The Michael Jackson Emails Nobody Was Supposed to See

The desire to be the greatest of all

time is a never- ending curse. Because

no matter how great you become, there's

always a constant need to prove you're

still the best. And nobody lived that

curse more than Michael Jackson.

>> Are you pleased now with the way you the

way pleased with anything? I'm a

perfectionist. Yeah. It's part of who I

am.

>> Offthe-wall had to be better than

Mottown. Thriller had to be offthe-wall

and he kept trying to top himself with

every album he recorded after. Every

tour had to make the last one look

small. Not because the fans or the label

demanded it. It's because Michael

expected it of himself. That kind of

mentality is what made him the greatest

entertainer who ever lived. And

unfortunately, it's also what made him

the perfect target.

>> This is the final current call.

Okay. and see you in July.

>> By 2008, Michael Jackson hadn't toured

in over a decade. He was 50 years old,

his public image was in ruins, and he

was sitting on over $400 million in

debt. He needed one more show, one more

moment to prove to the world and to

himself that he was still him. And there

were people around him who knew that.

People who understood Michael's need to

perform wasn't just ambition anymore. It

became desperation.

And sometimes in the music industry, one

person's desperation is another person's

opportunity. Even as a teenager, Michael

had an obsession for greatness. He

practiced non-stop. He was constantly

pushing Mottown for solo songs. Nothing

was going to stop him.

>> Actually, you're becoming like a stage

addict. I really am. Like when there are

off days and there is no show, I'm up at

night dancing just to sing. It's really

strange.

Guess I'm an addict. Can't help it. His

love for music and his dedication to the

craft gave him the power to push through

dangerous rehearsals and performances.

He spent hours working on his Mottown 25

routine while recovering from surgery.

He even kept dancing when his hair

caught fire during a Pepsi commercial.

And in 1995, he pushed himself to the

point of passing out during rehearsals

for an HBO special. The need to be the

best wasn't a choice for Michael. It was

in his blood. And that's exactly what

made him vulnerable to what came next.

AEG

giving the world reason to cheer.

>> In 2008, a company called AG Live

approached Michael with a proposal. AEG

owns arenas. They promote tours. They're

behind some of the biggest concerts on

the planet. And they saw something in

Michael that nobody else was willing to

bet on at the time. A comeback.

>> This is the moment.

This is it.

>> The deal was massive. 50 shows at

London's O2 Arena, a residency called

This Is It, Michael and Ag stood to earn

hundreds of millions of dollars. And

after calculating ticket sales, merch,

sponsorships, media rights, estimates

reached over a billion dollars. See,

Michael was in a lot of financial debt,

and AG already advanced in tens of

millions before the residency started.

So, this wasn't a situation where

Michael could just walk away if things

got bad. The money was already spent.

contracts were signed. AG needed this

tour to happen. And a cancellation would

be financial disaster. And Michael

needed it, too. Not just for the money.

He needed the world to see him one more

time and remember what he was. This was

his resurrection. Everything was on the

line for everybody involved. But right

away, things started falling apart.

March 5th, 2009, the day Michael was

supposed to appear at the O2 Arena in

London to announce a tour to the world.

Thousands of fans, hundreds of

journalists, cameras ready to broadcast

to the world. But at the same time, AEG

Live CEO, a man named Randy Phillips,

wrote an email to the parent company's

executives and said, "MJ is locked in

his room, drunk and despondent."

>> And you wrote, "I screamed at him so

loud the walls are shaking.

Yes, that was an that was an

exaggeration, but I did raise my voice.

>> All right. And was it also an

exaggeration when you wrote, "This is

the scariest thing I've ever seen."

>> The promoter blamed London traffic when

Jackson was 90 minutes late for the

announcement that day. And of course,

they never say anything to the public.

They rushed him to the O2. Michael

walked out on the stage and told the

world, "This is it." And to everybody

watching, it looked like the King of Pop

was back.

>> This is it.

But behind the scenes, AEG already knew

he wasn't okay, but they pushed forward

anyway. Two months later, Randy Phillips

even went on CNN and told the public

that Michael Jackson was as healthy as

he can be. No health problems

whatsoever.

Over the next couple of months, there

were growing concerns amongst the

internal team about Michael's health.

Randy sent an email to Paul Gangaware,

the co-CEO. We need to pull the plug

now. After some back and forth, the team

decided it was time to bring in a

doctor. But not just any doctor. It had

to be someone that Michael trusted.

Dr. Conrad Murray was a cardiologist,

and he first met Michael back in 2006 in

Vegas. Murray had been treating Michael

on and off for a few years, but by 2009,

he was drowning in his own debt. He was

facing foreclosure on his home. He owed

child support to multiple women. His

medical practice was falling apart. He

was behind on everything. And then came

the offer. Ag Live drafted a contract to

pay Murray $150,000 a month to serve as

Michael Jackson's personal physician.

Now, 150,000 sounds real nice when

you're deep in debt and can't pay your

mortgage. But here's the catch. The

contract was never actually signed by

Michael. Mary was never technically

paid, but he was already treating

Michael in anticipation for a big

payday. The doctor responsible for

keeping Michael Jackson healthy had

every financial incentive in the world

to keep him performing no matter what.

If the tour gets cancelled, Murray

doesn't get paid. The company executives

at AEG knew this and they use Murray as

leverage whenever there was concerns

brought up about Michael's health. They

had the doctor in their back pocket.

>> Did you ever talk to Dr. Murray about

Michael Jackson's health?

>> Not so much about his health. No.

>> What What in particular did you talk to

him about? Well, I talked to him about

being willing to to get get him whatever

he needed uh to do what he had to do.

>> So, now you got three parties locked

into this situation. Michael, who needs

to prove he's still the greatest, AEG,

who needs the tour to happen to recoup

their investment, and Dr. Murray, who

needs Michael to push through to collect

his paycheck. Every single person around

Michael Jackson had a financial reason

to keep him going. And for a while, it

looked like it actually might work. In

the This Is It documentary, Michael

looks incredible. He's dancing. He's

directing the band. He's obsessing over

every detail the way he always did.

>> But what the documentary didn't show you

is what's happening in between the

rehearsals. Michael was losing weight.

He was missing rehearsals. One of the

show engineers even emailed that MJ is

not in shape enough yet to sing this

stuff and dance at the same time. Now,

keep in mind this email was sent one

month before the first show. People on

the production team, they were starting

to notice, but nobody wanted to be the

person who pulled the plug. As the first

show date was quickly approaching, the