London, Dec 4 : Michael Jackson's personal manager has said that the stress caused by child molestation accusations and the physical toll of performing on tours could have led to the star's fatal dependency on prescription drugs.

Frank Cascio was a lifelong friend of the `King of Pop' and was appointed his personal manager as a 19-year-old.

"I visited him in Mexico City... while he was on tour, and whether from the mental anguish caused by the... accusations or the physical toll of performing so many concerts, Michael was in extreme pain every night," the Daily Mail quoted Cascio as saying.

"A doctor always came before he went to sleep to give him what he called `medicine,'" he said.

He later learnt that the `medicine' was Demerol, a strong painkiller that the pop icon had first been prescribed after his hair caught fire while shooting a Pepsi commercial in 1984.

Cascio said that when he warned Jackson that he was taking too much of Demerol the star replied that he needed to take it to continue working.

"You think I have a problem... but I don't. You have no idea what it's like to be in this much pain," he quoted Michael Jackson as saying.

"I have to work tomorrow. If I don't sleep, how am I going to go to the studio?" Jackson said.

He started relying on prescription drugs more and more and various doctors prescribed a menu of pain medications including Vicodin, Percocet and Xanax.

"Sometimes, Michael would ask me to bring in one doctor, and then, hours later, a second doctor, to give him more of the same medication. Then an anaesthetist started turning up," Cascio said.

Cascio paid the doctors in cash as Jackson's medical issues had to be kept from the public.

During these interactions one straightforward doctor however told him what he was doing.

"What I do... is put Michael to sleep for a couple of hours. Then I ease him out of sleep," Cascio quoted the doctor as saying.

The doctor would set up equipment including an intravenous drip in the room and would stay with Jackson for about four hours.

Cascio said that for his comeback performance `This is it,' Michael Jackson wanted to perform with as much energy as before and that's why he once again turned to the doctors.

"Knowing Michael as I did, I can say with confidence that as he waited for that last, fatal dose from his personal doctor, Conrad Murray, all he wanted was to be fresh for rehearsal the next day. That day never came," Cascio said.
(ANI)