PHOTOS: MJ's Last Concert Rehearsal

Photos from Michael Jackson's last performance, taken just two days before his death, have surfaced and show the King of Pop rehearsing for his upcoming London tour.



MJ, dressed in several stage outfits and showing off his dance moves with backup dancers, was photographed at a rehearsal inside L.A.'s Staples Center on June 23 where "he had great energy," according to producer Ken Ehrlich, an executive at AEG, the company that was promoting the singer's tour.

Ehrlich, who watched the performance and met with Jackson, tells, "He was definitely in rehearsal mode [and] wasn't giving it full out. But vocally, he had started to really project. I thought he was in great form. He just seemed really healthy. He really looked good and he was very upbeat."



During their brief 20-minute conversation, MJ was "cracking jokes," adds Ehrlich. "He was having a good time. During rehearsal, I could tell that he was feeling it. He was feeling good. He was on his way to giving a great performance."

Photos by: Kevin Mazur / AEG / Getty

Nurse: "Jackson wanted sedatives"

Michael Jackson suffered from severe bouts of insomnia and pleaded for a powerful sedative despite knowing its harmful effects, a nutritionist who worked with the singer said Tuesday.

Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse who first met Jackson in January to treat his children for a common cold, said she rejected his requests for Diprivan and informed him of the side effects.

"I told him this medication is not safe," Lee said. "He said, 'I just want to get some sleep. You don't understand. I just want to be able to be knocked out and go to sleep.' "

"I told him -- and it is so painful that I actually felt it in my whole spirit -- 'If you take this you might not wake up.' "

When asked about Lee's account, Jackson family attorney Londell McMillan said:

"I wonder why someone would make a comment about drugs when they haven't seen him take the drug or anyone who administered it."

The drug, known by its generic name Propofol, is administered intravenously as an anesthetic during surgeries.

An initial dose puts a person to sleep. An overdose can lead to cardiac arrest, doctors say.

Lee is licensed as a registered nurse, according to the California Board of Registered Nursing Web site. According to her Web site, she is a proponent of alternative medicine that uses a holistic approach.

Lee said that four days before Jackson's death, she received a call from a Jackson staff member who said the singer felt that one side of his body was cold; the other hot.

"I could hear Mr. Jackson saying in the background, 'Please have her come see me now. Can she come now?' "

Lee, who was in Florida at the time, said she told Jackson's staffers to take him to a hospital.

"I was really afraid because of the symptoms they were telling me," she said. "It could have meant something going on in the nervous system or something cardiovascular."

After his death, Lee said she didn't go to the authorities.

"When I saw it on the news, I really didn't know what to do," she said. "I was saddened. I heard there was a physician there."

Lee also could not say why Jackson would call on her, when the last time she saw him was three months ago.

"The only think I can think of is he recalled the symptoms I was telling him," she said.

But, she added, she didn't know of any doctors who would have given him the drug.

"I asked him, 'What doctor gave you this drug?' " she said, when the singer initially brought up the medicine. "He told me, 'Oh it was a long time ago.' "

Dr. Rakesh Marwah of the anesthesiology department at the Stanford University School of Medicine said Propofol can lead to cardiac arrest, which is suspected in Jackson's death.

"Propofol slows down the heart rate and slows down the respiratory rate and slows down the vital functions of the body," he said.

12 Michael Jackson Fans 'Commit Suicide' In Wake Of His Death

12 Michael Jackson fans have reportedly commit suicide in the wake of The King of Pop's sudden death last Thursday.

Sky News quotes Gary Taylor, the head of the world's biggest Michael Jackson online fan club MJJcommunity.com, who says some fans can't cope with the news of the singer's death.

He said: "I know there has been an increase (in deaths), I now believe the figure is 12. It is a serious situation that these people are going through but Michael Jackson would never want this. He would want them to live.”

Taylor continued: "They can't accept it, they feel in some sort of different reality.

“I'm stunned that he's dead. One minute he is coming here for concerts and the next he is gone.

“I think the funeral will be where the reality kicks in that he is gone and won't be coming back, there will be a huge depression in the fan community when that happens."

The music legend's close friend, Reverend Jesse Jackson, has also expressed his fears about the mental state of Michael's loyal fans saying they must pull together instead of taking their lives.

He urged: "This is a time when hearts are heavy. There is great pain but great cause to celebrate Michael's life. It made Michael happy saying 'We Are The World'. Don't self destruct.

"We fall down sometimes, we get back up. That's the right thing to do. In Michael's name let's live together as brothers and sisters and not die apart as fools."

Michael Jackson public viewing to be Friday

Michael Jackson's body will return to his Neverland Ranch on Thursday morning for a public viewing on Friday, CNN has learned.

A private memorial service is scheduled for Sunday.

Also, a Jackson will, written in 2002, has been located, according to Jackson family lawyer Londell McMillan.

The question of where Jackson will be buried remains unanswered.

The singer's hometown of Gary, Indiana, is asking the family to send him there, according to the mayor's spokeswoman.

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay has been in contact with the Jackson family hoping to make that happen, spokeswoman Lalosa Burns said Tuesday.

Clay told Chicago radio station WGN that he expects Jackson's body will, at the least, be taken to Gary for a memorial service he is planning for next week.

"I believe that his body will lie in state in Gary, Indiana," Clay said Tuesday. "Now, it may not happen, but I believe it will." Video Watch the latest twists in the Jackson story »

The Jackson memorial service is set for July 10 at U.S. Steel Works ballpark in Gary, Burns said.

It would be "a memorial that's fit for the prince of peace and a memorial that's fit for Gary, Indiana's favorite son, the greatest entertainer that ever lived," Clay said.

A burial site for the singer could be near a proposed Jackson family museum and a performing arts center, Burns said.

"The mayor had spoken with a contact of the Jackson family and expressed our interest in having that to be a part of the history of this great family," Burns said. "We have not received confirmation on that."

Jackson's father, Joe, visited the city last year and talked with Clay about a Jackson museum, Burns said.

Read more here: CNN

Michael Jackson New and Unreleased Songs

Michael Jackson Secret Song




Here are some NEW and Unreleased songs by The King Of PoP, witch you have may not have heard!

Snippet from Michael Jackson's New Album




New Released Instrumental Song 2009





Billie Jean UNRELEASED RARE Demo




Micheal Jackson - "Mind Is The Magic"




Michael Jackson - "Someone Put Your Hand Out"





MICHAEL JACKSON "The way you love me"




Michael Jackson - Shout




Michael Jackson - Xscape




Michael Jackson - "If You Don't Love Me" - fan video




Hot Street unreleased demo




UNRELEASED: If You Don't Get It



Got The Hots (Unreleased Track From Thriller)

The World Mourns MJ's Death - See Photos

What Michael Jackson Did on His Last Day

Michael Jackson spent the last night of his life doing what he had always done: performing. The singer was in rehearsals at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, running through a full slate of songs from his upcoming 50-concert London event flanked by friends and colleagues. He marveled at the major set pieces that had finally been installed in the rehearsal space. "He was just glowing, and you could see it, that he was finally seeing it all come together," says Dorian Holley, the vocal director for Jackson's upcoming tour. "Up until Wednesday, it had always been [just a concept], but that last day you could see it in him, that he was seeing the show finally come together for the first time. It was a big moment.

Holley says he left rehearsals just before midnight on the night of June 24, as Jackson headed off to attend yet more meetings. About 12 hours later, a 911 call would be placed from Jackson's home in Holmby Hills, reporting urgently that "he's not breathing ... He's not responding to CPR, anything."

The pop icon had seemed different during these rehearsals — not ailing by any means, but perhaps more contemplative — says Holley, who has coached Jackson on solo tours since 1987. In preparing for previous tours, Holley said auditions for backup singers and other performing roles would usually be held via videotape, and it wouldn't be all that uncommon for the two to speak directly only two or three times over the span of a year. But for "This Is It," the London concerts scheduled to begin in July, Jackson was much more present and available, attending auditions and eagerly talking with everyone in the crew about the larger mission behind the tour.

"It almost sounds crazy to say that the show wasn't about him, but ... he'd put it in perspective all the time, saying, 'This is what we're here for, to spread a message of love and taking care of the planet, that we want people to understand it's very, very dear and not to take it for granted,'" Holley tells TIME.

Until the last hour of rehearsals, Jackson maintained a ferocious, perfectionist pace, says Holley, who, after decades working with the singer, says he was still astonished by his vocal and physical prowess. Some in the public questioned whether Jackson, at 50, would still be able to command a stage, and recent reports published Sunday in Britain's Daily Mail said that Jackson had been too feeble to dance, sing or, at times, even speak in the weeks leading up to his death. But, Holley — despite his own early concerns about a lack of rehearsal time leading up to the first London shows in July — says the star's presence and energy during his final week was unequivocal. "He'd take the stage with this group of dancers, all in their 20s, but you couldn't take your eyes off him ... Many of his songs have six or seven parts, and he would often come over if we were missing an important note in our mix, and he would sing through all the parts rapid-fire to show us what he wanted. We would just sit there with our jaws open — it was awesome," Holley says. "He could still do everything ... The only difference now was that he would sometimes talk about how it made him sore."

"This time around, we had the technology to isolate just his microphone and listen to his singing separate from everything else. I had no idea what a genius he was. The way he's able to use his voice as a percussion instrument, lyricist, jazz singer all at the same time. I'm sure as people mine his works in years to come, they're going to discover how much is there," he says.

It was a text message on Thursday afternoon that gave Holley the first hint of bad news — a note saying Jackson had been rushed to the hospital. Neither he nor the crew knew how to react to the uncertainty, so they did what they always did — they went in to rehearse. Except this time, as fans all over the world from Los Angeles to New York City to Tokyo to Buenos Aires played his music, sang his songs and emulated his dance in tribute, Holley says the crew couldn't bring themselves to touch the music.

Jackson had been preparing to take the world back, Holley says, and during the singer's final night, he finally knew he was ready. "You would think that, on the one hand, the world has kind of beaten him up, and you could forgive him for having some trepidation and fear. But he didn't have any of that," says Holley. "Words fail to describe what people would have seen with the tour. I couldn't even imagine until last week when it became physically apparent [on the set]. He was ready to show the world, and I so wish there could have been just one concert so the world would have seen."

Source: Time

What Would Michael Jackson's Next Album Have Sounded Like

If the rumors that Michael Jackson has at least a couple of hundred unreleased songs in his vault are true, then not only will the King of Pop live on forever in spirit, but he will seem to be alive in the industry as well. Those records could be distributed for years to come.

In the years since 2001's Invincible, music's elite have been telling MTV News amazing stories about their collaborations with Jackson for an upcoming album. Though the work was never completed during his life, we can look back at the clues these collaborators gave us to speculate about what MJ's next release would have sounded like.

"I'm writing a lot of stuff right now," Jackson told Ebony magazine in 2007. "I'm in the studio, like, every day."

MTV News confirmed that songwriter Sean Garrett, Grammy winners Ne-Yo and Kanye West, and music do-it-all T-Pain had all met with Jackson and discussed work. In June 2008, super-producer Swizz Beatz told us he was crafting tracks for Jackson as well producing pieces for his tour. Even Murder Inc. head honcho Irv Gotti traveled to the Neverland Ranch back in 2002, hoping to Jackson to let him helm the LP.

Chris Brown was pushing for a duet with one of his greatest musical influences in 2007. "He called me for my birthday, and I told him we should do a song," Brown told MTV News. "He was up for it."

DJ Whoo Kid openly dreamed of orchestrating a Jackson/ 50 Cent collaboration in 2006, after sitting down to a weird but extraordinary dinner with Jackson in Bahrain. "He was supposed to be there for like 45 minutes; he stayed for five hours," Whoo Kid recalled of how he met Jackson and later arranged for phone conversations between him and 50.

Jackson worked with Akon on more than one track, and a song called "Hold My Hand" leaked to the Net several months ago.

"He's incredible," 'Kon said of his first collaboration with Jackson, a 2008 remix of "Wanna Be Startin' Something." "He's a genius. Just to be in the same room [with him], I felt everything I wanted to accomplish in life has been achieved. That aura ... that's how incredible that aura is. We about to shake the world up, man. You know how you be with somebody and you can't even explain [the feeling]? I used to sit and think, 'How does somebody sell so many records and dominate a whole business genre, to a point [where] nobody can't be a part of that without associating with you?' The way he thinks ... some artists think regional, some think national, I was thinking international. He thinks planets. It's on another level."

Will.I.Am also told MTV News in 2007 that Jackson called him personally and had him work on a few songs. "I'm a fan of the dude," Will said at the time. "He's the smartest dude I ever met. I met James Brown, had the opportunity to work wit' him too. You get a couple of great people to help you live your life. You got your Michael Jacksons, your James Browns, Princes, Nat King Coles, just to shed light on the Earth.

"Michael Jackson, he told me what rock and roll meant," Will.I.Am added. "He said, 'Rock and roll, you know, that means having sex. That's what they used to say back in the '50s: "You ever rock and roll?" ' Chillin' with him, you have an outlook on what Michael Jackson will be like. He still is real proud of being black. A lot of times he's repressed in the media, so you don't think that."

read more here: MTV

Michael Jackson's Last Tour Rehearsals Filmed For Possible Release

Following Michael Jackson's death on Thursday, 750,000 people who bought tickets to see him perform at the O2 in London will never get the chance to experience the stunning visual and musical spectacle the singer had in store for them. But, according to reports, AEG Live, the promoter of the "This Is It" 50-date residency, recorded enough of Jackson's rehearsal material to release at least one live CD/DVD.

Entertainment industry Web site The Wrap reports that Jackson's final rehearsal at the Staples Center on Wednesday was recorded in multi-camera, high-definition video and multi-track audio. The recording could be released as the singer's final album, according to unnamed sources close to the now scuttled tour, which was reportedly due to go around the globe following the O2 residency. The recordings were made as part of a deal cut by AEG Live with Jackson, which included plans to produce a live album and DVD of the singer performing his greatest hits. If the reports are true, the recording could help AEG Live recoup some of the estimated tens of millions of dollars it is expected to lose as a result of Jackson's untimely death. A spokesperson for AEG Live could not be reached for comment at press time.

The Wrap reported that Jackson had failed to appear at "many" of the scheduled rehearsals over the past two months, but he did appear at the full run-through on Wednesday in anticipation of the July 13 kick-off of the London shows. The final rehearsal reportedly included dancers, musicians and aerial performers, as well as Jackson suspended from a crane at one point and a 3-D view of a "Thriller"-inspired haunted mansion.

On Monday (June 29), USA Today pulled back the curtain on the closely guarded rehearsals, describing an over-the-top Jackson extravaganza that was to feature floating orbs, a flaming bed, lots of pyrotechnics, 20-foot-tall puppets, giant spiders and Jackson breaking out all his signature dance moves.

"He was trying, and succeeding, in structuring the biggest, most spectacular live production ever seen," said Johnny Caswell, co-owner of CenterStaging in Burbank, California, where Jackson worked on the show from late March to early June before shifting rehearsals to larger venues, according to the paper.

"By the time he left my facility, he had graduated through several studios and was on a soundstage taking up 10,000 square feet," Caswell said. "They moved to The Forum, outgrew that and needed the height at Staples. The show was getting so damn big, they couldn't finish it in time. That's why they had to delay." Caswell said reports that Jackson had delayed the start of the engagement due to health problems were "nonsense," explaining that the ballooning size of the production caused the push back.

While it has been reported that Jackson had been taking a number of powerful prescription medications prior to his death and that he died following cardiac arrest, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office has deferred determining his cause of death pending further toxicology tests.

Despite some suggestions that the frail singer with a history of medical problems might not have been strong enough to complete his first full-fledged tour in 12 years, according to USA Today, he was very engaged during Wednesday's final rehearsal at the Staples Center, where he worked with a crew of more than 80 dancers, choreographers, band members and crew to polish the show.

Jackson began what would be his final rehearsal by putting on a headset and walking to an elevated platform to sing the song "Dangerous," at first a cappella, then joined by his band.

"Misfits of Magic" founder Ed Alonzo, who worked on illusions for Britney Spears' Circus tour, joined the Jackson show six weeks ago. He said he designed a number of stunning effects for the King of Pop, including a glowing glass sphere that would float around Jackson and then into the crowd during the opening song, 1982's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." A version of "Dirty Diana" was to feature a flaming bed with a pole-dancing aerialist "playing the part of the fire," Alonzo said. After the fire woman pursued Jackson around the bed, she would tie him to the bed posts with gold rope, and a sheet of red fabric would spring up in front of him as he struggled in silhouette. When the sheet fell, it would be revealed that it was the woman struggling, not Jackson, and he would then materialize on a stage in the middle of the arena.

"It was an amazing show," Alonzo said. "The thing was just days away from being perfected. It was incredible. Even though it was just a walk-through with the dancers, his moves were dead-on — the same Michael Jackson we (saw) through the years in music videos." Alonzo said that while Jackson seemed underweight, he appeared to be in good health and was energetic during the rehearsal. Jackson's manager, Frank DiLeo, told the Hollywood Reporter that after finishing the final run-through around midnight on Wednesday, Jackson was feeling good about the show. "He found me and said, 'Frank, I am so happy. ... This is really our time.' He put his arm around me," DiLeo said.

Posted on: MTV

Katherine Jackson awarded guardianship of Michael's children

A Los Angeles probate court on Monday approved a request by Michael Jackson's mother to take guardianship of his three children.



Michael Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, told CNN on Sunday evening that he and his wife expected to keep the children.

An autopsy was performed on Michael Jackson Friday, and toxicology reports from his body will disprove rumors that the singer's personal physician injected him with powerful painkillers, the attorney for Dr. Conrad Murray said Monday.

"Dr. Murray never prescribed Demerol, never administered Demerol, never saw him -- Michael Jackson -- take Demerol," attorney Edward Chernoff told CNN's "American Morning."

"And that goes as well for Oxycontin. I think those are just rumors. When toxicology comes back ... that's going to be all cleared up," Chernoff said.

Murray met voluntarily for several hours with detectives over the weekend, the Los Angeles Police Department said late Saturday.

"We've let them know we're available to them any time they need us, any questions they have," Chernoff said. "We have told them that the medical examiner is free to call us. We'll be available to them. If they have any questions once toxicology comes out. I expect they will have some questions, and we'll be ready to answer them."

Source: CNN.com