The addiction to pills that took over his life

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1195626/Did-painkiller-addiction-pressure-building-sullied-reputation-kill-Michael-Jackson.html

The addiction to pills that took over his life... and which finally destroyed him
By Alison Boshoff
26th June 2009

His death may have stunned the world of music, but those who knew Michael Jackson say the warning signs of his fading health were clear.

They claim his long-term addiction to painkillers is the obvious underlying health issue which – combined with the considerable pressure of attempting a showbusiness comeback - may just have claimed his life.

Only last month, the Daily Mail reported that Jackson was struggling to make even a handful of the rehearsals for the comeback tour which was due to start in July at the O2 in London.

He had been to just two out of more than 45 rehearsals.

At the time, due to the sensitivities involved, I said that Jackson had some problems with painkiller use. In fact, according to my Jackson family source, he was 'just not able to pick himself up out of the painkiller stupor' that he was in.

The source, who asked not to be named, said: 'He has pain in his back and that is the reason for the drugs, but it is obvious that the painkillers have taken over his life.' He added: 'His family is telling him to ditch the medications and get on with the tour.'

Sadly there were no signs that Jackson was able to conquer his dependencies, believed to be to over the counter prescription opiates such as Dialudid.

And one consequence of an incautious overdose of these drugs is cardiac arrest.

We will know more once there has been an autopsy, but the family had been gravely concerned about Michael's dependency on these drugs which had been a serious issue since at least 2005 when he went on trial for child abuse.

According to most sources, his addictions actually dated back to the accident he had when filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984, when a stunt went badly wrong.

It is also widely accepted that he became hooked on the prescription painkiller Demerol after an accident in rehearsals for a 1993 tour.

He also was said at this time to have been dependent on the anti-anxiety medications Valium, Xanax and Ativan, and entered rehab.

Many Jackson observers think he did not fully recover from these dependencies.

Certainly, since he emerged from a self-imposed exile following the end of his trial for child abuse, Jackson had been much preoccupied with his health.

As recently as 12 months ago, he was frail enough to ask for a wheelchair when on a shopping trip.

He also said that the repeated operations on his nose left him struggling to breathe.

He was extremely thin – he never ate lunch and seemed to have serious issues about food and how it might age his body – Jackson had, of course, a horror of growing up which never abated.

The idea that he would be physically strong enough to perform at his forthcoming world tour always owed more to hope than expectation.

But he needed the money and was in the habit of making promises he had no intention of fulfilling.

His last days were certainly extremely pressured.

The tour promoters AEG were trying very hard to salvage the £65 million comeback concerts which – given that it is largely uninsured – may yet cause them serious financial difficulties.

They knew it was a risk, and organised the tour schedule so that he would have not had to perform on consecutive.

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.

Jackson and AEG denied reports that he was suffering from skin cancer, and promoter Randy Phillips said: 'I would trade my body for his tomorrow. He's in fantastic shape.'

But the truth is that Jackson was destroyed emotionally and physically 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.

Since then, Jackson lived in his own bubble, surrounded by staff and protected by a permanent security team of five. His staff bill was said to top £2.5 million a year.

Most days were spent earnestly playing with his children Prince Michael, Paris Katherine and Prince Michael II (known as Blanket) - created to order with Debbie Rowe and an unnamed surrogate mother. What on earth will now become of them?

The family had moved last year to a rented home in Los Angeles but had hardly any social life beyond the odd lunch with a family member, because Michael just was not up to it.

His chief hobby was shopping for books or furniture, and he would drop £50,000 on bronze sculptures, urns and paintings in just ten or 15 minutes.

At the time he died, he was deeply in debt and embroiled in a whole series of lawsuits, including one from his former manager and PR, Raymone Bain, who was suing him for £29million.

He moved out of his Neverland ranch in 2005 and since then has lived a rootless existence, staying in hotels and temporary accommodation around the world.

He had missed a string of planned appearances at various music industry events and didn’t show up in public on his 50th birthday last summer, or feel up to plugging his Thriller 25 album.

He desperately wanted to show the world - and particularly his children - what he was capable of.
The irony is, of course, that he was a born performer whose fluency and charisma made him a star when he was only a child.

Born in Gary, Indiana, Michael was the seventh child of the Jackson family. He began singing professionally aged 11 as a member of the Jackson 5.

His solo career started in 1971 when he was still a member of the group, but it was with the albums Off The Wall (1979) and Thriller (1982) that he carved for himself a place in the history of pop music.

It wasn’t just the Moonwalk which made him special, nor the lavish videos which made him the undisputed star of the first MTV generation.

Jackson was an astonishing performer, a brilliant dancer, a distinctive and original singer, and the most successful entertainer of all time.

He notched up 13 Grammy awards and sold more than 750 albums worldwide.

Jackson was raised a Jehovah’s witness and has told of being whipped and mentally abused by his father.

He said in a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey that during his childhood he often cried from loneliness and would sometimes get upon seeing his father.

The Jackson 5 signed for Motown in 1968.

Rolling Stone magazine described the young Michael as 'a prodigy' with 'overwhelming musical gifts'.

Hits like I Want You Back and ABC followed.

The Jackson 5 moved to a new record label and were renamed the Jacksons - Michael wrote hits such as Shake Your Body and Can You Feel It.

He went on to team up with legendary producer Quincy Jones to make Off The Wall - which generated four American No 1 hits including Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough and Rock with You.

Thriller, his next album broke all records staying in the charts in America for 80 consecutive weeks.

He also had negotiated the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point, earning him a fortune once estimate at more than $750million.

Yet no sooner had he reached the height of popular success than stories began to circulate about Jackson's reclusiveness and eccentricity: it was said that he slept in an oxygen chamber.

He also a pet chimp called Bubbles whom he doted on like a child - and the name Wacko Jacko was coined.

Over the ensuing years, his skin began to appear lighter - later blamed on a the skin disease vitiligo - and he had multiple plastic surgeries, most notably to his nose.

Sexual abuse allegations first surfaced in 1993, concerning a child named Jordan Chandler who Jackson had befriended. Neverland was searched, but Jacko protested his innocence.

The case was eventually resolved when Jackson paid off the child’s father, giving him $22 million out of court.

Later that year, he surprised everyone by marrying Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley.

They divorced two years later, and Presley later said that at times Jackson was high, incoherent and delusional.

Jackson went back on tour with the History album and married nurse Debbie Rowe, who was then pregnant with his child, Prince. She went on to give him a second child, Paris but they were divorced in 1999 with Rowe giving up all custody rights.

There was a last album, Invincible, and a third child Blanket, born to a surrogate mother who has never been identified but in truth, Jackson was now spirally into a decline from which he would never recover.

His final disgrace came at the hands of Martin Bashir, who filmed an ITV documentary titled Living with Michael Jackson.

In the film, Jackson was seen holding hands and discussing sleeping arrangements with a 15 year old boy, Gavin Arvizo, who would later accuse the star of child sexual abuse.

The case ended in May 2005, with Jackson being acquitted on all counts. But the details that had emerged during the trial sullied his reputation forever.

Even so, he never gave up hope of rebuilding his reputation, and once again proving what a unique talent he had. Last night, that hope was extinguished forever.