It was shocking to me to learn that about him. He said, 'Okay, I'll get him acting lessons.' My people were from Mississippi. But it's characteristic of his spirit that as he sits down he is already telling me about his present and his future: "I never been this busy in my life. It was unbelievable, man. Very much. "All the guys in the Vatican had these Vatican black shoes," Jones recalls, but not the Pope. He starts saying things in various languages I don't speak. She didn't want to know about that shit." She knows you've been out fucking around!'". ", "I was afraid to talk to him, really. "We used to go to Fort Lewis and Fort Lawton in the summertime," he says, "and you'd smell the racism. He says that his teacher eventually told him, "I don't need another maniac out there," and gave Jones his money back. "They say coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. The first of these took place when he was 14 years old. And it was not going well, that's for sure. It was a superstar face-off that has often been seen as a triumph for Michael Jackson, and a rare humiliation for Prince. She is also a dancer and photographer. Malcolm X. Elon Musk. Piccolo. He sighs, as if to acknowledge how surreal the contrast is between the scene here, in his grand hilltop mansion surrounded by all his reminders of a lifetime of success and high living, and the world he is describing. Brown then calls for Prince. Jones first met Michael Jackson when Jackson was 12 at a party at Sammy Davis Jr.s house. I learned that 50 years ago.". Jeri hit on me first. "Yeah. Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. So we go over there and he's got a kimono on and a ponytail. (When I ask to use the bathroom, Jones replies, I got 13when youre 84, you gotta take no chances.), "Good. He was tough, man. "We need more songs, man. Regardless of the paths that our lives took us on, I can say with the utmost certainty, that love is eternal. I didn't need any more inspiration than that. He's just a man. The actor also has two daughters from other relationships. It was a trumpet! And the only time he got blind was when the girls were around, and hed start walking into the walls and shit so theyd feel sorry for him and help him. (Jones adds that Stevie Wonder also uses this technique. 6. I ended up with two actresses, Peggy Lipton and Nastassja Kinski (9), and a superstar model. Lena, Belafonte, Fats Domino, they used to play the main theater for $17,000 a week, used to have to eat in the kitchen. Women are a trip, man.". And so he never has. I've been a fan of hers since Triumph of the Will. Jones was then married to Ulla Andersson, with whom he shares a son, Quincy, and a daughter, Martina, from 1967 to 1974. "I couldn't get away with it, man," he concedes. Mostly we talk about the past, naturally, and we get there soon enough. And he went up therehe was the only white dude in the whole place. She voiced one of the characters in the adventure-fantasy film 'The Wiz.' Actress Peggy Lipton started out as a model in New York in the 1960s. Do you like her? "I just couldn't do it," he says. The boozers here and the junkies there. My daughters have since taught me that guys think their rap is so strong that women cant resist but thats not it: A girl has a guy spotted a year before he even knows shes there!. That's the Ghetto Gump shit. Quincy and Martina's mom were married between 1967 and 1974 when they got divorced. "Oprah dramatizes everything. And then Daddy came out finally and hit 'em in a head with a hammer. When you heard that someone like Truman Capote had said something like that, what did you think? I said, 'Impossible, man, I was with him last night.' And its amazing women get it, man, he said. That's the story of America. Some days he was okay, but others he was all over the place. It's like a film director, man. And you look all across the walls, his bones with his writing on them. When you're 7 you can't tell the difference. Fry it, in a frying pan. Prince, all of them. And that's the most incredible meeting I've ever had in my life. We came almost in love with each other. But, say, Taylor Swift, I guess, is the biggest pop star on the planet in terms of sales right now and this week is about to sell over a million copies of her new album. ", "Little bit. And he paid attention, and that's what you're supposed to do. 11. '", "Just go down there and do it, man. I appreciate all of it. He had a brief affair with Carol Reynolds, which resulted in a daughter named Rachel. One day, as he blew, he felt a new pain in his head, and he was subsequently told that the clip had nearly come loose. Kidada Jones was raised in Bel Air, where her home was often frequented by celebrities like Michael Jackson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. That's how this story is usually told, anyway. You know what I mean? Don't you ever forget it.". I really don't. I guess you're supposed to be the one to slow it down. I've come and gone through seven decades of this shit. Some people he knew moved into the other house. As Jones talks, a woman brings some food and puts it on the table. But that was just a coincidence." So I would never press that. "With her notes on them in French. When she said that, it opened up a door for me. Did you ever see that thing with James Brown?". She was Goebbels's girlfriendhe was like the publicist for the Third Reich, you know. It was about her passion for her profession.". You were around in the era when the animals started appearing, weren't you? ", "No, no, no. Back then, they were ashamed of it, man. If there's anything I've learned in 84 years, it's that whatever you put out there, it will come back at you. She has an older sister, Kidada Jones, and five half-siblings by her father's other relationships. ", "With some greens. 1. They remained friends until Sinatras death. In 1972 Quincy Jones was the theme song composer for the hit-sitcom, Sanford And Son. Quincy Jones sued the Michael Jackson estate for underpaid royalties and other nancial irregularities. Didn't you plan to act in a movie together? Plenty of people talk as though Taylor Swift has great songs. "Whatever crumbles your cookie. Like the swagger that's part of their game, you know. You gotta make up a story she's gonna believe at 5:30 in the morning. . And we went and talked, and after that we hugged and made up. I came out of Birdland (21) when I was 18 years old Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Marlon. By the time she was 15 she had been kicked out of 11 schools, for acting up, due to not . Quincy was 19 years old when he married Jeri, but admitted she wasnt his first true love just the first love he married. It was rough and scary, and the only promising option that a young boy living within it could envision was becoming a gangster himself: "The '30s in Chicago, man. ", He pulls out a book published a few years ago filled with photos and memories from his life, and he tells me about the time Bono invited him to come along to the Vatican in 1999 to meet Pope John Paul. he says, taken aback. Every time we'd go to Detroit, at the Majestic hotel, standing in front, with his Italian shit on and amber glasses: Malcolm X. Detroit Red. That's the way the higher power works. When he died, I grabbed USA Today, and Bono said, 'Quincy said he had some lovely loafers on.' Thriller was the second of the three Michael Jackson albums Jones produced, after Off the Wall and before Bad. He tells me about all the celebrations planned for his 85th year: a Netflix documentary, a prospective ten-part TV biopic he hopes will star Donald Glover, a star-studded TV event on CBS that he tells me Oprah will host. "It was scary," he says. He waited in the limousine to try and run over him and La Toya and his mother.". Tupac's romance with Kidada, the daughter of Quincy Jones, loomed large during his final months and is an often overlooked aspect of his biography. I know those motherfuckers backwards.". The record producer once spoke candidly about his love life during an interview. Jones is referring to the legendary eveningAugust 20, 1983when both Michael Jackson and Prince attended a James Brown show at the Beverly Theater in Los Angeles. That's what you wanted to do so you could protect yourself. Since 1957, GQ has inspired men to look sharper and live smarter with its unparalleled coverage of style, culture, and beyond. He laughs. Quincy Jones with Michael Jackson at the 1984 Grammy Awards, . "And we sat down in the kitchen, and for six hoursa really heavy meeting." Nastassja was doing a film with Wim Wenders. Lemon knocks out hot sauce, garlic, onions, everything. Rashida, she was in Harvard then: 'Motherfucker, you wouldn't be where you are if they hadn't done what they did.'" Ain't never forget that. No goddamn canes and no cups, nothing like thathis mother wouldnt let him do it. They did whatever they wanted to do. ), "Oh, pleasehe went 30 years with heroin, and then the police told him he couldn't get his license to play clubs unless he stops. "Yeah. I don't give a shit." You really met Leni Riefenstahl? Jones and Lipton welcomed two children. Because you feel helpless. Tommy guns and stogies, stacks of wine and liquor, big piles of money in back rooms, that's all I ever saw. They want us to take over the estate now, my son and I. Even if, at home, he was facing new challenges: "My stepmother was like Precious. (10). Let me ask you about someone completely different. Riefenstahl was a German film director whose work has long been stained by her close association with the Nazi movement. I love to cook, man. You have to read between the lines, too.". The weed smokers behind them, that's us. Every fucking night it was like the girls coming through Neiman Marcus: 'Oh, I like trumpet players,' 'I like sax players,' 'I like guitar players' Rita Hayworth, all of them. In July he was awarded $9.42 million. Smelly was the name Jones used for Michael Jackson; he took it from Jacksons habit of saying smelly jelly instead of funky., "Well, we sat at a table that held 24 people, at his house, family table, I said, 'MichaelSmelly, (20) you sit over there so he doesn't feel like we're ganging up on him.' I didn't listen to all the advice." The next morning his friend Bill Cosby (28) called from London. This is his normal schedule: Rise around four or five in the afternoon, and then ride through the night, his mind racing. "Yeah, I don't lie. Nope. My mind's so clear now, you know. Got to challenge the brain. Meat is meat. "We don't have a cover, do we?" "Yeah, he showed up in the back of a car with a brother who was managing him, and he was like a deer in the headlights. But come on, man, ain't nothing new. ", "Yeah. "I think it had a lot to do with it. Benzedrine. Get to a place where you see the access is close to the shore, and just grab them by the tail. That's where we bought our dope. One of these was part of the National GuardJones lied and said that he was 18 so that he could join. "Because, you know, I don't knowit's etiquette. She was a bitch, man. Get out of here. "He knew. "That's the higher power. You ever see Black Orpheus? When Jones had a breakdown in the mid-1980s, Brando sent him to his private island in Tahiti to recalibrate and recover. She was amazing." How stupid can that be, when you're in South Africa and Cairo and Brazil and Chinalooking for a fucking blonde?". Michael went up there, in 40 seconds, sang I love you I love you. Hell yeah. Big gangs on every street. . I've been traveling all my life, and I guarantee I travel more than any motherfucker on this planet.". I wanted to take it, because I knew Michael was gonna throw it away.". He makes clear he is mainly talking about his daughters with Lipton, Kidada and Rashida, who are 43 and 41, respectively. Julie Taymor to directthat's my baby, biggest in history, Lion King. That's why I was always maniacal about transforming every problem into a puzzle which I can solve. Photo Credits: ALBANE NAVIZET/ KIPA /SYGMA /GETTY IMAGES; (Photo by John Dominis/ Time & Life Pictures/ Getty Images), (Photo by Lipnitzki/Roger Viollet/Getty Images). He also noted that his girlfriends are all aware of each other. And her first husband was black. "Very much, man. Buzz Aldrin. And it's amazingwomen get it, man. . It's a strong drug. "Oh, give me a fucking break, man, please. I can't. You think racism is bad now, you should try the '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s. The pair were. And that's what makes it important.' (Jones helped connect them.) Her father is African-American and her mother is Ashkenazi Jewish. "I don't give a fuck. Quincy has also enjoyed a bustling private life: Hes been married three times and has seven children between five women. Jones first met Miles Davis when Jones was 18, and they later collaborated. I needed him to beg, and I went through the whole nine yards. He begins talking about his life. And when I cook, I cook like an orchestrator. His final marriage was to actress Peggy Lipton. My daughter Kidada calls me LL QJLoose Lips"), but it doesn't really seem to stem the flow. And so, once he was strong enough, he had a second operation. No, because you couldn't trust her emotionally. Musicians who have played for, and know, say, Clinton or Obama may be ten a penny these days, but how many others can also say, for instance, that they playedat the age of 19 as a trumpet player with Lionel Hamptons big band (his first regular professional job)at Dwight Eisenhowers inaugural in 1953? I'm just starting. Got that charming smile. I saw all of it. (29). You know, that he made that kind of judgmental thing so quick. She's dead now. You know, we became good friends after that. He was trying to get the one that he could sell the most, and Ed Snowden was the big topic then. Every week we'd have two or three dinners with Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin and all those cats. So I stay in his castle.". Jones was drawn to gang life as a child. "Hell yeah. That's the way it works. "Will do," says Michael, clearly joking. Shanghai got a great girl over there from Shanghai, man. By 1964, he was named a vice president of Mercury Records, making him the first Black man to hold such a heavy position at a white-owned record company, per the American Academy of Achievement. She was Goebbels's girlfriend." Quincy Jones married Jeri Caldwell in 1957. Jones met Oprah Winfrey when he recommended her for a role in The Color Purple, a movie he produced and for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, after spotting her on local TV in Chicago. You could really have a conversation in 26 languages? Quincy Jones, in full Quincy Delight Jones, Jr., byname "Q", (born March 14, 1933, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), American musical performer, producer, arranger, and composer whose work encompasses virtually all forms of popular music. "But your dreams always have to be big. ", "Why not??? It was horrible.". "No, I wouldn't talk. It's champagne-selling noise.". "I'm writing a street operafor my album.". Reached up and pulled my friend, and his head fell off. But Jones didn't go. Vegas in '64 was fucked-up. Nia Long's Mother Taught Art as a Talented Creative. Everywhere. And then, I'm sure it was not planned, one of the slave owners was a Welshman. ", We are interrupted by a man named Michael who earlier had welcomed me into the house. Great guy, man. "Keeps dementia and Parkinson's away," he says. "He sure did. "What is there to think, man? Martina's Father Married His Third Wife Immediately After Divorcing Her Mom. I ain't gonna lie. Where the hell would you be if Black people like him hadnt paved the way for you to even have the opportunity to express yourself? Come on, man. ", "Yeah, he had a guy do it. I said, 'Leroy, he's a star breakdancer at 14 years old in Sweden, man. "I forgot about it," he says. Born and raised in The Bronx, Jolie Jones' husband, Stewart Levine, began his lifelong musical journey at the young age of . He came in and he had an overcoat on, and he had a big white box labeled camille. "I'm fighting that like a warrior. One day he felt a pain in his head, and then he collapsed. We had a good time, though. (30). PleaseI worked with everybody in the fucking world in music.". Buzz Aldrin took the song with him on a portable cassette. Traveling bands? Every day. Him playing alto, buck dancing around the pool. That's heavy, isn't it? Ray Charles, Frankthose guys could party. Swift is far from the first white pop star to underwhelm him. I'm in the center. One example was when you started doing film soundtracks. How old would you have been when you first saw a dead body? (14). "I was married three times, man. Jennifer Hudson.". I dont see you ghting for your race. (1) But these seem almost trivial and incidental alongside the actual life he's lived. Jones makes a face, somewhere between disapproval and disdain. Just get 'em. he asks. She said, 'We were doing a recruitment film for Hitlerthink I'm going to tell Hitler, "One more time, Adolf!"?' "So we invited [Prince] over to Michael's house at Hayvenhurst. Let me show you that big one, because you cant notice the nasty on this right away. "Fucking insane," he says. I said, 'Motherfucker, you don't have to pay me back.' Son: Thomas Oliver - 1849-1920 Janet Mercer Oliver - 1855-1943 Janet Grieve Oliver - 1879-1950 "I'll write music," he says. It's the one that has been available for over a decade, where the screen shows an ever-evolving swirl of lights, like a small rectangular window into the greatest aurora borealis ever seen. It sometimes seems as though it would be easier to go through the history of the past 70 years and try to isolate the most significant figures Quincy Jones never encountered. You're 7nothing's scary to you, man. So if you were producing a record for Taylor Swift, what would you have her do? 'He's upstairs playing that goddamn flute.' But if you're black, that's what you get used to in America.". The main artery to your brain explodes, you know.". And my daughter kicked his ass, boy. "I'm gonna send up some stuff. So, who are the women who once held they key to the music industry icons heart? Come on. "That's when he first met Kidada. Both of them were fantastic. ", And then Jones started telling me what it was like to discuss music with Stravinsky.. There's silence on the tape for a while. Everything. It's imperative. (17) He was hitting on herhe changed his mind now, you know? He died a playboys death in 1965 at the age of 56: After an all-nighter at a Paris nightclub in celebration of a polo victory, he drove his silver Ferrari into a horse chestnut tree. (26), "Yes! She is Quincy's first child and the only child he had with his first wife. "I was married three times, man. After I leaveit's shortly before midnightQuincy Jones will do some Sudoku. And an ice pick here. Couldn't go in the casino. Are they pretty confident you can get there? They're the owners.". ", That was how, one day, the five of them found themselves driving together in a car on their way to play at a rodeo in Yakima. Here's what you've got to understand: The interracial thing was part of a revolution, too, because back in the '40s and stuff, they would say, 'You can't mess with a white man's money. Don't mess with his women.' But the music legend dropped a bomb. ", You and Frank Sinatra had the first song played on the moon, didn't you? Just see what you can put up with, what you can't.". I met him in 51it was about 20 years later. A third time Quincy Jones's life might have come to a premature halt: Barely a few hundred yards away from where we sit tonight, on a nearby hillside, is a house with a troubled history. Whew. My daughter Kidada calls me LL QJLoose Lips"), but it doesn't really seem to stem the flow. I wanted just to have a comfortable life, man. Someone once compared his omnipresence to Forrest Gump's; Jones has heard this one, but he prefers a further twist on it: "the Ghetto Gump.". It's just something else. Yeah. Do what you want to do, and nobody can tell you what to do. Use it or lose it.". What would you and Marlon do when you got together? Every drop.". I wouldn't make it up. What did you think when you realized how close you'd been? And for a few moments, Quincy Jones seems completely, wondrously transfixed. I did a tour with Nat Cole in '61 with my bandwe couldn't stop the girls. I was going to do a film with him and Snoop Dogg, Pimp, [about] Iceberg Slim.". He says, 'Goddamn, I'm glad to see youI broke my foot.' Just trying to be a rapper, man. They wrong, man. Because we all used to hang out together. Sinatra, he went on, "wore that for 40 years. So [Marlon] says, 'You go on around the back of the house, turn the motor off on the car, and let it slide down the hill. Was told not to marry actresses or singers. ", "Did it hurt? And it felt like there was some sense of liberation in that? It's unbelievable, man." He nods. "Seven or 8 years old. Gorgeous lady, man.". He was a wild dude, man.". ", One of his most famous critics was the newly famous Tupac Shakur, who said in a 1993 interview with The Source, "Quincy Jones is disgusting. Ozzy & Sharon Osbournes Grandkids: Meet Their Grandchildren. Jones brought along his hairdresser, a man named Jay Sebring, and after the movie, they made plans for later that evening. Hollywood Life I didn't tell him. This is not generally understood to have ever been their relationshipin fact Riefenstahl often spoke of her dislike for Goebbelsthough in his diaries Goebbels did write of socializing with her in the early 1930s. The haters everywhere. Twelve languages, everything. "Muscles used to come and wrap around me, my leg, around the chair, and crawl across the console. The proud father, who's best known for producing the King Of Pop, Michael Jackson's seminal albums: Off The Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and . And smiles at memories that the rest of us can and should never know. We'll be talking, and suddenly he mentions that on the other side of the room there are cards from Picasso's wife, Jacqueline. Did you understand why he was such a big deal? ", 5. The most famous of the murders committed by the Manson family under Charles Mansons instructions, though this fact wouldnt become clear for some time. Cape Town. Even when it comes to politics, the range of Joness access and experience is hard to believe.
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