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Los Angeles - Michael Jackson drank six bottles of wine a day in the weeks leading up to his death, a friend has claimed.
The troubled King of Pop - who died of acute Propofol intoxication - used to get his pal Mark Lester to smuggle the alcohol into hotels past his strict security team in a desperate attempt to beat his insomnia.
And Mark - who is godfather to the star's three children, Prince, 16, Paris,15, and 10-year-old Blanket - also claims the Thriller singer was "paralytic" at the press conference to announce his This Is It residency at London's The O2, which was scheduled to begin just weeks after he died in June 2009.
Sobered up
He told The Sun newspaper: "Michael passed out on the hotel bed. His doctor said he'd drunk two-thirds of a bottle of whisky and was paralytic.
"He sobered up enough to struggle through the This Is It speech, which he just about got away with."
Michael's mother Katherine is suing the concert promoters AEG Live for wrongful death, alleging they were negligent in hiring Dr Conrad Murray - who is serving a four-year jail term for the involuntary manslaughter of the Thriller star - to care for Michael as he prepared for his comeback shows.
The case opens in Los Angeles on Monday.
The troubled King of Pop - who died of acute Propofol intoxication - used to get his pal Mark Lester to smuggle the alcohol into hotels past his strict security team in a desperate attempt to beat his insomnia.
And Mark - who is godfather to the star's three children, Prince, 16, Paris,15, and 10-year-old Blanket - also claims the Thriller singer was "paralytic" at the press conference to announce his This Is It residency at London's The O2, which was scheduled to begin just weeks after he died in June 2009.
Sobered up
He told The Sun newspaper: "Michael passed out on the hotel bed. His doctor said he'd drunk two-thirds of a bottle of whisky and was paralytic.
"He sobered up enough to struggle through the This Is It speech, which he just about got away with."
Michael's mother Katherine is suing the concert promoters AEG Live for wrongful death, alleging they were negligent in hiring Dr Conrad Murray - who is serving a four-year jail term for the involuntary manslaughter of the Thriller star - to care for Michael as he prepared for his comeback shows.
The case opens in Los Angeles on Monday.
