PINSKY: Tonight, an HLN primetime exclusive with Michael Jackson`s former manager and close friend who witnessed the highs and lows of a musical genius spiraling out of control. Frank Cascio is here with us tonight. He joins us to talk about his journey with the King of pop, from touring overseas with Michael to witnessing his drug use.
It`s all here in his new book "My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship with an Extraordinary Man." Now, Frank, you got to know Michael when you were very young. I guess, your father introduced you. He worked at the hotel where Michael and his family would stay. How old were you then?
FRANK CASCIO, AUTHOR, "MY FRIEND MICHAEL": I was 4 years old. When I was 4, I was -- my father says, I`m going to bring you to work with me, and I`m going to introduce you to a friend of mine. And his name is Michael Jackson. So, he takes us to -- he takes me to the hotel.
And we`re greeted by a gentleman by the name of Bill Bray. And he brings us into the room and says, I`d like to introduce you to Michael Jackson. And Michael puts out his hand and goes, "Hi, I`m Michael." I say, hi, I`m Frank.
PINSKY: And Michael was how old at the time?
CASCIO: Gee, I don`t even know. I think 27.
PINSKY: So, he was an adult male, and you were four or five years old. How was it that a four or five-year-old started hanging around with a guy in his 30s?
CASCIO: Well, Dr. Drew, it was not just me. It was my entire family. He first and foremost befriended my father, my mother. It wasn`t just myself. It was my entire family that befriended Michael. And --
PINSKY: And then, you ended up, as I understand, you ended up spending a good deal of time with him and being sort of welcome to travel with him. How do you think that happened? Again, you were a five-year-old kid. Why does a man in his late 20s, early 30s, encouraging a young child to spend time with him on the road?
CASCIO: Dr. Drew, you have to understand, this situation is completely different. We`ve known Michael for years, since I was 4. And it`s -- again, this is my entire family. We created such a strong foundation. And a family bond that, you know, it was --
PINSKY: But Frank, that`s what I want to get into. That`s what I`m confused about. We`ve been talking about Michael now for months, and we`ve heard all these stories about the propofol. And I`m well aware that the anesthesiologist had been giving propofol to Michael for 15 years probably before we ever found out about it, but I`m curious --
CASCIO: I don`t know if that`s an accurate statement.
PINSKY: When did you first see it? The propofol.
CASCIO: Well, I actually have never seen Michael taking propofol. The first I`ve ever heard of propofol was during this Dr. Conrad Murray trial. I -- you know, I think it was in 1999, there was a doctor who explained to me a procedure and what he was doing, but I`ve never seen Michael taking propofol. I`ve never --
PINSKY: OK. Well, the procedure that an anesthesiologist would do, let`s be clear, an anesthesiologist uses propofol to put people to sleep. And that`s the only drug you can use that puts people reliably out and then wakes them up again in a couple of hours. Everything else would have him out the rest of the day.
So, what you described in your book is somebody receiving propofol. That`s just the way it is. So, that was December of 1999, I guess. So, you did witness propofol being administered --
CASCIO: No, I never --
(CROSSTALK)
CASCIO: I`ve never seen Michael --
PINSKY: All right. You saw an anesthesiologist explain to you that he was giving him propofol on a regular basis. But let`s go back to -- you also had an experience with Michael where he was completely intoxicated when he was due on stage. Tell us about that experience.
CASCIO: It was the 30th anniversary special. And I was actually at the Twin Towers right before that picking up something from Bank of America. I get a call from security saying, you know, we can`t get in touch with Michael, we can`t -- so I rushed back. And I opened the door. And he`s sleeping. And I can tell he was a little groggy.
And I knew he was -- he took some medicine. And -- right before the show. And I was really disappointed with him that he did so. But you know what? Michael is a fighter, and he was fine. We got him ready, and he performed an incredible show.
PINSKY: And so, why didn`t somebody intervene right then? Why didn`t somebody do something about his substance use? It was to the point now where it was affecting his ability to function at work. He was, you know, clearly well beyond what a physician would want him to be taking. How come people didn`t jump in right then?
CASCIO: Dr. Drew, I mean, there was a time where there was definitely some concern. And his family addressed the situation with Michael. They were there. They were trying to have conversations with him. And Michael didn`t want to hear it from anyone. But you know what? At the end of the day, we had a conversation and you know, he moved on.
He went past that stage. And then, he was completely fine. You know, he was under a lot of stress, and he happened to be in a lot of pain during that time. And you know, these situations with the drugs, I think, actually getting taken out of proportion because, you know, when Michael -- for instance, I`ll give you an example. In Munich, Germany, he fell 50 feet, 50 feet on a malfunctioned, on a bridge. He was in severe pain. That hurt.
PINSKY: I`m not saying he didn`t get exposed to the medicines for legitimate reasons. He had a bad burn. He, of course, was going to take them. But the fact is -- but Frank, why was he -- he was admitted in London to a chemical dependency treatment program, if you recall. And there`s a video of him talking about his addiction.
And here`s the thing about addiction is once you meet criteria to be admitted to a program, by definition, either the program needs to be delicensed because they didn`t properly diagnose somebody or they allowed somebody who didn`t have the disease of addiction, which almost never happens or he has a lifelong condition, because he met criteria and was admitted to a program.
CASCIO: No. He --
PINSKY: So, we know he has addiction. It`s not something debatable. That`s just simply a fact in the history of his life. And my question simply is, why didn`t people -- you know, once he got treatment, why didn`t people continue to support that process of recovery?
CASCIO: Dr. Drew, there was -- Michael was in a situation where, you know, he also knew there was a point in his life where he came to a point where you know what, he wanted to get better, and he did. And that happened.
But you know, we`re talking about -- you know, I really -- and I`ve seen -- there were so many doctors who manipulated Michael. And Michael was also a victim of these doctors. These doctors --
PINSKY: Yes.
CASCIO: -- manipulated him.
PINSKY: And I totally agree with you, Frank. Now, I want to hear more about that. I want to hear more about that. I completely agree with you.
CASCIO: They saw Michael as a money pit.
PINSKY: Yes.
CASCIO: They pushed thing -- and that`s where I got so upset and pissed off.
PINSKY: Good.
CASCIO: Because that should have never happened.
PINSKY: You`re right.
CASCIO: And that`s where I put my foot down. And I had very clear conversations. In fact, you know, there was a doctor in Florida, Dr. Alex Farshan, and I had security -- if any doctors went to the hotel room to call me. I went up to that room, and I got so mad, I -- this poor doctor. and I tell you, this poor doctor. I reamed this poor guy out. And I have to tell you --
PINSKY: Frank, what are you talking about? You`re my hero. You didn`t ream the poor guy out. You saved Michael from, perhaps, an earlier demise.
CASCIO: But you`re not -- he happens to be one of the only doctors that really, you know, helped him and wouldn`t do any of those things to him. And I`m giving you an example that, you know -- I was wrong in that situation with Dr. Farshan, but you know, there were people out there. And guess what? He got better. He was good.
There was times where he was absolutely fine and clear and so healthy and great. You know, you have to understand, depending on what this man was going through in his life, unfortunately, these things happened. He can`t -- he was in a lot of pain for multiple reasons that, you know, people don`t understand and couldn`t understand. And everybody is different, Dr. Drew. Everybody is different.
PINSKY: But Frank -- first of all, I want to say thank you for trying to intervene on his behalf. I could not agree more strongly than what you just said about how physicians saw him in whatever way, either they were lit up by taking care of him or they saw him as an opportunity to make money. Whatever it was, he was ill served by my profession.
And I hope you keep championing that message because that is really a learning opportunity for all of us. But the bigger issue here is that my patients today all die because they have pain and a doctor prescribes too much medication to them. When an addict has pain, it has to be managed differently than you would the average person with pain.
I`m not saying they should suffer. I`m not saying they shouldn`t get pain medicine. I`m saying it needs to be managed completely differently. Frank, thank you so much. We will look for your book.
