...at least on the cover of Ebony magazine marking the 25th anniversary of his landmark "Thriller" album. At that time, he was the king of pop, king of the world! Musically, the best. A showman? Wow! Remember his moonwalking on the CBS special marking Motown's 25th anniversary? That was even better than the disastrous reunion of Diana Ross and the Supremes.
And even in 1988, at the Grammys, when he did a medly of "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Man in the Mirror," Michael Jackson was still at the top of his game.
I can't even begin to understand what happened after that.
"That Michael is probably the same Michael here," he says in the magazine's December issue, on newsstands Monday. "I just wanted to get certain things accomplished first. But I always had this tug in the back of my head, the things I wanted to do, to raise children, have children. I'm enjoying it very much."

Does it bother him that people think he's some kind of freak - or worse?
I don't pay attention to that," he said. "In my opinion, it's ignorance. It's usually not based on fact. ... Every neighborhood has the guy who you don't see, so you gossip about him. You see those stories about him, there's the myth that he did this or he did that. People are crazy!"
Jackson says success "came with a lot of pain."
"When you're on top of your game, when you're a pioneer, people come at you. ... But I feel grateful, all those record-breaking things, to the biggest albums, to those No. 1s, I still feel grateful," says the singer, who has sold more than 750 albums worldwide.
Anyway, here are photos of the ever-changing Michael, through the years.
Does he recognize the man in the mirror?