Madonna called Michael Jackson a "hero," a "king" and a "human being" as she paid tribute to the King of Pop at MTV's "2009 Video Music Awards," prior to Janet Jackson's anticipated performance.

"When I was six, my mother died. I think he got the shorter end of the sick," she says of the music legend. "I never had a mother but he never had a childhood."

Madonna said when she learned of Michael's death while preparing for her tour, she felt as if she had "abandoned him."

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The renovation of Jekyll Island's Great Dunes golf course includes nine holes designed by Walter Travis in the 1920s for the members of the Jekyll Island Club. Several holes that were part of the original layout where located along the beach and were bulldozed in the 1950s.(Photo by Austin Kaseman)

Credit: Photo by Austin Kaseman