Michael Jackson's sudden death in 2009 resulted in an unprecedented level
of public mourning, never previously seen in living memory.
Although his passing was a shock at the time, Michael Jackson had actually
had several brushes with death throughout his lifetime,
some with unsettling details that I warn may shock you.
Here's the detail.
In his one and only autobiography, Moonwalk,
Jackson describes the creation of his iconic hit song, Billie Jean,
in which its creation almost had him killed in a freak occurrence.
Michael Jackson recounted, quote, One day during a break in a recording
session, I was riding down the Ventura Freeway with Nelson Hayes,
who was working with me at the time. I was
writing the song Billie Jean, and the words were going around in my head.
That's all I was thinking about while driving.
Then we were getting off the freeway when a kid on a motorcycle pulls up to us
and says, 'Stop your car, your car, it's on fire!'.
Suddenly we noticed the smoke and pulled
over and the whole bottom of the Rolls-Royce was on fire,
the whole car was engulfed in flames.
Quote, That kid probably saved our lives.
If the car had exploded, we would have been killed.
But I was so absorbed by this tune floating in my head that I didn't even
focus on the awful possibilities until later.
Another near-death experience came on September 11th, 2001.
Yeah, you may not have known this,
but Michael Jackson could have easily ended up a victim of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks in New York City if he hadn't been saved by his own mother.
It was a close call for the King of Pop,
as according to his brother's autobiography.
On this day, Michael had a meeting scheduled in at the Windows
on the World Restaurant at the top floors, 106 and 107 of the north tower of the World Trade Center.
However, the night before, Jackson had performed to an audience
of thousands at Madison Square Garden as part of his televised 30th anniversary
celebration in honor of Jackson's 30th year as a solo artist.
Once the performance was over and he was
back at the hotel, Michael received a late night phone call from his mother,
and the singer then stayed up till the early hours of the morning talking
to her. Exhausted from the previous day's events.
Last minute, Michael Jackson cancelled the early morning meeting to return a two
million dollar watch and a diamond necklace for Elizabeth Taylor
they had worn for the concert.
Seeing the day's atrocity unfold on the news and knowing her son had
a planned meeting at the top of one of the towers, Katherine Jackson started
frantically calling her son's hotel to make sure he was safe.
Jermaine wrote, quote, Thankfully, none of us had a clue that Michael was due
at a meeting that morning at the top of one of the Twin Towers.
We only discovered this when mother phoned his hotel.
Bewildered, Michael picked up his phone,
what you kept me up, talking so late that I overslept and missed my appointment.
What's wrong?
Unknowingly, this call saved Michael Jackson
from certain death and the attack that cost the lives of 2753 people.
Another much reported freak instance that could have proven fatal for the King
of Pop was on January 27th, 1984, while filming a Pepsi commercial.
On this day, Michael and his brother were filming a quasi concert performance inside
Los Angeles's Shrine Auditorium with the venue filled with 3000 screaming fans.
The Jacksons finally hit the stage. During filming,
Jackson had completed five takes
of the same shot. Appearing at the top of a short flight
of stairs and dancing down as fireworks were let off around him.
Suddenly, there was a blinding explosion at the center of the stage.
Much larger than in previous takes as Michael descended the staircase.
Little did he know that a spark had ignited his hair.
And it was not until he took his first spin at the bottom of the stairs
that he realized he was, in fact on fire. Frantically,
Jackson cried out, Tito Tito!, to his startled older brother.
A coat was quickly thrown over Michael's
head and an onslaught of crew members urgently smothered the flames.
Quote, All his hair was gone and there was smoke coming out of his head.
Jackson's longtime makeup artist,
Karen Faye, testified, quote, I never saw anything like that in my life.
This was someone I knew and he was on fire.
Although the fire was put out quickly,
pandemonium erupted in the auditorium as screams filled the hall.
Crowds of teenage fans shouted, Michael Jackson has been shot.
Michael Jackson is dead,
in shock and screaming in pain.
Jackson was swiftly escorted off stage and rushed to the hospital.
While in Brotman Memorial, Michael Jackson was treated for a palm
sized patch of second and third degree burns on his scalp,
a serious injury whereby recovery was expected to be a long and painful one.
Although Jackson was considered lucky as the incident could have easily caused
serious burns to his face and proven fatal that the spark had set his clothes ablaze.
According to his makeup artist,
Michael Jackson suffered debilitating migraines in the wake of the accident.
Powerful sedatives were also prescribed
to the star in order to calm him his nerves and help him sleep.
Later that year,
Michael Jackson was diagnosed with lupus, a long term autoimmune disease
in which the body's immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal,
healthy tissue. Often triggered by stress or a traumatic event,
it has since been proven that the agony
Jackson found himself in after the incident kick-started the prescription
painkiller addiction that eventually snowballed, killing him years later.
However, the most unsettling fact about this
supposed freak accident is that Michael Jackson was exactly twenty
five years, four months and twenty nine days old on the day of the Pepsi fire.
Fast forward exactly twenty five years, four months and twenty nine days later,
Michael Jackson took his last breath. Meaning that this monumental trauma
in Jackson's life took place exactly to the day at the halfway point
of the King of Pop's life. Seems too much of a coincidence to be accidental.
What kind of explanation can you think of?
As it has been well documented, Michael Jackson struggled with addiction
for years to come, causing several brushes with death. On two separate occasions
in 1993, the singer's personal maid during the 1990s said she and other staff members
frequently stumbled across Jackson, quote, dead on a cocktail of prescription drugs.
She said, quote, One day I knocked on his door but got no answer.
So I went in to clean.
He was lying on the bed, motionless, looking very pale.
Quote, I called several times,
but he didn't answer as I got closer, his eyes were open and he appeared not
to be breathing my heart sank as I thought he was dead.
But then he came to suddenly. He didn't say a word, but burst into tears.
She thought about calling for help.
But I've been warned before by the singer to not involve outsiders.
She also revealed that another incident occurred just a few weeks later when
Michael's security guard, found him lifeless at the edge of a swimming pool.
Quote, The guard thought he was dead.
He feared the worst, trying to wake him up by shaking and shouting at him.
He couldn't find a pulse and he didn't appear to be breathing.
Terrified his boss was dead,
the worker radioed another guard who performed life saving treatment.
Quote, Michael made his guards trained in CPR so they knew what to do.
Michael Jackson became increasingly
absorbed by the idea of overdosing and his own death.
He would speak to his former wife,
Lisa Marie Presley, about the gruesome details of her father's tragic demise.
In 1997, he released a track named
Morphine, which central themes were about the drug usage of Demerol.
I can breathe, I can eat, I can die in my sleep.
I don't want to die in my sleep. It's just a song right?
Michael Jackson reportedly died
of overdoses three times in the 18 months before he passed away.
It has even been claimed Michael enjoyed
the sensation of having his heart restarted.
One time it was reported that they had to pump his stomach, and another time
used CPR.
A source quoted by the National Enquirer
stated, quote, Once after doctors finally managed to wake
him up, Michael said he had died and gone to heaven and it felt good.
Michael said it was the most exhilarating experience of his life to have seen how
things looked on the other side and come back to Earth again.