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Thread of pain ran through Jackson career
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-28 21:28 It was the last day of shooting for a Pepsi commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1984, and the only hiccup had been an argument between Michael Jackson and an ad executive over whether the young superstar would take off his sunglasses. "Then," as the executive later wrote, "we set his hair on fire."
Jackson was descending a staircase in an extravagant, pyrotechnic opening sequence, dancing to "Billie Jean," when a spark landed on his head. Jackson cried out. People nearby leapt on him to put out the fire, but Jackson was hospitalized for days with a burned scalp. Thus began a thread of pain that ran through a remarkable career, and made painkillers all too accessible. Because of accidents, frequent plastic surgery and the sheer intensity of his dancing, physical agony was the unshakable problem with being Michael Jackson.
At the end of his life, a personal cardiologist was living with Jackson while he rehearsed rigorously for a historic comeback. Among the first steps police took was to tow the doctor's BMW, saying it might contain medication or other evidence. Since his death, people close to Jackson have said they were worried about his dependence on the drugs. In 1993, while he was defending himself against child molestation charges, Jackson himself called it an addiction. On Saturday, spiritual teacher Dr. Deepak Chopra said he had been concerned since 2005 that Jackson was abusing painkillers and spoke to the pop star about suspected drug use as recently as six months ago. "In a way, this was coming, and in a way, it's frustrating that we couldn't do anything about it," he told The Associated Press. "The problem has been going on for a long time, but we didn't know what to do. There were attempts at intervention, and it didn't succeed."
Chopra said Jackson, a longtime friend, personally asked him for painkillers in 2005, when the singer was staying with him after he was acquitted on sex-abuse charges. Chopra said he refused. He also said the nanny of Jackson's children repeatedly contacted him with concerns about Jackson's drug use over the next four years, and said Jackson would avoid his calls whenever the subject came up. Well before Jackson had a doctor living under his own roof, there were ample reasons to turn to pharmaceuticals to relieve pain. In the early 1990s, Jackson's dermatologist revealed the singer had a skin disorder known as vitiligo, which leads to white patches on the skin. And over the years, Jackson underwent numerous plastic surgeries, the most prominent being the narrowing of his nose. Few people know exactly how many there were in all. Jackson was a passionate performer and an exceptional dancer, renowned for his choreographical perfection. Ailments were, or at least began as, a byproduct of his dedication. |
