6

When people grow up, they forget the way.

J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

On 1 May 2009, another package arrived at Nicole Alvarez’s Santa Monica flat. This package consisted of vials of Lorazepam and Midazolam that Murray had ordered the day before from Tim Lopez of Allied Pharmacy Services in Las Vegas. While Murray was placing his order with Lopez on 30 April, Michael Jackson was, once again, visiting Dr Arnold Klein at his clinic in Beverly Hills to have injections of Restylane and Intralesnl+7.1

Meanwhile, rehearsals for the ‘This Is It’ concerts at the O2 in London were well underway in Burbank, California, even without its superstar main attraction. A supremely talented seven-piece backing band, alongside four backing vocalists, had been assembled under the musical directorship of Michael Bearden2 and thousands of dancers from all over the world flew into Los Angeles in May to audition for the show in front of the ‘This Is It’ co-creator and co-director, Kenny Ortega.3

Born on 18 April 1950, in Palo Alto, California, Ortega had known Jackson since the 1990s Dangerous tour when he was the director of the production and also when he was Jackson’s co-creator/partner on the HIStory tour in 1996, as well as working together on a small number of one-off concert productions for charity subsequently.

Ortega had vast experience as a stage and television dancer and choreographer, and had worked on films in the 1980s such as Xanadu, Pretty In Pink, St. Elmo’s Fire and Dirty Dancing. During the 1990s and the early part of the millennium, Ortega’s credits were mostly connected with television shows such as Chicago Hope and Ally McBeal – before he scored a massive hit in 1996 as choreographer and director of High School Musical.

As early as February, Ortega had been having meetings with Jackson to discuss the music, the effects, the lighting and all the relevant details of the show. They would meet three or four, sometimes even five, times a week as the rehearsal schedule gathered pace, to construct the conceptual elements of the show. At first, these meetings were at Jackson’s Carolwood mansion, but once actual rehearsals began, these meetings generally took place at the Center Stages in Burbank, California. Joining them was choreographer Travis Payne.4

Payne had first worked with Jackson as a dancer in 1992 on the short film, Remember The Time. Following this, Payne worked as a dancer and choreographer on the Dangerous tour.5 In early 2009, Payne was working with Kenny Ortega at the Wynn Hotel Casino in Las Vegas and, following Jackson’s London press conference, went to meet the singer at his Carolwood home to discuss working together on the new show. Later, Payne discovered he would be the associate director and choreographer on the ‘This Is It’ tour. Deciding they should get the best dancers in the world, Payne, Ortega and associate choreographer, Stacy Walker,6 auditioned some 5,000 dancers to select, in April, the most suitable 11 candidates for the shows.

In his court testimony following Jackson’s death, Ortega recalled the singer being very excited in mid-April at the potential of doing something really important and wonderful with the ‘This Is It’ shows, and having the opportunity for his own children to witness him perform live – something they had never before had the chance to see.7 The shows certainly promised to be spectacular, with pyrotechnics, giant puppets, a flaming bed and a 3D Thriller-inspired haunted mansion. The co-owner of Center Staging in Burbank, Johnny Caswell, told USA Today on 29 June 2005, ‘He [Jackson] was trying, and succeeding, in structuring the biggest, most spectacular live production ever seen. By the time he left my facility, he had graduated through several studios and was on a soundstage taking up 10,000 square feet.’

However ‘excited’ Jackson seemed to Ortega, there was still concern about his health amongst many of those around the singer. He didn’t seem to be attending as many rehearsals as he was scheduled to appear at. In her court testimony, associate choreographer Stacy Walker said that Jackson wasn’t at rehearsals as often as he should have been. Was this because of illness or fatigue? Was it because he was visiting Dr Klein and under the effect of Demerol? Or was it simply because he was rehearsing at his Carolwood home with choreographer Travis Payne, who was helping the singer refresh his memory on the dances that already existed to then change and improve them with Jackson’s input?

These rehearsals at Jackson’s home were scheduled for five days a week but Payne was unsure who was setting the rehearsal schedule for Jackson.8 The fact that Payne was scheduled to rehearse with Jackson at his home for five days a week certainly offers a reason why Jackson might not have been attending rehearsals at Center Staging. But there might have been another reason. During his testimony Payne was asked, ‘How often did you rehearse with Mr Jackson?’ His response was, ‘It varied. I would go for private rehearsal at Carolwood. Michael would not turn up until Tuesday.’ Was this because Jackson was either visiting Dr Klein or recovering from visiting Dr Klein? An inspection of the record of his visits to Dr Klein shows he visited him on Monday, 23 March and then on Monday, 6th and Monday, 13 April, which means he wouldn’t have turned up for rehearsals until Tuesday, but the list of the singer’s visits to Dr Klein in April shows Jackson couldn’t have attended rehearsals on 6th, 9th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 21st, 22nd, 25th, 27th, 28th and 30th, as he was at Dr Klein’s on those days.9

Perhaps this is why, during the first week of May, Randy Phillips and Paul Gongaware (both of AEG) supposedly, according to an action brought in September 2010 by Katherine Jackson against AEG Live, complained to Jackson that he was not participating in enough of the show’s preparations.10 Jackson had been photographed leaving Klein’s clinic on a number of occasions, so there could be no doubt that AEG Live were aware that Jackson was still visiting the dermatologist.

Consequently, AEG Live may have thought that by acquiescing to Jackson’s insistent demands for a personal physician, and hiring Dr Conrad Murray to fulfil the role, the singer might stop seeing Klein and, therefore, be less exposed to the drugs that people around Jackson thought he was obtaining from Klein. In the 2010 case brought by Katherine Jackson against AEG Live, it explicitly claims that, ‘AEG instructed Michael Jackson to stop seeing and taking medications from his current doctor and to instead start seeing a doctor that AEG would provide.’11 Dr Robert Waldman, an addiction specialist, was already of the opinion that Jackson had exhibited signs of a developing tolerance to Demerol by late April and by early May he believed the singer was dependent on Demerol and possibly addicted to opioids.12 13

During the first week of May, Jackson’s personal assistant at the time, Michael Amir Williams, or Brother Michael as he was also known, called Dr Murray to tell him the singer wanted him to be his personal physician in London for the O2 concerts, as well as the build-up to the shows. Williams told Murray to expect a call from Paul Gongaware to formalise the arrangement. Paul Gongaware was the co-CEO of AEG Live. He had begun working for Concerts West in the mid-1970s14 and had worked with stars such as The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin and Elvis Presley, amongst others. In fact, Gongaware was working alongside Colonel Tom Parker, Presley’s manager, when Elvis died in 1977 in a case coincidentally also related to prescription drugs, this time given to Presley by his doctor, Dr Nick.15 In an email written by Gongaware on 5 July 2009, to Gabe Sutter, a computer technician involved in an earlier Jackson tour, Gongaware wrote: ‘I was on the Elvis tour when he died so I kind of knew what to expect.’16

Gongaware knew that Jackson had an issue with prescription drugs and was aware that he had been in rehab following the Dangerous tour in 1993.17 During this tour, Gongaware had been acting as tour manager and had been responsible for logistics with what was known as the ‘B’ party.18 This tour suffered from a number of cancellations, such as in Bangkok when Jackson took painkillers to help with the pain he was suffering from after surgery on his scalp, and it was one of these cancellations, in Mexico City, that spurred Elizabeth Taylor to recommend Jackson enter rehab in London.

Despite his background knowledge of Jackson’s predilection for painkilling drugs and the singer’s known unreliability towards actually turning up for scheduled performances, Gongaware was specifically involved in AEG Live trying to secure Michael Jackson for the O2 shows. AEG Live felt it was vital to secure Jackson as they attempted to overtake Live Nation as the world’s biggest concert promoters.19 To have a series of Jackson concerts would significantly increase the standing and value of AEG Live.

As far back as 26 September 2008, Gongaware and AEG Live were considering the prospects of a Michael Jackson tour. On that date, Gongaware sent an email to Randy Phillips saying, ‘Net to Mikey, 132 Million’ and then continued, ‘It’s a big number, but this is not a number MJ will want to hear. He thinks he is so much bigger than that. If we use show income, it’s over a quarter of a million dollars. His net share works out to be 50% after local, venue and advertising costs, which is quite good. His gross will approach half a billion dollars. Maybe gross is a better number to throw around if we need numbers with Mikey listening.’20

In an article in the New York Post, Richard Johnson wrote, ‘Greedy concert promoters tricked a drug-addled Michael Jackson into signing up for his grueling final concert series by overstating his cut of revenues and softballing how hard he’d have to work.’21

Certainly, it appears that well before undertaking any formal discussions with Jackson, AEG Live had already thought about the potential of more than the 10 shows initially proposed to Jackson, as the September 2008 email continues, ‘We play out O2 London. Who knows? 30 shows maybe. Then go play out Berlin and other European centres, as many as we can get. Take a break, ship the gear by sea freight (cheapest way), then play out the next continent. We’ll be all arenas in America, Europe, Australia stadiums in some places where it makes sense. We finish in America.’

On 5 January 2009, Gongaware sent an email to David Campbell22 and Jessica Koravos23 in the UK on the subject of Michael Jackson’s potential O2 dates.24 In the final paragraph of the email, Gongaware wrote, ‘We seem to be at or near the final draft of the contract.’ He then continued, ‘Although it’s not going as fast as we would all like, the idea is to get it done any way we can.’

Three weeks later, on 26 January 2009, Michael Jackson had signed a document for 31 shows but still seemed to believe in his mind that he was only going to do 10.25 By the end of February 2009, AEG Live were gearing up for the press conference in London at the beginning of March, but Gongaware, with his previous experience of working with Jackson, was already airing his concerns about the possible problems ahead and whether the singer would even turn up to the press conference at the O2. On 27 February 2009, in an email to Randy Phillips, Gongaware wrote, ‘We cannot be forced into stopping this, which MJ will try to do because he’s lazy and constantly changes his mind to fit his immediate wants.’26

Gongaware knew that, in London especially, Michael Jackson was known as ‘Wacko Jacko’ within the press and media, and any prospect of Jackson not showing up to his own press conference would only fuel the frenzy of ridicule towards him.

In March 2009, Gongaware wrote another email, this time to his assistant, Kelly Distefano, which said, ‘Fix the sizing for May. Change the color for the actual shows to something like – like the first one you used, like a light tan or something. I don’t want the shows to stand out so much when Michael looks at it. Less contrast between work and off. Maybe off days in a contrasting soft colour. Put ‘off’ in each day after 8 July as well. Figure it out so it looks like he’s not working so much.’ It seems that, as early as March 2009, AEG Live already had concerns about not only Jackson’s work schedule, but also his reliability in carrying out what was expected of him. Rehearsals had yet to begin, but the number of concerts had already been increased from the initial 10 shows to 50. Gongaware knew how unreliable Jackson was and how important it was to cajole him towards the London dates by appearing not to be putting too much pressure on him, especially when the pressure the singer was already facing from his financial woes was increasingly overwhelming.

Perhaps Jackson was already beginning to exhibit signs of pulling out of the shows? Maybe he was baulking at the workload ahead of him? The concert schedule had dramatically increased and no one, least of all Jackson, had any idea whether he was physically up to performing 50 shows.

In her testimony at the trial after Jackson’s death, his make-up artist Karen Faye27 offered an interesting insight into the way Jackson worked. While on the witness stand in the Jackson v. AEG Live case, Faye read from an email she had sent in March 2009 upon meeting Jackson in preparation for the concerts,

I see his pattern once again emerging with his caretakers. He uses them to finance his life, and then moves on when he cannot deliver on his promises. I am not saying his original intent isn’t to fulfill his obligations, but I’m merely speculating that he becomes paralyzed with fear. I see so many people invest in his success and believe in him. Then I have to watch him self-destruct. I have seen with my own eyes him deteriorate physically in a month. I have seen him do this several times in my relationship with him.

She suggests that therapy might be a perfect treatment for him being able to succeed before concluding with, ‘He hurts himself most of all’.

However, the jeopardy to AEG Live at this point was negligible; there was little financial risk to them as, according to the document Jackson had signed, he was bearing all the production costs and AEG Live hadn’t had to pay out to hire the O2 Arena because they owned it. What this March email does show is that AEG Live, through Paul Gongaware, were already aware that the schedule for May, which included predominantly rehearsals, had to be carefully adjusted and presented to Jackson in order to keep him placated while, at the same time, ensuring the rehearsals went ahead.

By the time Gongaware was phoning Dr Murray in early May, Jackson had already signed the contract document for the O2 shows.28 Jackson had specifically instructed Gongaware and Michael Amir Williams to hire Murray as his personal physician at the beginning of May 2009, and on a permanent basis for the period of the tour. But why was Jackson so insistent that Murray should assume the role? Was it really as simple as Jackson being familiar with Murray? After all the singer had told Dr Slavit he was satisfied with the care he was receiving from Murray. Was it because Murray had proven to the King of Pop that he could easily acquire Jackson’s drug of choice, Propofol? Or was it because Brother Michael had supposedly urged Jackson that he hire a black doctor?29

Whatever the reason, neither Jackson nor AEG appeared to explore more about Murray’s background. A simple check would have revealed Murray’s previous encounters with the law, his romantic liaisons and extra-marital affairs and his financial woes. And it appears that AEG Live failed to conduct exhaustive inquiries into the medical and personal background of Conrad Murray. In his testimony to the court following Jackson’s death, Paul Gongaware replied to a question about AEG Live’s investigation into Murray, regarding whether they checked out ‘… his background and qualifications, and everything like that’, by replying, ‘No, we didn’t do that. When we check out someone, we check out – we either rely on if we know the person, or if they’re known in the industry, or if they’re recommended by the artist. And in this case, Dr Murray was recommended by the artist. In fact, the artist insisted.’ Certainly, Gongaware confirmed at the same trial that he never saw an investigation report into Dr Murray.

Despite not doing detailed background checks, Paul Gongaware telephoned Dr Murray in Las Vegas on 8 May 2009 and, according to the Joe Jackson v. Conrad Murray trial, told him that AEG was interested in hiring Murray as Jackson’s personal ‘concierge’ physician. Gongaware also supposedly explained to Murray that Jackson had a drug problem and that AEG Live wanted Dr Murray to ‘wean’ Jackson off his medications and to reduce his dependence on them.30 It seems unlikely, given their lack of background checks, that AEG Live were aware that Murray had, by this point, already ordered a considerable amount of Propofol and was, to all intents and purposes, already Jackson’s exclusive personal physician.

Gongaware knew that Jackson had already passed a medical – Bob Taylor had given him the information from the insurers – but it appears that at no point did Gongaware actually see the report. Gongaware didn’t even seem to know, when he talked to Murray on the first occasion, who Murray was or what his medical specialty was.

During this initial phone call, Gongaware, despite having no background information about Murray, asked the doctor how much he wanted to accept the job. As Randall Sullivan wrote in his book Untouchable, ‘The call that came out of nowhere offering him a job as Michael Jackson’s personal physician must have seemed to Murray a miracle cure for all that ailed him.’31

Consequently, Murray stated that he wanted $5 million, saying that he would have to close four clinics and lay some people off.32 Gongaware told Murray that this simply wasn’t going to happen and ended the call.

Later that week, Gongaware spoke once more with Murray.33 At that moment Gongaware was in a car with Michael Jackson and the singer told Gongaware to offer Murray $150,000. Gongaware said to Murray that he had been authorised to offer $150,000 and Murray immediately began protesting, saying he ‘… can’t do it for that’ and that he needed more. But Gongaware cut Murray off mid-sentence and told him that the offer came directly from the artist, upon which Murray immediately accepted,34 therefore going from $5 million to $150,000 a month within seconds.35 During this conversation, Gongaware specifically asked Murray if he was licensed to go to London. Murray didn’t say ‘yes’ but he did tell Gongaware ‘Don’t worry about the licensing. I’ll take care of that.’36 In addition, Murray specified that he would need an assistant in London as well as some medical equipment. Gongaware finished by saying that AEG Live would, from that moment on, work on contract negotiations with Murray, as they were in the process of doing with other parties of the forthcoming Jackson tour, through Timm Woolley, the tour business manager.37

While all this was going on, Michael Jackson had checked in once again at Dr Klein’s clinic. On 4, 5, 6 May he received three injections totaling 800mg of Demerol38 following treatment for acne scars with Restylane, as well as five injections of Latanoprost for Jackson’s eye hypertension.

On 8 May 2009, as expected, Timm Woolley made contact with Conrad Murray. During their phone conversation, the two of them discussed the details of Murray’s engagement and Woolley confirmed the points raised in their discussion in an email sent to Murray later that day. Amongst the topics the email refers to are Murray’s mode of travel: ‘most likely with Artist on charter, but 1st Class if not’, and he confirms that Murray’s accommodation in London is within ‘… easy proximity of the Artist – that might be a guest house on the grounds of the property rented for Artist’. The email also states to Murray that, ‘AEG contract would not cover more than one month in lieu of notice if there was a curtailment or cessation of the tour’, and concludes with the offer of $150,000 per month, payable mid-month.

Two days later on Sunday, 10 May 2009, without responding to this email, Conrad Murray visited Michael Jackson at his Carolwood home. What happened that day remains a secret, but what is known is that Murray made an audio recording of Michael Jackson on his own iPhone. In the recording, we hear the barely recognisable voice of Jackson speaking in a rambling, slow and semi-comatosed manner, seemingly under the influence of drugs.

In the four-minute recording Jackson slurs out the following words:

Elvis didn’t do it. Beatles didn’t do it. We have to be phenomenal. When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. Go. Go. I’ve never seen nothing like this. Go. It’s amazing. He’s the greatest entertainer in the world.’ I’m taking that money, a million children, children’s hospital, the biggest in the world, Michael Jackson’s Children’s Hospital. Going to have a movie theatre, game room. Children are depressed. The … in those hospitals, no game room, no movie theatre. They’re sick because they’re depressed. Their mind is depressing them. I want to give them that. I care about them, them angels. God wants me to do it. God wants me to do it. I’m going to do it, Conrad. Don’t have enough hope, no more hope. That’s the next generation that’s going to save our planet, starting with … we’ll talk about it. United States, Europe, Prague, my babies. They walk around with no mother. They drop them off, they leave … a psychological degradation of that. They reach out to me: ‘Please take me with you’. I’m going to do that for them. That will be remembered more than my performances. My performances will be up there helping my children and always be my dream. I love them. I love them because I didn’t have a childhood. I had no childhood. I feel their pain. I feel their hurt. I can deal with it. ‘Heal the World’, ‘We Are The World’, ‘Will You Be There’, ‘The Lost Children.’ These are the songs I’ve written because I hurt, you know, I hurt.

After Jackson stopped speaking here, there was silence until Murray asked if Jackson was okay. Eight seconds of silence followed before Jackson finally replied with an eerily foreboding, ‘I am asleep’.

Why did Murray make this recording? What purpose did he hope it would serve? Was it an opportunistic keepsake, snatched when the singer was barely able to function? Or was it, possibly, an insurance policy taken out by Murray,39 proof that Jackson was under the influence of drugs when he returned from visits to Dr Klein? After all, Paul Gongaware from AEG Live is supposed to have requested that Murray helps to ‘wean’ Jackson off Demerol40 and those close to Jackson confirmed during the trial that the singer talked with a slower speech pattern with a slur in the speech after a visit to Dr Klein’s clinic.41

But, if this recording was made on Sunday, 10 May 2009,42 any connection to Dr Klein, and the Demerol he might have been giving to Jackson, is irrelevant as the singer hadn’t visited Klein’s clinic since Wednesday, 6 May and Demerol is likely to be out of a person’s system in 10 to 20 hours following administration.43 It is possible, of course, that Jackson administered Demerol himself, but he was known to have a phobia of needles and so self-administration seems highly unlikely.

In an exclusive interview with Don Lemon broadcast on CNN on 26 June 2014, Conrad Murray was questioned about the iPhone recording. After Don Lemon had played an extract from the recording he pressed Murray about why he felt the need to record Jackson in such a state:

Don Lemon: Dr Murray, that is disturbing. Anyone in that condition, why would you continue to give him drugs and then give him Propofol? And why would you record that?

Murray: Well, first of all I was accused of recording that so that I can take advantage of Michael down the road. And that was not the case. I did not even recognise or realise that that recording was actually on my phone. Michael had asked me, well, as far as I could look back, how much he snores at night. And I would speak to him about that. He wanted to record that, not only on tape, but on camera. I actually had just learned from my daughter who taught me to do talks and one of the apps on the phone.

Don Lemon: How to work it?

Murray: Right.

Don Lemon: But the question behind that is, so you were trying to monitor his sleep pattern, whether or not he was snoring, and that’s how you got that recording.

(Crosstalk)

Murray: That’s exactly how that was done when I look back in retrospect, yes.

Don Lemon: So why then would you continue? Because if he was …

(Crosstalk)

Murray: Interestingly – good question. If you look at my – if you listen to that recording, you hear a man that is clearly in the sleep state of going to sleep. But he is alert. His conversation makes sense.

Lemon: His mind is still active, even though he’s in a state of sleep.

Murray: Yes. But if you look at my statement to the police, I explained to them, to the police, all that Michael Jackson wanted, including the children’s hospital. Michael was just reiterating his dream to me. At the end of that state, of that recording, did you hear what he says at the end? He says, ‘I’m asleep’.44

In this interview, Murray fails to reveal much and it remains impossible to know what drugs Jackson had been taking prior to the audio recording being made, if any. But maybe the next order that Murray made to Applied Pharmacy Services can shed some light. No contract had yet been signed between Murray and AEG Live and negotiations were still at the discussion stage but, within two days of making this recording, Murray had already begun spending nights at Jackson’s Carolwood home45 and on 12 May he called Tim Lopez in Las Vegas to order another 40 x 100ml vials of Propofol, 25 x 20ml vials of Propofol and 20 x 2ml vials of Midazolam.46 This order of Propofol was equal in quantity to the order Murray had made on 28 April.

The order Murray made on 12 May also contained 10 x 0.5ml of Flumazenil. This was the first occasion that Murray had ordered Flumazenil since he had been working with Jackson. Flumazenil is a medicine that is specifically used as an antidote to reverse the effects of certain types of sedatives known as benzodiazepines. Midazolam and Lorazepam are benzodiazepines, and Murray had ordered both in April and May. Could it be that Murray was concerned about the side effects and potential dangers of the various prescription drugs he now had at his disposal, hence the reason he recorded the audio clip on his iPhone? And his order of Flumazenil would ensure, quite correctly, that he had an ability to reverse the effects of benzodiazepines if needed.

Certainly, it appears that by mid-May Murray was injecting, or considering injecting, Michael Jackson as, on 14 May, Conrad Murray phoned Tim Lopez to enquire about Lidocaine cream, and asked specifically about getting access to an increased strength of the cream.47 Lidocaine cream is used as a local anaesthetic on the skin of a patient to cause numbness or loss of feeling before certain medical procedures, such as injections. Michael Jackson had a phobia of needles and Murray’s initial order of Lidocaine was for a 2% cream and now, on 14 May, Murray was asking Lopez to increase the strength to 4%.

At this point in May, Jackson was taking a more pro-active role in the rehearsals, although his attendance was still irregular and unpredictable despite the fact that on 12 May 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported that:

Four mornings a week, an SUV with darkened windows bears Michael Jackson through the gates outside a nondescript building near the Burbank airport. He spends the next six hours on a soundstage in the company of 10 dancers and pop music’s best-known choreographer.

He certainly wasn’t at rehearsals four mornings a week every week throughout most of May and his lack of attendance was becoming increasingly frustrating for those involved in the forthcoming shows. In fact, a report in the Daily Mail on 22 May 2009 claimed that ‘… Michael has so far only shown up for two days of rehearsals, while his dancers have been working every day for 45 days.’48 But he had instigated changes in his life in May, whether at the behest of AEG Live or not, to seemingly improve the chances of him actually performing at the O2.

He had stopped seeing Dr Klein (his last visit to the dermatologist was on Wednesday, 6 May and he didn’t revisit him until Friday, 15 May) and he now also had his own personal physician, Dr Conrad Murray, who was in contract negotiations with AEG Live. The report from the Los Angeles Times that he was suddenly attending rehearsals, turning up in an SUV four mornings a week, fits with a gap between visits to Klein and certainly allows for a period when Jackson was likely clear of Demerol, 7 to 14 May, and therefore able to attend rehearsal for four mornings prior to the report being written, on any combination of 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 May.49

If Jackson were suddenly attending rehearsals regularly, and for six hours a day in the company of dancers and choreographers, he would need to be fit and alert and, most importantly, awake. He would have needed a good night’s sleep before to get through such a schedule, not an easy task for a man suffering from insomnia. And, by this point, according to his LAPD interview, Dr Murray had been administering Jackson Propofol.50

On 15 May 2009, Dr Murray responded by email to AEG’s initial contract offer, made by Timm Woolley a week earlier. In his email, which essentially agreed to the contents of the previous email from Woolley on 8 May and confirms that he is ready to sign a contract after showing it to his attorney, Murray concludes by writing, ‘As for good faith with my client I am sure you are aware that my services are already fully engaged with Mr Jackson.’

But despite Jackson having his own personal physician – the one he had insisted upon – as well as Lou Ferrigno as his personal trainer who worked on conditioning, toning and increasing the flexibility and stamina of the singer’s body, there was still concern amongst many behind the scenes that Jackson was in no fit state to open the tour on 8 July. He had frequently missed rehearsals and his health was still questionable. These lingering doubts about his ability to pull off his remarkable comeback prompted AEG Live, on 20 May, to delay the opening four nights of his O2 concert tour. The opening show, scheduled for 8 July 2009, was pushed back by five nights while the shows scheduled for the 10, 12 and 14 July were moved to dates in March 2010.

The official line was that the delays were at the behest of Michael Jackson and Kenny Ortega, and were down to the nature of the planned shows. In a statement, Randy Phillips said,

Kenny and Michael are, at the same time, both creative pioneers and perfectionists. The show has grown in size and scope, thereby necessitating more lead time for manufacture of the set, programming the content for the massive video elements and, most importantly, more time for full production and dress rehearsals. As much as we agonized over this change in the original schedule, we are sure the fans will understand when they experience the level of entertainment Michael Jackson intends to deliver.

Seven hundred and fifty thousand fans had already bought tickets and, despite all the apologies and excuses, it was a bitter pill for them to swallow, and, for many of them, the official line was treated with scepticism.

Across international media outlets, all sorts of rumours accounting for the delay started to circulate. Many attributed the reason to Jackson’s notorious reputation for cancelling concerts, but most suggested health fears with stories ranging from cancer scares to Jackson needing a lung transplant. The odds of him actually making the first night in London were cut dramatically and author Ian Halperin reported that ‘Behind the scenes, Jackson’s mental and physical health was rapidly deteriorating.’51 Halperin, quoting a member of Jackson’s household staff suggested that the singer was ‘terrified’ by the forthcoming concerts and wasn’t eating or sleeping and, when he did manage to sleep, he was having nightmares that he was going to be murdered. Halperin’s source ends by saying, ‘His voice and moves weren’t there any more. I think he maybe wanted to die rather than embarrassing himself onstage.’

The Daily Mail also had their own take on the postponement. On 22 May, reporter Alison Boshoff wrote that a ‘perfectly placed Jackson family source’ insisted that the singer is simply ‘not able to pick himself up out of the stupor he is in’. She added: ‘The suggestion that they need more time to set up the show in London is a joke.’52

While the announcement was being made on the 20 May 2009 that the London shows had been postponed, Jackson was back in Beverly Hills visiting Dr Klein. He attended Klein’s clinics on the 19, 20, and 21 May and had 100mg of Demerol injected into him on each of these days. These were Jackson’s last visits to Klein during May. By this point in time, Dr Murray was spending an increasing amount of time at Jackson’s Carolwood home, particularly at night. He had been seen by the nutritionist hired to prepare food for Jackson, Kai Chase, who recalled observing Murray carrying canisters of oxygen down the stairs each morning.53 54 Murray had been asked to ‘wean’ Jackson off Demerol; with Jackson scaling back his visits to Dr Klein, his main provider of Demerol, could it be that Murray was actually succeeding in his aim? But, if so, at what cost?

On 22 May, Conrad Murray sent another email to Timm Woolley at AEG Live, this time with his bank account information and a request for his May payment of $150,000. When this hadn’t arrived in his account almost a week later, Murray sent another email on 28 May to Woolley stating that: ‘I gathered from your last email that my contract is taking a little more time to develop than usual. In the meanwhile I have performed and continue to fulfill my services to the client in good faith.’ Further on in the email, Murray points out that the usual date of payment is 15 May and that, therefore payment is 13 days overdue. He concludes with, ‘I would appreciate it if you would look into this matter immediately so that we can go forward amicably as we have done to this point.’ This, despite the fact that no contract had been formally agreed, presented or signed between AEG Live and Murray. Woolley replied, almost immediately, with an email in which he said,

The legal department has not yet completed the agreement which is rather specialized since it is a rare event that a physician is engaged to accompany a touring artist. In any other circumstance I would agree that payment should be made as close as practicable to the due date, But AEG policies dictate that payment can only be made under a fully executed agreement.

At this point, Jackson was still not attending rehearsals regularly and AEG Live were anxious that Murray continue to do whatever he could to get the singer to the rehearsals. The non-payment and non-completion of the contract was threatening to become an issue. But Murray was in such a financial position that he couldn’t survive without Jackson, Jackson needed Murray to have access to Propofol, and AEG Live needed Murray to get the singer to the rehearsals. It was becoming a vicious circle for all concerned.

On 30 May 2009, the Los Angeles Times printed an article in which it hinted at trouble ahead. It claimed, ‘Even as Jackson’s deep-pocketed benefactors assemble an all-star team – High School Musical’s Kenny Ortega is directing the London concerts – there are hints of discord.’

This was against a backdrop of the same article featuring comments stating that AEG Live has proposed a three-year tour with Randy Phillips suggesting estimated ticket sales for the global concerts would exceed $450 million with the hope that Jackson would receive 50 per cent of that. The article ends with Randy Phillips acknowledging the concerts are a do-or-die moment for Jackson saying, ‘If it doesn’t happen [the O2 concerts], it would be a major problem for him [Jackson] career-wise in a way that it hasn’t been in the past.’

When Randy Phillips acknowledged the O2 concerts were a pivotal moment for Michael Jackson, nobody around him, least of all Jackson himself, could realise how prophetic the do-or-die comment was as the main players in this tragedy entered June 2009.