Quincy Jones — who helped launched Michael Jackson’s career — says he won’t be attending the late King of Pop’s funeral set for Sunday.
“I won’t go to any more funerals as long as I live,” he tells Entertainment Tonight. “I can’t handle it.”
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In a revealing blog for the Los Angeles Times “[Michael] was so shy he’d sit down and sing behind the couch with his back to me while I sat there with my hands over my eyes with the lights off,” Jones writes.
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He says he and Jackson had just two months to record a follow-up album after Wall. “I told Michael that we needed a black rock ‘n’ roll tune — a black ‘My Sharona’ — and a begging tune for the album,” Jones says. “He came back with ‘Beat It’ and Rod came back with ‘The Lady in My Life.’ Rod also brought in ‘Thriller’ and Michael sang his heart out on it. At one point during the session the right speaker burst into flames, which none of us had ever seen before. How’s that for a sign?”
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Adds Jones, “There will be a lot written about what came next in Michael’s life, but for me all of that is just noise.”
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“I promise you in 50, 75, 100 years, what will be remembered is the music,” Jone concludes. “It’s no accident that almost three decades later, no matter where I go in the world, in every club and karaoke bar, like clockwork, you hear ‘Billie Jean,’ ‘Beat It,’ ‘Wanna Be Starting Something,’ ‘Rock With You’ and ‘Thriller.'”
