Bruce Swedien Talks About Michael Jackson And Their Friendship

when you read the list of people that you have worked with nat king cole duke ellington paul mccartney jennifer lopez barbara streisand what was different about michael from say any of them not to take anything away from them but right well michael's was an all-around gifted musician he was a fantastic composer i mean when michael told us the story of billie jean he came home one day and there was this young lady lounging by his pool and she wouldn't go away so he went and talked to her found out what her name was it was billie jean and then later on it turned out she accused michael of being the father of one of her twins i don't think that can happen so this gives you an idea of the various veracity of that of poor young woman but michael dealt with it all and made a huge hit record there aren't many pieces of pop music i think that have the identifiable sounds of billie jean what do you think what is it about that that man and what was it when you were putting it all together that made it so special to you he just michael was so different he was so gifted his sense of pitch his sense of lyric and melody and so on you know the those songs that he wrote uh earth's sun give me a break the earth song earth sun yeah phenomenal piece of music just it was so different and his vocal approach was so different for earth's song that i had i used a different microphone on it and for that one song tell me about your first meeting with him was at the wiz yeah when we were doing the music for the whiz the movie which is the urban concept of the wizard of oz and of course i worked with a whole lot of people like nipsey russell and you know just the list goes on and on incredible people with that piece of work just phenomenal oh what an experience i'm very blessed i am very lucky to have been at the right place at the right time with the ability to deliver the goods but do you think that was just coincidence i don't know i'm well i come from a religious background so you could easily put another meaning on that but i'm i don't i won't do that i think it just happened serendipity they call it and what did you think of michael the first time you met him right off the bat i thought here's a phenomenal gift phenomenally gifted young black musician and uh while michael is not the kid next door and he hasn't always made the best decisions for himself i would go with him any place any time what were some of the best decisions you think he made for himself to record billie jean and to make a positive musical statement out of that event instead of you know making it a bad comment on society because uh michael michael had it all he's just phenomenal i want you to be pardoned me i have trouble speaking on my in the past tense can you not believe he's gone oh yeah and i'm sorry to be emotional and at such a time but that's the way it is i can't help it hey you have nothing to apologize for what a guy fun to be with michael jackson never came late to the session he was a true professional a true pro yeah never came late to a session never sang his music from the printed page when we did a vocal for all his music it was always from memory he had the lyrics memorized and just i swear a little bit but i'm i'm not gonna right now but he i'll put it this way michael's saying that doo doo out of all his music what do you think he appreciated about music what was he drawn to i think music took him to a new world a world where he could express himself freely because when you're a star of michael's status he couldn't go anywhere i mean literally my wife b i think he met her drove for him and they had so much fun he was the greatest was he suspicious of people no i don't think so i think michael always sought out the best in people and you know i hope this doesn't sound like i'm foolish about michael but i love him because a lot of people say that there's nothing foolish about that when you talk about the ideas for where songs came from where on earth did he get the idea to do a horror song like thriller it was so outside its box wasn't it you know where edgar allan poe michael was a voracious reader he would read all sorts of things and one of his true heroes was edgar allan poe and that's where i think that inspiration came from it's a because it is kind of edgar allan poe style but done in the michael jackson manner but that that that excuse me that shows you how brilliant michael was where he is and nobody like him there will never be another one when we talk about you talk about him hiding behind you know something snickering it it almost sounds like a kid you know who is trying to well michael never had a childhood that's what i was going to ask you we actually did a song i can't remember now who wrote it but it's called have you seen my childhood and oh lord what a fabulous piece of music every time that we did that song and we got to the end michael broke down and cried you know what quincy said quincy jones he said to me the engineer leave that there leave that on there it's meant to be did you see a man who was trying to steal about his childhood yeah yeah i think so michael was so different though and he's never really been appreciated i think by the public or understood that's why i'm so happy to be part of this thing and you know i i'm not exactly busy but i'm not exactly doing nothing either so i was very happy when you people called me because i will always go to bed for michael what do you think is the most misunderstood about michael jackson his sincerity his passion for quality everybody kind of criticizes him and i i might as well bring it right out of the plastic surgery and i feel the same way i said what a stupid thing for a gorgeous young black man to do but it's michael michael ain't the kid next door you know and you can't expect someone like that to always make the best decisions but as a human being and as a musician and a performer oh wow the best jimin you knew you helped produce him from 1978 until when he died totally done what kind of how did you see this man change from that beginning i think uh boy that's a tough question because i don't really remember any change the thing that bothered me the most was the plastic surgery that was such a bad judgment on michael's part and the reason i'm not afraid to say that was ben judgment is that's the truth and in retrospect looking back at that time that's not the best of michael but michael is only human there was do you think he ever regretted some of that plastic surgery well or was he just trying to what was he trying to do i guess and finding that was there insecurity about him yeah that was uh his father had been so critical of his nose he had a beautiful nose his nose was perfect michael was a very handsome young black man and just uh fabulous and i think well let me give you an example we're doing we're recording uh want to be starting something at a studio in los angeles in [Music] about the time of well it's after the wiz the movie but anyway so michael's father came in and quincy jones was producing and i was engineering and quincy says that guy is out of here so i'm not a small guy i used to play football i'm not afraid of anybody quincy and i escorted michael's father out of the studio and told him don't ever come back here what was michael's reaction to his father coming in fear and that fear was evidently from his childhood there's one song have you seen my childhood that is just unbelievable here's another little thing about michael i think you should know and the lit and the our listeners our viewers or whatever we did one song michael was always accused by you only the people that say to them you only record your own music so you can get all the money that's not true one of the most beautiful songs that we ever did was written by charlie chaplin smile you want to have a good cry listen to smile why did he choose to record that he loved it you know what he told me he said bruce this is my favorite song i don't know if that was merely he was saying at this moment this is my favorite song but he told me that he said bruce this is my favorite song charlie chaplin's smile and listen to that recording he sings the dog doing a lot of that clear if he's looking down on us from heaven what do you think what do you think he feels about his legacy boy i hope he's happy because he deserves it and his his legacy i think is all this incredible music that he left did he leave people with what he wanted to leave them with do you think i don't know i can't answer that that's a that's a rough one did he accomplish everything he wanted to accomplish no no what was that absolutely left for him more of the same if he wanted to do anything it would be more high quality american popular music michael's so passionate about that and you know why no michael couldn't curse if something bothered him or if something was really great or something although i think i did hear him use a couple of bad words later on but smelly was what his nickname was and the guy that gave him that nickname was quincy well i'm sorry so go ahead and tell me about a typical typical session with michael typical session with michael is we come in at uh noon say and [Music] michael would spend the first hour vocalizing he had a vocal coach seth riggs that worked with him every day every session that we did michael would warm up and vocalize at least an hour how was he with collaborating with other big stars just great silly and he'd love to play jokes and tricks and you know michael was uh such a kind kind soul with anybody ever you know you work with all these other big stars when they came in and saw him was anybody any other big star kind of intimidated by michael or star struck by him no because i'd only in a couple instances did i bring other artists in to watch someone record and that was a album i was doing with oscar peterson the pianist and i brought a friend in and he was just absolutely over the moon about being in the room with oscar peterson but uh michael no he michael was so passionate about quality and is and because of that how long would a session last with him till it was done which would be i mean how long would you be in a studio with him what do you think of the longest is that you worked on uh with michael probably 12 hours straight straight that gives you an idea of how strong i still don't know what happened with this i'm not going to get into it at this point but with the why michael died i don't understand because he was strong what was the most difficult piece to produce with him was there one they were all easy they were every bloody one of them was easy michael was like i said but when you come in with an artist who's been up all night learning the lyric give me a break he's he was so totally prepared and that this is so little known about him i hope that this we get a bunch of viewers and the one thing i would like to leave about michael quality passion and that's about it and the best music possible there we are that's michael michael had just been doing a photo shoot as a charlie chaplin character and he came to the studio still in his charlie chaplin outfit and he and i and quincy did these photos i've worked with michael since 1977 done the whiz the movie with him and off the wall thriller bad dangerous invincible then all those albums okay this is a an award for the album bad and every flag here and every platinum record represents a country where the bad album was platinum and thriller the girl is mine with paul mccartney this is uh two times platinum one times gold and a gold single probably all the recordings the that i did with michael that are memorable could be lumped into the experience doing thriller this is a little piece of artwork that michael did here's a song that we were doing called much too soon and michael he's writes this note to me bruce mix number nine of much too soon is what great great yeah love michael he always signs his notes great to talk about michael he was the ultimate musician you

Channel: Russell Baird

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Id: kctyYGSzlO4

Length: 20min 33sec (1233 seconds)

Published: Sun May 22 2022