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Celine Dion

Celine Dion, “Larry King Live” (June 25, 2009) (archived)

Celine Dion: I have to say to you that Michael Jackson's been an idol for me all my life. I remember being in this -- in my house when I was very, very young and having his posters above my bedroom. He's my -- 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 has 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 see 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?

DION: 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 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.

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

DION: Absolutely. You cannot do otherwise. And I have to say that I was questioning myself through my whole show. Can I announce him? Do I give him his private time? Am I going to abuse him of his time to announce him? Should I? I want to do it so much.

And I did. And I did announce him. And the whole coliseum, 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," the people -- I thought people were going to jump off the balcony. The people went crazy.

And I have to say it is such a loss, because right -- even right now we were -- we're home, and we're watching images. And it feels that -- 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.