Michael Jackson to be buried in $25,000 gold-plated coffin at funeral set to be 'greatest show on Earth'

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 3:30 PM on 03rd July 2009

• Memorial service to be held Tuesday with up to a million fans expected to pay their respects
  
• Star expected to be buried in the same casket used to bury James Brown
  
• Plans for Neverland service scrapped
  

Michael Jackson will be buried in a $25,000 (£15,300) gold casket in a funeral that is set to fulfil his own prophecy by becoming the greatest show on Earth.

The coffin, a rare design called the Promethean, is made of solid bronze but is 14-carat gold-plated with a hand-polished mirror finish and lined with velvet.

It was ordered last night from America's Batesville Casket Company and is identical to the coffin used to bury James Brown in 2006, according to TMZ, the website which first broke the news of the King of Pop's death.

Jackson will be buried in a $25,000, solid bronze, 14-karat gold plated, custom casket similar to the one James Brown was also buried in

Jackson's memorial service will take place on Tuesday at the LA Lakers basketball stadium, the Staples Center, where he rehearsed for his scheduled comeback concerts at The O2 just two days before his death.

The Center has a 20,000 capacity and the family is planning to distribute 11,000 tickets free to the general public.

Big screens outside the venue will relay the events inside to around one million people who are expected to assemble to pay their respects from 10am onwards.

Paying his respects: Michael Jackson at the funeral of James Brown, whose coffin design he has copied, in Augusta on December 30, 2006

The memorial will feature performances and tributes from a host of music and acting legends and will open with a parade of circus animals, including tigers and elephants walking trunk to tail - part of LA's annual Parade Of The Elephants.

The parade, devised by The Ringling Bros Barnum And Bailey Circus, which has had to postpone it show at the Staples Center.

A spokesman for the circus said Tuesday's event would be the 'greatest show on Earth', exactly the phrase Jackson used in 2002 when asked what he thought his funeral would be like.

Eerily, Jackson replied: 'It's going to be the greatest show on Earth. That's what I want. Fireworks and everything.'

Footage of Jackson's rehearsals at the Staples Center show him in apparently good shape

Among the guests expected to attend the memorial service are Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor and Sir Paul McCartney.

President Barack Obama has also been invited, one report claims, and last night he spoke for the first time about the singer's death. He said: 'I still have all his stuff on my iPod. I grew up on his music.'

He added that he thought Jackson had experienced 'a tragic and in many ways sad personal life'.

After the memorial, there will be a private ceremony at Forest Lawn cemetery in Hollywood which will be attended by family and close friends only.

But Jackson's long-term friend and producer Quincy Jones said that he will not be going. He said: 'No. I'm not going to the funeral. I don't wanna go to no funeral. It's not what I want to see.'

Up to a million fans are expected to attend Michael Jackson's funeral at The Staples Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday

Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, which owns the Staples Center and was Jackson's promoter, confirmed tickets would be free, but could not say exactly how they would be distributed.

'As we speak, we're working on the details,' he said.

The Barnum & Bailey Circus spokesman said the company was happy to help in 'exceptional circumstances' .

He said: 'I'm sure Michael will be looking down with a smile and love the insanity of a funeral surrounded by tigers and spectacular circus animals.

Workers set up signs in front of the Staples Center in Los Angeles ahead of Jackson's funeral on Tuesday

A security wall blocks traffic in front of the 20,000 seat site

The news comes as footage yesterday showed the king of pop rehearsing for his final dress rehearsal ahead of his This is It tour inside the stadium.

But speculation is mounting that Jackson will only be buried at Forest Lawn temporarily and his body will be taken to a final grave at Neverland once his family have won legal consent.

A man looks at a 12-metre-high statue of the late pop icon Michael Jackson in Regensdorf near Zurich

This process could take more than a month and appeared to be backed by Jackson's brother Jermaine in an interview today.

'He created Neverland. Why wouldn't he be here?' he said. 'I feel his presence.'

Jermaine also told NBC that he wished he had died instead of Jackson and described visiting his brother's body after his death.

'I wanted to see Michael, and I wanted to see my brother, and to see him there lifeless and breathless was very emotional for me, but I held myself together, because I know he's very much alive,' he said.

'His spirit is, and that was just a shell, but I kissed him on his forehead and I hugged him, and I touched him and I said, "Michael, I'll never leave you. You'll never leave me."'

However, all plans for Jackson 'lying in state' in Neverland have been scrapped.

The Jackson family put out a statement, which read: 'Contrary to previous news reports, the Jackson family is officially stating that there will be no public or private viewing at Neverland.'

They also denied there would be a public memorial service at the site.

But the cancellation came too late for fans who had travelled from all over America and were making their way from different parts of the world to secure a place in what was expected to be a massive queue.

It also created a mini stampede of TV crews and satellite trucks struggling to evacuate the narrow, dirt track approach to Jackson's 2,400acre ranch in Northern California.

Burial: The plot at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in California, where it is believed Michael Jackson may be laid to rest

Preparations: Michael Jackson's body is transferred from one Los Angeles mortuary to another ahead of his funeral

Ida Barron, 44, who arrived with her husband Paul, 56, said they were terribly disappointed that Neverland plans had been cancelled.

They had arrived at the site prepared to spend several days camped out in a tent.

'We were going to listen to music and watch Michael Jackson DVDs and party all night long, not just to have fun, but in memory of Michael Jackson,' Mr Barron added.

'Now we're going to have to just go home.'

Further reports suggest Jackson's coffin will be buried in concrete to prevent the grave being robbed. He will be buried with one of his famous diamond-studded gloves.

Pictures of the Forest Lawn grave emerged as police sources revealed they had called in drug enforcement officers to investigate the circumstances surrounding Jackson's death.

Specialist agents will probe who prescribed powerful medication to the star, which some have blamed for his fatal heart attack last week.

A number of doctors as well as pharmacies and Jackson's aides have been implicated in the inquiry.

It has been claimed the singer died after being given an injection of the painkiller Demerol.

And the presence of officers from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) strengthens reports that police believe substance abuse could be the key to the Jackson's death.

A TREASURE TROVE OF UNRELEASED RECORDINGS

Last pictures: Michael Jackson in rehearsals for his This Is It show, 48 hours before he died

Michael Jackson had a mountain of unreleased recordings kept in a vault, it emerged today.

The material includes unused tracks from studio sessions of some of Jackson's best albums, as well as more recently recorded songs made with Senegalese R&B singer and producer Akon and Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am.

Record company Sony and and Jackson's family are likely to cash in on the horde by releasing the music for years to come

'There are dozens and dozens of songs that did not end up on his albums,' said Tommy Mottola, who from 1998 to 2003 was chairman and CEO of Sony Music, which owns the distribution rights to Jackson's music.

'People will be hearing a lot of that unreleased material for the first time ever. There's just some genius and brilliance in there.'

The releases, Mottola said, 'could go on for years and years - even more than Elvis.'

Since Jackson's death last Thursday, there has been an almost unprecedented demand for the King of Pop's music.

Three of his records - Number Ones, Essential Michael Jackson and Thriller - were the best-selling albums of the week, and 2.3 million tracks have been downloaded in the US alone.

Jackson also topped the UK charts with the Number Ones album. Four other albums were in the top 20.

When a music star of Jackson's stature dies, labels typically comb through their archives to pull out anything they can release.

New compilations of recordings by performers such as Elvis, Tupac and Jeff Buckley are still released nearly every year.

Mottola has described himself as the 'shepherd and gatekeeper' of Jackson's catalogue and is more familiar with it than anyone,

He revealed that for every album the star made he recorded several tracks which were not on the final release.

The details of who owns Jackson's unreleased music and concert footage are not entirely clear.

Sony Music would not comment.

Nor has there been any public discussion by the Jackson family about the singer's back catalogue.

In a 2002 will filed in court on Wednesday, the pop star left his entire estate to a family trust, with his mother and his children named as beneficiaries.

Steve Gordon, an entertainment lawyer and author of The Future of the Music Business. worked at Sony Music during the 1990s.

He said he was at Sony when Jackson's last contract was negotiated, though he acknowledged it could have recently been updated.

Gordon said Jackson owns some of his master recordings, while others are owned in partnership with Sony.

However, the company retains exclusive distribution rights for anything Jackson produced during the term of their contract.

Jackson's last original album was 2001's Invincible. His 2005 child molestation trial and other controversies distracted him from recording, but he was active in recent years.

He died just weeks before he was to perform 50 concerts at London's O2 arena in what was supposed to be his comeback.

He had also begun working on new material.