14 DAY TRIAL // Until June 25, when Michael Jackson was pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital following cardiac arrest, speculation was high that he would never be able to complete all the 50 dates of “This Is It,” his last series of concerts ever. While many said he would not last five dates, most agreed that the singer himself only wanted to do ten concerts, like initially announced, a belief Joe Jackson too shares, as he says in an interview with ABC News quoted by MTV.
According to Michael’s father, the singer only wanted to do ten shows at London’s O2 Arena, and then retire altogether from the music industry and probably focus on something else, like producing. Still, he was forced to respect the done-deal of organizers AEG Live adding more and more dates to the show, until they reached 50. While there was nothing he could do, Michael agreed for fear he would otherwise disappoint the fans who had rushed to buy tickets for the shows, but he knew from the start that he would not make it through to the end, Joe explains.
“The comeback tour was a good idea, but the wrong idea about it. Michael told me himself that he agreed to 10 shows. But they went and added all these other shows. I was worried about his health. No artist can do those many shows back to back like that, and so I knew Michael couldn’t do all those shows without some rest in between them.” Joe explains for the aforementioned network.
Jackson’s financial advisor Leonard Rowe is of the same opinion, telling the media that, no matter how one looks at it and tries to give the story a positive spin, Michael was “not ready” and “not fit” for such an overwhelming number of shows, which is why he had specifically said he only wanted to do 10. Randy Phillips, the boss of AEG Live, is adamant though that all announcements made at the time and all modifications in the schedule of the tour were done at Michael’s request. He wanted 50 dates and he was ready to do them all; moreover, doing three shows a week is not that hard, albeit for over a year, Phillips says.
However, Michael himself once spoke out against AEG, when queried by paparazzi on how he thought he could keep up with the grueling routine of so many shows. “Thank you for your love and support, I want you guys to know I love you very much. I don’t know how I’m going to do 50 shows. I’m not a big eater – I need to put some weight on. I’m really angry with them [AEG Live] booking me up to do 50 shows. I only wanted to do 10, and take the tour around the world to other cities, not 50 in one place. I went to bed knowing I sold 10 dates, and woke up to the news I was booked to do 50.” Michael said at the time, as we also reported.