My Favorite Michael Jackson Reminiscence

As easy as it would be to go off on a tear about MJ, I realize that for a lot of people (including people here), he was an icon. Out of respect for them, I will not speak ill of the dead.

Instead, I share with you my favorite story about Michael Jackson.

During the making of Thriller, Michael and Quincy Jones thought it would be good to have a guitar solo on "Beat It." The rhythm guitars were recorded by Steve Lukather of Toto, who at the time was L.A.'s top studio guitarist. But they set their sights on someone else.

Quincy Jones decided to call Eddie Van Halen to see if he would be interested in playing on a Michael Jackson record.

So the following exchange took place via telephone.

I am not making this up.

[Phone rings]

Eddie: Hello?

Quincy: Eddie? It's Quincy Jones.

Eddie: [convinced its a prank] Oh, f@#$ you! [hangs up]

Several minutes pass.

[Phone rings again]

Eddie: Hello?

Quincy: I'm not kidding, Ed.

Once Eddie realized it really was Quincy Jones, he agreed to do the solo. He also apologized his @ss off, but Quincy was very understanding and even amused.

Eddie went to the studio with his guitar. He had asked them to rent an older Marshall head and cabinet, and he rather quickly laid down the solo that you hear on "Beat It."

But here's the hilarious part.

Do you know how much Eddie got paid?

$0.00

Do you know how much he made in royalties?

$0.00

He just did it for fun.

Thriller was, for a very long time, the best-selling album in history. It's still #2, and I bet you after today it gets back the top spot pretty quickly.

All Eddie asked, and got, was a credit.Epilogue:In July of 1984, Dallas Texas was host to both The Jackson's Victorytour (three nights at Texas Stadium) and Van Halen's 1984 tour (two nights at Reunion Arena).

So, one of those nights, the biggest pop star in the world and the greatest guitarist in the world shared the stage to play "Beat It":

While I was never really an MJ fan, I was in high school in 1983, and Thriller was part of the soundtrack. At least I can say I was there.