Michael Jackson’s Band Reunited on “Lopez Tonight”

(November 12, 2009) BURBANK, CA -”Lopez Tonight” paid a special tribute to the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. Prior to being the “Lopez Tonight” musical director, Michael Bearden was the musical director of the planned “This Is It” tour and the recently-released film. Bearden reunites the band for the very first time since the Michael Jackson Memorial service that was seen worldwide to perform “Man in the Mirror.” Bearden takes the viewers back to the time when he was working with Michael Jackson and his fond memories of the late, great icon.

George asks about the last time Bearden saw Jackson.

George: “So you were with him every day and you may have been one of the last
people to see him that night?”

Bearden: ” Well, I was the last person out of our company, out of our cast to see
him because we parked in the same area and his car was blocking my car. I couldn’t
leave and I had to wait for him. We had just finished a great night. It was really
late like 12:30. When he came, I was teasing him and he was laughing and we
embraced as we always did and Michael Jackson said, ‘I love you. God bless you,’ as
we always did … I felt great tonight.’ I responded, ‘Yeah, you looked great and
you sounded great. What time are you coming in tomorrow, MJ?’ … ‘I’ll be in at
2 o’clock. The band sounds great, Bearden!’ ‘ Thank you, MJ, you just really did it
tonight,’ and he said ‘Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow, man’.” Bearden says, “We hugged
and then I never got a chance to see him.”