EXCLUSIVE: Johnny Carson Raged in Final Conversation with Brother Before Tragic Death

Johnny Carson was livid at himself for his bad habits in his final moments before he died, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

In the new book, Love Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan's Journey to Find the Genius Behind the Legend, author Mark Malkoff spoke to the late-night icon's brother and shed light on Carson's tragic passing.

Carson died on January 23, 2005, at Cedars Sinai Hospital at the age of 79. The TV star's two surviving sons, Cory and Chris, his wife, Alex, his siblings Dick and Catherine, and his nephew, Jeff, were at his side in his final moments. Carson's cause of death was listed as respiratory failure brought on by emphysema.

And according to Dick, his famous brother hated that his obsessive smoking cut his life short.

"In our last conversation, he kept saying, 'Those damn cigarettes, those damn cigarettes,'" Dick tells Malkoff for his book.

Following his passing, Carson was cremated, and his family held a private memorial on his boat.

Carson was open about his smoking habit throughout his career, especially during his 30-year run as host of The Tonight Show.

"I feel guilty ... it's compulsive," the funnyman told Mike Wallace on a 60 Minutes interview in 1979. "I should go to one of those places where they shock you or do something or show you old reruns of Gilligan’s Island to make you give up smoking." Carson, who at times even smoked while on the air, was able to put his bad habit to bed, but it was too late, as the damage had been done.

During the same interview with Wallace, Carson admitted he preferred keeping his life out of the spotlight, as he explained, "I like to keep certain things private. I probably do put up a barrier until I get to know people."

Despite doing his best to stay private, lines were still crossed as Carson received death threats, especially after welcoming Paul R. Ehrlich, the author behind the 1968 book The Population Bomb, which warned readers of the brutal effects of overpopulation, appeared on the show.

Even with the death threats, the show's talent coordinator, Paul Block, told Malkoff or his book, "Johnny remained determined to help America understand urgent ecological and environmental issues, including the need for population control."

However, according to Malkoff, Carson's crew demanded they be protected, and "thirty New York cops showed up and took positions all over the studio."

During Carson's monologue, Carson told the potential killer, "You might as well do it now. I'm dying anyway."

While some of his audience weren't a fan of Ehrlich, Carson was all about him. However, not every guest was a winner for the comedian, as it is believed he had a secret "banned guests" list.

"Sometimes, if the difficulties were caused by a guest, the offending party was banned," Malkoff writes in his book. "Despite persistent rumors, Tonight Show insiders long claimed that the show never had a list of guests who were banned from appearing with Carson."

Malkoff says: "But the ban list was real. My sources for this are the Tonight staff and crew, NBC employees, and even guests themselves... the list wasn't a physical one kept on paper, though, Burt Reynolds and Rich Little both claimed to have seen a hard copy – there were more than thirty big-name guests whom Carson nixed at some point, though sometimes a banned guest could still appear when a guest host was on duty."