In a recent interview with The Guardian, Steve Lukather shared how Quincy Jones warned him about playing ‘too metal.’
“‘Beat It,’ we did it backwards: Michael’s lead vocal and the Eddie Van Halen guitar solo were done with a couple of small overdubs but no click track,” the guitarist recalled working with Jones in Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It.’
He continued, “Jeff made a click track and then a drum part, and I played a bunch of really wild guitar parts, because I knew Eddie’s solo was on it – I was doing real hard rock, a quadruple-track riff.”
“Quincy wasn’t even there, he was at Westlake doing overdubs on ‘Billie Jean’ while we were fixing ‘Beat It’ – so we’d be on the phone and he goes: ‘It’s too metal, you gotta calm down. I gotta get it on pop radio! Use the small amp, not so much distortion,’” Lukather explained.
The musician concluded, “Quincy is the only guy that can do a solo album without playing or writing anything. Somehow, no matter what he did, there was a Quincy Jones sound, even if he didn’t play, sing, write or whatever. He was a director.”
Jones recently passed away on November 3, 2024, at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, at the age of 91. His death was confirmed by his publicist. Lukather first started working with the late producer at the age of 23.
“Working with Quincy was always an incredibly positive experience. And we made a lot of cool music together. We experimented too. He wasn’t afraid to let you try something new,” Steve also told Rolling Stone about his time with Jones. “He was always like, ‘Come on man, what you got?’ If it didn’t work out, he’d say, ‘That was a good try. Try something else.’ And I always wanted to try something new and cool to impress the boss.”
‘Beat It’ became a hit. The song topped the charts and won Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in 1984.