Jermaine Jackson Says 'I Wish It Was Me'

With the death of his brother Michael still dominating the headlines, Jermaine Jackson gave an emotional interview to Matt Lauer on 'Today' during which he proclaimed he wishes he was the one who died.

Jermaine tells Lauer that after learning about Michael's death, he "felt empty ... I don't know how people are going to take this, but I wish it was me. I've always felt that I was his backbone. Someone to be there for him. I was there and he was sort of like Moses, things he couldn't say I would say them."

He says the hardest part about that sad day was hearing his mother "crying, saying he was dead. And to hear my mother say Michael's dead, to feel and hear the tone in her voice to say her child is dead, it's nothing that anyone can ever imagine."

"There's nothing we can compare to this because we lost our brother, our hero. The world is mourning, we're mourning ... it's unreal, it's unbelievable," Jermaine said about the death of The King of Pop.

Jermaine says that upon hearing the news that Michael's health had taken a turn for the worse, he "rushed in the hospital and I went straight to my mother and I wanted to console her. I wanted to see Michael, I wanted to see my brother. Seeing him there lifeless and breathless was very emotional for me, but I held myself together because I know he's very much alive. 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.'"

As for reports that Jackson may have abused prescription medicine, which may have led to his death, Jermaine remains skeptical until toxicology reports come back. "Michael has always been a person who was against anything like that. In this business the pressure and things you go through, you never know what one will turn to ... Michael was always concerned about everybody, and to have that weight on your shoulders, to have that pressure ... I don't know," he told Lauer.