mjfan05;4303779 said:
I started this thread to get thoughts of people who were fans in the period mentioned - observations and opinions. Didn't start it as a fact finding mission to prove in a court of law on when he appeared sober during this time or days when he had injuries. If you believe nothing happened during this time, you are free to not contribute to this thread. Pls don't jump on anyone contributing stating that their opinion is wrong. If something is not clear: When someone says thing A happened in a 6 year period, it does not mean that thing B did not happen in the same time period. Going on and on about thing B, when no one claimed that B didn't happen will just derail any discussion. A,B,C, D and E can all happen in the same period.
You asked what happened, so it’s just natural that people post proof for things we
know have happened. Some people here are simply not into wild guesses and speculation. For example, I have yet to see
any footage of Michael that shows him drunk or proof that he did in fact drink more than the occasional glass of wine. Yet, the speculation continues, and I believe this is simply not something we should contribute to.
Michael had a lot of health issues that we know of, and since he only made them public when he was forced to, I think it’s safe to assume there’s more that we don’t know of. He still had to function as a businessman and a father, so if he used painkillers to handle his situation, that’s something everyone would do and also not really newsworthy.
As for his business endeavors: the music industry as a whole faced some serious problems at the beginning of the new millennium, not only due to the rise of internet piracy, but also because of the 9/11 situation that put a rapid end to any kind of touring plans for most artists. Even if Michael had planned to tour for Invincible, he probably wouldn’t have taken the risk during those uncertain times when no one knew what was going to happen next.
We know that Michael wanted to pull out of that Sony situation to gain more control over the music side of his business, and most likely to have more time to be there for his children, but his Plan B after Sony wasn’t just to become an actor. We know that he was exploring various possibilities of generating a steady flow of income. For example, he started Kingdom Entertainment in the late 90’s, explored the options for creating theme parks around the world, and at some point even tried to find a way to buy Marvel. These are just the things we know for sure he did, and I believe it’s safe to say that there were many more paths he was looking at at the time that we know nothing about.
Now, you can say all of these projects were failures, but as someone who’s running a (small) business myself, let me assure you that failure is part of the process when you try to expand your business. There’s no safe way to go about this. Look at the careers of any of the big players out there, and you will find plenty of unsuccessful endeavors before that
one plan finally worked out.
In Michael’s case, we’re looking at a comparatively short period in time from the late 90’s to the end of 2002 where things didn’t go according to plan, and that’s just normal. He certainly didn’t expect to spend the following years tied up in litigation again, so at that point it was just a series of fairly normal business setbacks that needed to be addressed.
Apparently he felt that his public image at the time played some part in this, so he tried to work on that with a documentary which we all know backfired terribly due to a mixture of poor judgement and too much trust in the wrong people.
The following allegations and the trial definitely took their toll, but before that, I am convinced that the whole narrative of “
something happened to him and he was
never the same after that” is simply not rooted in facts.
So, yes, when these topics come up, I am convinced it’s best to look at the facts and try to find evidence instead of just speculating and fanning the flames of the “Tabloid Michael” narrative.