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will.i.am Recording Sessions
Date range assessed by the facts that October 15, Access Hollywood visits their recording studio, and will.i.am says he was scheduled to be there “for a week” (CraveOnline interview)
will.i.am, rapper/singer/songwriter, “Rolling Stone” magazine (February 8, 2007) (archived)
Rolling Stone: You’re working with Michael Jackson now--did he just call you out of the blue?
will.i.am: Out of the blue. I was like, “Who is this? Stop fuckin’ around.” “No, it’s me, Michael.” I was like, “Whatever, dude.”
Rolling Stone: What’d you talk about?
will.i.am: For a month we probably talked three times a week. He'd be like, "I need you to dig deep inside! Do something that's unprecedented!" He'd hum a little melody over the phone or something. Eight song sketches were conjured out of phone conversations, then we met up in Ireland for a week and finished three ideas. We tracked one song--the running title is "I'm Dreamin'."
He just said, "Great melodies." In January, we'll spend a month together. I want it to sound like Off the Wall for today. Right now, though, dude is still killing everybody vocally.
Rolling Stone: What’s Michael been like to work with?
will.i.am: He’s been really open to ideas. He’s also told me to get an auditor to audit my books and an auditor to audit the auditor.
“la Repubblica XL” magazine (2007), from Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”
‘He wrote a song called ‘I’m Still The King,’ said will.i.am. ‘I really don’t know if the track will make it on the album – I shall say we are used to that with Michael, aren’t we?’
Unknown 2007 interview, from Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”
‘We probably did like three or four songs,’ confirmed will.i.am, speaking in August 2007, ‘two of them are finished. I don’t know when he’s gonna put them out, it’s his project, ya know – I’d put them out tomorrow!’
CraveOnline interview (June 12, 2009) (archived)
CraveOnline: You do so many things, where do you get your energy from?
will.i.am: Thinking about where I was 15 years ago. 15 years ago I was 18, 19 years old and not that I was in a bad place, but it was a scary place because I was transitioning from a dream and that dream not happening, being depressed, poor, so that’s what keeps me going. They say… Hey, Michael Jackson wants us to come back. Michael Jackson wants you to give him a beat. Michael Jackson wants to do a feed? Yeah, he wants you to fly to Ireland, be there for a week. That’s where I go.
CraveOnline: How was that experience with Michael Jackson?
will.i.am: That felt like a dream. You’re there in Ireland. It’s green hills. It’s Michael Jackson. You’re in the cottage making beats, dance beats. He’s like dancing and sh*t. I’m like, “I’m hungry.” He says, “Why don’t you take the horse? Take the horse and pick apples. It’s wonderful. We love doing it. The horses love going apple picking.” I’m like, “Alright, I’ll fucking go.” I swear to God. I’m on a fucking horse. Michael Jackson’s like, “Wow, it’s great.” The horse is picking apples. I’m like picking apples and junk, putting them in a bag. I’m like wow, this is like picking apples with Michael Jackson on horseback. Look at that shit, right?
“BBC News” (June 29, 2009) (archived)
Pop star Will.i.am has spoken about the new material he recorded with Michael Jackson before the King of Pop's death.
"It was fresh," said the Black Eyed Peas frontman, who became close friends with Jackson. "It was very demanding.
"It demanded all the people to the dancefloor. Of course, it was melodic. As he would say, juicy." He was speaking at the Glastonbury festival.
He did not know what would happen to the new songs as Jackson had kept the hard drives on which they were saved.
"He had all the hard drives because I didn't want to be responsible for that," Will.i.am told BBC News.
"It's one thing to lose a Black Eyed Peas hard drive. I move around a lot and to make songs with Michael Jackson and risk me losing that music, I didn't want that responsibility.
"So he kept all the stuff that we worked on."
…Akon told Billboard magazine they were "working on a lot of ideas".
"Right now they're pretty much all ideas, but if there is anything to be done to them, of course I would let the family make all those decisions," he said.
“Vibe” (June 21, 2010) (archived)
will.i.am’s contributions includes the Latin jazz-tinged scorcher “The Future,” an infectious dance track reminiscent of Off the Wall; the aforementioned, soul-stirring James Brown salute “Miss You,” and “The King,” an all-star number that was to feature a legion of performers who were inspired by Jackson. “I said to MJ, ‘Let’s do a song with everyone that you have obviously influenced,” Will explains. “‘A collaboration with you as the King, and all of your subjects, like Ne-Yo, Usher, Omarion and Chris Brown.’ Everybody was signed off on the track.”
...“Part of the reason why [the “Invincible” album] took so long to put stuff out was because Michael was a perfectionist,” says will.i.am. “We would be in the studio and he would tell me: ‘It has to be perfect . . . all the sounds have to be just right.’ Sometimes we would spend a whole day just on drums! I’m telling Mike, ‘Nigga, you know how long I’ve been working on this snare?’ [Laughs.] And he would just say, ‘Oh Will, you are so funny.’ He appreciated my honesty.”
“Rolling Stone” (December 13, 2010) (archived)
“I knew this man,” he told Scaggs. “And he was very critical about every single detail. He stood in the studio himself, mastering and mixing everything. How can you release [the 2010 “Michael” album] without that Michael Jackson? It’s not Michael Jackson. I heard the song that’s on the Internet now [‘Breaking News’] and I’m like, ‘That ain’t Mike.’ He wasn’t there to do his micro-Michael-managing that he did with ‘Thriller’ and ‘Billie Jean.’ It disgusts me.”
Graham Norton Show (June 22, 2012)
The first time I've ever rode a horse was in Ireland. I was working in Ireland with Michael Jackson. So, Michael Jackson suggested that--I told him, "When are we gonna record?" He was like, "Do you want some breakfast?" I said, "Sure." "Why don't you go take the horse and pick some apples?" He's like, "Take the horse on horseback and pick some apples. Take the horses out, they're lovely. The horses are wonderful. And the thing about the horses is that they know exactly where the juicy apples are." So he said, "When the horse tries to grab the apple, just snatch the apple from him, 'cause that's a juicy apple." So I was like, "Wow, when's the last time Michael Jackson gonna tell you to get on a horse and go pick some apples?" On a horse? It started galloping away. So I'm galloping down the meadows up in Ireland, going apple picking. So, as the horse went to grab an apple, I remember Michael Jackson saying, "Just don't let him get the apple, just grab it before he does." I'm on a horse, the horse goes there and I grab it, and he's like--last thing I'm worrying about is, like, he get mad at me, and then kick me off his back, and stomp on me... So my thing was grab an apple, let him eat an apple, right? So let's share, right? 'Cause I'm on his back. So, that was the whole thing. So he grabbed the apple, then I grab the apple. So, then I came back with the bag of apples, and he was like, "So how was it? Wasn't it amazing? I just love riding horses and picking apples."
Working together was awesome. Michael was meticulous, mega-critical: 'Turn that snare down, bring that microphone down - can you bring me some ice?' And it was dope (amazing). I swear to God, that happened.
“Vibe” (June 21, 2010) (archived)
[Michael Jackson had] asked producer will.i.am to fly out to Ireland to work on new music for a projected comeback album. Will found the prospect more than a little intriguing. “Michael’s people wanted to pay for my plane ticket to Ireland and asked me how much money I wanted,” he says. “And I’m like, ‘I don’t want any money. I’ll pay for my own plane ticket.’ I didn’t want to be one of those producers that took advantage of Michael Jackson and his money. He was emotional, so vulnerable. He had been taken advantage of by so many people in the past.”