Michael Jackson - Gone Too Soon [Live At 1992 Bill Clinton's Inaugural Gala]

Michael Jackson was a great songwriter who did write a lot of his hit songs, but he didn’t write the song "Gone Too Soon". The song was written by Larry Grossman and Buz Kohan. The song was written in the early '80s and was performed [but never recorded] by Donnie Warwick as a television tribute to performers who had lost their lives too soon. The list of artists mentioned in the tribute included Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Cass Elliot, Sam Cooke, Harry Chapman, Jim Croce, Otis Redding, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, John Belushi, and Karen Carpenter who passed away just before the television show aired.
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Michael Jackson contacted Kohan after the show had aired and expressed how much he was moved by the song. Arrangements were made for Jackson to record the song and it finally happened in 1990. Michael Jackson's recording of the song was dedicated to the memory of a young man named Ryan White, who passed away on April 8, 1990, from AIDS, one month before his high school graduation.

Ryan White was somewhat of a poster child for HIV and AIDS in the United States. He was born with hemophilia and became infected with HIV from a contaminated blood treatment. He was diagnosed in 1984, at a time when those with HIV and AIDS were poorly understood and were often demonized by the public as punishment - a popular misconception was that it was only spread through gay sex and sharing needles, two acts seen as deplorable by certain sects of the public at the time. The disease was often seen as something that only affected people in society that were deemed morally deplorable at the time – homosexuals and needle users. Of course, times have changed, thankfully, but the societal views on the AIDS crisis in the 1980s are sobering reminder of the power of ignorance. White gained national attention when he was expelled from school due to pressure from parents and faculty members who were ignorant about the disease and thought that he would infect other kids. White was demonized rather than being seen as the innocent kid that he was.

As White's case gained notoriety, it drew the attention of pop star, Michael Jackson, who was among a massive list of celebrities who befriended White during the final five years of his life. Jackson bought him a Mustang in 1988 and often flew him and his family out to Neverland Ranch. White lived long past his initial diagnosis of 6 months and would ultimately pass away in 1990. Two months later, Jackson finally recorded the song "Gone Too Soon" in memory of White and it was released in 1993 on World AIDS Day [December 1st]. White's passing, along with Freddy Mercury, who died a year later, in 1991 [at the age of 45] helped the mass public begin to develop an understanding of the disease. World AIDS Day was started in 1988 and since then, we have developed a much better understanding of the disease and its causes and it is far less demonized today than it was back then… ah, progress. Although we did see a somewhat similar cultural stigma by some sects of Americans attached to the outbreaks of Monkeypox in 2022 which was most prevalent in gay communities.

The song "Gone Too Soon" was sung at Michael Jackson's funeral as well, by Usher.