An unpublicized act of compassion, from one father to another – with Dustin Woods

In 1998, through the Make-a-wish foundation, Michael Jackson met 5-year-old cancer sufferer Aza Woods at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. Michael cleared his afternoon schedule and spent time with Aza and Aza’s father at the themed attraction "Star Trek: The Experience.” In this episode, Dustin Woods, Aza’s father tells us of the afternoon he got to spend with The King of Pop.

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Transcript

Hi Guys, welcome to episode 11 of my podcast “Humanitarian The real Michael Jackson.” My name’s Paul Dwyer and I’m your host.

This next episode is one of my favorites & seeing that we’re coming to the end of the year, I’m winding up season 1 of the podcast, but don’t worry, I have a couple more great stories coming up.

But I’d love to do another season of true stories of Michael Jackson’s humanitarian efforts.

If you’d like to see a second season, PLEASE subscribe to the podcast on apple, Spotify, anywhere you listen to podcasts & on YouTube. Share the stories so the world will hear these true, first-hand testimonials of The REAL Michael Jackson.

This next story is one of Michael Jackson’s compassion that is not widely known by the general public – or the fan community. I only touched on the story very briefly in my book so I was so happy that my guest agreed to talk to me about it.

In 1998, through the Make-a-wish foundation, Michael Jackson met 5-year-old cancer sufferer Aza Woods at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. Michael cleared his afternoon schedule and spent time with Aza and Aza’s father at the themed attraction "Star Trek: The Experience.” In this episode, Dustin Woods, Aza’s father tells us of the afternoon he got to spend with The King of Pop.

Ladies & Gentlemen, please enjoy episode 11 of The HumanitarianMJ podcast:
 An unpublicized act of compassion, from one father to another – with Dustin Woods

Transcript:

Paul:

I wrote a book in 2018 called Humanitarian the real Michael Jackson that  documents all the good things Michael Jackson did, all the hospitals and orphanages he visited and all the kids he helped, and adults and families. And it's quite a thick, extensive book, something that I thought, you know, isn't spoken about when people talk about Michael Jackson in the mainstream media, mainly. So, I just wanted to bring those stories to the public domain.

Dustin:

That's part of who he was. I'm glad that you're saying it for him, because he was a fairly humble person, from my experience.

Paul:

Yeah, it was a big part, and I just thought it was quite unjust that a lot of those stories weren't out there. Azer's story is mentioned in the book very, very quickly. I didn't have any information about it. The only information I found was that Michael had met him and through make a Wish, I think it was. And that was pretty much it. It was like two lines in the book. So, I was wondering if you could take us back to 1993 for our listeners. Tell us about the little boy who you described as a wonderful little nugget when he was born.

Dustin:

So, ASA Patrick Brandon Lee Woods. His entire name. And later on, he'd be a little frustrated that I gave him those five names. But as a martial artist, he was born two weeks to the day after Bruce Lee's son. And so that was my way of kind of making a tribute to Bruce and his son up until the night before he was diagnosed. He was dancing with his grandmother during a visit and exhausted himself. And he'd been having some cold like symptoms and flu like symptoms and pain in his abdomen. And unfortunately, back then, we still had some doctors that were under the belief that growing pains were a thing. So, it got blamed on growing pains and this flu or that flu. But finally, his pediatrician had ordered a scan, and it revealed an almost football sized tumor in a two-year-old body. And because it was a soft tissue tumor, it grew around things, and it was very sneaky cancer. At the time, in the United States, there was only about a thousand kids per year turning up with a neuroblastoma that actually planted in their abdomen, as opposed to the brain, where it usually happens. And so, because there were so few kids with it, it was considered pretty lethal. And I remember getting the news from his pediatrician, when she comes back in the room after the scan, she's crying because she thought that it was a death sentence. Nonetheless, we were whisked off to Stanford, and that started two years of living in hospitals, taking cutting edge upper science. Incredible. And I'm sorry. My cat, Mr. Brimstone's trying to jump. But everything that was done to him at the time, fortunately became standard treatment later. Everything was a success. It wasn't until much later in his life that we were to find out some of the downfalls of it and things that they didn't realize at the time. But like his doctors at the time said, they had to hit the cancer with the hammer and thus hitting the patient with the hammer, but it killed the cancer more. And at first, when we walked into that hospital, he had less than 10% chance without treatment and 25% chance with it.

Paul:

Wow.

Dustin:

And if the child can survive more and more of the treatment, those percentage estimates go up. But all we were ever promised after treatment was finished was a 50% chance for survival beyond five years. Adam made it 20.

Paul:

Yeah.

Dustin:

So, he was one of the ones that luck. I still can't entirely place why he made it so much longer than most of the other kids that had that cancer and that treatment it involved, like I said, over two years. There was seven months of very serious chemo. That was one month additional over the normal total body radiation afterwards in UCSF monoclonal antibody treatment. What he went through, this is the biggest thing, and I try not to get broken up when I talk about it. The biggest thing for me was to see even though he was only two years old and going on to three and four, through it all, his resiliency, his valiance, he seldom, even as a child, took anything out on anyone else. He was always like an old soul in a tiny body.

Paul:

So, take us back to how did you find the Make a Wish Foundation? How did they get involved?

Dustin:

Okay, so that's a very cool part of the story. When we were going through that harvesting of bone marrow and the treatments at Stanford, at night, they had the in-hospital TV service, limited number of channels. We were grateful to have it, but because we had most of our time awake at nighttime, at the time, the big show to watch was Star Trek, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine. All that stuff was going on. And so, we watched a lot of Star Trek, and I'd asked him, do you want me to switch it to cartoons? No, I really like Star Trek. Nonetheless, we watched a lot of Star Trek, and a commercial came on that showed the Star Trek experience in the Las Vegas Hilton. And then during our time in the hospital, they would come and talk to us every once in a while. As he was ending, his time was coming to an end where he was getting closer to remission. There was always a positive thought from that hospital. Wonderful hospital. lucille Salter Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford. The whole place designed for the mentality of children in mind. And people are always coming in and talking about, okay, about life after. And here's the things that we can help you with after I got here, instead of doom and gloom, instead of, well, let's not worry about tomorrow. They had a lot of thought about tomorrow. So that's how that conversation sort of came about several times, and even a representative from Make a Wish came and talked to us and know, does he have anything he wants to do? And he really struggled with that until he saw that commercial, and then I want to go to that because it had the first virtual reality ride that he'd ever seen. So that was the request right around when he was declared in remission, they let us know that it was granted.

Paul:

Wow.

Dustin:

And they try to get the kids to their Make a Wish when they're in that good spot after remission, and they're not having as many health things anymore. They're in that part of returning to being a kid, if you possibly can, that's when you have your kid go to those things, because they need to be able to enjoy it, of course.

Paul:

Yeah. So how was that?

Dustin:

Oh, boy. They fly us out to Vegas, and there's already people waiting to help us along on our journey, and they give me keys to a Lincoln Town Car with a convertible pop. And so, here's your transportation while you're rolling around Vegas. Okay. And we got to actually visit the and the Hilton people were amazing. Oh, God, they were so great. We paid for nothing. Make A Wish between Make a Wish and Hilton, we paid for just I'll always fill a debt to the Star Trek family because, man, it was a lot to give a couple of people. Anyway, we got to go through the Star Trek Experience a couple of times. And one night we were in our room and we got a call in our room, and they let us know that Michael Jackson had come to town and found out there was a Make a Wish kid staying in the same hotel he was going to stay in and wanted to know if he could spend the evening with us. I don't even remember what I said as a response. I think I was just so blown away. What was I going to say? No, he was feeling fine. He was feeling great. I was feeling all right. And so yeah, and that's what happened. He canceled all of his plans, and one of the things I thought was really admirable about that is that there was no press in this for him. It was completely unannounced, and nobody was told. There were no news crews waiting for us. There was no anything like that. I can't help but think that's exactly how he wanted it, just to get away from all that and just do something nice for a guy. And his kids had been through hell. That's what he did. And I was trying to be cool. It was so Aza. Aza was cool the whole time. He just treated Mike like some new friend that he just made, and he's just walking along, having a good time.

Paul:

I think that's why Michael enjoyed hanging out with kids, because they didn't have that vision. They were just like, oh, yeah, just another person.

Dustin:

Yeah, some of that, yeah. But he was also Aza was very big on just being very proper to people, especially people who didn't know he was very well. And again, I feel like far beyond what I taught him, but he was so cool around Michael, and I was just trying to keep it together.

Paul:

So, what happened? Did you go downstairs and meet at the Star Trek Experience?

Dustin:

So, yeah, we go downstairs and there's Michael Jackson and his five plain clothes bodyguards and nice suits, and five or six really beefy Hilton security guys, all making sure that nothing happens to Michael because he had to have those considerations. And by the way, when he showed up at the Hilton, he was given the 30th floor. And I know that some people might look at celebrity things like that and go, oh, well, he gets the whole 30th floor because he's so and so. The truth is, if they didn't give him the 30th floor, he and his kids would not have room to breathe. They would just constantly get swarmed by people, and they need room to just run around and be kids and be a family. And if they didn't do that and block off the elevators, you wouldn't get left alone. There's a lot of things like that that people, I think, don't understand. Anyway, there we are, Michael Jackson, and the first thing we do is we just start going, walking our way through to the Star Trek Experience, going through Corks Bar. Such a shame that this exhibit had to end, because it's just incredible. But we go through and pretty soon we're in line to go on the virtual ride with Michael. And I'm looking around and I'm realizing there's nobody but us and ten very professional, very proper, stiff, uniform looking security guys and his agent and one person from the Hilton. That's it. Everyone else is gone except for the staff. And I said, did they close the attraction? Yeah.

Paul:

Wow.

Dustin:

And I kind of felt bad, but I get it, because again, the guy doesn't get left alone otherwise. So, we go through the experience. I can talk about it now because it's not going to spoil or anything, but we get to the part where we're on the bridge of the Enterprise, and Michael just decided it was time to dance, and so he started dancing for Ava and everybody on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Paul:

Wow.

Dustin:

Where else are you going to dance when you're on the Enterprise? The yeah, he did that, and everybody got a good laugh, and some of the security guys finally relaxed, and we went through the whole experience. And there's a part where the crowd has to get on the virtual reality shuttles. And of know, Aza had to go with Michael. So, he's right up front there with Michael in the front seats. And I'm trying to just let him have his moment, let him have this. And so, I'm in the second shuttle behind all of them, and I got seated with the really big beefcake Hilton security guys. I could barely fit in between them. And they were intimidated with their job, Michael Jackson. And so, I'm sitting between them and I'm the kind of person where I just have to break the ice. I just look at the closest guy that he's just looking very rigid and very worried or whatever, and I just look at him and I say, is this your first shuttle ride? And everybody started laughing, relaxed a little bit. That was my icebreaking moment. And so, we go on the bride. Aza loves it. Michael loves it. And then afterwards it was time to visit the toy shop. So, there was a big toy shop and of course Michael just takes him right over there. And this was a neat moment because his agent comes over to very, very reserved, calm gentleman, and I'm ashamed I can't remember his name. He says to me so Michael wants to know what kind of toys Aza might like to have. And again, I'm still trying for composure most of the time. God, I've never even talked to Aza about what his favorite Star Trek anything is. I said, oh, I don't know, maybe a little toy hand phaser or a little ship or something. And Michael's agent just kind of looked contemplative for a moment. He walks over to Michael and says a few words and Michael just starts pointing at stuff on the shelves and all that stuff comes off the shelves, and that goes to the basket.

Paul:

Wow.

Dustin:

My answer wasn't good enough. My answer wasn't.

Paul:

Wow.

Dustin:

Again, humble people, we don't know what to then Michael insisted just give that we had more than we could possibly even carry. It was brought to the room. It was very kind of yeah. And then after the toy store, of course had to go through the hotel, over to the candy shop. Apparently, there was a favorite candy that Michael liked there, the Jalapeno jelly bean. He had to have that. But he also had to make sure that ASA got everything that he wanted. So big bag of candy, not excessively large, because he understood he was dealing with a sick kid and they can't have known, but Aza got to pick out some things and he got little bags of chili beans. And then probably as I had plenty of cool Michael Jackson moments, but I kind of stayed reserved. My big moment with Michael was after everything was done, we all went to the VIP lounge. And that was our way to get away from the gathering crowds, have a moment of closure with Michael and stuff, and he talked with Aza for a little bit, and the staff talked with him. And then finally he breaks away from all of it, and he comes and he sits down next to me. And this is the part of Michael that I wish the world could see, which was him not under the threat of the cameras not being gathered on, not being crowded. He sat next to me and took his glasses off and just looked me in the eye and talked to me the same as anybody else talked to him in a way that you never saw in the interviews. And he just asked me questions about Aza, how's he doing, what do they think, how are things going to know? Just like any friend. Just like anybody would. And eye contact. Direct eye contact. Now. My first career was law enforcement. I got to be around a lot of bad people as part of that job. I didn't get the sense I was in the presence of somebody that was bad.

Paul:

Yeah.

Dustin:

I'm a person that has nothing to gain. This is all these years later. I'm the kind of person that tells the truth to the point of just pissing people off.

Paul:

Yeah.

Dustin:

That's how I am. I'm cards on the table. I've been through too much to be otherwise.

Paul:

You felt he was genuine?

Dustin:

He was absolutely genuine. I didn't sense anything bad from this guy. If I had, honestly, I wouldn't let him around my kid.

Paul:

Yeah.

Dustin:

Michael, as his leader, to understand, was customary to him. We talked for a while about ASA, and it was just a genuine conversation between two adults, and I sensed genuine concern. He'd been around enough sick kids that he'd seen plenty of them relapse, and ASA's chances were never better than 50 50 beyond five years. And he said, well, if you ever need anything, you let me know. My agent, I'll give you his card. I never did that. His life got worse after that and really bad, and I was going to be the last person on earth to ever ask him for not after everything he'd done for us already. That moment for a kid to have after nearly dying. Are you kidding me? What am I going to ask somebody? Like, way perfectly happy with everything that we were given to do anything else?

Paul:

That's pretty wild. We go back after the Las Vegas trip. How was Azer's health after that?

Dustin:

So, he would occasionally have some digestinal problems, but aside from that and the hearing and speech problems, because of losing the partial hearing, he had high tonal hearing loss. It wasn't a volume hearing loss, so there were sounds like he didn't hear those sounds at all. So, he had to have cutting edge hearing AIDS that would translate those sounds that he could no longer hear into sounds that he could. And we got to hear it one time, and it almost sounded like transformers talking.

Paul:

Wow.

Dustin:

That was his life. And he was as much irritated by those hearing AIDS as he was helped by them. Sadly, as time went by, technology got a little better. He had dental problems because chemotherapy does kill off the teeth pretty bad. But fortunately, it was at an age when he was cutting his baby teeth and child teeth and moving on to the other one. So, some of those came out as a course anyway. Other than that, he really didn't have a lot of health issues. One of the scary times, two scary times, actually. One right after we came back from that time at the Las Vegas Hilton, almost immediately while I was trying to work as a police dispatcher, came down with chickenpox because he lost all of his immunities. You lose that during bone marrow transplant. So, he had to have all those again. And that's how we spent Christmas with chickenpox. And of course, he was a champ about it. He was used to having temperatures and being sick here and there. I was worried sick again because, oh, God, sick already. Life was kind of interesting because every time they did get a typical kid cold, every time they did get sick, there's that old worry that always comes back every time.

Paul:

I did want to ask about one of the moments in the video where Aza made a storm commando trooper costume and helped raise money for kids with cancer. I was wondering if you could tell me about that.

Dustin:

So, Aza's dad, I'll talk about myself in second hit, is a huge nerd. Star trek. Star Wars and I had joined with a group called stormtrooper ranch out of northern California, and they're a group that would put on Star Wars costumes to go help things. American cancer society make a wish. We'd show up. And a lot of people don't understand how big that actually is, the presence of Star Wars characters at a charity, because of what we're talking on right now, the smartphone. People get to the event and go, oh, dude, look. Stormtroopers. They take a picture. It goes on social media that draws more people into the event, and you draw more people into a charity event, you draw in more money for that charity. And azel really liked that idea. His first appearance was as a jaw walk when he was really small, and then he became a little jedi padawan. And then in the mid to late teen years, he said, I got to have stormtrooper armor. And you have to understand, Aza was never very tall. Bone marrow transplant took away years of growth, so he was never more than 5152. He was never a tall guy. So, we had to find a stormtrooper outfit that worked where we could scale it down. And we found that kit for the stormtrooper scout. And that one you could cut down and make look great on a smaller person. So, we went to work on it, but he's not cool enough, not special enough. Had to be storm commando. Okay? So, we had to find it in black, and the only people selling it in black at the time, horrible mold casting. It was very brittle and it would break. But we made do. We made so the helmet was the expensive part. We couldn't afford it. And one day, our dear friend eric dyke shows up with a normal scout trooper helmet for us to convert. Said, here, just take it. I've always been crafty. I was making the group's blasters a lot of the time. And so, we just went to town, and since he was having black stormtrooper armor, I had to have black hole trooper armor. So, I had the full stormtrooper set in gloss black. And that's how we went to our charity functions. The most touching one was for a little boy named Matt Farley who had been through cancer once and needed a bone marrow transplant. And not only did Aza and I show up at a big pizza fest charity event combined with the red cross, it was a neat thing because we had the pizza thing going on. Big red cross trailer outside taking potential matches for this kid to have a bone marrow transplant because he needed a and as we're there, I lose track of Aza. Where's Aza? I go out there, he's in the trailer trying to donate bone marrow, and they're asking him questions, and he comes out of the trailer depressed. I said, what's up? What's going on? He said, well, they said I can't donate because I've already went through bone marrow transplant.

Paul:

Yeah, can't do it.

Dustin:

There's some of these times I can't talk about because I'll fall apart all the way. Going back to eight years old. The selfless nature of this child is unbelievable. Not prompted, not expected. No one said, hey, you should go be this way. He just did.

Paul:

Beautiful spirit.

Dustin:

Yes. We were the dad son empire stealth combo, taking our march to charity causes, and we had a blast even up until about a year before he started getting sick again. At 22, he still had that armor, and he still would wear it to events and stuff after he passed. Not to jump forward too much, but after he passed, I went to the lengths of refitting his armor so that I could wear it. My mom said that she'd never seen a child and parent closer than Aza and I were ever in her life, and she'd had six kids.

Paul:

Wow.

Dustin:

He was literally my best friend. We would go and do everything together. I kept myself in a young frame of mind video games, technology, whatever, so that I was right there on par with him and he could enjoy me as a best friend and a dad.

Paul:

Thank you so much. You've done so awesome. I didn't have to refer to any of my questions.

Dustin:

I'm sorry if I took too much or talked too much, if I ruined any.

Paul:

No, this is your story, and I didn't have to lead it. I wanted to hear you say it in the format you wanted to say it. I'm not here to edit. I mean, I will edit the chat, obviously, to get it down to a time and some of the UMS and R's and stuff like that. But I'm not here to change your story. I'm here to bring these stories, these real stories, out. Truth, passion. I don't make any money out of this podcast or the book. Quite the contrary. I've put a lot of money into it of my own. I do it out of passion for truth and justice. So, I'm not here to edit anything. I'm here to hear your story the way you want to tell it. And I just thought that was perfect and really touching, and I really enjoyed it. So, thank you. This is one of the best chats I've had, and I look forward to bringing your story out to the public forum. And I really appreciate your time. As said, this is one of the most enjoyable chats I've had and one of the most touching, too. So, I appreciate it. Bye.


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