The Bad World Tour was the first solo concert tour by American singer Michael Jackson, launched in support of his seventh studio album Bad. Sponsored by Pepsi and spanning 16 months, the tour included 123 concerts for over 4 million fans across 15 countries. It grossed a total of $150 million, making it one of the highest grossing tour of the 1980s. Jackson made a public statement at the end of the tour that he intended for it to be his last as a touring artist. As he had plans to transition to movie making, but instead it was his last tour in the US. But why? On June 29, 1987, Jackson's manager Frank Delio announced the singer's plan to embark on his first solo world concert tour. Sponsored by Pepsi, the tour began in large stadiums in Japan, marking Jackson's first performances in the country since 1973 as part of the Jackson 5. The 1984 victory tour saw MJ take on a more confident, captivating stage presence. He seemed more in control of his element, more confident. The Bad Tour was Jackson's prime of performance. His vocals and dancing never seemed to outshine one another, but instead mesh for a mesmerizing and unbelievable spectacle. Even under medical advice that the exertions night and in night out could do permanent damage to his voice, Jackson's perfectionism again proves a blessing in a curse. With an unceasing desire to bring the same quality and energy from show to show and city to city, Jackson leaves it all on the stage each night of the Bad Tour. By late in the tour, one can see the toll it took on the artist. Keys are lowered, songs like Dirty Diana are removed from the set list, and by Los Angeles. Jackson is forced to rest his vocals completely due to swelling. He is also forced to lip sync the beginning of certain numbers, turning his mic on at the end of the song to catch his breath and also rest his throat, though he likely continues singing under the backtrack. To do a show of this magnitude and of this energy is for lack of a better time, one of the most difficult things in the world. When you're a front person like Mike who doesn't have a change of gears, everything is just high speed or nothing. Now one thing that we did was if in fact, he was what I would call a gas, which is just just tired, tired, tired. I mean, he would, you know, he would hold up a finger and that meant we needed to switch, you know, to the other boys. And that would happen until he truly had his breath and you know, from dancing with the guys and everything else. Okay, I'm ready. I can go back and do it. He put up his hand and that goes back to him live. This can be seen during a performance of the way you make me feel at Wembley, June 15th, 1988. Jackson briefly drops the backtrack to sing the line and asks the crowd to sing along. The true damage is not felt by Jackson until the dangerous album sessions when he is unable to complete his song, keep the faith, in the key it was originally intended and realizes the range he possessed in the 80s is not as strong. This is partially due to the poor sequencing of dates during the bad tour. More often than not, Jackson would perform on three back to back tonight. Though he often had a few days of rest before the next performances, Jackson was likely not getting proper rest due to this. After straining his vocals after the first stop in November 1988 in Los Angeles, Jackson is afforded almost a full month of rest. By the time he stops in Tokyo in December for nine shows, amateur audios reveal just how well the proper rest benefited him as his voice is more powerful and he seems to have rebuilt his energy reserves. Another three weeks of rest, from December 27th, 1988 to January 16th, 1989, allows Jackson to finish the tour in Los Angeles with just as much ferociousness as the beginning of the tour in September 1987. Later in life, Jackson testified that performing on this level was very hard on his body and that he could no longer sustain such excellence. It's important to remember that the bad tour was Jackson's first tour as a solo artist, but that the artist had been performing across the world since he was in grade school. By now, the star is 29 to 30 years old and had been touring and excelling as a live performer for over 20 years, an important detail sometimes forgotten in the shade of Jackson's own shadow. By the bad tour, however, Jackson was in complete control of his career. Collaborators of the bad tour all consistently recall how Jackson structured and scrutinized every detail of the show, from the set list, to choreography, special effects, stage, lights and even the band segment. It's the first time Jackson's complete creative vision comes to light on his own terms and that only makes the tour all the more special. The bad tour set a standard of entertainment has not yet been outdone. Naturally, production technology has sailed to new heights complementing entertainers in ways never seen before. Jackson was ahead of his time on a productive level, though by now what was innovative in 1988 looks amateur-ish to a casual viewer. But it was the bad tour that makes people look back and remember that Michael Jackson was and is the greatest entertainer, it's the magic that only he could bring to a stage, never before or after reproduced with such prowess. Not yet has a performer been able to out-sing, out dance, out hit, and out-produce all in one the way Michael Jackson did for 123 shows. Michael Jackson was a legend long before bad and even before thriller. For any other performer, a bad tour would be where their legends were made. For Michael Jackson, the bad tour solidified an already indestructible legacy and created a standard entertainers today endlessly strive for.