I am still debating this whole thing with myself. It's really based on a number of factors:
- Was Michael doing this tour to get out of debt?
Michael was in terrible debt and was close to loosing all his possessions until Sony (I believe) threw him a life line. He was forced to take it, and because he was forced to take it, Sony had CONTROL over him, they were pretty much able to exploit him in any way they wanted to because MJ was millions in debt.
I don't ever recall MJ saying he wanted to do this tour, even Randy said in a interview on the extras of the TII doc that someone (forgot who, prob a business exec of sony) called Randy saying MJ is ready to work, that to me just sounded like he was forced. Because Sony rescued MJ from financial peril, MJ was forced to do anything Sony wanted regardless of his health.
A few interesting points on this:
- His family including Latoya and Joe had stated he only agreed to do 10 shows, where as Randy said he agreed to do 50.
- Furthermore Leonard Rowe also states there is no evidence to suggest MJ signed up for 50 shows. He also goes onto say that MJ couldn't hire his own people and many people which he had fired in the past had reappeared and began taking control.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO9-JxeDiWw
I know you guys are going to say MJ was forced to hire Leonard as MJ's father was watching over his shoulders, the fact remains that MJ fired people like Frank Dileo ages ago for some unknown reason, even though they were as close as family during their employment.
- Was MJ's health deteriorating?
We all know MJ's been through some extremely tough times, burns to his scalp, fainting, exhaustion, eating disorder, dancers feet, insomnia, depression, isolation and verbal convictions which can really destroy a person AND can lead to long term drug abuse. Whether drugs were used to help ease pain and help him sleep, he was in no condition to tour.
There was an article somewhere that insurance companies wouldn't invest in MJ during the o2 gigs because of his health. There were also pictures of him visiting hospitals as well and skin cancer stories were surfacing. Also, in a interview with Randy and Kenny on TII, they said that they to feed him because he wasn't eating.
However, MJ's chefs said he ate very healthily and only during July, did he start to look a lot thinner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9eNaElHdDk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8vjzGqTkuc
- Was MJ planning to fake his death? Is this just a Hoax?
As I mentioned earlier, MJ was in huge debt, there's nothing like death to help SKY ROCKET sales, it happened to Elvis, Marley and Nirvana. But faking his death will turn out as a great solution as it would allow him to get out of the public eye and live peacefully for the rest of his life and help recover his debt. I know you guys will say, but what about the children? Maybe his children have greater access to him now? Maybe he's in disguise?
We all know MJ loved to dress up like in Ghosts etc and become something different, maybe he did fake his death and maybe he didn't, but one thing is for sure, he was king of disguise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akLBsd72jB8
Also, the ambulance picture was a fake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad7pzQ4_694
There were sources to say that in the past, MJ would submit his own pictures to the press to help increase publicity, I believe it was the oxygen tank picture.
Also, the smooth criminal vignette story was based on a man who faked his death.
Furthermore, TII I believe was shot to be a movie, yes his previous rehearsals were recorded for archive purposes but they were shot using one camera and one angle just like dangerous tour rehearsals.
I personally don't know what to think, these are just things you may want to take into consideration when debating this topic, basically his:
- Health
- Financial Status
- Intentions