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I see. That's fine. If you don't like the music, you just don't and I'm not about to try to convince you otherwise. I was actually taking issue with the court of public opinion in respect of the allegations. I was also going to mention something about his legacy, which isn't entirely opinion-based. But, on reflection, I think that point should be evident to anyone who has followed or is familiar with music and the development of the music industry in the past, say, 3 decades. [I just want to say here that Dave Mustaine appears to be familiar with MJ's catalog and appreciative of it just as he is with other kinds of music one might not expect a metalhead to be. Mustaine's the man though.]

I think it bears mention though that WHO an artist/band has influenced isn't actually the crux of the issue but the fact that someone has done something different, made an impact, pushed boundaries, etc. is. In the pop world, it's likely that you've influenced a bunch of hacks. But the same is usually true in other areas of music. A couple of examples in the rock/metal world: Metallica may have influenced Mastodon (in part) on the one hand but they influenced Nickelback and Trivium on the other. Alice In Chains influenced Godsmack. Faith No More unintentionally influenced (f**king) Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach and so on (nu-metal, which was also termed as "sports metal"). Although each of the influential bands above all made their mark on music in a big way, the by-products of their influence (i.e. the artists/bands that have been influenced) are not necessarily reflective of what came first.