You are so right. No matter how he turned out, or what he believed in, or what he did with children behind closed doors, he was also one hellacious entertainer.
I remember slow dancing to “I’ll Be There”. To this day, it brings back memories of my high school days, and the relative innocence of those times. I get misty-eyed when I hear the song (but not but Mariah Carey).
I hope that somehow he made his peace with God before he passed. He did, after all, bring a lot of joy to a lot of people.
If you’ve gotten misty-eyed listening to “I’ll Be There” in the past, just try it now . . . while thinking about how nobody was there for him when he needed help getting off the path of self-destruction that other people had set him on, and that he couldn’t get himself off of. Year after year after year that he obviously needed intensive help very very urgently, and nobody would help him.