IANS

Washington, Jun 29: Priya Dutt, Congress member of the Lok Sabha from Mumbai North Central, says she is a great fan of King of Pop Michael Jackson, who "leaves behind the legend of his music and his art".

Describing him as "a modern day Elvis Presley", Dutt, daughter of yesteryears star Sunil Dutt, said: "Like Presley was the King of Rock and Roll he was the King of Pop."

"It was a very sad loss," said Dutt who was in Washington with a group of parliamentarians for the interactive leg of the third edition of India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Programme at the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut.

"Actually it was great loss and extremely sad for someone so young and I think he was already planning a show in London and was ready to come back in a big way and it was really sudden and shocking to all of us. Like we have all grown up on his music."

Dutt said she never had an opportunity to meet Jackson but Raju Patel, one of her close relatives in Los Angeles who passed away with cancer three years ago, was a good friend of his.

"He was really very excited because he had gone to his house and what a simple person he was when you really got to know him," Dutt said. "Of course we were all curious to know what kind of a guy Michael Jackson was and whatever we got to hear of him he was a most child-like person, very simple and very down to earth."

"But I think he got entangled in a lot of controversy and I guess when you are famous you have to pay a huge price for that."