Eddie Van Halen & Michael Jackson 07/13/1984
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This article belongs to the story 1984 and the end of the classic Van Halen line-up. |
Introduction
In 1982 Eddie Van Halen received a phone call from Quincy Jones. Whether he would like to contribute to a song Michael Jackson was working on. Eddie was interested and recorded a solo. He didn’t tell the other members of Van Halen a thing…
Recording Beat It
While in the process of recording the Thriller album, Michael Jackson shared a demo for a song called Beat It. Producer Quincy Jones was thrilled and the song was recorded with (Toto) studio musicians. Now all the song needed was a killer solo. Pete Townshend was asked, but he couldn’t do it, so he suggested Eddie Van Halen. Quincy Jones phoned Van Halen.
I went off on him. I went, “What do you want, you f-ing so-and-so!” And he goes, “Is this Eddie?” I said, “Yeah, what the hell do you want?” “This is Quincy.” I’m thinking to myself, “I don’t know anyone named Quincy.” He goes, “Quincy Jones, man.” I went, “Ohhh, sorry!”
I asked, “What can I do for you?” And he said, “How would you like to come down and play on Michael Jackson’s new record?” And I’m thinking to myself, “OK, ABC, 1, 2, 3 and me? How’s that going to work?”
I still wasn’t 100% sure it was him. I said, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll meet you at your studio tomorrow.” And lo and behold, when I get there, there’s Quincy, there’s Michael Jackson and there’s engineers. They’re makin’ records!© 2012 Eddie Van Halen, CNN
In that very same interview Eddie Van Halen says he could do whatever he wanted. He listens to the song, suggests a few changes and lets the tape be cut up and put together again. Van Halen records two solos. When Jackson entered the control room Van Halen warned him, “Look, I changed the middle section of your song.” After listening, Jackson said “Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo, but to actually care about the song, and make it better.”
The story goes that during the recording of Van Halen’s solos the music was so “hot” that a speaker in the control room actually caught fire. The general feeling: “The speaker is on fire! This must be REALLY good!”
Payment
According to Quincy Jones he provided Eddie Van Halen with some cans of beer, but Van Halen claims he brought them along himself. For the 20 minute period Eddie Van Halen was in the studio he received $0.00. Van Halen got paid nothing for one of the most memorable, recognizable guitar solos of all time. Van Halen: “I was not used. I knew what I was doing – I don’t do something unless I want to do it.”
Michael Jackson – Beat It
Hit single
The song was released as a single on Valentine’s Day 1983 and turned into a major hit. The single would be certified 5 times platinum in the US and would go on to sell over 7 million copies worldwide.
Reaction Van Halen
But, there was an unwritten rule within the band Van Halen that noone would do outside projects without the full consent of every band member. Van Halen:
Certain people in the band at the time didn’t like me doing things outside the group, but Roth happened to be in the Amazon or somewhere, and Mike was at Disneyland and Al was up in Canada or something. So I thought, well, they’ll never know.”
I said to myself, ‘Who is going to know that I played on this kid’s record, right? Nobody’s going to find out.’ Wrong! Big-time wrong.
But, ofcourse the word got out. Singer David Lee Roth:
I was in a parking lot on Santa Monica near Sweetzer, the 7-Eleven, and there were a couple of butch Mexican gals with the doors open on their pickup truck and the new Michael Jackson song Beat It came on. I heard the guitar solo and thought, now that sounds familiar… Somebody’s ripping off Ed Van Halen’s guitar licks. It was Ed, it turned out and he had gone and done the project without discussing it with anybody.
© 2011 Kevin Dodds – Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography
The band was livid. They had all sworn to okay each other’s projects. That Eddie had done this without telling anyone wasn’t appreciated, at all. By the way, it’s highly debatable that Alex Van Halen also didn’t know about the solo. The brothers shared virtually everything.
It did plant a seed in David Lee Roth mind: “If he can do it, why can’t I at some point?”
Eddie Van Halen with wife Valerie Bertinelli & Michael Jackson Backstage 07/13/1984
Guesting at The Jacksons
On July 13, 1984, Eddie Van Halen guested at a show by The Jacksons. He played the solo to Beat It live on stage in Irving, Texas, where The Jacksons performed a show during their Victory Tour. Van Halen happened to be in the same state for the last shows of the American Van Halen 1984 Tour.
