At the height of Michael Jackson’s career, it is hard to overstate how popular his music was and how many fans adored him. Thanks to how successful Jackson was, the idea that he ever had to worry about money is mind-blowing.

By the time Jackson passed away, he’d been so bad with money that the estate he left behind to his mother and children was smaller than it should have been. A perfect example of how bad Jackson could be with money is that he somehow managed to lose money going on tour.

Was Michael Jackson Bad With Money?
After Michael Jackson rose to fame as a child, the pop star never completely left the spotlight before his untimely passing. As a result of Jackson’s decades of success, the King of Pop made hundreds of millions during his life.

Unfortunately for Jackson’s bank account, he developed spending habits at the height of his success that were unsustainable. As a result, Jackson had to tackle serious money problems later in life that forced him to sell half of The Beatles’ music catalog to Sony.

Knowing how bad Jackson’s financial picture eventually became, it is fascinating to look at what caused his problems. The answer to that is simple, Jackson infamously overspent in virtually all aspects of his life.

Some examples of more understandable ways Jackson spent a fortune on include the millions he spent on his children’s school tuition. Jackson also infamously spent a huge amount of money on turning his Neverland Ranch home into a fantasy land.

Most notably, Jackson had a well-known passion for spending obscene amounts of money on everything from movie memorabilia to art and jewelry.

One of the more interesting things Jackson bought was a pair of gloves Johnny Depp wore to play Edward Scissorhands. Jackson also reportedly paid $1.5 million for the Academy Award statue that Gone With the Wind won for Best Picture.

Unsurprisingly, Jackson spent a lot of money on some more unique items like several castings of his own face and a robotic replica of his own head. Another notable thing Jackson owned is an extensive car collection, a full arcade with loads of games, expensive paintings, and gold fixtures in his home.

How Did Michael Jackson Reportedly Lose Money On Tour?
In 1996, Michael Jackson released the album “HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I” which included a greatest hits disc and one with new music. To say this album was a huge hit is a massive understatement as it went platinum multiple times in a slew of different countries.

With the mammoth success the album was enjoying, it only made sense for Jackson to go on tour to support it. After all, most musical artists make far more money going on tour than they do from album or single sales.

After starting the HIStory World Tour in September 1996, Jackson stayed on the road for more than a year until October 1997. By the time Jackson’s HIStory World Tour came to an end, just short of 4.5 million fans saw him perform live.

The reason why so many fans got to see Jackson perform during the tour is almost every concert was sold out. According to Wikipedia, 98% of the tickets that were available during the HIStory World Tour sold which is a truly amazing fact. After all, Jackson performed in countries all over the world during the tour, and having that many fans on different continents is exceedingly rare.

With so many fans in attendance, Jackson should have been making a fortune during the tour. Despite that, Jackson’s tour actually lost a staggering $26 million during the first leg of the tour according to a man named Paul Gongaware.

On the bright side, Gongaware was happy to say how great Jackson’s performances were during the tour. When asked how Jackson conducted himself in front of audiences, Gongaware called his performances “sensational”.

However, Gongaware says that he had to be brought onto the tour to save it from losing a fortune. “I had to go in and cut a lot of expenses. There was so much excess.”

When someone makes a grandiose claim that they single-handedly saved a huge world tour from losing money, nobody should take that at face value. Instead, claims like those deserve to be taken with a great deal of skepticism.

In the case of Gongaware’s claims about how much money Jackson’s tour was losing before he stepped in, there is a great reason to believe his claims. Instead of saying that he saved Jackson’s tour in an interview where he was building himself up, Gongaware was speaking in a much more serious venue.

After Jackson tragically passed away in 2009, his mother and children sued the company Gongaware worked for. In their lawsuit for wrongful death, Jackson’s family claimed that AEG Live/Live Nation negligently hired and supervised Dr. Conrad Murray.

For anyone who doesn’t know who Dr. Murray is, he was treating Jackson at the time of the pop star’s death. After Jackson passed away, Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for being the one who injected the pop star with the medication the singer overdosed on.

In response to the Jackson family’s lawsuit, AEG Live/Live Nation claimed that the company didn’t hire or oversee Dr. Murray. Instead, AEG Live/Live Nation claimed that Jackson hired Murray and any money the company sent to the doctor was part of a larger cash advance given to Jackson.

During the Jackson family’s wrongful death lawsuit against AEG Live/Live Nation, Gongaware testified on behalf of the company. It was during his testimony that Gongaware stated that the first leg of Jackson’s tour lost $26 million.

According to what Gongaware said in court, even after he came in and slashed expenses, the tour still wasn’t a big moneymaker. Instead, Gongaware says the concert broke even, but it is worth noting that is much better than how things could have gone if things kept going the way they were.

Ultimately, the Jacksons’ wrongful death lawsuit ended with the jury concluding that AEG Live/Live Nation did hire Dr. Murray. However, the Jackson family still lost in court as the jury found the company had no reason to believe that Dr. Murray was unfit “to perform the work for which he was hired for”.