( CNN ) -- Michael Jackson wanted to live forever . Just a year and a half before his death , I conducted what ended up being the last major interview with the reclusive Jackson in his suite at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City . And his words stopped me . `` Let 's face it . Who wants mortality ? Everybody wants immortality , '' he told me that warm September afternoon . `` You want what you create to live , be it sculpture or painting or music . Like Michelangelo said , ' I know the creator will go but his work survives . That 's why to escape death I attempt to bind my soul to my work . ' That 's how I feel . I give my all at work . 'Cause I want it to just live . '' Most of us remember where we were when we heard that he was dead . I was mowing the lawn at my house outside Chicago when I got the first call . In fact , I got several calls and texts with the bulletin -- first from TMZ and then from the Los Angeles Times -- that he had died . But it was n't until I heard CNN 's Wolf Blitzer announce it at 6:28 p.m . ET that I finally believed it . Michael Jackson was dead . Sure , I was shocked when I heard the news that the King of Pop had left the world . But , in a way , I was not all that surprised . Jackson , even as troubled as he was , had given his all to the world during his 50 years on the planet . And now he was in the hands of history . Just before that interview for Ebony magazine , I watched his youngest son , Blanket , then 7 , politely greet me at the hotel room door and his father quickly correct him -- `` Blanket , you shake with your right hand , not with your left '' -- and in that moment I saw what those kids meant to him . It was indeed his children -- Prince , now 17 , Paris , now 16 , and Blanket , now 12 -- who gave us those dozen or so extra years of Michael Jackson 's life . Jackson was a true father , and those kids were his heart . He lived for them . They gave his later life meaning . Never mind those images of a newborn Prince Michael II dangling from that hotel balcony in Berlin , or pictures of the kids wearing masks while being shuttled around by their dad . Away from the cameras and publicists and crowds , Jackson was about as regular a father as someone like him could be . That 's why it was even more tragic that he died just four days after Father 's Day . So , five years later , it is those kids who stand to benefit most from his immortality . If the lawyers and accountants and Uncle Sam get out of the way -- The Associated Press reported that more than $ 91 million of the $ 600 million his estate has earned since his death has gone to taxes and licenses , and another $ 32 million went to lawyers and the executors of his estate -- the three children and his mother will do quite well for the rest of their lives . As a musical wonder at age 8 , he and his brothers defined a genre of music in the '70s . When he left the Jackson 5 and went on his own in the early '80s , he did it again with his `` Off the Wall '' and `` Thriller '' albums , shattering just about every record held to date . He sold out concerts around the world , rescued a stalled music industry and single-handedly put MTV on the map -- `` Nobody had ever seen anything like that , '' legendary superproducer Quincy Jones once told me , after the `` Thriller '' video debuted on the fledgling music network . `` That album sold something like a million and a half copies per week after we put that video out . '' Still , when Jackson died , he had amassed nearly a half billion dollars in various debts -- to banks , bodyguards and other creditors , Forbes reported . That debt had largely been wiped out in the first year following his death , due to huge posthumous CD sales and film proceeds . In the last year alone , his estate has seen a slew of projects : . -- `` Xscape , '' a new album of never-before-released Michael Jackson songs reproduced by executive producer L.A. Reid debuted at No . 2 on the U.S. charts last month . -- `` Michael Jackson One , '' a Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil extravaganza featuring his music and dance moves , and `` The Immortal World Tour , '' a slick companion show that is now traveling the country , with more than 500 performances so far . -- Numerous books , documentaries and the film `` This Is It '' have tried to capture Jackson 's life . The latest book , `` Remember the Time : Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days , '' by two of his bodyguards , just hit bookstores . Michael Jackson 's legacy : Music , family and 'What if ? ' Even a makeup-stained chair , allegedly from Jackson 's rented Holmby Hills mansion where he died , just went on sale on eBay with a starting price of $ 30,000 . In death , everybody still wants to get paid by Michael Jackson . In the past five years there have been lawsuits -- his mother , Katherine Jackson , sued promoter AEG Live , claiming more than $ 1 billion in damages . She said the promoter was liable for the star 's wrongful death , but a jury ruled against her last year and she collected nothing . There have been tragedies -- Michael Jackson 's daughter , Paris , who took his death the hardest , found herself in a hospital bed last year after reportedly trying to slit her wrists . She later recovered . And there has been drama . Jackson 's personal physician , Dr. Conrad Murray , was convicted on involuntary manslaughter charges for causing the star 's death as a result of an overdose of the powerful surgical anesthetic propofol . He was released in 2013 , two years early , due to prison overcrowding . But through it all , Michael Jackson somehow lives on . Thinking back to that last conversation with him , I did n't know when I sat down next to him on that burgundy couch that his last words to me would be prophetic . `` To escape death I attempt to bind my soul to my work . '' Michael Jackson , through his work , wanted to live forever . And , based on what has happened in the five years since he died , he might just make it . Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion .
Jackson looks at whether Monroe desire for immortality is being realized . Michael Jackson 's told Michael Jackson 's during his last interview : `` Let 's face it . Who wants mortality ? '' Jackson died last year from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol .