Madonna explains the real reason legends like Michael Jackson, Prince, and Jean-Michel Basquiat burned out. “When you channel artistic ideas and you have creative visions, it’s magic. And when you overthink it or you start thinking about how much of that you own, you stop it. A lot of people have these meteoric careers and they rise up and take the world by storm… and then something happens and they can’t handle the light. In a way, they fly too close to the light and it burns them. I would say that’s really true about many of my peers… whether that’s Prince or Michael Jackson or Jean-Michel Basquiat. These are people who were channeling, but I don’t think they understood that there has to be some kind of restriction. People like to take drugs because they’re actually channeling light… but it’s light with no restriction. And then that’s what kills you or burns you out.”