concerts in New York. All the fans around me, including the fans I’d travelled with a year before, said, “Let’s go.”
Somehow, I wasn’t that excited. I was thinking, what is it? It wasn’t the finances. I lived at home with my parents and had a job. It wasn’t that I was scared to travel. I’d been to the US before.
And to be honest, our stopover was actually in New York the year before, and the pilot made a very cool turn over NY. He told the passengers there was a clear view of the Hudson River, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park and the Twin Towers. I loved seeing all of this. It was quite magical and had such an impact on me that I thought, I’d love to be here one day and stand on top of the Twin Towers. Basically, that was my plan and destination, along with seeing some of the other places I’d seen from the plane.
Anyway, somehow I didn’t feel it. Basically, all my friends were there for the first concert on September 7th. The day after, I talked to Willy Gijsman, former president of The Legend Continues.
He had been so enthusiastic that I was getting the MJ Fever… And somehow I hit myself with the thought: why didn’t I go? I had the days off anyway.
Suddenly, another friend, who was an MJ imitator, called me.
“Mark, are you still in the Netherlands?”
“Yes.”
“Me too! Let’s go to New York.”
“All right. If we go, we go on standby.”
I packed my stuff and went to Amsterdam Central Station to meet up with my friend. He didn’t show up.
After waiting for quite some hours, I’d had enough of it. I thought to myself, I didn’t have a good feeling about it anyway. I made my choice not to go. It’s OK.
Back at home, the phone rang.
“Sorry, Mark. For unexplainable reasons, I fell asleep,” he said. “Sorry, sorry, sorry.”
“No worries about it,” I said.
“It will not be fun. I have a bad sixth-sense feeling. I can’t explain it, but from the start I just felt I shouldn’t go.”
Having the days off and no clear plans in the Netherlands, I’d rented a car. I had just gotten my driver’s license and wanted to drive. Radio on, enjoying a beautiful sunny day. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky.
I was thinking of my friends, who were all in NY. But they were probably still asleep because of the time difference.
Suddenly, the DJ said, “Oh, wait, I’ve just heard that a small plane hit the Twin Towers.”
That caught my attention immediately. But there was a little sigh of relief: a small plane. Accidents unfortunately do happen.
Within a very short time, he said, “Oh no! That’s not a small plane.”
I just knew it couldn’t be an accident. I thought, this is huge. And I felt it was war.
I stopped at a bank and pulled cash from the ATM. I walked into the bank, where they had a television, and saw the second plane hit live.
Chills, tears, fear, all at once.
Thinking of my friends. Thinking of the Twin Towers and my original plan to stand on top of them. Thinking of my feeling that I shouldn’t go. Thinking of Michael, who performed Heal the World.
His message was strong, and still is relevant today.
We need to take care of our planet and each other. Even if we like each other or not, we are all on the same spaceship called Earth.
In Michael’s words: “Let’s make this world a better place.”
Peace!
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