Neil Ratner - Episode 729

Steve Cooper talks with doctor/musician Neil Ratner. Neil learned the music business working as a tour manager, assistant manager and producer for groups like Edgar Winter, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pink Floyd and T-Rex, among others. After a number of successful years working in the music biz, he had an epiphany and decided to pursue his other childhood dream of becoming a doctor. He finished college, learned Spanish, spent four years at a medical school in Mexico, completed two years of surgical training and an anesthesia residency, and helped create the new specialty of office-based anesthesia in Manhattan. In doing so, he became an expert in the use of the new drug, Propofol. Although he encountered many celebrities in his anesthesia practice, one would change his life... Michael Jackson. One day Michael walked into an office in which Neil was the Director of Anesthesia. He became a trusted friend and personal physician of Michael's from 1994 to 2002, periodically going on tour and spending time with Michael at Neverland. He recently wrote the book called Rock Doc which talks about Rock & Roll, Michael Jackson, Nelson Mandela, a prison sentence with very unexpected results and how helping the poorest of the poor became a key part of his life.