'When Michael asked for something, he got it. This was the great tragedy,' Mr Geller said on Thursday.

Mr Geller, who said he suffered a terrible falling-out with Jackson several years ago over the issue, said he often had 'to shout at Michael, to scream at Michael' as he sought to confiscate the singer's stocks of medication during his travels in England.

'I tried to drum sense into his brain,' Mr Geller said. 'I told him, 'Michael you're going to die, Michael you're going to kill yourself.' But he just stared at me. Many a time he was in his bed and I stood and shouted at him. He just stared at me.'

Speaking at his home near London, Mr Geller said he slept on floors or sofas in Jackson's hotel suites in a bid to talk sense into his sometimes-incoherent friend.

'Most of the people around Michael could not say 'No!' to him.

He desperately needed someone there all the time who could say 'No!' and mean it, who could warn him of the dangers ... and tell him the truth,' Geller said.

'The big problem was that many people wanted to help Michael, to save his life, but we could not be there all the time.'

Mr Geller said Jackson relied on medications to help him cope with relentless pressure and media criticism in his later years.

'With his sanity buffeted and health wracked by global bullying nonstop, I think it's actually incredible that Michael held up as well as he did,' he said. -- AP