Transcript of Raffles van Exel interviewing Frank DiLeo

[Cassandra]

Transcript of Raffles van Exel interviewing Frank DiLeo
November 4, 2009

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7NqrDLdN0A"]YouTube- PART 1Raffles van Exel Frank DiLeo.[/ame] (Part 1 of 4)

Part 1

Exel: Hi my name is Raffels van Exel and I am sitting here with Frank DiLeo.

Exel: Frank on request from my self has approved two months ago to do an interview with the fans. However, because of my scheduling and Franks scheduling, and of course the premiere of This Is It, just now we were able to do the interview. Frank has not seen the questions. The questions have been asked by you the fans, However, MJJCommunity their staff and the senior staff board members have picked the questions. So if your question is not in here and is not answered it has nothing to do with me or with Frank DiLeo. It all has to do with the senior staff who picked the questions. But that once said, Frank, thank you for this interview.

DiLeo: It’s my pleasure.

Exel: There is a group, a small organization as you know of now called This Is Not It. Supposedly numerous of them have written letters to Michael the day before or 48 hours before Michael's passing explaining their concern about his health, that he was getting skinner and skinner. What is your take on that?

DiLeo: Well, it’s great that they wrote letters. I’m not aware of them. There was a concern by one of the staff members that Michael lost a few pounds. I brought it up with Michael. I forced a meeting with the doctor which we never met until that time.

They said that Michael was in good shape. That yes he did lose a couple of pounds because he wanted to. He was eating healthy, he was eating right, he was taking all the right vitamins.

That’s what we were told. I went back to that staff member, (xg)…he was 136 pounds; he wasn't 108 pounds like people want everybody to believe. He, in the 80s I would say, he was anywhere, if we weren’t working, maybe 150 – 145. and I would say that when I came here in March he was about 145 – 142, but he... as a dancer particularly in the way he danced now he wanted to be a little slimmer. You know he was in good – I think he was better health today than he was then because then he was a vegetarian and he fasted once a week and he had all these things that he did. So I think that’s false.

Exel: Again what about Karen Faye she had made a post on her Facebook [that] there was something wrong.

DiLeo: There is a lot of people besides Karen Faye that interacted with Michael and we didn’t see anything wrong. You know Karen Faye certainly has her opinion. Karen Faye feels and felt that she was very close to Michael. I respect that. That’s her opinion.

Exel: Okay. Marlon Jackson went on the record on CNN’s Roland Martin and he said Michael was not feeling well early in the morning of June the 25th and late at night on the 24th. If that is true, can you tell us what was wrong with Michael? Did Michael request to go to the hospital in the early morning hours?

DiLeo: No and I don’t think that Marlon spoke to him on the morning of the 25th and I am not sure he spoke to him the night of the 24th.
When we left the Staples Center and we said goodbye. Michael was very happy. I just solidified his Halloween special that he wanted from the time I got here with NBC. We laid out what we wanted to do with the film Ghosts, and what his participation was and he was acceptive of that. He was extremely happy. He went home. Whatever happened at home in the privacy I can’t account for. Michael Jackson was an adult. When we left Staples Center or wherever we were rehearsing I'd go to my residence, and he'd go to his. You know the man he wanted some privacy. He wanted his free time to be his free time. I couldn’t and nobody involved in this group of people was a hall monitor. You know we spent hours with him at the (1g) but once we went home – unless he called you at 2 in the morning to ask you a question, that was about it.

But I’m not sure if Marlon spoke to him that night because we didn’t leave the Staples Center until about midnight so…and I know he didn’t speak to him anymore.

Exel: Okay. Well among the other things some fans are speculating that if AEG and everyone involved with AEG is conspiracy to murder of Michael Jackson.

Part 2

DiLeo: It's false. That is an outrageous accusation Who in the world would want to kill Michael? Do you think that AEG wanted to have 50 open dates at their O2 area. Do you think they're filled right now? They're not filled. There was no advantage to anybody doing any harm to Michael.
This movie was not ever shot to be a movie. It was two cameras that were bought in the beginning because Michael couldn’t afford his documentary crew that he always hired for every tour and to document all his movements. Been through it on the Victory Tour, been through it on the Bad tour. Unfortunately, he didn't have the funds to do it. At the last minute Paul Gongaware who worked the Victory tour, who worked the Bad Tour as a cameraman suggested, “Hey maybe I’ll go get a couple of cameras.” They bought a couple of cameras for like six thousand, just to film the rehearsals. There was no intention of like, “Oh we’ll cause some harm to Michael so we can put out a movie.” Thank God we had it.

Exel:Thank God.

DiLeo: Thank God for the fans.

Exel:Yup.

DiLeo: And how that happened was after Michael passed we were sitting around and we were looking at some footage, you know just sort of remembering, wow what could have been and what a great time we would have had and somebody in the room, I don’t know who it was, said “It’s a shame the fans will never get to see this concert”. Somebody else said, “Well maybe we should see if there’s a movie here, at least show everybody what he was working on you know and something about him.” And that’s how it came about and people don’t understand that 90 percent of all profits from this film go to Michael’s estate and children.

Exel: Well I’m personally glad that that movie was there. Movie, documentary whatever they want to call it because yes it has. I mean, I think you and I we discussed it, we talked about it too, this was the only proper way to show the world and to keep the man's legacy alive.

DiLeo: Exactly, exactly.

Exel: Yeah I mean –

DiLeo: and I think it’s a great tribute to Michael. I think it turned out well.

Exel: It turned out more than well.

DiLeo: We all would rather see the concert live.

Exel: Oh exactly that was –

DiLeo: And Michael was very excited about going over there, you know, he really wanted to go over there he told me that last night. “We’re going to do the 50 shows. We’re going to reap what we’ve sown Frank, it’s our time to do it again.”

He was, and he was going to do the 50 and we talked about doing 20 stadiums in Japan and taking the tour on. He knew he had to work a year and a half. He knew he had to do it and he couldn’t wait to get out there.

Exel: Yeah, well, I agree. Our writer would not have seen the movie because that means we’d all be in London and joining Michael Jackson mania but…yeah.

To your best knowledge where were both you and Leonard Rowe - Michael’s manager for a period of time, did Michael signed 2 conflict contracts?

DiLeo: Two conflict contracts. What do you mean, two conflicting contracts?

Exel: Some of the fans are stating that you were his manager but also Leonard Rowe stated that he was Michael’s manager.

DiLeo: Yeah Leonard Rowe had Michael sign a contract that said he had the right to review the finances, alright, he did that before I got here. When I got here he says, "I signed a contract with Leonard Rowe to look at my finances, the tour finances." I said, "Well why would you do that?"
He said, “Well my dad was in the room and they wanted me to sign it and I signed it.” He said, “But you have to meet with Leonard and we'll straighten it out.”

I met with Leonard and he asked me about the contract and stuff and I said, “First of all, Michael signed that because Joseph was looking over his shoulder.” I said, “Second of all, he honestly doesn’t want you to be involved and I can’t give you that information because Michael doesn’t want you to have it, you’re going to have to get it off AEG.”

AEG wouldn't deal with him because he has a very checkered past, and you know they weren't going to do it. So then Michael and I were going to write a letter, which he would have signed, and you know would have eliminated him but there was no lawyer in place at that moment. Now we did send out some, had some other letters drawn up that uh uh stressed the fact that I was now the manager and not Dr. Tohme and that you know people had to deal with me and make their requests though me. We kind of forgot about Leonard Rowe.

When there was a meeting on the 15th, I think it was of May, which Leonard Rowe attended, I was out of town at the time with AEG it’s been widely noted and uh Randy Phillips answered all the questions and Michael sat in, and his mother sat in and at the end of the meeting Michael was extremely happy. He called me up he said you know we have to write a letter to Leonard to get him out of the picture.

Which when I came back we wrote up the letter, he signed it. I sent one copy to his hotel, the Sportsman’s Lodge, that was delivered to him, another copy uh to Mrs. Jackson’s Assistant in their office, I notified them that it was coming and they should show it to Leonard Rowe. So he was quite aware that he had been dismissed. Did he want to accept it? No. Did they want to pretend like they didn’t get it? No. But it was (1g) there.

Exel: In late 2008 You apparently signed a deal promising Michael would appear with his family on a show.

Part 3

Exel: AllGood Entertainment put the show together with Michael and his brothers and later tried to sue Michael for allegedly breach of contract for 20 million dollars.

DiLeo: Well let me just explain that to you. Some guys came into my office; they said, “We’d like to do a world tour with the family or pay per view.” I said, “Well Michael's not going to work with his family and he’s not going to do pay per view.” “Please, please, please just talk to him about it.” So they came up with this idea, “We’re going to give him 30 million, we're going to give him 15 million then we are going to-“ I said, “Look it’s not going to work.”

I said “I’ll tell you what, write it up, I’ll tell Michael about it. If he wants to do it fine but I’m telling you right now he’s not going to do it.” I said, “but where’s the money coming from? Do you have the money?” “Oh yeah we got the money don’t worry about it.” I said “I've been through a million of you guys there is tons of people coming in and out of my office. They want to know if they can do this if they can have that, if it’s a good idea and you present it to Michael and there's no money, what’s the sense in me wasting my time?

I said, “You put 10% as a retainer, in a Escrow account, in my account in which I am going to take $150,000 or up to for expenses because I’m not flying all over the country to talk to Michael.”

Exel: On your behalf.

DiLeo: Yeah, on your behalf for nothing. You know, not that I’m not going to get paid, I just want my expenses. I said I know what it is to sit in a hotel room for nine days waiting for him to show up. Everybody agreed, they had a deadline. That money never reached that account. We had a call, they needed a little extension. Fine, I gave it to them verbally. The money never hit the account.

I went to one or two meetings where they were trying to raise money. And by the way, there's a non-disclosure agreement that all those people signed saying they would not talk about this deal. In other words, they had the money they didn’t have to go out and raise it. What they were doing was getting my signature and going out trying to raise money.
That deal was null and void right there because they broke the non-disclosure. So what I think happened, this is just my thought, okay, but they must have borrowed some money for their expenses and they had to pay that back because they guaranteed the guy the deal was going to happen. Now they're scrambling with a lawsuit. I did not ever tell them I represented Michael Jackson or the brothers. Because I didn’t. I was Michael’s friend.

Exel: Who had an in.

DiLeo: Yeah, who could get Michael on the phone. While what we we were talking about were movie projects. Now when March came, first of all Michael signed his deal with AEG, I believe, in London before he made the announcement. I had no idea. We didn’t really discuss what he was doing with AEG, he did it, you know what I mean, we talked after that, again about movies. I said, “I see you made a deal.” He said, “Oh yeah, I’m very happy.” He said, “I’m doing this for my children because they’ve never seen me perform and I want them to see why people chase me in cars. “ “Why?” “Because they have questions.”

I say, “That’s a good idea.” I never said “Do you need my help? Can I be involved? Do want to do this other deal?” Okay? So now he calls me in March and says, “Frank have you ever met, do you know Randy Phillips?” I said no. I said “I know who he is”. I said “To tell you the truth our paths have never crossed”. I said “When I managed you before he was doing something else”. I think it was with Rod Stewart.

Exel: Yeah, Rolling Stones or Rod Stewart.

DiLeo: I said “I don’t know” and he says “Well, would you do a conference call tomorrow with me and Randy?” I said “Yeah, I’ll do a conference call but what’s it about?” I don’t wanna do a conference call just to do a conference call.

He said, “Well I want to know if you’ll manage me again.” And I said “Well yeah sure” and I said “Why?” and he said “Well you know I’m doing these concerts and I need help. You know how to do this, you know what I want.” Next day we had a conference call. Michael and I spoke, Randy kind of listened, we got introduced over the phone and Randy says to Michael, “It sounds like you have a real comfort level with Frank”.
He said, “Absolutely, I should have never fired him Randy, I love the guy he’s honest, I love his wife, I love his children, he's who I want to manage me.” And he said, “When can you come out here?” and I said, “I can get out there probably next week because I have to close up what I’m doing here.” I did. I came out. I met Randy the day after I arrived. We started the rehearsals. I was at rehearsals. I met with Michael every day until he passed away I was with him. So as far as there being a conspiracy for, with AllGood, how can it be a conspiracy, I never met the guy. You know what I mean? I never met him. We didn’t conspire against them, that’s a joke. And you know these claims will be answered in court I’m sure

Exel: In due time.

DiLeo: Well it’s coming up pretty soon, it’s started.

Exel: Okay. Okay, can you tell us a little about Dr. Tohme’s role with Michael? He was, uh is he still dealing in Michael’s businesses?

Part 4

Exel: Okay. Okay, can you tell us a little about Dr. Tohme’s role with Michael? He was, uh is he still dealing in Michael’s businesses? It seems that he still has presence with everything, including in the movie, is he totally out or…

DiLeo: He’s not in the movie. How’s he in the movie?

Exel: When they arrived in London.

DiLeo: Was he in there?

Exel: Yeah.

DiLeo: I didn’t even see that.

Exel: Yeah.

DiLeo: Really? Well here’s what happened, somebody – Michael told me when I got here, “I need a doctor when we go to London. We have to hire a doctor.” I said “Okay. What for?”

Exel: Now we're talking about Doctor Tohme, not the Doctor Murray

DiLeo: No, no, we're not talking about Doctor Murray, we’re talking about a doctor. I didn’t know it was Murray at the time. He said, I said, “What do you need a doctor for?” and he said, “Well, Frank, I’m the show. If I get sick, if I get a fever, we got to have a doctor to make sure that I eat right, that I have the right fluids...” I said “Okay”, I get that part. So a couple months go by, I don’t know this doctor but he is a doctor that he met in Vegas. That I think, according to what I heard, Michael called him when one of the kids had a cold or wasn’t feeling well and that's how he met him and whatever friendship they had, they had.

So then we hear back that Doc – no I’m sorry, as soon as we get closer to leaving Michael says, “Have you found a doctor yet?” I said, “You know Michael I think were going get you a doctor when we get to London, I’ll find you one, we're going to go a week in advance.” “No. I have to have my own doctor. “ I said “Well to tell you the truth I didn’t know you had a doctor. Who’s your doctor?” He said, “Doctor Murray.” I said “Well you have to give me his number.” So I got his number. Now Doctor Murray wanted a exorbitant amount of money to close his practices, to go to London and live there for 8 months with his family and everybody. So he mentioned the number to one of the people negotiating. And I said “We're never paying that”.

I went in to Michael and said “This is what he asked for.” He said “You're kidding”. I said “For that figure, I’ll get on a plane tonight, I’ll fly to London and I’m going to buy you a hospital.”

Exel: (Laughs)

DiLeo: He sort of laughed. He said “Well that’s ridiculous, figure out a common ground somewhere”. So we negotiated and we got him down. He wanted a certain number and I yelled “ No, this is what the artist wants to pay $150 and he accepted it. Now the contract, he never got paid any money because Michael passed away. This was in the last 2 weeks of Michael’s life. His lawyer was negotiating terms with AEG's lawyer because AEG was funding the money. AEG didn’t hire the guy. They didn’t know him from, you know, catfood. He never received one payment because he didn't sign the contract and Michael never signed a contract, so he never got any money. Now how did I met him? This is how I met him and Randy Phillips met him, and Kenny Ortega met him and everybody else.

One of the people that worked for us, I don’t want to say who she is, said “Gee I think Michael's you know losing weight, this and that.” I said let me handle it, let me investigate it. I went to Michael, talked to him about it, he said “No, I’m fine, I’m drinking beet juice everyday, eating Oatmeal” and all this stuff. I said, “Well we should meet with this doctor. Give me his number.” That was the first time I got his number. I called the doctor, set up a meeting at Michael’s house. We all went. “Doctor,” and Michael was there, “What is going on? Is he getting the right vitamins? Is he losing weight? Is he…” “No.” he said, “He’s 140 pounds, he’s fine.” He said “He’s eating this, he’s eating that and Michael’s agreeing”. Okay?

And I said to him, kidding around, “By the way what kind of doctor are you?” and he says “Well, I’m a Cardiologist.” I said “A heart doctor?” He said “Yeah.” “Wow, great” I said, “Mike this is terrific I’ve had 3 heart attacks I need you on the team.” Which Michael didn’t realize I had 3 heart attacks. The doctor started laughing and you know, but he assured everybody in that room that Michael was in good shape, he was working out everyday with Lou Ferrigno and Travis would come over and do the workouts at the house. There was no sense in Michael going to the studio to do the things he could do at home and spend that time with his children.

We didn’t need him to show up at Staples Center until anywhere between 4 to 6 and that’s the way we made that schedule and that was approved by everybody in that room that day. I went back to that person, said I had a meeting, repeated what the doctor told to me and he – the doctor said it to all of us very convincingly, and Michael emphasized “I’m fine, stop worrying. I’m not losing that much weight. I have to be a certain weight and I want a certain look to dance.”

Well what are you supposed to do? If he says it and the Doctor says it, what am I supposed to (do), stand up and say “Well I still don’t believe you?”

Exel: The day, June 25th, when you got the call, where were you and what went through you?

Part 5

Exel: The day, June 25th, when you got the call, where were you and what went through you?

DiLeo: Being that we didn’t go to Staples until 4 o clock I was at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, I was having lunch, it was an early lunch but it was 11:30. I got a call from a fan, they had just served us some lunch, I was with a friend, and uh the fan said, “Do you know there’s an ambulance in front of Michael’s house?” I said ”No”. She said, “Well, you know there’s an ambulance there”. I said “Okay, let me get off, I’m going to call Michael’s Assistant”.

I called Brother Michael. I said, “Is there an ambulance in front on the house?” He said “Yeah”. He said “I’m going from my apartment to the house. There seems to be a problem.” I said “Okay.” He said, “But the Doctor's with him.” I said, “Alright, I’m on my way to the house.” I had to go to my room to get my card .ticket and I had shorts on, I wanted to put a pair of pants on. As I’m walking I called Randy Phillips. I said “Randy, I don’t know what’s going on but there’s an ambulance at Michael’s house. I know you live in Beverly Hills; go there right now, I’m on my way, but I want you, you can get there quicker than me.” and I hung up. He was at the cleaners, he went right to Michael’s house. I got in my car and came out; you know Michael lives up in there in Hollywood or whatever it's called. I was driven to his house on many occasions, he would send somebody to pick me up. Sometimes I would follow somebody; I know how to get back. I might had driven there twice on my own. I made the wrong turn…

Exel: All those streets there look alike.

DiLeo: They all look alike, so I came from the back. So it took me maybe a extra minute, you know, to find it. Instead of going the right way I was like a street off. So I got to there and the gates were wide open and the guards were out there, and I said “Where the ambulance?” They said, “They took Michael to the hospital.” I didn’t know which hospital. In my mind I thought it was Cedar-Sinai.

Well I said, “I better call Randy.” So I call Randy and I said, “Did you get to the house?” and he said “Yeah” he said “I’m following the ambulance.” I said, “Where are we going? To Cedar's?” He said “No, were going to UCLA.” I said “Okay, I’m on my way.” And again, I didn’t really know where that was. Trent called me, Mrs. Jackson’s driver; I'm sorry, Mrs. Jackson called me. She said, “I heard they took my son to the hospital. “I said, “Katherine, they did. Should I come?” I said, “You know, I don’t know what’s going on yet. Just give me a minute, and I’ll call you back.” I hung up.

3 minutes later, as I’m still driving, her driver called, “Frank, what’s going on?” I said, “You know Trent, I don’t know, but tell Katherine to come on, bring her down here, were going to UCLA, it’s better that she comes” because I still don’t know what’s going on. I get to the hospital, I see all the security. Hospital security's got everything blocked off, roped off, nobody's getting in. Randy's waiting for me in the emergency room area where you sit. I come in and I greet him, "What going on?” He says “I don’t know.” He says, “Let’s go back.” They let us back because they knew who we were. Everyone else had to hold on.

We got to the little room, you know, we heard them working on him, we thought he was alive…and…the rest happened. But Mrs. Jackson didn’t get there for like 40 minutes because they were coming from the valley.
I had a wheelchair, a Cardiologist and a social worker waiting for her so that she could – I didn’t want to walk it – I know that she had a bad heart. I wanted that cardiologist to oversee her.

Exel: Wow…Uh, what is your role with Sony/ATV? Did you replace Raymone Bain or is she still on the board?

DiLeo: No. Raymone Bain isn't on the board, Dr Tohme is not on the board. I’m on the board of ATV/Sony music. I was put on there by Michael. He put myself on and Joel Katz who was his attorney at the time. That was the guy that he signed a letter of engagement with to bring him on as his counsel. So he wanted us both on the board because we were getting ready to have conversations with ATV/Sony to look into the expenditures and so on and so forth.

Exel: Do you work for AEG?

DiLeo: Never have and I don’t now.

Exel: Okay.

DiLeo: Michael Jackson hired me. Michael Jackson was to pay me. AEG was to advance the money to pay me. At this point, I haven’t been paid. I will be paid, you know, because we have to work this out but I’m not on the payroll of AEG.

Exel: Are you on good terms with the family and the estate?

DiLeo: I think I’m on good terms with both. You know, I’m sure there’s some people in the family that like me and don’t like me but most of the younger generation like me and they respect me and they understand the work I did for their uncle and uh the estate respects me and I feel they like me and I hope that one day they’ll want to work with me.

Exel: I can tell you that all the Presidents of the Fan Clubs I’ve spoken with: Australia, China, Portugal, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Germany, England, they told me that I have to tell you “Thanks for being there for Michael”.

DiLeo: That’s very kind of them but it’s not a thing where I need thanks. He was a person that I loved and respected. He was my friend. Some people view him as just being my client. He wasn’t my client, he was my friend.

Exel: Well they look up to you, all the way from Thriller on and they only wanted to know if there is anything that you could say to Michael’s fans?

DiLeo: To keep being his fans and to keep supporting us because were going to make this legacy live forever and we're going to try to do everything we can to make anything that comes out with Michael’s name on it be in a tasteful way. Because right now we are doing it or the children. We’re doing it as Michael says with L.O.V.E.

Exel: Frank, thanks for everything.

DiLeo: It’s my pleasure, thank you.

[Orthodiva]

I would like to bump this interview because it touches on several things that have been recently discussed here (filming of TII, Sony/ATV board, trial testimony). Unfortunately Frank is no longer here to answer questions so perhaps this will help. It is a shame for I think he could be a great help to the Estate.

[RedCorvette]

DiLeo: To keep being his fans and to keep supporting us because were going to make this legacy live forever and we're going to try to do everything we can to make anything that comes out with Michael’s name on it be in a tasteful way. Because right now we are doing it or the children. We’re doing it as Michael says with L.O.V.E.


It's so very sad, that Frank did not survive long enough to have a lengthy association with the Estate..........I always loved his relationship with Michael and he was a true friend.

[Renee]

Thank you for bumping this, I knew we had a thread related to Raffles and couldn't recall what the situation was. Will definitely be re-reading this later on.