In earlier years, Jackson sometimes invited a small group of fans back to his hotel, as he did after a concert in Sydney, Australia, in 1996. The lucky ones in that instance included Maya and Nandy McClean.

For three hours, the McClean twins and a group of other young teens had more fun than they could have imagined in Jackson's suite.

"Everybody was eating ice cream, having food fights," Maya remembered. "He gave everybody jackets at the end of the night."

While in Sydney, Jackson also secretly married Debbie Rowe, who was six months pregnant with the first of their two children.

He went on to an increasingly more complicated personal existence, but what stayed with the twins were his spirit, his music and his dancing.

The twins were inspired to embark on their own show business careers, and they were in Las Vegas as backup singers for Prince in 2007 when they encountered Jackson backstage.

"We said, 'Do you remember us from Sydney?'" Maya recalled. "He said, 'You guys are so grown up now!'"

She added, "He was like your dad or something."

Six weeks ago, the twins went down to the Nokia Theater across from the Staples Center to audition for Jackson's farewell "This Is It" series of concerts. They reached the callbacks, but did not make the final cut. They did get a thrill when Nandy caught Jackson's attention.

"She blew kisses to him and he blew kisses back," Maya said.

The twins learned of Jackson's death via Twitter while they were in rehearsal for their own show, and they cried as they kept on. They will be performing in Japan on the day of the memorial but stopped by the Staples Center yesterday morning, where fans had begun to gather.

"Man in the Mirror," Maya said when asked her favorite Jackson song.

"Human Nature," Nandy said.

Even twins are liable to each have their own particular favorite, and maybe listening to one is the best way for the many millions of Jackson's fans to remember him Tuesday.