Speaking with Guitar World, Billy Idol’s longtime guitarist Steve Stevens looked back on working with Michael Jackson on the singer’s 1988 single, “Dirty Diana”. The song is taken from Jackson’s fifth album, Bad, released in 1987.
Following is an excerpt from the interview:
Guitar World: How did Quincy Jones (producer) and Michael Jackson handle you as a guitar player?
Stevens: “Quincy was one of the absolute monolithic record producers in the world. With any great producer, the number one job is to put the musician at ease and get the best possible performance. There were a lot of jokes and it was just a really chill vibe.”
Guitar World: This was your proper session outside of Billy Idol, right?
Stevens: “I had never done a session outside of Billy Idol. With Billy, it was always myself, Billy, a producer, and an engineer. It was a very small group of people. When I flew to LA to do the Michael Jackson thing I was thinking, ‘There’s going to be this huge entourage, the fucking monkey is going to be there, and all this crazy shit!'”
Guitar World: What did you actually find?
Stevens: “I opened the studio door and it was exactly like doing an Idol session. It was Michael, Quincy and the engineer – no big egos, no entourage, none of that stuff. And what was cool is we got what they had in mind, the melody and the rhythm stuff, and then Quincy said, ‘You go in there and do what you want.'”
Guitar World: You weren’t given specific directions?
Stevens: “He said, ‘Without us directing you, what would you do?’ That’s what ended up being most of the solo for ‘Dirty Diana’, and the outro and all that.”
Read more via Guitar World here.
Billy Idol and Steve Stevens performed “Dancing With Myself” live from the secret balcony on the 103rd Floor of the Empire State Building to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the iconic Rebel Yell album. Watch the official video below: