Diving Into The Conspiracy Theory Surrounding Michael Jackson's Death

(People keep requesting I do conspiracy videos. But we already have a conspiracy show here at the company- Macrodosing. So I'm going to stay in my own lane. But, nobody here does music-conspiracy videos. So my Backstage partner Colin and I decided we're going to do one of these a week now. If you have any ideas for good ones throw them in the comments please.)

Now, I'm not saying I believe this theory whatsoever. All I'm saying is this one is out there, and there are a ton of people who believe it. Jackson's own family member's included.

So although EVERYTHING IN THIS IS SIMPLY ALLEGED, this one is out there and might have legs. 

People love to throw the word “conspiracy” around these days. Bigfoot, flat Earth, Avril Lavigne secretly being replaced by a body double named Melissa, all that fun internet stuff. But when it comes to Michael Jackson was murdered theory, this isn’t tin-foil hat territory. This is The Godfather with sequins and a moonwalk.

The theory goes, that Michael didn’t just die. He was taken out. Straight-up whacked. The theory continues that when you start connecting the dots, it’s hard not to picture a smoky boardroom full of cigar-chomping record execs clinking champagne glasses the second his heart monitor flatlined.

First off, you need to understand the kind of financial nuke Michael was sitting on.

Back in the mid-1980s, while every other rock star was snorting half of Colombia and buying tigers, per the advice of his close friend Paul McCartney, Michael went out and bought the Beatles catalog. All of it. Every song. He dropped $47.5 million like it was pocket change, and everyone laughed at him at the time. “Haha, what a weirdo, buying sheet music.” 

Fast forward two decades, and that catalog is worth a billion dollars.

(That's 2006 billion too by the way)

Every single time a Beatles song played in a movie, a commercial, or on some old boomer’s iPod shuffle, Michael got paid. It wasn’t just Beatles songs either- the catalog ballooned into one of the biggest music publishing empires on the planet. 

Michael Jackson, the guy wearing sparkly socks and grabbing his crotch on stage, basically owned Sony’s balls in a vice grip.

Sony did not love that dynamic.

Now, around 2008-2009, Michael was hinting that he wanted to sell his share "to completely free himself from the industry". Essentially, he wanted to sell his stake so that he could then use the proceeds from that sale, to buy himself out of his contract, and acquire all of his own material so he could make money off of himself. 

If that happened, Sony would lose control forever. If you’re a giant corporation and a billion-dollar asset is about to walk out the door, what do you do?

You solve the problem. Permanently.

Enter This Is It.

Michael’s “comeback” tour was supposed to be his victory lap. It was also billed as, "the biggest tour of all time." 

Fifty shows in London, sold-out crowds, billions in potential revenue. The only problem was Michael was completely falling apart. He was physically frail, emotionally drained, and barely sleeping. He didn’t even want to do fifty shows- he wanted ten.only. 

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But AEG, the concert promoter, had him locked into contracts. If he backed out, the lawsuits alone could have destroyed him.

So what would you do when you have a massive artist who is checked out and doesn't want to work for you anymore? Oh yah, and he controls a billion dollar catalog, and is worth more to you dead than alive?

If you are smart, you find yourself a fall guy. 

Enter Dr. Conrad Murray, the most suspiciously incompetent doctor of all time. This dude was giving Michael propofol, a drug so strong it’s literally used to knock people out for surgery, in a bedroom without any monitoring equipment. That’s not bad medicine, that’s an assassination with extra steps. And it's ridiculously against the law. 

Oh yah, and Jackson nor his family didn't hire him, AEG, Michael's label did.

The official story is that Murray was just "reckless". The conspiracy theory says he was the patsy, the perfect guy to take the heat while the real puppet masters cashed their checks.

And oh boy, did they cash in.

The second Michael died, his album sales exploded, making more money in a single year than he had in the entire previous decade alive.

They took the This Is It rehearsal footage and slapped it all together into a movie that grossed $261 million worldwide.

Sony swooped in and the Jackson estate lawyers, who they had hired, and them struck a very quick deal regaining full control of his catalog, which was immediately turned into a license-to-print-money.

It was a full-on feeding frenzy. The King of Pop wasn’t even in the ground yet, and people were already divvying up the empire like hyenas and vultures.

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The worst part of it all is that Michael allegedly knew it was coming.

In the months before his death, he allegedly made cryptic comments to friends and family like-

“They’re trying to kill me.” “They want my catalog, and they will stop at nothing.”

Even the trustworthy and well-respected La Toya Jackson went on TV days after his passing and flat-out said-

“Michael was murdered, and we know who did it.”

But instead of that becoming a global investigation, the media shrugged and ran with the cleaner headline: “Troubled pop star overdoses on drugs.”

Here’s the way I see t. Michael Jackson was the biggest entertainer on the fucking planet. The kind of once-in-a-lifetime star who didn’t just sell out stadiums, he controlled the economy of the music business. Literally.

When he wanted out, the people whose livlihoods and stock prices depend on him didn’t just let him walk away. They didn’t need Michael Jackson "the man". They needed Michael Jackson the product. And products don’t complain. Products don’t sue. Products don’t demand their own independence.

The famous saying after all, "dead men don’t negotiate."

So, did Dr. Murray mess up? Absolutely.

But was he the whole story? Not a fucking chance.

Disclaimer about all things said in this blog are the words of Dante the Don and do not necessarily reflect those of Barstool Sports or anyone else