GATLINBURG (Tenn.) – Tourists and East Tennesseans have turned a decades old Gatlinburg exhibit into a memorial for the “King of Pop.”

The Guinness Book of World Records Museums featured an exhibit on Michael Jackson since the 1980s, but the museum’s brought the life-like replica of the pop icon out front and center.

The crowds noticed.

“It looks just like him! Just like he’s gonna bust a move,” tourist Rhonda Faisea said.

“He’s not as tall as I thought he was,” tourist Tammi Hayes said.

Since Jackson’s death on Thursday, the museum workers say they’ve received so many inquires about it’s wax copy of Jackson, that they moved the exhibit into the lobby; so, any fan can see it for free.

“I can’t believe he’s dead. I took a part of me, just took a part of me away,” Faisea said.

Fans have left flowers and cards at the figure’s feet. One reads “We Love You Michael.

“I think it’s great tribute. I think it’s sad, but it’s good to know people can remember him,” Hayes said.

Hayes has been a fan for since she was a kid and Jackson was in part of the Jackson 5.

“We made up dances as kids,” Hayes said.

So she couldn’t resist getting an up-close look at her childhood crush.

“He was just cute Michael Jackson. We just wanted to look at him. But then we appreciated the entertainer he was when he came out with Thriller,” Hayes said.

The 1982 album earned the Guinness World Record for best selling album of all time. The museum got an exclusive copy of the pop icon’s body in the early eighties.

Wearing his signature shades and red leather thriller jacket, the figure nearly looks as if Jackson could start to moonwalk any second.

“This is a live casting. Michael had to actually spend all day, go to a studio and have wax poured over him. This is him exactly,” museum spokesman Karl Thomas said.

The wax figure looks so much like the real Michael Jackson, the museum says it actually was a stand-in for the real performer in a 1980s music video.

“I think they have it in the background. He wasn’t doing his moonwalk that’s for sure,” Thomas said.

The museum also the Epic Records Commemorative Thriller Album. The figure once wore one of Jackson’s signature sequined gloves.

However, someone has stolen it, leaving several of the figure’s fingers broken.

Museum staff says Michael Jackson exhibit will remain in the lobby as long as the visitors express an interest.