Quincy Jones made some bold claims in a recent Vulture interview that ran earlier this month. The tenured producer proclaimed Michael Jackson’s vitiligo was “bullshit,” declared The Beatles were the worst musicians in the world and called Harvey Weinstein a “jive mother fucker.”
Last month, Jones also told GQ The King of Pop was a thief, Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra were drunks, and said he’d never date a woman older than 42 — things he’s evidently sorry about now.
The nearly 85-year-old music legend has issued an apology for some of those statements. On Thursday (February 22), he took to Twitter to post a lengthy explanation for his wild comments, which came after his six daughters implemented a “family intervention.”
“I’m sorry to anyone whom my words offended & I’m especially sorry to my friends who are still here with me & to those who aren’t,” he wrote in part. “Thank you for calling me out when I’ve clearly made a mistake.”
Jones says he’s learned his lesson and explained that sobriety has led to “wordvomit.”
“When you’ve been fortunate enough to have lived such a long & crazy life (& you’ve recently stopped drinking – three years ago!), certain details about specific events (which do NOT paint the full picture of my intentions nor experiences) come flooding back all at once, & even at 85, it’s apparent that “wordvomit” & bad-mouthing has contradicted my very real messages I tried to relay.”
(The original version of this article was published on February 7, 2018 and can be found below.)
Quincy Jones’ history in the music business stretches back six decades. The veteran producer has earned 79 Grammy Award nominations over the course of his career and now, in a new interview with Vulture, the 85-year-old drops some bombshells about working behind the scenes with some of music’s most iconic artists, including Michael Jackson.
Jones, who was the mastermind behind The King of Pop’s multi-platinum albums Thriller, Off The Wall and Bad, reveals Jackson was not only “greedy” but also a thief. Last July, Jones won $9.4 million in a lawsuit against Jackson’s estate.
“I hate to get into this publicly, but Michael stole a lot of stuff,” Jones says. “He stole a lot of songs. [Donna Summer’s] “State of Independence” and “Billie Jean.” The notes don’t lie, man. He was as Machiavellian as they come.”
He adds, “[He was] Greedy, man. Greedy. ‘Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough’ — Greg Phillinganes wrote the C section. Michael should’ve given him 10 percent of the song. Wouldn’t do it.”
Jones also talks about Jackson’s health. The late pop legend said he had the skin condition vitiligo for years before his death in 2009, but Jones says that was “bullshit.” He claims Jackson started getting plastic surgery because of the abuse he experienced from his father Joe Jackson.
“I used to kill him about the plastic surgery, man,” Jones explains. “He’d always justify it and say it was because of some disease he had. Bullshit … He had a problem with his looks because his father told him he was ugly and abused him. What do you expect?”
This isn’t the first time Jones has spoken candidly about Jackson. In a 2016 episode of The Breakdown, former HipHopDX editor-in-chief Justin Hunte captured Jones explaining how Jackson secretly used to love seeing Prince get embarrassed and used such instances to stroke his ego.
Elsewhere in the Vulture interview, Jones claims to know who assassinated John F. Kennedy (Chicago mobster Sam Giancana), says The Beatles were the “worst musicians in the world,” calls Harvey Weinstein a “jive motherfucker” and reveals he doesn’t think Oprah has the “chops” to be president.
Good ole Quincy goin innnn
Quincy doesn’t hold back haha. To all the dumb kids about to say some shit, he is one of the greatest music producers of all time, and your favourite right now wishes they had an ounce of his talent.
Talent means nothing when you’re an asshole who speaks ill of the deceased and tried to have sex with your daughters boyfriend.
LMAOOOOOOO!!!! THE CLEANSING!!!!
Prince , Michael and Rick James song would have been tight !!!!
“Jive motherfucker” lol love that old school talk.
Who gives a flyin 747 fuc thou, still like Mic and Prince!
Hold up. Why Quincy aint say all this shit when Michael was alive? Why wait till he is 6ft under to finally talk shit?
It was on account of him being fuckin ya mammy
Look who it is. Your uncle took a lunch break to get his stamina back so he can go round 2 on your ass and allowed you to use his computer?
Papy Quincy snapped haha but I still love him though
Damn let this man rest in peace wtf
Pops is dementia age now. Just sayin
Q just mad that MJ wouldn’t let him fuck him like all the other boys at the cult rituals
Q old fuck
But.. but.. elvis
-black people
If anyone knows him well its Quincy. He’s old school I bet most on here wouldn’t know where the c section is.
Quicy just mad 2pac gave his daughter the pipe
All of this stuff he’s saying in this article is making me believe what Tupac said about him is true. He’s old so he probably gives no fucks.
Funny how Quincy cheated Michael jackson out of production credits for Billie Jean.
Quincy is a piece of shit. He’s a real turn coat and never liked Michael. He only ever say ooumd signs in Michael from the moment of the Wiz.
Jackson was doing solid music with epic before Quincy got involved with him. Quincy is real scum. I now know Tupac toldnthe truth about him all along!
He already did this after MJ died and said he regretted what he said. It’s medical fact that MJ suffered from vitiligo and lupus both drastically affecting his skin and Quincy is rotten to the core for still bashing MJ for it. As for the nonsense that he stole a lot of stuff and stole songs, he didn’t mention any songs which MJ stole and the two PARTS of songs are wrong too: 1. State of independence riff sounds nothing like the Billie Jean riff. 2. Greg gave that c section of DSTYGE and got paid for it like every musicians, that he was not credited is no big deal, MJ was not credited for co writing Behind the Mask when Clapton released it. So what?
Facts Only
You didn’t know MJ and anyone can lie on a medical document. So he said he was sorry. He never said he lied. I’m more than positive that Michael had self hate and just thought being black was not as attractive as being white.
if you ‘hate to get in to it publicly’….. why you openin yer face? and callin others greedy after bankin 9 mil on a lawsuit….
Old man Quincy ate good off the very artist he is pointing the finger at, Quincy is part of an era in which artist were pimped out so if you are calling Mike greedy he learn from the best, artist who get in this game learn very quickly no one cares about you so when the artist begin to act like his handlers don’t wait until they are dead to talk tell it when they are alive this look like a coward act and we all know you are no saint Mr. Jones your closet is full of skeleton’s to, it just goes to show the artist of today have no star power let alone talent we have to hear about real artist who have long left this earth !
Obviously Kyle, you didn’t read the article. He calls Weinstein a jive mother fucker for not returning his five calls. What kind of journalist doesn’t fully read an article before reporting on it? A jive ass one. Fucking mark. Should be fired.
What, you’re not going to mention the fact that Marlon Brando and Richard Pryor and Marvin Gaye used to fuck each other?
Pryor never hid his bisexuality. He said him and Paul Mooney used to fuck punks. A lot of entertainers are bi.
Q’s daughters must have really read him the riot act.
I still believe what he said about his 22 girlfriends.
Don’t get it twisted mufukkaz… An apology doesn’t mean what he said wasn’t true! #QtheGOAT
When you get old I guess you don’t give a fuck. What they gonna do? Nothing! Don’t you wanna cuss your boss out? Expose the mf that ruined your opportunity for no reason except for to hate? Q didn’t care. Ppl are sitting on some damm good information. It’s time we get the E tru Hollywood story on some of this shit.