MICHAEL JACKSON: KILLER THRILLER

Part 1

             Both the King of Pop, and his father-in-law, The King of Rock, wanted only one thing in the end: a good night’s sleep. For all their wealth and power, they couldn’t buy or command the simple rest most mortals take for granted. For years, the two icons had suffered insomnia and nightmares which, in the end, brought them to the dreamless Big Sleep itself.

            Among stressed-out stars, narcotic abuse has been epidemic for years. Barbiturates and/or heroin helped kill Hendrix, Morrison, Janis, Elvis, Cobain, Garcia, and many others. Even if they failed to induce sleep, these drugs alone could induce a sweet, womblike oblivion, delivering a star briefly from the crushing pressures of being “a living legend.” For this reason, heroin in particular has become the most popular chemotherapy for super-celebrity.

            Addicts say that a heroin high is as close as you can get to death, without actually dying. But Michael Jackson found an elixir which brought him even closer: Propofol. According to experts, this general anesthesia does not induce sleep, but a coma. The waking life of the King of Pop had become so unbearable that he wanted more than sleep: he wanted suspended animation.

            This was not a recent development. During his 1993 Dangerous tour, Jackson traveled with an anesthesiologist who, according to insiders, “brought him down” at night, and “brought him back” the next day. The star became a sort of pharmaceutical Lazarus. He grew all the more dependent on anesthesia when his worst nightmare materialized: he was charged with child molestation.

            Canceling the Dangerous tour, he retreated to a London detox clinic with friend and rehab veteran, Elizabeth Taylor. But the valium IV here was not enough to rescue the hypersensitive Michael from his terror of being found guilty, professionally ruined and personally disgraced. While lying sleepless in the hospital bed, his own break-out song may have echoed nightmarishly in his mind:

            You’re fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight. There’s no escapin the jaws of the alien this time --This is the end of your life.

            Said one of his assistants: “In therapy, he began to see that he was his own worst enemy.” His old Bad song had particular resonance for him now. I’m starting with the man in the mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways. After detox, he settled out of court with his accuser, Jordan Chandler, for $22 million, returned to Neverland and, indeed, sought to change his ways.