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 "Rock & Soul" Magazine Interview

Date range assessed by the fact that the “Thriller” album had “just wrapped up” at the time of the interview; Michael and his team finished the “Thriller” pressing on November 8, 1982, and the release of the album was on November 30, 1982, so the interview most likely took place shortly after the pressing finished or after the release of the album.

Rock & Soul (March 1983)

As Quincy Jones talked about the album he'd just wrapped up on Michael Jackson, Michael shifted uncomfortably in his chair. To watch Michael squirm, you would have thought Q‘s words were slanderous insults.

“Michael is the essence of what a performer and an artist are all about", Jones said to the roomful of reporters. "He‘s got all you need emotionally and he backs it up with discipline and pacing. He'll never burn himself out. Now I'm a pretty strong drill sergeant when it comes to steering a project, but in Michael's case, it‘s hardly necessary. He‘s always on the case about his direction and how he'd like to grow.

“And he's so quick!" Quincy continued, shooting a side glance at his buddy to see how he was holding up. Michael tried his best to smile, as he knew the importance of good public appearance, but his smile was pretty transparent. His eyes were screaming, "Help!", so Quincy tried to speed up his remarks.

"He can come to a session and put down two lead vocals and three background parts in one day. He does his homework, rehearses, and works hard at home. Most singers want to do everything in the studio--write words and music, figure out harmonies, try different approaches to a song. That makes me crazy. All I can see is dollar signs going by. Studio time is enormously expensive, and that's why someone like Michael Jackson is a producer's dream artist! He walks in prepared! We accomplish so much in one session, it stuns me. A lot of artists are just plain lazy, in my opinion. Michael Jackson is going to be the star of the 80's and 90's." He paused once again to search out Michael‘s eyes.

Several reporters shouted out questions, thinking Quincy was finished speaking. Q never heard. A warm, encouraging smile crossed his face as Michael finally stepped staring at his shoe and dared to make solid eye contact with the man he's looked up to for so long.

In the interim, my mind wandered back to a time in August of 1977 when I had a long, intimate talk with Michael. He was considering taking a role in a film, "The Wiz", and his main attraction to the part was the fact that a man he’d literally worshiped all his life--Quincy Jones--was hired to do the musical score. Usually ultra-conservative in his actions during an interview, I nearly lost consciousness from the sheer shock when Michael grabbed my arm and shaking my body (down to the ground?) with excitement as he hissed: “Can you believe it?? Quincy Jones! He's greaaaaaat!“ My mind snapped back to the present as Quincy agreed to answer one more question about Michael‘s new album, something about Michael‘s "quirky lyrics" and distant personal approach with his lead vocals.

"He's extremely dramatic, very concise." Quincy said. ”When he commits to an idea in a song, he goes all the way with it, like how he truly cried at the end of 'She's Out of My Life'. Paul McCartney was very impressed With this quality in Michael, too. Michael has the presence of mind to feel something, conceive it, and then bring it to life. It‘s a long way from idea to execution. I‘m always telling people, 'Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die!' Michael is a risker! He's willing to die! The cat is really talented; there are only certain guys who come along and stand out. When I met Stevie Wonder at age 15, there was never any doubt what he was going to be. Michael has that thing."

The press corps followed Quincy's eyes to find Michael. He was gone. Several reporters darted out the door to try and catch him. Quincy threw his head back and laughed, always amused by Michael‘s slippery ways.

Still, the fast exit leads one to wonder what price stardom has had on Michael. There are all the stories about his loneliness, the nights spent walking his neighborhood hoping to find someone who doesn't care that he’s Michael Jackson, the boy wonder. Everyone knows the Encino, California estate where he lives with his family. On the estate, he has installed a studio, a game room, a private movie theater, a basketball court, swimming pool--in short, "anything so I don't have to go out much. I always thought when you don't want to make trips out into the world, you should have the things you want close to you."

Though many questions about Michael’s personal relationships have been raised, very few have actually been answered. When Rock & Soul asked Stephanie Mills about the rumors that she and Jackson were sweet on each other, she put them to rest immediately. ”Just friends“, she said emphatically.

Other stories have not been as easy to squash. Though it's strange to find Michael's actual encounters missing from the headlines of the gossip sheets. It isn't uncommon to find the press speculating on everything from his latest soulmate to his sexual preference.

“It really is a terrible invasion of privacy", a longtime friend and reporter confided in us recently. “Someone else's loneliness or lack of it gets chewed up and spit out like bad gum. What about the fact that Michael is so shy? I've always felt that his stage antics are a way to exorcise a painful shyness. And as for his private romances, who cares? He’s private about everything. Why pick on this particular aspect of his personality? Wouldn't it be weird if he was private about everything else, and then flaunted his romantic endeavors?

“Michael is quite consistent in the way he's always behaved in public", his friend continued. "I have no idea what he does privately, and neither do you or anyone else who writes stuff about him. That's the point! He's like a blank page, so everyone writes all over him whatever way they fantasize he is. Other celebrities tell you things about themselves, their marriages, their battles, their arrangements--everything. But Michael doesn't, so the press have a field day with him. It's so easy."

"It's not like I don't talk at all", Michael sighed, edging slowly into his waiting Mercedes. "I'm a prisoner of myself. I'm afraid to fulfill my potential, just like the character I played in 'The Wiz'.

"I come alive when I'm onstage, or in the studio, or doing a film", he continued. "I'm confident and aggressive, but that's not hard for me. Onstage, I'm playing a role: I know what's expected of me, and what I have to do. It’s all very well planned Life isn't well planned; it’s unpredictable. It scares me! It’s so much harder than being on stage.

“One time, Q asked me to come to a party at his Bel Air home. I drove up and saw all these cars parked outside his driveway, and the next thing I knew I was driving off. Just too many people to deal with. That's me! What can I do?

"All I owe the public is a good show, good music, and the very best of my talent. Goodness knows, they've got that, and always will get it!"