On celebrating 25 years since the release of the best-sold album ever “Thriller,” pop star Michael Jackson gave his first interview in a decade with “Ebony” magazine.

The 49-year-old singer will appear on the front cover of the African-American magazine, which will hit the market on November 12.

Harriete Cole, creative director of Ebony spent a day and a half in the company of the star and she confessed that he appeared to be such a normal person in spite of all the accusations of the media in the past years.

"He's 49. He's a grown-up. If you learn from your challenges, then you become stronger. He certainly seemed like that. Honestly ... he was normal," Cole told NBC's "Today" show this week, Reuters reports.

The star himself wanted to underline that he does not pay too much attention to all the negative words referring to his life and himself as a person. "I don't pay attention to that. In my opinion, it's ignorance. It's usually not based on fact. ... Every neighborhood has the guy who you don't see, so you gossip about him. You see those stories about him, there's the myth that he did this or he did that. People are crazy!" he told "Ebony" magazine.

He sustains that he is the same person who released his first album “Thriller” in 1982, which has sold more than 104 million copies in the whole world and was the first album ever to produce seven Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles.

"That Michael is probably the same Michael here. I just wanted to get certain things accomplished first," he said.

In spite of all the accusations referring to his behavior towards children, the father of three children said: "But I always had this tug in the back of my head, the things I wanted to do, to raise children, have children. I'm enjoying it very much."

The singer also revealed that he is going to make a 25^th anniversary edition of his album later in November, which will contain four new and four remixed tracks. For this album, he will collaborate with Kanye West, Akon and Will. I. Am of the Black Eyed Peas. This album will be available for his fans sometimes in 2008.

The singer expressed his gratitude to the fact that he was more than just a lucky person and his carrier seemed to have been a total success from the moment it started. All his albums sold in 750 million copies all around the world, which shows that millions of fans remained faithful to their idol in spite of the negative reputation the media built around him.

"When you're on top of your game, when you're a pioneer, people come at you. But I feel grateful - all those record-breaking things, to the biggest albums, to those number ones - I still feel grateful," he said.