MJ (57 page)

Rob Cohen on
The Wiz
potential and “darling sweetheart”
: Cohen interview.

The Wiz
details
: Quincy Jones
, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones
(New York: Doubleday, 2001), pp. 218, 229.

Employee statistics
: Quincy Jones, liner notes to
The Wiz: Original Soundtrack
(MCA, 1978).

“It’s like a war zone”
: Ed Harrison, “A Day In the Life of Quincy Jones: Veteran Composer’s Main Project ‘The Wiz’ Keeps Him Busy 24 Hours,”
Billboard,
July 15, 1978, p. 75.

“Aw, Michael’s great,” “Michael Jackson’s a Vegas act,” “That boy is so sweet!,” and $100,000
: Cohen interview.

Perrier bath
: Ibid.

“The gay side” and “He danced more like a tap-dancer”
: Author interview with Pat Cleveland.

“Like ricocheting bullets all over the place”
: Cassette MJ recorded of Sidney Lumet, Nipsey Russell, Diana Ross, and others, during lunch on
The Wiz
set, marked September 23, 1977, provided by confidential source.

Louis Johnson biography and “He had seen Charlie Chaplin”
: Author interview with Louis Johnson.

“Feelings,” windmill, and “Did you get that?”:
Cleveland interview.

Costume details and “He was thrilled to have his nose covered”
: Author interview with Tony Walton.

“He’s our generation’s Fred Astaire”
: Author interview with Tom Bähler.

“Okay, Michael”
: Cohen interview.

“He looked at Michael”
: Ibid.

Socrates and “take a shot”
: Jones,
Q
, p. 231.

MJ-Quincy Jones phone conversation, including “You know it’s not talent, though”
: MJ cassette recording, circa 1978, provided by confidential source.

“Everybody has a crying jag” and “Michael was the most high-spirited”
: Walton interview.

“As big and as spectacular”
: Cohen interview.

Bobby Colomby stepping in and “Hey, boss”
: Author interview with Bobby Colomby.

“There was wonderful confusion everywhere”
: Author interview with Mick Jackson.

Colomby on the Jacksons, “The plants would wilt,” and “Tell him I’m the father!”
: Colomby interview.

“Wait, wait, wait”
: Author interview with Rick Marotta.

“I have to get this out,” “That’s not the way,” Colomby meeting with the Jacksons, and twenty-minute groove
: Colomby interview.

“It was a very strong”
: Author interview with Greg Phillinganes.

“I would have said”
: Colomby interview.

“If I could go back in time”
: Author interview with Mike Sembello.

Quincy Jones background
: Jones,
Q
, pp. 1, 12, 30–31, 43, 48.

Ella and Dizzy
: Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie interviews,
Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones
(Warner Bros., 1990).

“Lily”
: MJ-Quincy phone recording cassette.

“It’s about recycling energy”
: Jones interview,
Listen Up
.

“
Quincy does jazz”
: Steve Demorest, “Michael in Wonderland,”
Melody Maker,
March 1, 1980.

“I’ve got my boys,” “There were a lot of problems,” “A lot of it would start with Joe,” and “It was very nasty”
: Author interview with Ron Weisner.

“Too jazzy” and “I don’t care what you think”
: Jones,
Q
, pp. 231–32.

“Our underlying plan”
: John Moore, “Looking back on M.J.’s ‘Thriller’ at 30, a musical game-changer,”
Denver Post,
November 23, 2012, p. 1C.

“Part of the marketing”
: Weisner interview.

“We tried all kinds of things”
: Jones,
Q
, p. 232.

Seth Riggs on MJ’s voice
: Author interview with Seth Riggs.

“You don’t have to do that”
: Ibid.

“Quincy and Rod were like, ‘Wow’ ” and “Michael would come in”
: Eckstine interview.

“Braced and counterbraced” and “I absolutely love”
: Swedien,
In the Studio with Michael Jackson
, p. 10.

Handclaps and Rolex
: Robinson interview.

“Man, what is that?”
: Johnson interview.

“She’s Out of My Life” story
: Bähler interview.

“Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough” songwriting details
: Robinson interview, Phillinganes interview, Colomby interview.

“guitars chopping like kalimbas”
: Michael Jackson,
Moonwalk
, p. 161.

MJ convinced Katherine the song wasn’t about sex
: Katherine Jackson with Richard Wiseman,
The Jacksons: My Family
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990), p. 109.

“Off the Wall” cover shoot and “Put a little attitude”
: Author interview with Mike Salisbury.

Bud Rizzo jamming and “Why don’t you come to rehearsal?”
: Author interview with Bud Rizzo.

“Kind of these way-out talks” and Astaire on VCR
: Ibid.

False Memphis Horns
: Author interview with Alan “Funt” Prater.

Gym socks, “Wow, this guy is kinda nerdy-like,” “I couldn’t believe,” “Hey hey hey, let’s get it right,”
“Raise?
,” and women in the hotel room
: Ibid.

“A symbol of what we are trying to say”
: Nelson George,
The Michael Jackson Story
(New York: Dell, 1984), p. 113.

“It was the same thing over and over”
: Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson
, p. 181.

“You could feel”
: Rizzo interview.

James Ingram watching MJ sing “P.Y.T.” and “universities of Berry Gordy and Quincy Jones”
: Author interview with James Ingram.

“The Motown musicians”
: Author interview with Anthony Marinelli.

“Sounds of how I want the bass”
: Michael Jackson deposition in Mexico City, November 8 and 10, 1993,
Smith, et al., vs. Jackson, et al.,
U.S. District Court for Central California, May 12, 1994.

“. . . And the piano be going ‘da da da da’ ” and “I want the biggest drum sounds”
: MJ self-made cassette recordings, provided by confidential source.

“Before
Thriller”: Confidential source.

“
It was kind of an orphaned, packaged studio,” Hayvenhurst details, parrot and La Toya, and “We recorded in a hurry”
: Author interview with Brent Averill.

“We had known Michael”
: Author interview with Oren Waters.

“Bitch, you better leave my husband alone!”
: “One Big Unhappy Family: Despite a Feel-Good TV Reunion, the Jacksons Have Made Trouble Their Trademark,”
People,
February 28, 1994, p. 62.

“Graphically describing relations”
: Author interview with Joyce McRae.

Joseph’s affair with Terrell, Joh’Vonnie, Sprague’s cuts and bruises, and hospital
: J. Randy Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story 1958–2009
(New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009), pp. 193–94, 198. Joh’Vonnie Jackson turned down an interview request.

Sprague’s $21 million lawsuit
:
Gina Sprague vs. Joseph Jackson, et al.,
Superior Court of California, July 21, 1983.

“He didn’t seem very happy”
: Leonard Pitts Jr., “ ‘Thriller” was greatest triumph, greatest tragedy,”
Miami Herald,
June 26, 2009, p. 1A.

“Oh, no, I think I’d die” and “It may sound crazy”
: Robert Hilburn, “The Jacksons—Hail and Farewell?,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 13, 1981, pp. K1–K61.

First nose job in 1979
: J. Randy Taraborrelli interview,
Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon
(David Gest Productions, 2011), p. 205.

No memory of onstage accident
: Author interview with Bud Rizzo; author interview with Mike Mckinney. Tony Lewis, the Jacksons’ Destiny drummer, has a vague recollection of “some kind of injury.”

“What
in the hell”
: Jermaine Jackson,
You Are Not Alone: Michael Through a Brother’s Eyes
(New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2011), pp. 163, 189–90.

“Offstage, our merciless teasing”
: Ibid.

“Michael was doing plastic surgery”
: McRae interview.

“Michael felt under pressure”
: Jimmy Ruffin interview,
Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon
.

“Hybridization” and “In short, he has been”
: Jean Baudrillard,
Cool Memories
(New York: Verso, 1990), p. 147.

“Oh, hi!” and Terry George recollections
: Author interview with Terry George.

Jermaine and Joe hired Michael Mesnick
: Author interview with Michael Mesnick.

Mesnick asked Braun to extract MJ
: Mesnick interview; author interview with David Braun.

“Suppose it sells
this
,” royalty deal north of 25 percent, and “We kept using arbitrary numbers”
: Braun interview; author interview with Dick Asher.

“Michael was making equal to what CBS was making”
: Mesnick interview.

“I left to make some money”
: Braun interview.

Branca tried to help MJ move but he wouldn’t leave Hayvenhurst
: Taraborrelli,
Michael Jackson
, p. 207.

“Michael puts us to shame”
: Mesnick interview.

Eight-track studio, recording equipment, Tito’s house, and “Mike, what you doing today?”
: Mckinney interview.

“There would be a lot of opinions”
: Author interview with Jerry Hey.

Van Nuys office park, “The brothers had different ideas,” “Bill, why you playing that?,” “so they could present a unified front,” and “Buy some for your friends!”
: Author interview with Bill Wolfer.

“I can’t eat this,” colonics, and “like a moth attracted to a flame”
: Ibid.

Fiddling with new dance on
Destiny
tour
: Rizzo interview.

“They cleared out the rehearsal space”
: Author interview with Reed Glick.

MJ climbing back onstage after magic malfunction
: Author interview with Nick Luysterborghs (a crew member who oversaw the illusion for the Triumph tour).

“This isn’t working!”
: Glick interview.

“Anytime they saw the name ‘Michael’ ”
: Mckinney interview.

Hayvenhurst renovation description
: Jermaine Jackson,
You Are Not Alone
, pp. 202–3.

“Like a machine”
: Quincy Jones
, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones
(New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 237.

“Michael rang me”
: Ray Coleman,
McCartney: Yesterday & Today
(Garden City, MI: Dove Books, 1995), p. 129.

MJ and McCartney meeting
: Ibid.

Westlake description
: Matt Forger, who guided a tour of the studio.

“No matter what you do”
: Nelson George and Mark Rowland, “Michael Jackson’s Perfect Universe: The Education and Execution of Total Victory,”
Musician,
July 1984, p. 47.

“I felt ignored by my peers”
: Michael Jackson,
Moonwalk
(New York: Harmony Books, 1988), p. 176.

E.T.
pushing
Thriller
crew back
: Author interview with Matt Forger.

“Everybody was working”
: Author interview with Humberto Gatica.

“Fuck off” and
“Don’t worry”
: Author interview with Steve Lukather.

“Okay, guys”
: Bruce Swedien interview, “The Invisible Man: The Rod Temperton Story,” BBC Radio 2, August 23, 2008, and December 12, 2009.

“The Girl Is Mine” session description, “ ‘The doggone girl is mine’—really?,” “I Was Made to Love Her,” “It was funkier,” and guests
: Lukather interview.

six hundred or seven hundred songs and “When it was known”
: Forger interview.

“I’ve never seen Quincy”
: George and Rowland, “Michael Jackson’s Perfect Universe,” p. 47.

“It wasn’t how most people” and film metaphor
: Marinelli interview.

“Rod Temperton had that Quincy Jones sound”
: Wolfer interview.

DiBango settlement for $25,000 to $50,000
: Confidential source.

“There’s a sound I want” and “We created this unusual”
: Author interview with Steven Ray.

Cockatoo, “This guy is different,”
“that three-chord vamp,” and “He couldn’t play an instrument”
: Wolfer interview.