The Michael Jackson Emails Nobody Was Supposed to See
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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