This huge painting was carried out by artist Leon Jones. Article Edited: He met Michael Jackson face to face, and painted Michael at his Neverland Ranch."Michael was just great," said Jones, 52. "He was just like a little kid. He was a down-to-earth person."During the summer of 2003, Jones painted two murals and a go-cart for Michael. He spent several months painting at the ramblin' ranch.
It all began like this: In 2003, Jones was doing portraits outside Café Tu Tu Tango at Universal City Walk. He specializes in celebrities. One day, a gentleman in his 30s representing Jackson asked if Jones could do some work for "his boss." The stranger left him with $500 cash to do the commission.Jones was skeptical. But a couple of days later, the artist and his nephew met the gentleman at a gas station in Santa Barbara. They followed the man up through Los Olivos, and finally to the fantastical, secluded Neverland Ranch."It was unreal, like you were on a different planet," Jones said. "Neverland is designed to make you feel like you don't have any responsibilities.""He goes up in this tree and writes poetry," Jones recalled. "In the day, he'd be sitting over in the tree, and he'd be just Michael."

Jones painted two, 15-feet-high murals to decorate Jackson's train depot. He did a portrait of Jackson in knight's armor donning angel wings, as well as a large mural of Jackson pointing toward the heavens, surrounded by winged children."When they saw them, Michael and three or four kids, and his kids, they all started applauding me," Jones said. "Later on, one of the children said, 'That's what Michael did when he felt like you had done a great job.' I've never experienced something like that."Jones also said that upon seeing his work, the King of Pop grabbed his hand and skipped a block's length with him.
"It was like we were little kids," he explained. "It was just fantastic. When we were there, they treated us like kings and queens."