Re: So...do you guys think he could have done all 50 shows?
you guys forget that he was massive, although his debts may of not been that bad, I do recall events where his stuff was being auctioned and at the last minute withdrawn from the auction, which is reason to believe he was saved at the last minute.
Michael was trying to get his belongings back before the This Is It concerts were announced. And it's more likely as soon as Michael got rid of Dr Tohme Tohme, then he was able to take legal action because the likes of Dr Tohme Tohme signed deals behind Michael's back. Remember Dr Tohme Tohme, suddenly found £5 million of Michael's money in cash when Michael died, and even know he has some of Michael's belongings that he shouldn't have had.
No one suggests Michael didn't have debts. But Michael wasn't in a position were he had to sell off his belongings to make money, because Michael still had a huge income. He still owned 50% of Sony/ATV, owned 100% of MiJac Music which holds the publishing rights to all the songs he's written/composed, plus those of Sly & The Family Stone and other artists. Michael owned the masters from all his albums from Off The Wall to Present, and Michael is one of the few artists to own his masters to his major albums. Prince doesn't and neither does Madonna. Michael would still have been earning millions each year, even with debts. We also don't know what the situation is with Sony and Michael financially, but the $200 debt to Sony is either a lie are a gross exaggeration by the media. Also when Michael mentioned he wasn't in $200 million debt to Sony, and Sony issued a strong statement saying Michael wasn't in $200 million debt to them, and that they had no idea where Michael got that information from.
Also Michael's main income wasn't The Beatles songs, it was his own music. This is Michael Jackson were talking about, who along with The Beatles is the biggest possibly the biggest selling music artist/s of all time (I doubt Elvis Presley is, his music sales are exaggerated by fans and the media).
We don't know why Michael sold 50% of Neverland, it may have been to pay off a debt or as a rumored business venture to turn it in to a theme park. All we know is that after the 2005 trial, Michael no longer viewed Neverland as his home and vowed never to return there, and Michael just let the place rot because he wanted to.
Michael was doing this This Is It concerts for his children, his fans and the put his legacy back at the top and reclaim his position as the No.1 artist in the world. It was always very likely Michael would have toured again, but he had a miserable decade from 2001, and it wouldn't have been right for Michael to sure so soon after his trial as so many fans kept demanding on various fan sites. In 2009 Michael was in a good place, and the events from 2001-05 were fading in to the past and it was the right time for Michael to tour again. Everything would have gone brilliantly for Michael, if Dr Murray did his job properly, by giving Michael better medical advise and not injecting him with propofol.
All this stuff about Michael touring to pay off huge debts, dying with a drug ravaged body etc are pure tabloid crap and not based on actual fact. The only thing that is bad is that Michael should still be alive, because he wasn't the walking dead like Elvis was for the last few years of his life, whi had to keep performing in Las Veges due to a 7yr contract he signed which gave his manager who was in debt a higher rate than Elvis. Michael signed a 50/50 deal with AEG, and both would have earned record breaking amounts of money for the This Is It concerts. Another thing is Prince's O2 Arena concerts in 2007 was the same deal as Michael's, no one ever suggested Prince was in debt albums. Prince did the O2 Arena because he wanted to and show fans in Europe he was still amazing, and that would have been exactly the same for Michael. Sadly with Michael negative speculation for his reasons for playing concerts or doing almost anything has to come in to play. If Michael was doing the O2 Arena concerts to pay of debts (which I doubt as he would have toured much earlier), he wouldn't have been the first or even last artist to do so, as stars like Elton John have toured in the past to pay off huge debts etc
There was a documentary released shortly after MJ's death by a reporter called 'Michael Jackson's Last Days'
That documentary is not credible, and is nothing more than a sick joke. The maker of that documentary never gets his facts right about Michael, and made another documentary that was full of lies about the 1993 false allegations and the 2005 trial. I suggest you get your information from more credible sources.