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Comeback king? Michael Jackson has managed TWO of 45 rehearsals for his £65m concerts

By Alison Boshoff
Last updated at 11:03 PM on 22nd May 2009

The official story is that Michael Jackson is in 'fantastic shape' and is relishing rehearsing for his £65million comeback tour, which is due to start in July. The announcement this week, postponing the first dates - in some cases by eight months - has been explained away by representatives who say Jackson just needs more time to rehe**** on the huge O2 stage.

But are we really expected to believe the delay is solely a production and rehearsal issue? I wonder - because I have been told by a perfectly placed Jackson family source that Michael has so far shown up for only two days of rehearsals, while his dancers have been working every day for 45 days.

Indeed, it looks most unlikely, based on this pattern, that Michael will make it on to stage at all.
Beset by problems: Jacko surrounded by press this week

Beset by problems: Jacko surrounded by press this week

The source, who insisted on anonymity to protect his position close to the Jackson family, said that the singer is simply 'not able to pick himself up out of the stupor he is in', adding: 'The suggestion that they need more time to set up the show in London is a joke.'

Indeed, as efforts are made to translate the tour's grand plans into reality, the only certainty is Jackson's customary unpredictability.

On one hand you have a performer who does not seem to have the physical or mental strength to honour his promises, and on the other a concert promoter who has chosen to take immense financial risks in pursuit of a big payday.

My source says Jackson, who is now 50, has for a long time been taking painkillers for a back problem - it's the same nagging injury which has seen him use a wheelchair regularly over the past five years.

Now he is attempting to get back to work, it is proving impossible because prescription drugs have slowed him down too much.

The choreographer on the tour, Kenny Ortega, denies this is the case and claims Michael 'comes into work every day with great enthusiasm and ideas and is loving the creative process'.

But the unofficial line is rather less promising. My source says: 'I think the fans who have already bought tickets should hold their breath and cross their fingers, because there is no guarantee any of this is actually going to happen.

'There is a possibility that this will still happen, but it is up to him to get his act together.

'Michael has only been to two days of rehearsals for the show. His dancers have been working on it every single day for 45 days at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, but Michael has been nowhere to be found.
In recent years Michael Jackson has appeared more and more frail

In recent years Michael Jackson has appeared more and more frail

'If Michael had been rehearsing on time maybe they would not have had that problem, but Michael has not been to rehearsals. So what is the probability of the next shows being cancelled? High, I would say.

'Unless Michael starts showing up to rehearsal, this concert tour will never get off the ground. Whether he'll show up or not is anybody's guess.'

The source adds that the Jackson family are all 'very concerned' at the situation and have been trying to help him through this crisis in the making. Jackson is especially close to his mother, Katherine, and speaks to her on at least a weekly basis.

He says: 'I think this is horribly serious. You are looking at a $100million [£65million] tour - that is a lot of cash. Being irresponsible like this is unacceptable. The family is very concerned. It's a commotion and a storm that is preventing Michael from moving forward with his life. The family is telling him to get on with the tour.'

That is certainly the fervent wish of Randy Phillips, the bullish chief executive of AEG Live, who persuaded Jackson to sign up to the tour deal and is now attempting to get him to deliver.

But why did Phillips ever expect that Jackson would be physically capable of delivering a two-hour show - featuring all of his greatest hits - for 50 dates?

That would be a gruelling commitment for the strongest performer, let alone a 50-year-old man in Jackson's frail condition.
Youthful looks: Michael Jackson says he has suffered from vitiligo, a condition which lightens the skin

Youthful looks: Michael Jackson says he has suffered from vitiligo, a condition which lightens the skin

Concessions have been made: Phillips has organised the tour schedule so that the singer never has to perform on consecutive nights, and he will have the support of dozens of beautifully choreographed dancers.

Even so, ever since Jackson's family heard of the full scale of the plans, they have felt that Michael will not be physically up to it.

At first, the proposal had been for Michael to commit to only ten performances in total - which his family felt would be the most he could sensibly agree to. So when Michael seemed to have been pressured by public demand into adding a further 40 dates, the whole family were horrified.

They aren't the only ones who are worried. AEG, who are staking millions on Jackson's residency at the O2, had immense trouble getting insurance for more than ten nights to protect them against financial loss should their star fail to perform.

Quite simply, no one wanted to underwrite the risk of illness or cancellation because it was deemed so probable.

After all, Jackson has broken financial deals in the past. In one case, which reached the High Court last year, a member of the Bahrain royal family, Sheikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, sued Jackson for reneging on a deal to produce an album, an autobiography and music for the Sheikh's record label.

Jackson allegedly failed to honour those promises, and the Sheikh was seeking to be repaid £4.6million which he lavished on the star. The matter was eventually settled out of court.
Fans are looking forward to seeing Jackson (pictured here during his youth) reprise his career highs in the epic series of concerts

Fans are looking forward to seeing Jackson (pictured here during his youth) reprise his career highs in the epic series of concerts

Small wonder then that insurers were nervous that Jackson would fail to honour his full commitments to the comeback tour. It was only when AEG's Randy Phillips took the colossal gamble of stating that he would insure the tour himself if necessary that another firm - believed to be specialist brokers Robertson Taylor - agreed to step in and offer to insure the first 23 dates.

Even then, my understanding is that this is for production costs only. This leaves AEG exposed to refunding all ticket sales and other liabilities out of its own pocket - which could run into tens ofmillions of pounds.

The financial gamble is the talk of the industry, but in an interview with Billboard magazine, Phillips said last week: 'AEG as a company was prepared to self-insure since we believe so greatly in Michael Jackson's talent and his willingness and his want to come back, perform for his fans again and get on the stage.

'We're negotiating for better insurance coverage and greater coverage past the first 23 shows, but we definitely have insurance.'

He added that Jackson had passed the mandatory health and physical tests required under the terms of insurance 'with flying colours'.

Why, then, have many of the London dates been postponed? In the press conference announcing the new schedule, Phillips insisted it was not to do with Jackson's health.

'I would trade my body for his tomorrow. He's in fantastic shape,' said the promoter.

'I've refuted all the crazy stories. He's not sleeping with elephants, he's not dying of skin cancer. You know, every day there's another story. I've never seen anything like that. He's a magnet for these weird stories that people make up.'

He certainly is - the problem being that with Michael Jackson, some of the stories turn out to be true.

One persistent rumour is that Jackson is having minor treatment for potentially cancerous lesions on his skin. But Jackson's new media representative Dr Tohme Tohme - a Lebanese businessman who has been mysteriously hired by the singer despite having no showbusiness experience - denies this.
It has been reported that Jackson is addicted to a number of prescription drugs including Demerol, Xanax and Valium

It has been reported that Jackson is addicted to a number of prescription drugs including Demerol, Xanax and Valium

My source also rejects the story, saying that the only thing wrong with Jackson's skin is the vitiligo from which he has suffered for two decades and which has gradually affected the pigmentation of his skin.

Even so, my source is adamant that Jackson is simply not fit enough for the demands of the tour.

He says: 'Michael has pain in his back and that is the reason for the drugs. But it is obvious the painkillers have taken over his life.'

His manner in meetings - he is reportedly absent-minded and not interested in any business matters - would appear to chime with reports that he is hooked on the prescription painkiller Demerol, following an accident in rehearsals for a 1993 tour.

Furthermore, it is widely accepted that around this time he became dependent on the anti-anxiety medications Valium, Xanax and Ativan, and entered rehab. Many Jackson observers think he did not fully recover from this dependency.

Certainly, he is physically frail - as recently as a year ago, he would go shopping in a wheelchair when he had a bad day. The truth is that Jackson was pretty much destroyed by his trial on charges of sex abuse in 2005 (a trial, incidentally, during which he spent much of the time in a wheelchair, claiming to be in serious pain from a broken vertebra in his back).

Though he was cleared of all charges, the sordid details that emerged during the trial left him mentally and physically broken. He fled from sight, and remains very fragile.
Jackson lives in his own bubble, surrounded by staff and protected by a permanent security team of five. Most days are spent earnestly playing with his children Prince Michael, Paris Katherine and Prince Michael II (known as Blanket).

There is hardly any social life beyond the odd lunch with a family member, because Michael just isn't up to it.

His chief hobby is shopping for books or furniture - which partly explains why his finances are in such a mess.

Gallery owners around the world know Jackson to be an impulsive and compulsive spender, who will drop £50,000 on bronze sculptures, urns and paintings in just ten or 15 minutes - even when he cannot afford them.

As ever with Jackson, he is embroiled in a financial crisis and a whole series of lawsuits, including one from his former manager and PR, Raymone Bain, who is suing him for £29million, and another from a promoter who claims that Jackson's manager had promised as recently as 2008 that he would do a tour with his brothers instead.

He is deeply in debt, and since moving out of his Neverland ranch in 2005 has lived a rootless existence, staying in hotels and temporary accommodation around the world (his latest base is a rented home in LA).

The temptations of a multi-million-pound comeback tour must have been considerable. Here was a means to escape his debts and to re-establish his reputation. But did he ever truly believe he was capable of such a grandiose scheme?

Speaking to his friends, it is clear that Jackson honestly wants to do the London concerts. He believes his legacy is at stake - and he wants to be remembered as a great performer. And why not? It is easy to forget what a talent Michael Jackson had.

He sincerely wishes to show his children what he is - or was - capable of.
But his last attempt at a stage performance was the disastrous mess at the World Music Awards in 2006, when he sang two lines of We Are The World and appeared too confused to carry on.

Meanwhile, plans for the London shows get more lavish by the day. Michael apparently wants elephants, monkeys and parrots to be part of the stage show. He also wants to fly over the stage and to sing a duet with his 12-year-old son, Prince Michael. 'This is one hell of a show,' enthuses Phillips. 'It's going to be worth the wait.'

Everyone wants to see him play. But whether he will make it to the stage or not is, alas, still very far from certain.

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Off_The_Wall

What pattern exactly? That he's rescheduled 4 shows? I don't see a pattern myself. Obviously if this happens again, maybe they can claim there's a pattern, until then... nope. And continually describing him as frail is just UGH!

That crap about WMA is just really starting to PISS me off! Michael said before going into the awards that he wasn't there to perform, he just happened to go on stage with the choir for We Are The World. It wasn't a rehe****d performance, and I dont remember him looking confused, does anybody else?

And it was stated in the press confrence that there were NO ELEPHANTS in the show! (and nothing mentioned about sleeping with elephants?! O.o) LOLOLOL

Sarah ~

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MissWorld

Yeah well....let's just hope it doesn't become a pattern.

I really hope it's not true he's only been at 2 rehearsals

Ruth

Lol. The Daily Fail..I mean Mail. Rly?

Sasha01

DailyMail. BS, IMO. I don't think he has only been to 2. Haven't Kenny said in the the press conference he's been to rehearsals everyday? That he comes in with energy and ideas, and alll that good stuff? And from somewhere else I remember, it said Michael goes to the place, like 4 times a week. Hm. And this says he's been to 2. O.o K... right.

Maybe the walls will tumble... and sun may refuse to shine...

Dancing the Dream

*sigh*...moving on....

Who's Bad?

Wow, that was quite possibly the most downer article yet. LOL.

helbell

Ugh, my parents read the Daily Mail (much to my despair) and took great joy in pointing out this article to me today.... It's not that they don't like Michael, or anything like it, but they just see the words "MICHAEL JACKSON!!!" and assume I need to know every piece of information..... Not sure I needed this lil snippet.

*sigh* I hope it's not true... Knowing the Daily Mail, it's most likely overly-dramatic and fictitious.

A treasure time won't steal away
We miss you, Michael
1958 - Forever

Who's Bad?

^Yes, fictitious, especially how everything always comes from "a source". That there makes it sound unreliable. That's just like saying "Oh, I heard from someone that..."