More about: Michael Jackson

David Gest discussed Michael Jackson in his final interview, aired on a local radio station just minutes before news of his death emerged.

As previously reported, the 62-year-old was staying at the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Wharf when he was found dead. A subsequent statement from the Metropolitan Police described Gest's death as “unexplained,” revealing that “life was pronounced extinct at the hotel."

Speaking in an interview with Grimsby’s Compass FM, which aired just a few minutes before news of his death broke, the producer discussed his close friend Michael Jackson, as well as his part in reuniting The Jackson 5 back in 2001.

"I was living in California and we were both living in a city called Encino,” he explained, "and we lived about a few blocks from each other. I woke up and I heard 'The Love You Save' by The Jackson 5 - that was always my favourite Jackson 5 song.

"I thought, 'I want to hear this live’, and I said, 'I’m going to reunite them'. So I called Michael and I said, 'I’m going to do a concert and it will be your 30th anniversary in show business and we’ll reunite you' - and he said no.”

Gest continued, "So I called his assistant Frank and I said, ‘You’ve got to help me talk him into this,' and we decided we’d take a trip to San Francisco, we’d go there for a few days and we’d go to this memorabilia show because Mike loved memorabilia and we convinced him on that trip to do it.”

He concluded, "And I’ll never forget when we went into rehearsal the first day and they started to sing 'The Love You Save' and I just looked at them and go, 'I can’t believe I’ve reunited The Jackson 5 and I’m actually doing a TV special and two live concerts.’ It was incredible because they were my favourite group as a kid and I grew up with their music.”

Gest also spoke of his excitement ahead of his scheduled summer tour, the unfortunately named David Gest Is Not Dead But Alive With Soul Tour. 

Listen to one of Gest's final ever interviews here.

More about: Michael Jackson