🎸 A LOOK BACK AT SOME OF STEVE STEVENS' MEMORIES OF WORKING WITH MICHAEL JACKSON
Steve Stevens, who played guitar on Michael's “Dirty Diana”, shared some really interesting memories of working with him in an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock.
When Quincy Jones invited Steve to record in LA, he expected a huge entourage, Bubbles the chimp and all kinds of craziness. But when he opened the studio door, this is what he found:
“I get to the studio and I open the studio door, and it's just Michael and Quincy and an engineer, the same way I was used to working with Billy. And I said, ‘Oh, I'm at home. This is cool.’”
Steve also talked about Michael's approach to working with musicians. He remembered him being very particular about the rhythm, while still giving him plenty of freedom:
“He wasn't one of these guys to say, ‘Play a B-flat here and diminished,’ you know. He would just hum it.”
And here's a funny story from the filming of the “Dirty Diana” short film! 😂 When Steve arrived at the soundstage, he spotted a van surrounded by toys and swings:
“I pull up, and there's a van outside the soundstage. There's toys and swings and all this stuff set up. I go, ‘Wow, this is great. They take care of the kids.’ No, no. This is [for] Bubbles. Bubbles Mobile [for] the chimp.”
Steve also got to meet Bubbles, and said the whole production was “exactly the way you'd imagine it.”
At the time, Michael was preparing for his first solo tour, the Bad tour, and was curious about how big rock shows were put together. Steve recalled:
“He had previously just done Jackson 5 tours, and on the R&B circuit, the productions weren't as big, lighting wasn't as big, sound wasn't [as big]. But Michael had seen Queen and Van Halen, and he knew what a rock show was about. So he was really hitting me up for all of, ‘Who does your sound? Who does your lights?’”
There was also a funny little exchange about Eddie Van Halen:
“‘Oh, do you know Eddie?’ I go, ‘Yeah, I know Eddie.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, he played on “Beat It.”’ Like who doesn't know that? I go, ‘Yes, Michael. I know that's Eddie Van Halen on “Beat It.”’”
Michael then asked Steve, “Do you like Van Halen? I like Van Halen,” before suddenly doing an impression of David Lee Roth, Van Halen's frontman! 😂 Steve was clearly amazed by what he was seeing:
“And he proceeded to do – now if you can imagine this, this is Michael Jackson, doing an impression of David Lee Roth. Now, that is something that probably I saw, and no one else on the planet. He did the whole, ‘Look at all the people here!’ Had him down perfectly, the strut. Great, man. That was the moment that I said, you know, I'm like pinching myself. I go, ‘Am I watching Michael Jackson impersonate David Lee Roth? Is that really what I'm seeing?’” 😂❤️