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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Michael Jackson Funeral

Aired September 03, 2009 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening again.

We're bringing you live coverage tonight of the Michael Jackson funeral ceremonies being held at Forest Lawn Glendale Memorial Park just outside Los Angeles. The service supposed to begin at 7:00 p.m. sharp Pacific Time, but we were informed that the Jackson family was running late. It looks as if there is a large entourage, members of the Jackson family on the highway approaching the cemetery.

It has been 70 days of course since the death of Michael Jackson. We've had weeks for the toxicology report, weeks more to get word from the coroner's office on a cause of death.

Michael Jackson who have just turned 51, his death now treated as a homicide, presumably a medical homicide.

A lot of ground to cover in the hour ahead; we'll be talking to a panel of experts on the law, addiction and Michael Jackson's remarkable life and career.

We begin with Randi Kaye who is just outside of the cemetery. Randi, who are we seeing arrive?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the last person we've seen to arrived, Anderson, would have been Joe Jackson, Michael Jackson's father. He came in a black SUV wearing his trademark hat.

And as we look at pictures of the people there who are gathering, there are still plenty of empty seats, because the family as we've all come to realize now is running about an hour late.

This was supposed today start promptly at 7:00 p.m. Pacific time, 10:00 p.m. Eastern time on the East Coast. So it obviously has not gotten under way yet.

But there is a little bit of buzz of police activity, there's plenty of law enforcement out here. They've been escorting the guests in all night. And now there seems to be a little bit of a buzz, they seem to be huddling quite a bit and talking. So it may be very close to the time where the family will actually be arriving.

Now, we're expecting that they would come right by us here. We're at the main gate of Forest Lawn Memorial Park and we would expect they'd come right by here as many of the other guests have. We've certainly seen plenty including Elizabeth Taylor, McCauley Culkin and others. But we have not seen any sign of them yet -- Anderson.

COOPER: And what do we know about the service? I mean, we've talked to Reverend Al Sharpton in the last hour. He said Gladys Knight is supposed to perform. We know Stevie Wonder will be there whether or not he performs. And also there is supposed a time where people can anyone can just get up and talk about their memories of Michael Jackson.

KAYE: Right. I mean, we've been told that the family wanted this to not only start on time but to only run an hour. So they were going to let people, anyone really who wanted to get up and say a few kind words, maybe share a few memories about Michael Jackson, would be allowed and invited to get up and speak.

But now that they're running so late it's unclear if that will still be the case. Certainly I'm sure many of those inside have a lot to say. And in fact Reverend Al Sharpton has been Twittering from the inside. Only at a Michael Jackson funeral would we be getting tweets from inside there on the grounds of Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

COOPER: What's he been saying?

KAYE: They been talking -- well, he's been saying quite a bit. Actually, I've been reading them. And I'll try and share one of them with you here if I can find it here on my Blackberry. But mainly that they've all been really reminiscing which is what you would expect. But they've been talking quite a bit about his -- the hardships along the way, the child molestation trials, things that he had to deal with.

But Reverend Sharpton also says he really thinks he turned his life around and he came back on top and he will be remembered as a bit of a hero really among his fans. So it's really interesting to see him twittering from inside.

We are being told also just in terms of the family's arrival that they are in a motorcade of 26 cars so that gives you an idea, Anderson, of why we are seeing so many empty seats inside there still.

There's a police escort coming from Encino. We're told they're just a few minutes away -- we're just getting this news in. Just a few minutes away a police escort, 26 vehicles carrying Michael Jackson's family. That would be Katherine Jackson, his mother, that would also include his brothers, his sisters, LaToya, Rebbie, Janet. We're looking at some pictures right there probably of the escort.

COOPER: Yes.

KAYE: The procession. And you can see it, it's quite a procession. And that explains why they would need a police escort -- Anderson.

COOPER: We're also joined -- Lisa Bloom is watching this, legal analyst for CNN; Kelefa Sanneh, who writes about music with "The New Yorker," and also Gotham Chopra is with us. Kelefa, his relationship with his family over the years, I mean, he's gone on tour with members of the Jackson family. But yet -- but from a very early age, began to form his own identity, his own career.

KELEFA SANNEH, "THE NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE: Yes, and that also echoes the split in his musical career where you have the Jackson 5 recording for Motown and then I think it was 1975 they split and they go to CBS. And that, and that and his work with CBS and with Epic Records kind of begins not only his evolution as a solo artist but his evolution as a pop artist as opposed to an R&B artist.

And so there was always that kind of split and the idea, the whole part of the whole premise of Michael Jackson really going solo and the success of "Off the Wall" was the idea that he was kind of not only breaking free from his family but breaking free from the genre where he started and kind of becoming not only a solo success but also a pop success as opposed to an R&B success.

COOPER: And yes, I mean, there was clearly a fracturing of a relationship there. I mean, obviously he was very public about his feelings toward his father who he says beat him when he was a child.

SANNEH: Yes and I mean, the thing is I remember going back personally, I remember being when I was six or seven years old when "Thriller" came out and I didn't know any of this. I didn't know, I guess I had maybe heard of the Jackson 5. I didn't know any of this history. And the odd thing about Michael Jackson is over the years at least I still got a sense that I didn't, still didn't really know what the real story was.

There was still something kind of mysterious about him in terms of no matter how much --and it's odd because there's so much attention on him, so much kind of investigative digging about his life and his family, but at the end you're still left with this sense of you don't really know what motivated him. You don't really know how he felt about the different family members.

COOPER: Gotham Chopra, you knew him over the course of 20 years. Did you see him with other family members or was your time usually just him and his -- the family he created?

GOTHAM CHOPRA, MICHAEL JACKSON FRIEND: Yes. It was mostly just him. I mean, it's one of the reasons I don't think I ever really developed any close relationships with members of his family.

I think he had a deep, deep respect and admiration and love for members of his family but he wasn't particularly close to them especially in the last few years. He spoke very fondly about his brothers yet he didn't really ache to re-form that fraternity that was so -- that they were all so famous for.

So Michael was a contradiction and even these 26 cars as part of this motorcade, clearly a lot about the family and I think that's good. But it also tells you a little bit something of the way that they looked at him and he even within that famous family was an icon.

COOPER: Randi Kaye, this clearly seems to be the family members arriving, yes? Randi, are you seeing family members arriving?

KAYE: Anderson, I can tell you that right -- yes, the motorcade has just arrived from Encino and it's, as you would expect, it's a somber mood; nobody certainly even acknowledging the media here. So I did see the children arrived. There's about a line of 26 cars going by us.

You can see them all there entering Forest Lawn Memorial Park getting ready to lay their brother in some cases to rest, their father for the children here and their son. Katherine Jackson coming from her home in Encino, that is where the family has been gathering.

They had this police escort -- it took them about -- about a half an hour or so to get here with the escort. So it's really a line of all black SUVs, all the same Range Rover, carrying his family here.

And Jermaine, we saw go through in one of these cars. Also some of the kids, many of the Jackson cousins are here as well. And already inside as we know many family friends have already gathered.

But as we see this you can -- this really is what those of us who have been out here all day have been really waiting for. And to see this family in all this time as they've been waiting to lay Michael Jackson to rest in all the controversy that has surrounded his death, the investigation into his death. It is time, finally, for them to lay Michael Jackson to rest -- Anderson.

COOPER: Randi, there had been some difference in the Jackson family of opinion about where Michael Jackson should be laid to rest. And in the end it was Katherine Jackson's decision, is that correct?

KAYE: It was in the end. For sure, Katherine Jackson made the final call on where -- where he should be laid to rest, his final resting place now here at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. He'll be -- it'll be inside a crypt here in the Great Mausoleum.

There was a lot of discussion as to whether or not he should be buried at Neverland. As you know, he spent so many years there. It was a very special place until all the child molestation accusations and the trial that followed.

COOPER: His brother Jermaine had said that Jermaine wanted him there. Others had said that Michael Jackson never wanted to return to Neverland.

KAYE: Right.

And that is why in addition to the fact that this cemetery is much closer to Katherine Jackson, Neverland is about three hours away. So this certainly made more sense for family who wanted to pay their respects and visit Michael Jackson as well.

But as I mentioned this, as we watched the cars make their way up to the Great Mausoleum, it's about a two-minute drive from the main gate where we're standing and where you just saw those cars enter. And they'll make their way to Holly Terrace, which is inside the Great Mausoleum. There's actually 11 levels in there and he'll be buried, laid to rest in one of the crypts there right under a massive, stainless -- a massive window, actually and it's right after Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece of "The Last Supper." It's a life-sized re- creation of that, a famous glass window and it's really something spectacular.

And it's interesting Anderson, because he actually had reportedly commissioned the very same in a painting to hang over his bed at the Neverland ranch.

COOPER: I have no doubt about that.

There are also I'm told in this crypt life-size replicas of -- for instance the David statue, The Pieta and others, is that correct?

KAYE: Right. This mausoleum is really -- it's absolutely exquisite. It's so majestic, and it's all marble inside and it's -- there are many levels to it. It's really a maze as you go from crypt to crypt. Very few people obviously have been inside.

But we did talk to someone who has been in there. There's very tight security. And many, many celebrities, big name celebrities buried in there as well.

So it's really -- there are 20-foot archways and there's of course the exact replicas some of Michelangelo's greatest pieces. We're looking at his kids there...

COOPER: We're seeing the Jackson children.

KAYE: Yes. There you see Prince Jackson getting out of the car. And there's Blanket coming out and there's Paris.

COOPER: So the three kids were the first out that we saw, this is a feed provided by the Jackson family that we don't have control over so we're seeing these images as you are seeing them, various members of the family.

Those are actually dancers. That actually is the young man I interviewed who was one of the dancers in Michael Jackson's show. I have forgotten his name but they're dressed in what appear to be West Point cadet outfits or variations thereof. But he's one of the dancers who had -- that's obviously Janet Jackson being escorted to her seat.

KAYE: There's Janet Jackson.

COOPER: These were dancers selected by Michael Jackson and Kenny Ortega to be in Michael Jackson's London performances. There is Joe Jackson in his hat walking with Michael Jackson's kids and one of the perhaps other sisters -- not sure who. Let's listen in.

Jermaine Jackson, the other brothers of Michael Jackson now taking their seats in the first row. Quincy Jones there on the left- hand side of your screen I believe? Maybe not. No.

No.

There's the three children of Michael Jackson.

Katherine Jackson sitting next to her husband, Joe Jackson. Joe Jackson lives in Las Vegas. Katherine Jackson lives in Encino.

Gotham Chopra who is watching this along with us. Gotham, what are your thoughts as you see these members of the Jackson family some of whom you know, some of whom...

CHOPRA: Sure. Well, I think, you know, it's a somber moment, certainly and it's one of reflection and it's nice. I mean, I think one of the things that's always surprising when you see things like this that are so big put on by the Jackson family, they're done with a lot of dignity and a lot of emotion.

And for me, I mean, seeing the kids, I mean that was the family that Michael created for himself. And he was a pretty isolated person so essentially he built a family, created people who would love him not for being some icon and not fear him for being some scandal- plagued celebrity.

Those kids were his life. And so to see them I think that's, you know, that always a little bit emotional but it looks like a beautiful ceremony.

COOPER: You saw him interact with his kids over the years. What was he like as a dad?

CHOPRA: He was a great dad. And I think it was one of the things that was really normalizing for him. He was a guy who changed diapers. He was a guy who knew which kid liked what cereal and who liked turkey sausages and pork sausages.

I mean, he was a very attentive father and I think it was something in his life that really anchored him in the last few years which were clearly very challenging years for him. But it was something that really gave him a foundation and I know, you know, to them he was also the world.

So this has all been very challenging for everyone.

COOPER: Kelefa, do you think Michael Jackson would have been surprised by the outpouring of emotion, the outpouring of, I mean, people, you know, I think he sold 5 million albums in 2009 compared to some 200,000 or something the year before?

SANNEH: No. I think -- I think -- I don't think he was ever surprised by the fact that people really loved him and really loved his music and his greatest hits. If he was surprised by anything I think it seemed like he was more surprised by those times when he made music later in his career that didn't have the same resonance.

I talked a little bit earlier before about how it seemed like he was sort of in exile from America for part of his career. And that's true in a musical sense, too. I mean, if you look at the last couple of records, if you look at "History" and "Invincible" he really is trying to find a place for himself in this changed American musical landscape.

This is now a hip hop landscape. And the virtues, the things that he excels at are suddenly not valued the same way they were in the 1980s and he's trying to figure out, how do I -- how do I fit in to this changed world?

And one of the sad ironies of his passing is that he passes at a time when his music sounds more current now than it has in a quarter of century. That Michael Jackson sound which is a little bit of disco, a little bit of pop, some R&B, taking from here and there and making kind of unabashedly pop music with a capital "P" is something that you hear on the radio now.

And when radio stations were playing his songs after his passing they fit right in with today's hits.

COOPER: As we continue to watch other family members arrive we're going to take a short break. Our coverage continues live throughout this hour as we cover the funeral of Michael Jackson.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And you're looking at live pictures of the funeral of Michael Jackson. Family members of the Jackson family arriving just a few moments ago, running very far behind schedule; this was all supposed to begin around an hour and 20 minutes ago.

We've just seen a 26-car entourage arrive with -- there you see Joe Jackson and Katherine Jackson on the left-hand side of your screen. You saw the overhead shot. Nearly all the seats now are full. All of those front rows filled by the members of the Jackson family. Still some seats on the right-hand side.

Michael Jackson's brothers now standing dressed much the same way we saw them in the memorial service, standing and waiting for the hearse to arrive.

Randi Kaye is outside the gates.

Randi, you're seeing these pictures as we are seeing them. You've received some word about the hearse bringing Michael Jackson?

KAYE: Yes, I did, Anderson, just a couple of minutes ago.

One of the Glendale police officers here in Glendale, California where Forest Lawn is located told us that the hearse is actually already inside and will be making its way slowly up the hill escorted by the officers.

It hasn't happened yet but we have seen a little bit more of police activity going inside. There's a building not far from the main gate where we're just outside of but inside there's a building there behind the wrought iron gates and you may be able to see it in another shot but the building there, not too far from where this service will be taking place.

And that is I'm told where the hearse with Michael Jackson's body will depart from and make its way up the hill behind us here just about a two-minute drive into the cemetery for Michael Jackson's burial service and where he will be laid to rest there at the Great Mausoleum.

I know that you couldn't see all of the arrivals as they were going by behind us but I do want to point out that Jermaine Jackson as he went by actually rolled the window down and took a good look at all of the media. And I think just sort of maybe soaked up the whole scene here as he went by making his way inside the cemetery to bury his brother.

Most of the cars kept their windows up. Many of them had dark windows. It was hard to even see who was arriving. But the ceremony, the service certainly will be starting very shortly, given that the hearse is already inside.

And it also raises the question quite frankly Anderson, how long Michael Jackson's body has been here. There was so much speculation as you know after the memorial service and after the autopsy where the body was taken to.

It had reportedly been taken to Forest Lawn Hollywood which is another cemetery in the same family not too far away and had been in Barry Gordy's crypt there being kept cold but there's no telling when it was brought here to Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

But we know that we didn't see it brought here today. We've been out here since very early this morning so certainly it's been inside well before that -- Anderson.

COOPER: We see that Michael Jackson's brothers are still wearing the sequined glove on one hand that Michael Jackson of course made famous.

It's interesting Kelefa -- Kelefa Sanneh is with us from the New Yorker magazine -- as you watch these pictures as well, so many of these things which have become iconic Michael Jackson started.

The moonwalk, something which is now part of the vocabulary, was something which, I mean, it referenced other people had done it in the past but Michael Jackson redefined it and reintroduced it. The glove, the sequined socks, all these things are iconically Michael Jackson.

SANNEH: Yes and there was something kind of syncretic about the way he worked, about the way he pulled bits and pieces of threads from different things and it sometimes -- sometimes made him seem like someone who was still in the process of creating himself.

He was 24 when "Thriller" came out. It's the same age Kirk Cobain was when "Nevermind" came out. It's the same age (INAUDIBLE) "B-I-G" was when he died, when you think of those as kind of fully formed men, whereas the image of Michael Jackson was still and always kind of boyish and always someone who was still creating himself and reinventing himself.

COOPER: And Michael Jackson's body now being brought under police escort into the cemetery. There is the hearse carrying Michael Jackson.

Earlier we were hearing a gospel version of Michael Jackson's song "Will You Be There" some of the lyrics of which were spoken by Michael Jackson at his memorial service, some of the lyrics of which are printed in the -- the pamphlet which was handed out to the mourners tonight at the cemetery.

It's a short drive up the driveway at the cemetery. The image you're seeing on the left is taken from about 3,000 feet or more above the cemetery, which is why it's so much darker than the ground level image which is actually provided by the Jackson family, on the right- hand side of your screen. That's the image we don't have control over, images that they have wanted the world to see.

We're not exactly sure what to expect over the course of the next half hour or hour of this service. We're told Gladys Knight may be performing. Others will stand up and give testimonials, give their remembrances of Michael Jackson. Apparently anyone who is there is free to speak if they wish.

And we're not sure how much of what happens will be witnessed by us, whether these cameras will continue or not. Though the overhead camera will but we're not sure about the ground camera. We'll continue to obviously bring that to you live.

Randi, on the right-hand side of the screen what are we looking at? Ok, Randi Kaye is away from the microphone right now.

And Kelefa, was Michael Jackson all during the time, even, I mean even the last of couple of years of his life, was always recording? Was he always working?

SANNEH: I mean, as far as I know. You'd hear stories about him kind of in the studio with some of the producers he was working with, Rodney Jerkins and other people and just recording over and over and lots of takes and lots of songs. I mean...

COOPER: I talked to Rodney Jerkins earlier tonight and we -- if we have time we may play some of that interview. He says he has an album's worth of recordings of Michael Jackson that he would like at some point to see released, obviously it's under control of the Jackson family.

SANNEH: I'd love to see that released. I mean, something really interesting that Michael Jackson did was in the late '90s when he was getting ready to release "Invincible" or to record "Invincible" rather. And he was trying to figure out how he'd fit into the musical landscape he went to Rodney Jerkins which was a really a fascinating choice. Because Rodney Jerkins is known for the hit singles at that time -- he was known for the hit singles he'd made for a series of female R&B singers: for Brandi, for Monica, for Whitney Houston.

And so for Michael Jackson to work with him was kind of an interesting choice and I think that the record that "Invincible" and Rodney Jerkins produced a lot of "Invincible" I think that's the record in the coming months and maybe years, people will go back to and kind of rediscover and hear things on it. Because that sound of Michael Jackson trying to figure out who he is, where he fits in, in this kind of new kind of hip hop universe is really, really interesting.

And I'd love to hear the -- the other experiments that they did because I'm sure there's a whole bunch.

COOPER: Rodney Jerkins is at the ceremony tonight. He was saying that at one point Michael Jackson actually paid him not to work with anybody else because he wanted Rodney Jerkins to focus solely on Michael Jackson.

SANNEH: Right. And it changed, I'm sure he would tell you, he's a brilliant producer and it really changed the course of his career because he went from being the guy that was on the radio every five minutes with Destiny's Child and other people to the producer you didn't hear from because he was holed up with Michael Jackson. That's the kind of intense focus.

Again, as I said, I think it's ironic. The climate is so much more friendly to the kind of music Michael Jackson made now than at just about any point in the last 25 years. The sort of coy, teasing, playful way he sang, sort of incredibly sensual, extravagant vocals against this hard, robotic beat he was kind of known for and that he perfected.

That's the sound that once again is on the radio and when you hear people like Rihanna who are on the radio now you really hear his influence in people who sound a lot like him.

COOPER: Chris brown obviously also a huge fan of Michael Jackson's, talked a lot about him. There the hearse carrying the body of Michael Jackson approaching the area where his family, where his loved ones and people who were closest to him await.

That is the end of the live picture provided by the Jackson family. This is the overhead picture.

We're going to take a short break and our coverage continues in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And the casket of Michael Jackson removed from the hearse now -- just now being put into place in front of all the mourners who have assembled -- carried by the brothers of Michael Jackson.

The image now you see is an overhead image. Obviously it's -- the Jackson family no longer providing the image from the actual service, itself. We're not sure if they are going to open the service up for others -- for cameras. We're kind of standing by on that.

But you see the service about to begin now that Michael Jackson has arrived and the coffin bearing Michael Jackson is in place.

We're joined watching this as well by Kelefa Sanneh from "The New Yorker." He writes about music and knows an awful lot about Michael Jackson, as well as Lisa Bloom, legal analyst. Randi Kaye has also been following this with us over the last several hours as well.

It's interesting, as you look at this and you look back at the life of Michael Jackson, I mean, where did that talent come from? It was something which was present in him from day one.

SANNEH: Right. I think if you go back and look at one of the nerdy things I did after he passed was went back and looked at the reviews of the Jackson Five records and Michael Jackson albums chronologically as they came out and there is this kind of slow, dawning awareness that, oh, it's not just a boy band. Oh, this guy can really sing. He's got amazing rhythm in his voice.

If you look at the early videos, by the time "Thriller" hits it's kind of built to a head that this guy really can sing unlike other people and can move in a way that's different from how other people move.

I think one of the really sweet things that's happened in the last couple months is that I think all of us as Michael Jackson fans have surprised ourselves by how many of us there are and how much we care about him.

COOPER: And was he recognized from -- by music critics even in the beginning?

SANNEH: Yes, but like I said, there was a lot of mixed feeling in the "Thriller" era. There were a lot of debates that seemed slightly old fashioned now though they haven't ended of course but debates about race and about how he was presenting himself and about if crossing over and going main stream meant he was leaving his black fans behind.

In retrospect all of that seems kind of quaint in some ways though there's still a lot of real issues around that. But at the time people really felt a little bit conflicted about him.

I think in mourning him, I think a big part of what we're mourning is that moment when it felt like we were all listening to the same song. When we were all -- Michael Jackson is -- these are songs that everyone knows.

And part of what we, I think, reflected on since he passed is that it's harder to find songs like that now. It's hard to think now of songs that we know and our parents know and that guy walking down the street knows.

And so part of what we're celebrating is that kind of community that he summoned into being; the community of people that knew Michael Jackson songs and that seemed like a community that incorporated just about everyone.

COOPER: And it was -- particularly among the African-American community he was re-embraced by them in death. I mean, if there had been questions around the "Thriller" time about what is Michael Jackson doing and who is he hanging out with and where does he stand in the spectrum.

SANNEH: Right.

COOPER: All of those questions were put away.

SANNEH: Yes. I mean I think the embrace was always there. I think it was a complicated embrace at a certain point. And it felt kind of familial in that there was grumblings, there was complaints, there was outright fights, but I don't think that -- I think that for a lot of listeners in the African-American community, I think people never stopped thinking of him as family and as part of our family as it were.

And I think -- again these are -- and these are the debates that do tend to fade away a little bit, you know, in death. I think you'll find with each passing year you'll find fewer and fewer people who are willing to kind of rekindle those, re-fight those fights.

But that's why again I said it was illuminate for me to go back and look at those -- look at those articles and read some of those books that came out in the 1980s. And see that this -- You almost forget now that this guy was really controversial just in the sense of among African-American R&B fans.

And he was polarizing in a strange way among R&B fans.

COOPER: We're joined also by Dr. Reef Karim, an addiction specialist. Doctor, from your perspective what is the lesson to be learned from the death of Michael Jackson and the treatment he received?

DR. REEF KARIM, ADDICTION SPECIALIST: Wow. There are so many lessons, Anderson. The bottom line is addiction comes in so many varieties. It can affect celebrities. It can affect the homeless. It can affect all of us: your neighbor, your boss, anyone.

And prescription pills are the new gateway into addiction. And doctors have to take on that responsibility of assessing whether somebody has an addiction problem or not as well as the accountability on the patient themselves and friends and family. We all have to rally together to assess whether somebody has a problem or not and get them in the hands of experts in addiction.

In my understanding, this was a case of somebody who was being treated for insomnia, with very desperate measures, who really -- the big elephant in the room was he had an addiction. And, unfortunately, addiction is all about secrecy and, you know, getting what you need in spite of your own health. And because of that, people weren't able to get to him in time.

COOPER: And ironically, for a celebrity, the treatment can get to be sub-standard?

KARIM: Absolutely. I mean, when we talk about the standard of care, we're not talking about special care. We're talking about the standard of care. It's special care basically is, well, ok. I'm going to get you what you need. What do you want?

That's not the standard of care. That's not the way an addict should be treated because entitlement quite frankly is part of the addiction. That needs to disappear. That needs to be challenged.

And if nobody can challenge you, and really work on the limbic system in your brain which is that pleasure circuit pathway, natural reward pathway that gets lit up in an addict when they take a pill, and predominates everything else in their brain. They can't think right, they don't act right, they're literally possessed.

And until that is challenged and really worked on by a team of doctors and therapists and treatment providers nothing is going to happen. Unfortunately he had a sub-standard level of care.

COOPER: Obviously, which is part of the investigation; we'll talk to Lisa Bloom ahead and others. Our coverage continues. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Video from just moments ago the hearse bearing Michael Jackson's casket making its way past the surviving Jackson brothers. The family had been providing sound and images of the ceremony until the casket was placed before them.

We're back more with our live coverage of Michael Jackson's funeral.

Rodney Jerkins is a music producer. We talked about him a short time ago. He worked with Jackson and was invited to attend tonight's service. He's there.

I spoke to Rodney Jerkins a short time before he went to the ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: You worked a lot with Michael Jackson. You were friends with him. What do you want people to remember about Michael Jackson?

RODNEY JERKINS, MUSIC PRODUCER: I want people to remember the man that was the most creative, innovative genius that really walked the face of earth. And he was a really good man. I spent a lot of time with Michael in and outside the studio and he was just a great man.

I believe that the music that he created was created for generations and generations to discover and we're seeing it now with over 20 million records sold worldwide in the last two months. There's a whole new demographic, a whole new generation of people and they're just discovering his music and that's how he would have wanted it.

COOPER: You recorded with him. You said have about an album's worth of unreleased songs that you worked on with Michael Jackson. What kind of material is it?

JERKINS: We did a lot of great, real energetic music. Of course, Michael, he just loved to dance and he always would tell me, make it funky.

You know, and so musically, I kept the promise and he kept the promise melodically and we made up tempo songs that made you want to dance.

COOPER: Do you think that music will be released?

JERKINS: Absolutely. I think down the road probably next year sometime there will probably be a release.

COOPER: You produced Jackson's "You Rock My World." I just want to play a little bit of that for our viewers.

(VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: He liked working with you so much I understand there was a time when Michael actually paid you not to produce other people's albums.

JERKINS: Yes, you know, what's funny about that whole story was I was really at the top of my game and just -- I had so many number one records coming out at the time and when I worked with Michael he was like, "I really need you to focus on me and nobody else."

And he was like, "I'll even pay you not to work with other people. Just make me a list of the people that you are about to work on." So I missed out on some pretty big projects but I believe that it wasn't in vain, me working with Michael and scoring that number one, that "Rock My World" was a number one record -- his last number one record.

COOPER: You'd like to see I understand a duet between Janet Jackson and some of Michael Jackson's recordings.

JERKINS: I would love to see Janet and Michael, some of the unreleased material, I would love to see a song come out with Janet and Michael because I felt like even though they did "Scream" together and I thought that chemistry was awesome, she is an icon -- we know that -- but she is now the icon of that family.

COOPER: How was Michael able to work and produce stuff given all we know now about what was going on in his private life, the kind of medication he was taking for years and years?

JERKINS: I've never seen anything, any signs of that. I've only seen him energetic and always ready to go and record and always ready to write and always challenging me. He literally taught me the next level of music.

I thought I had new music and he had taught me what it was not only to make music but to understand what music publishing was and what it was to own certain things. And he really -- he poured a lot of his energy into music and into my life of how to just be successful and how to stay hungry.

COOPER: I know it's going to be a sad night for you and I appreciate you talking about this Rodney. Thank you very much, Rodney Jerkins.

JERKINS: Not that sad because we're going to keep celebrating his music forever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A good note to end there with Rodney Jerkins. You're looking again at a live picture. The ceremony under way -- it's a very shaky picture. We're losing it occasionally and then switching back to pre-recorded pictures which happened just a short time ago.

Again, so as not to interrupt the service in any way those images are taken from more than 3,000 feet above the cemetery. So obviously that's why it's so shaky and grainy at times and occasionally simply lose the image. And now it's back on the right-hand side of your screen.

Our coverage continues in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Michael Jackson's final resting place will be inside Forest Lawn's Great Mausoleum in Glendale. The singer will be entombed in a hall filled with other famous Americans.

It is a place that at first, it wasn't clear where Michael Jackson would be laid to rest. Jermaine Jackson had publicly stated he wanted his brother to be laid to rest at Neverland, the home that Michael Jackson at one point in his life loved so much. The private enclave he had created.

Other members of the Jackson family had apparently not wanted that. In the end, we're told there was something of a split, Katherine Jackson finally deciding that this is the location that Michael Jackson would be buried.

Randi Kaye is outside the gates. She's been watching the comings of all Jackson -- members of the Jackson family.

Randi, what's it like inside the mausoleum where Michael Jackson will be? KAYE: Anderson, we have one person, one source inside who has been sharing a little bit of the mood with us.

He recently sent us an e-mail. All it said was, "Serene. Pinch me." You can only imagine the mood that is in there, even as you watched the pictures of the family as they showed up here today and the family and close friends as they gather. This is just such a somber occasion for them.

As so many of them knew that Michael Jackson certainly had been addicted to drugs and had been taking the Propofol -- the powerful sedative that authorities believed killed him -- for years, apparently. But many of them, as many always do, they certainly never imagined that this day would come, certainly not so soon.

It is certainly a somber occasion. I have the invitation that was sent to the family -- from the family to a lot of the close friends to invite them to this.

I just want to read you one portion of it. It's about nine pages long but inside, one paragraph says, "We loved him, we laughed with him, we sang with him. We danced with him. But on this day, we celebrate him."

Really, that's what this is about. That's what this service is about tonight, this burial service. It's really about, not only laying Michael Jackson to rest but it is really about celebrating his life.

They write, "Please join us as we lay our beloved son, cherished brother and devoted father, Michael Jackson, in his final resting place." That is the sentiment certainly coming from this invitation.

But a little bit more about where Michael Jackson will be laid to rest now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (voice-over): It sprawls 300 acres and is home to nearly a quarter million people, all of them dead. This is Forest Lawn Glendale Memorial Park, the "King of Pop's" final resting place.

Far beyond the entrance gates, believed to be the largest wrought iron gates in the world, Michael Jackson's secret crypt. It's inside the Great Mausoleum in the memorial court of honor which houses exact reproductions of Michelangelo's greatest works, seen here in pictures obtained by CNN.

The mausoleum overlooks majestic rolling hills. It's main entrance marked by a Gothic tower more than 100 feet high.

Scott Michaels owns Dearly Departed Tours in Los Angeles and has been inside.

(on camera): What is it like inside that mausoleum? SCOTT MICHAELS, DEARLY DEPARTED TOURS: The Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn is like a Gothic church almost. When you walk in, it's got enormous ceilings, probably 20 feet tall, big archways and it goes off into different hallways where the A-listers are, you know, like Gable and Lombard and Jean Harlow and those types of people.

KAYE (voice-over): On Forest Lawn's Web site, pictures of the main attraction at Jackson's mausoleum, the Last Supper window, a life-sized stained-glass creation of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece.

Fitting since Jackson reportedly once commissioned his own Last Supper painting. It hung over his bed at Neverland ranch.

(on camera): From what you can see, nobody will be able to get near Michael Jackson's crypt?

MICHAELS: No, not without passing the crypt keeper. They're very strict, too, on who they allow in. Now that Jackson is going to be in there, there is absolutely no way you're going to be able to wander around there.

KAYE (voice-over): Tight security may be one reason why the Jackson family decided to bury the singer here. Every entrance has a buzzer, guards posted throughout.

Michael Jackson will be surrounded by celebrities. Celebrity Web sites say his good friend Sammy Davis Jr. is buried here. So is Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Nat King Cole, George Burns, Gracie Allen and Walt Disney, just to name a few.

(on camera): But if you come here for their graves, good luck. The memorial park does not provide a map of the celebrities' graves. In fact it won't even confirm who's buried here.

A spokesman for Forest Lawn told me, quote, "It's inappropriate to market such a thing." Forest Lawn attracts more than 1 million visitors a year. Even Pope John Paul II toured the grounds during a trip to Los Angeles.

No doubt, Michael Jackson's burial here will inspire even more star-struck visitors who refuse to let the King of Pop rest in peace.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And our coverage continues in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And our coverage continues. You're looking at live pictures -- actually recorded just a short time ago, the casket of Michael Jackson being brought to its final place, assembled friends and family of Michael Jackson: Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin, all the members of the Jackson family, his three children in there as well.

We're joined by Kelefa Sanneh from "The New Yorker." What's so sad about this, of course, besides just this human being whose life was cut short needlessly, is all the music that will not be written by this man. And we are all robbed of knowing what he might have invented and come up with in years ahead.

SANNEH: Right. I think at a time like this, it's natural to want to separate the turmoil of the life from the music that he made. But, of course, there's an awful lot of turmoil in that music. And I think that's part of the reason why it's resonated so much.

There are these cross-currents of playfulness and anxiety through a lot of his greatest records. If you look at "Thriller," you have "Beat It," which is a song about a scary fight. You have "Billie Jean," which is a song about a scary stalker and you have "Thriller," which a song about a scary movie.

And I think those kinds of -- those kinds of complexities -- the fact that you can have music that's so ecstatic and so celebratory. And at the same time has all these others emotions in it. It's part of the reason we're not only mourning his death but still listening to him.

COOPER: You think still listening to him 10, 20 years down the road?

SANNEH: Yes. Yes, I think -- you know, when you think about it, the idea that we're certainly listening to music from the '60s now. So there's no reason that his music can't live on the way other people's has.

COOPER: And one's ear changes but as you said, his music seems almost more current now than it has for many years.

SANNEH: Yes. And I think, for a lot of us the process of listening to him in the next few years -- we have process of excavation and digging up. We're going to be hearing things in those songs that maybe we hadn't heard before, and hearing references and hearings ways of singing that we hadn't heard before.

There's a lot in that music to find still.

COOPER: We appreciate you joining us tonight. Our coverage is going to continue; a live special edition of "LARRY KING".

I'm heading off to Afghanistan tomorrow in the morning. Join us for AC360 tomorrow. We'll be in Afghanistan all next week. I hope you join us for a unique look at what is happening on the ground in Afghanistan all week long.

That does it for us tonight.

Larry King joins us now -- Larry.