I jotted up a transcript for those interested
:
Steve Stevens: I was still living in New York, I had been out late the night before, and the phone rings. I thought it was a joke, "It's Quincy Jones". I'm like, "Yeah right" [laughs] and he goes, "No, don't hang up! This is really- I got your number from Ted Templeman."
"Oh, ok"
But the experience was great. There was no entourage, it was very similar to working with Billy Idol, where it's Billy, myself, and our producer Keith Forsey, and an engineer. And same with Michael. Walked into the studio, and it's Michael, Quincy, and his engineer Bruce [Swedien]. And it was very cool, man, it was low-key. They kind of just said this is the kind of melody we want and then, after that, do whatever the hell you want to do. So it wasn't very dissimilar to the way I was used to working.
Eddie Trunk: Did you do the whole [Bad album] or just [Dirty Diana]?
Stevens: No, just that tune.
Trunk: You were in the video for that too, right?
Stevens: I did, yeah, yeah. The coolest thing- [laughs] The funniest thing about the video was I pull up to the shoot, and there's a van outside, and I get out, and I kinda look at it, and it's got all these kids' toys, and jungle gym, and all this stuff set up. I go, "Wow, somebody's kid's got it made, he's got a whole playground out here. And it turns out, it's for Bubbles the chimp." [laughs]
Trunk: I remember the video was, like, white sheets blowing and stuff, right? It was kind of like, silhouettey?
Stevens: Yeah... The guy Joe Pytka, who was the director, had done all the Pepsi adverts and stuff like that. And I realized all the other- the rest of the guys, and the band there, were all kind of stand-ins and I'm looking at 'em going, "Man, they all have wigs on and shit" [laughs]
Trunk: Steve, you know as well as I do that, today, when you get a call- When you would get a call to put a track down for something, or put a solo on something, alot of times you never even get to meet the person you're working with, especially if it's a big artist. The producer just has you send them the file and they cut it in or whatever. So it is kind of cool that you actually worked with the guy, like when you were doing the solo. You worked with him in the studio, right?
Stevens: Yeah... with my first phone call with Quincy, I said, "Now Michael's gonna be there?"
I had exactly that situation. I got called to do a Diana Ross tune, that actually Michael had written [Ed. ("Eaten Alive")] This was in New York, and I walk in, and I- for me, I couldn't even fathom the idea of the artist, who's record you're working on, wouldn't be there. And that's what happened. And it kinda, like, I went, "Wow, this is weird", you know man? I was not into it. So I said, "Michael's gonna be there?" And Quincy said, "Yeah, of course he's gonna be there, it's his record". I said, "Yeah, you'd be surprised" [laughs]
So yeah, he was there right from the beginning, and really had great direction and everything. I think this was a time, I got the impression that Quincy really was like a father figure to him. I mean, the guy couldn't have been more normal, and more inquisitive. I mean, he wanted to know about staging and lighting. He was getting ready to do his first big arena tour, and he wanted it to be like a rock tour, not an R&B tour, so he was asking me about lighting companies, sound companies, and asking me if I knew Mötley Crüe [laughs]
Trunk: He must've known you from Billy Idol, I mean you were all over MTV, so he must've- was he aware of your work, and did he know Billy stuff?
Stevens: Oh yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I gotta tell you that, in between the takes, we started talking about stuff, and he did the most incredible David Lee Roth impression I've ever seen [laughs]
Trunk: Really?
Stevens: Yeah. It was incredible, he did the whole thing.
Trunk: You mean, singing? Or talking like him?
Stevens: No, no, doing the whole kind of "Look at all the people-" [Ed:
https://youtu.be/vkgX6Cu5dbQ?t=42s] You know, he had him down, man. It was- he had obviously been a fan. So, I was like, "This is surreal, Michael Jackson doing a David Lee Roth impression"[laughs]
Trunk: Wow, so he really had an awareness of rock music. He wasn't just in his bubble... he knew Billy Idol, he knew you from Billy Idol's work... it sounds like he definitely had some appreciation for rock.
Stevens: Yeah, well he loved the big spectacle of rock shows, which is something that R&B artists- I guess Michael now is not just considered R&B, but certainly coming from Jackson 5, and then his first solo record "Off the Wall" was- he was looking to bring his thing to a bigger level, and in a live kind of situation. And he knew that rock n' roll was- we were the ones who were really spearheading that... I guess he had already been friends with the guys in Queen and stuff, and seen Queen shows, and so he was looking to do things in a more rock kind of atmosphere, I guess.