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death
     of this musical icon.
    By 2 a.m. it was all over—at least for the day. This was a story that would not end with a single day of coverage or even
     a week. I knew it would go on and on as accusations of drug overdoses and finger-pointing at so-called unscrupulous doctors
     began to dominate the conversations, along with relentless reports of Michael’s bizarre and unhealthy lifestyle. And then
     there were rumors about Debbie Rowe, one of Michael’s ex-wives, the mother of his two oldest children.
    I dropped into bed exhausted and amazed that, once again, I had made it through a day that dealt me so many dips and turns
     I should have gotten seasick. After all, I had awakened with one show in mind and had booked three more before Larry went
     on the air. I’d answered thousands of e-mails, much more than my usual number, I had taken care of my kids, and we had all
     done our jobs. And the show had gone on.
    The next night Deepak was among our guests. Here is asegment of his interview, staggering in its directness and in Deepak’s commitment to be the first person who dared to speak
     about this.
    CHOPRA: In 1988, he [Michael] called me out of the blue and asked me to teach him meditation. I went to Neverland and we had a weekend
     together and became friends since that.
    KING: What was he like?
    CHOPRA: Magical. First time I met him, he was magic. He had a jukebox in his studio, with the traditional coins. So, we threw in a
     few coins and he said, choose the music. And I chose “Saturday Night Fever” and he started to dance…
    KING: You complained, though, today about people around him. You’ve been very open and been critical of what?
    CHOPRA: Well, in 2005, after the trial, Michael came and spent a week with me. And out of the blue he asked me for a prescription,
     knowing that I’m a doctor and I have a license, too. It was a prescription for a narcotic. I said, wait, why would you want
     a prescription for a narcotic? It suddenly dawned on me that he was getting a lot of prescriptions from a lot of people.
    KING: Was he an addict?
    CHOPRA: Yes, he was.
    KING: Did people around him encourage that addiction?
    CHOPRA: Yes, more so his doctors.
    KING: Didn’t he have migraine headaches, though? Wasn’t he in a lot of pain?
    CHOPRA: He was in pain. But there are many ways to manage pain. Even if you’re on narcotics, there’s a way to manage narcotics.
    KING: Did he take a lot of pills and stuff?
    CHOPRA: I know for a fact that he did. I saw bottles of OxyContin. I knew he was getting shots. I knew his doctors were enablers. What can I say? I confronted him many times with it. When I did, he would stop returning my calls until we changed the topic.
    KING: Lisa Marie Presley, his ex-wife, writes on her MySpace blog that Michael once told her he was afraid he would end up lik her father. Did he talk about that?
    CHOPRA: He did… I’m discussing the problems in the medical profession which enables this kind of addiction. It’s become a tradition in Hollywood.
    KING: You’re blaming the medical profession.
    CHOPRA: Of course. There’s a coterie of doctors right here in Hollywood that like to hang around celebrities. They perpetuate their habit. They make them drug addicts. We’ve got to really investigate this.
    Deepak was the first to tell it like he believed it to be. When he went on the air and said what he did about the medical
     profession, people were enraged at him and they wanted to kill the messenger. But it came out later that Michael had had countless
     interventions that clearly did no good at all. And in the end, when Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael’s primary doctor, was arrested
     for involuntary manslaughter, everyone had to admit that Deepak’s suspicions may not have been unfounded.
    Over the next few weeks, while we continued to cover this monumental death, it seemed as if a never-ending flurry of celebrities
     were dying. The list includes: David Carradine, Farrah Fawcett, Michael