Celine Dion On Larry King Re Michael Jackson's Death: Full Transcript 6/25

Celine Dion on CNN: I am shocked like the rest of the world. It doesn't sink in right now. I'm overwhelmed by this tragedy. I have to say to you, Michael Jackson's been an idol for me all my life. I remember being in my house when I was very, very young and having his posters above my bedroom. He's been my idol all my life and looking up to him.

And my goal was to be maybe doing the same show business world as him. And I was listening to his music and I hoped to be meeting him one day, and I have to tell you that I was very privileged to be on the same record company as him, and I did meet him a long, long time ago and I was so thrilled and nervous when I had the privilege of meeting with him. He was so kind, he gave me his autograph and I have a hat of his with his autograph and it always had an amazing meaning to me, but now it has a totally different meaning to me.

And we sang together, and I was looking forward to seeing his show in London, my husband and I, and Michael came to Las Vegas to see my show, and I was more than honored to have him.LARRY KING: Did he come backstage?
He came backstage, we spent about an hour together and he had a lot of questions for me. He was very… to me, he seemed to be, like, I want to know so much. I want to know how it is to be in Las Vegas. How it is, Celine, to sing every night here, is it difficult, is it difficult to sing here every night, is it demanding? I felt that he wanted to know so much. And me, I wanted to know so much, I wanted to know so much from him, but it seemed that, it seemed to me so fragile. And he wanted to have questions answered and I was amazed to have him in my dressing room.

LARRY KING: When you’re performing and you have someone like that in the audience, are you constantly aware of his presence?

Absolutely, you cannot do otherwise, and I have to say that I was questioning myself through the whole show: Can I announce him, do I give him his private time? Am I going to abuse his private time to announce him? Should I? I want to do it so much—and I did. I did announce him and the whole colesseum, the whole crowd went crazy, because Michael Jackson was not only an extremely talented person, he was unique and he was a genius. And when I said, “Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson is with us tonight,” I thought people were going to jump off the balcony. People went crazy, and I have to say, it is such a loss, because even right now, we’re home and we’re watching images and it feels like when Kennedy died, when Elvis Presley died. We’re not only talking about a talented person dying, it’s an amazing loss.

My sympathy goes to the family. It’s a big loss. It’s not even sinking in right now. I’m looking at the image on TV, and my son is 8 years old—and he knows his name, he’s listening to his songs—but it’s brand new for him, like I’m rediscovering Michael Jackson again… I grew up with him, and through my son, I’m discovering his music again. He will never die. He will never, ever die. My sympathy goes to his whole family.

LARRY KING: From a performer’s opinion, what was his greatness? Was he a great singer?
I think he was just an amazing genius, dancing, singing. I think it’s so unfortunate, Larry, because since he’s very little, he’s under pressure. I think we all live under pressure, differently; we live under pressure because we want to give the audience and the fans what they look forward, what they expect. We want to do a better album, we want to do a better show. I think Michael Jackson lived under pressure all the time, since he’s 5 years old. One thing to please his family, his fans and putting the bar so high, that he needed to be surpassing his own self. And I think it’s unfortunate because the pressure was so tremendous, I am so sure, if you only live under pressure and you don’t have something like your family, your husband or your wife, your children… I mean, he probably lived so much… he didn’t have the balance. I am sorry, my sympathies to the whole family. It is a big loss for all of us.