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“D.S.”

Date range confirmed in Mike Smallcombe’s “Making Michael” (“Over the course of the late spring and summer, Michael began working on more and more songs… These included five completely new songs: ‘Money’, ‘Innocent Man’, ‘2 Bad’, ‘D.S.’ and ‘Morphine’.”)

Michael Jackson, handwritten lyrics, “Julien’s Live” auction listing (November 21, 2009) (archived)

T.S. They wanna get my ass dead or alive, invade my privacy/ They sure taken me by surprise.

“Julien’s Live” auction listing (June 24, 2010) (archived)

T.S. He think he Hot cause He's SBDA...He Doin dirty just to Further His political Name…. steppin on me just to further his campaign.

Mike Smallcombe, Making Michael

‘D.S.’ is a thinly disguised attack on Tom Sneddon, the late Santa Barbara County district attorney who led the molestation investigation against Michael. The only concession Michael would make to the Sony attorneys is to allow them to change Tom Sneddon’s name to Dom Sheldon, the initials to which became the song’s title. Bruce Swedien brought in musician Larry Williams to play a guitar solo on ‘D.S.’. “They flew me to New York, and I played my solo, and they then kept me there until Michael heard it and signed it off,” Williams recalls. “This took a month. Michael would be out of town or doing some other stuff and I was being paid $ 2,000 a day just to sit there and wait for Michael to hear the solo!” In the end, a solo by Guns ’N’ Roses guitarist Slash was used instead. “I remember Slash coming in,” Williams recalls. “Put it this way, there was a lot of Jack Daniels and a lot of cigarettes.”

Slash, guitarist, “Q” magazine (August 1995)

Q: How does Jackson work?

Slash: With Michael, the initial tracks that I get to play on are completely bare of vocals, usually just some drums and a little bit of bass, so it's hard to even know what key the song's in. So, I just make up a bunch of stuff and they pick what they want. I did one thing, two things a day, and then they'd say all right, we'll call you back tomorrow. They wouldn't call me back for three months. All of a sudden, I'd get this phone call out of the blue—can you come back?—so I'd come back and then they'd say, OK, we'll call you tomorrow. And then three months would go by... I guess I'm on two songs on his new record. I don't know which the songs are, though. I haven't even heard them yet. That's how it is working with Michael. It's a mystery.

Ryan Arnold, assistant audio engineer, Reddit AMA (April 25, 2019) (archived)

Reddit User: What was it like to work on [“D.S.”]?

Ryan Arnold: There were a lot of in-jokes about the lyrics, which were actually referring to a certain district attorney. I don't know if there could still be legal liabilities if I go too much into that though, even though he's dead.

Reddit User: What is the purpose of the gunshot at the end of 'D.S.'?

Arnold: I'm reluctant to say, but it's symbolic. Some people are just bad and do bad things.