What a long, strange and probably somewhat lonley ride it was for MJ. Child prodigy, to awkward teenager, back to mega-star, accused child molester, plastic surgery mishaps, and now he joins the ranks of Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, the guy from Sublime, and many more musicians who paid the ultimate price for reeking havoc on thier body's. I dn't think anybody really knew the real MJ. He always seemed desperate to prove how "normal" he could be. I know he had more money than God but there was just something a bit sad about his life. RIP.

This shot was taken above Forest Lawn Cemetery of MJ's casket while family and friends escorted it to a hearse. It was fun viewing the whole circus throughout the day from a helicopter as his funeral procession went from the cemetery to the Staples Center, and then leading our bird, along with about 20 others on a wild goose chase around L.A. After the Staples memorial, the motorcade, which consisted of about 30 or so sparkling black Bentley's and a handful of SUV's and limos, broke off into groups and left at different times. The problem was, no one saw a hearse leave. Some of the helos followed groups down the I-10 presumably towards Beverly Hills where it was rumored the family was to have lunch, and others went back to Forest Lawn. I instructed my pilot to stay put above Staples because I just had to confirm the whereabouts of the casket.. This is where you have to trust your instincts. No one, even as I write this, knows where he will be buried. We heard rumors all day that it would be at Forest Lawn, or Neverland, I even heard under the Staples Center(yeah right). So a few hours passed and my editors at Getty decided to pull the plug and have us head back to the airport. I later heard he was snuck out in some kind of white van to an unknown location. Oddly enough, it was kind of a fun day.