Music megastar Michael Jackson was rushed to hospital in Los Angeles on this day in 1984, after being set on fire during the filming of a TV commercial.
The 25-year-old, later dubbed the ‘King of Pop’, was filming a staged concert performance for a new advertising campaign by Pepsi with members of his family, when sparks from a pyrotechnic explosion ignited his hair.
Jackson briefly continued performing, then hurried to the back of the set where he was pushed to the ground and extinguished by stage hands and his brothers.
The singer was initially taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, where he was “noted to be quite shaken up with palm-sized area of second-degree and small area of third-degree burns” by his doctor, Steven Hoefflin.
His wounds were treated, and then he was given a number of different painkillers and prescribed a powerful sedative to calm his nerves and help him sleep.
Jackson was arguably at the very peak of his career when the incident happened. His album Thriller had been released to huge acclaim at the end of 1982 and he would go on to win a record eight Grammy awards in February.
He and his brothers had signed a promotional deal with Pepsi worth $5 million in November the previous year. After the accident, Pepsi paid Jackson $1.5 million in compensation, which the pop star donated to the Brotman Medical Centre, one of the hospitals in which he was treated.
[August 16, 1977: The King is Dead: Elvis Presley dies aged 42 in Memphis]
Michael Jackson - Did you know?
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Jackson had been working in the music industry with his brothers as the Jackson 5 since the age of seven, the band being signed to Motown Records before he was 11.
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After a move to Epic Records in 1975 the band was renamed The Jacksons. Michael Jackson broke through as a solo artist with his 1979 album Off the Wall which, like 1982’s Thriller, was created hand-in-hand with veteran producer Quincy Jones.
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Thriller was recognised as the world’s best-selling album ever by the Guinness Book of Records, having sold over 35 million copies since its release. It is now estimated to have sold as many as 65 million copies.
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Jackson was miming his hit single Billie Jean, with his brothers miming the instrumental parts, when the accident happened.
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Medical records leaked online purporting to be Jackson’s reveal that he was prescribed the painkiller Darvocet, which was later banned as having potentially harmful side-effects, as well as a strong sedative, flurazepam (marketed as Dalmane).
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Some biographers and commentators have cited the accident as being a turning point in Jackson’s life, leading to the dependence on prescription medication that would cause his early death.
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In November 2003, he was arrested and charged with child abuse after admitting sharing his bed with children in a documentary. He was tried in 2005 and cleared of all charges.
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By 2009 Jackson was taking the surgery anesthetic propofol simply to sleep. His death on June 25 that year was from cardiac arrest brought on by acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication.
