Posted by Adam

Thursday July 2, 2009

Below is a video of Michael Jackson‘s final dress rehearsal — two nights before his death. Despite what we all assumed, he would’ve breezed through those London gigs.

Jackson, 50, died Thursday (June 25) after suffering an apparent cardiac arrest at his home in Los Angeles.

The superstar singer was due to begin a series of comeback concerts with an appearance at London’s O2 arena on July 13.

His memorial will take place on Tuesday, July 7 at 10 a.m. at the Staples Center. The program will be simulcast at Los Angeles’ nearby Nokia Theatre.

Randy Phillips — the boss of AEG Live, who was behind the 50 shows  — said the singer had to be force fed as he prepared for the dates.

“He used to forget to eat because he was so focused and Kenny Ortega and I used to cut up his food and physically feed him,” Randy said.

“Frail, he certainly wasn’t. He was always very thin but not to the point where he couldn’t perform. He really kicked into high gear and was totally engaged in the last two weeks. Before that he was nervous and not really coming to rehearsals.

“But that was his schedule and that was how he wanted to do things.

“It was like when you revise the day before an exam — that was the way he operated.

“Michael did not have a grueling schedule– he had Michael’s schedule. He didn’t need to rehearse that much. He was so talented that he didn’t need to.

“When he started dancing, he was dancing better than the best 20-year-old dancers in the world. He was that good.

“He did a three-hour rehearsal and we all finished up at 12.30am on Thursday morning. He was really excited.

“He was super-charged and did a group hug with the director Kenny Ortega and his manager. He was like a kid in the candy store — he was so up for it.

“I walked him out to the car and he put his arm around me and, speaking softly like he always does, he said to me: ‘Do you know what – we are here, we are going to make it. I love you for doing this and now I know I can do it.”

“That was the last thing he said to me and I never heard from him again.”

Tags: michael jackson