‘He was in really bad shape’: Michael Jackson’s tragic last words revealed in new memoir

A new memoir from a close personal friend of Michael Jackson has detailed his last words amid money troubles, addiction, and a longing to get back on the stage.

Few people have had such a lasting impact on the world of pop music, and although his many controversies were almost as famous as the man himself, Michael Jackson’s death in 2009 became a sombre stamp in pop culture history.

The king of pop passed away at the age of 50 in June 2009, with an autopsy revealing he overdosed on a combination of propofol and other prescription painkillers.

Lawyer John Mason revealed Michael Jackson’s tragic last words

Before his death, Michael was prepping for his This Is It concert residency that was initially pegged to run from July 2009 to March 2010. As we know, he passed away a month before the residency was due to start.

Michael’s former friend and personal lawyer, John Mason, was front and centre during those final few months, witnessing money troubles from bad investments which meant he needed to get back to touring.

“In 2009, I was living in Reno when I got a call from someone who told me that Michael was in ‘really bad shape.’ He was trying to tour again, but he had collapsed onstage during rehearsals. Yet, he was back at it the next day. Michael was Michael,” Mason wrote in his new memoir, Crazy Lucky: Remarkable Stories from Inside the World of Celebrity Icons, according to Radar Online.

AEG, a tour promoter working on This Is It, allegedly hired Conrad Murray to serve as Michael’s doctor, prescribing him nightly infusions of propofol to help him sleep. As he continued to be plagued by sleeping issues, Michael allegedly demanded more and more propofol in a vicious loop that inevitably contributed to his death.

According to John Mason, Michael Jackson’s last words were: “I can’t function if I don’t sleep. They’ll have to cancel it. And I don’t want them to cancel it.”

His doctor, Conrad Murray, was later charged and convicted of involuntary manslaughter, as his Texas medical license was revoked and his California and Nevada licenses were suspended. He was sentenced to the maximum penalty of four years, but he only served two before being released on parole in 2013.

More recently, Conrad opened a medical institute in 2023 in El Socorro, San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago.

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Featured image credit: Greg Allen/Retna Ltd/Shutterstock