Porkchop is correct, on some points.
I doubt, as well, that you had really listened to MJ, or knew about his career, I knew about some of it, when I heard about it. Michael Jackson is an icon of.. Many things, and you probably only heard of him through jokes, or his alleged actions.
Billy Mays was a joke on the internet, true, but he was famous nonetheless. He was dubbed "Infomercial King." For someone that didn't pass High School, that is pretty good.