I Get Emails...

Occasionally I get emails from people asking me about working with Michael Jackson. Of course, people are curious about him, and sometimes I think that they are hoping that I have some dirt I can dish about Michael. I don't have any. Michael always treated me with respect and the utmost professionalism. And I treated him the same. I enjoyed working with him every time. It was fun, it wasn't just work.

And I feel a little chagrin that my claim to fame after all of these years, is that I'm the guy playing those three chords on Billie Jean. That was about an hour of my life. Mind you, I'm not in any way ashamed of it, but I also know that anyone of a million keyboardists could have played the part. I did it, because during the 1981 tour when I played keyboards for Michael and his brothers, he heard me fooling around with a sound on the Yamaha CS80 synthesizer that I was using on the tour. Afterwards, he called me to help him with the demo for Bille Jean, which involved deciphering those three chords from him singing the top notes to me, and re-creating that sound that I had long since forgotten.

Months passed, and Michael called me to play the part on the tune when he and Quincy Jones were making the Thriller album at Westlake Studios in LA. When I arrived for the session, Michael led me into Studio B to record the part, because he and Quincy were busy recording a children's album based on the hit movie E.T. in the main studio.

So I sat in Studio B, alone with the second engineer, and I played the part, because I remembered it from the demo (apparently, this demo is on the special edition of Thriller; I've never heard it.) So it was just work. Michael came in to listen to it, approved it, and that was that. After all of this time, and after all of the other things I've done, this is my claim to fame.

I'm not complaining, at all, I'm just saying that anyone could have played it, and maybe I wish that some of my own work was what I was known for, but hey--who am I to compete with Michael Jackson?

So, I'll save you the trouble of writing me an email asking about Michael; this is what I'll have to say: Michael was always professional with me, and me with him. I felt privileged to work with him and Quincy. This was the pinnacle, the top of the heap in those years, there were no better gigs. I was alongside studio musicians that were my idols, and I felt as though there had been a tremendous mistake; what was I doing on the 'A' list?

And although he came to my house a couple of times to work on music, and I went to his house three or four times, I don't know anymore about his personal life than he does about mine. It was just about the music, and I'm proud to have been a small part of it. I feel bad about what has happened to him in the last few years, but I don't know any more about it than you do. I hope he can overcome his problems, and come back, because he was a superstar for a reason; he had it. Big time.

And I'll never complain about being the guy that plays those three chords on Billie Jean, because I know that nearly everyone on the PLANET has heard me play. Thank you, Michael, for that. I like it.