Pete Townshend Turned Down Michael Jackson\u2019s \u2018Beat It\u2019 Invite<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI initially cranked the riff out on a bunch of quadrupled Marshalls,\u201d Lukather remembered. \u201cBut then Quincy called and said, \u2018It\u2019s great, but it\u2019s too much. I gotta get this on R&B radio. Use a little Fender amp and turn down the distortion.\u2019 That\u2019s what you hear when the riff comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cAnd then when I heard Michael sing, \u2018Your butt is mine<\/em>,\u2019 I was just a smartass twenty-something-year-old\u00a0kid, and I laughed. But Quincy goes, \u2018Stop it, bro. This is gonna be a big record. I\u2019m telling you.\u2019 I went, \u2018Yeah, right!\u2019 But it was.” (The\u00a0lyric\u00a0is actually from the 1987 Jackson song “Bad,” not “Beat It.”)<\/p>\nThe guitarist \u2013 who also contributed to the\u00a0Thriller<\/em> tracks \u201cThe Girl Is Mine\u201d and \u201cHuman Nature\u201d \u2013\u00a0said that he didn\u2019t experience any of Jackson\u2019s often-debated strange behavior in the studio. \u201cThere was nothing weird at all,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\nWatch Michael Jackson\u2019s \u2018Beat It\u2019 Video<\/strong><\/h3>\n\u201cHe was my age, he laughed at my s—, and he thought I was amusing. He was a real pro. Though what did make me laugh was [that] his monkey, Bubbles, ripped apart the vocal booth! That was the weirdest thing I saw. It made me laugh on the floor, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who Wrote Steve Lukather\u2019s Part on ‘Human Nature’?<\/h3>\n
He added of Jackson: \u201cHis body language told you if he liked a part or not. He\u2019d start dancing, and it would just be me, Quincy and Michael, and I\u2019d start playing something, and Michael would say, \u2018What about this? You should change it to this because you don\u2019t want that going over and over.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very collaborative. He wanted my input. And Quincy welcomed that, but he didn\u2019t write my parts. With songs like \u2018Human Nature,\u2019 Quincy would go, \u2018Make it funky for me, man.\u2019 \u2026 I came up with that part on the spot, and that\u2019s what ended up on the radio.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lukather reflected: \u201cMichael was a pro. And Quincy was a great casting director, who had a great ear for songs and got the right guys on the right songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top 20 American Classic Rock Bands of the \u201880s<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n