It was fun, man. This is a human being, man. When did you realize that she was troubled? So, who are the women who once held they key to the music industry icons heart? "You need anything?" His head fell off. "He sure did. So if you were producing a record for Taylor Swift, what would you have her do? "He said, 'I'll meet you at Sharon's, because I've got some stuff for your hair,' " Jones remembers. I ask him what moral he draws from this turn of events. "Yeah. He had brain surgery, after which he was told that he had a second aneurysm ready to blow. And four years later, Jerry Lee Lewis copies it (13), records it, and becomes a legend. "Fucking insane," he says. Jeri hit on me first. Shit. One day he felt a pain in his head, and then he collapsed. Jolie played in movie Panic in Echo Park (1977) and she has been married to Levine and had 2 sons Donovan and Sunny. What did he think of what Prince had done onstage that night? It was a terrible way to live, you know. 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!. Women give up pussy to get love, men give up love to get pussy.' I love every step. He was tough, man. It was shocking to me to learn that about him. He died in her arms pretty much" A conversation about Charlie Parker, Tupac, Michael Jackson, and Prince: When people think about Quincy Jones, what do you think they misunderstand about you? (10). Quincy Jones has been married three times, and has seven children with five different women. And then, I'm sure it was not planned, one of the slave owners was a Welshman. One of these was part of the National GuardJones lied and said that he was 18 so that he could join. I love him. That was a big motherfucker, man. "I don't blame her.". Kidada Jones was raised in Bel Air, where her home was often frequented by celebrities like Michael Jackson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. "I'll figure something out. Tommy guns and stogies, stacks of wine and liquor, big piles of money in back rooms, that's all I ever saw. "Oh yeah. Amazing process of producing those albums, man. Nothing you ever did was right. It's bullshit. That's heavy, isn't it? When we first went in, there was a little blonde lady there, standing up with no shoes on, in her underwear, and she had a bowl of feces and she says, 'You shall have no pie!' What a guy. Fucking South Side of Chicago, they don't play, man. Cairo. "Well, I wanted to do that since I was 15. I needed him to beg, and I went through the whole nine yards. 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. We'd go over to Maverick Flats in the ghetto. "Yeah, I don't lie. Dont you ever forget it., Click to Subscribe to Get Our Free HollywoodLife Daily Newsletter, Allison Holker Snuggles Up To Kids Maddox, 7, & Zaia, 3, Nearly 3 Months After Twitchs Tragic Death, Ariana Madix Hangs With Pal Kristen Doute Amid Tom Sandoval & Raquel Leviss Cheating Drama, Tom Sizemore Dead: Acclaimed Actor Dies At 61 After Brain Aneurysm, Ozzy & Sharon Osbournes Grandkids: Meet Their Grandchildren, Shoppers Say This Nicole Kidman-Approved Brands $4 Lip Balm Is the Best of the Best for Healing Cracked Lips, Did Vanderpump Rules Tom Cheated on Ariana With Raquel? Swift is far from the first white pop star to underwhelm him. 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. "He said, 'Man, did you hear about Jay?' Like, what's the most prominent instrument in the symphony orchestra? Eleven-inch dong. "They say coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. He had learned the trumpet, taught himself arranging, and played with every band he could. 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. I learned that 50 years ago.". This is his family crest from Sicily.". He either loved you with all of his heart or else he'd roll over your ass in a Mack truck in reverse. The record producer once spoke candidly about his love life during an interview. Because I've been around that shit all my life.". He'd smoked a joint so he got paranoid, you know, so he went back over to the guy and said, 'Look, I was a gentleman, man, I came and asked you first, man, right?' But your grandmother had several children with the same man, so whatever happened continued for a sustained period of time? ", "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Alex Haley was the writer of the book (and TV series) Roots; Jones and he were friends. He makes clear he is mainly talking about his daughters with Lipton, Kidada and Rashida, who are 43 and 41, respectively. No, because you couldn't trust her emotionally. They raped a black woman. And Richard Brooks said, 'Fuck you, he's doing the music.' At 18, he was readyor as ready as one could be: "The band bus with Lionel Hampton got 33 people on it. 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 . They remained friends until Sinatras death. Michael was scared to deathhe thought there was some voodoo in there. Some people would be judgmental about having lunch with someone who was so closely involved with the Nazi Party. My poor baby.". Because it wasn't by consent, you know. He won the Emmy for the soundtrack to Roots and the Tony for the revival of the musical The Color Purple. It's also a testament to his unique gift for not just knowing people but also sharing unforgettable moments with them. Her debut album, No Time No Space No Age No Race Thats Nifty!, was released in 1979. Oprah (6) had my Thriller (7) ribs on the show four times. Taking a post at the Adult Education Division at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles was a turning point for Talita, where she met a mentor who encouraged her to get her teaching credentials from UCLA in the mid-80s. I noticed that she stopped at the water fountain every day the dog squad is real good at noticing patterns. He laughs. Jolie Jones Levine's Husband Is A Producer. He laughs again. Still, I wonder if she regretted being in all of that. Do what you want to do, and nobody can tell you what to do. I was terrified. Jones wrote the soundtrack for Roots; Haley had investigated Joness genealogical background and was working with Jones on Joness autobiography before he died. The Real-Life Diet of Andrew Huberman, Who Switches to Red Party Lights After Dark, The 17 Best New Menswear Items to Buy This Week, Watch Khalid Meet Quincy Jones and Have an Epic Conversation, New Mitchell & Ness Creative Director Don C on the Power of the Throwback, Working With the Bulls, and Learning from Virgil Abloh, The Only Streaming Service You Need Right Now. Jackson at the time was looking for a producer, Jones recommended some producers but in the end asked Jackson if he could do it, Jackson said yes. Aforementioned, Quincy Jones ' daughter, Jolie Jones Levine, is an actress, musician, and activist. And in Paris to this day, you go to Chez L'Ami Louis, the waiter will come over to you with a pepper shaker and say, 'Here's your Rubirosa.' I ain't gonna lie. "I'm fighting that like a warrior. Them cats didn't play. But you can tell something's wrong. Peggy Lipton, an American actress, model, and singer known for appearing in Mission Impossible and Twin Peaks, was Quincys longest marriage, as they walked down the aisle in 1974 and divorced in1989. Sometime after Jones and I have finished watching his jazz prodigies, the Mac that has been set up in front of us goes to its default screen saver. Oh my God, they're fearless, man. Quincy Jones has run with them all. [1] His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award nominations, [2] 28 Grammys, [2] and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992. That's why I was always maniacal about transforming every problem into a puzzle which I can solve. His mouth is inside, but he just ate the parrot so he couldn't get out of the cage. Said: 'The name ain't "man," it's "Leroy." Tupac and Kidada subsequently dated. In the late 1960s, Jones nearly bought the house, but the owner at the time said he would only rent it, so Jones bought a house from the actress Janet Leigh on Deep Canyon Drive instead. "That's the higher power. Hell yeah. "Yeah. She has an older sister, Kidada Jones, and five half-siblings by her father's other relationships. He was a bad motherfucker, man. I finger all the time. Frank Sinatra. Photo Credits: CHRIS WALTER / WIRE IMAGE / GETTY IMAGES. Frank knew first and he called me up, and he was like a little kid: 'We got the first music on the moon, man!' But, you know, here's the bottom line: If the cover's fucked-up, if it's the wrong studio, wrong engineer, wrong background groups, wrong tempos for the songs, and all that stuffif that's fucked-up, it's all the producer's fault. I didn't need any more inspiration than that. Said 'Jones's kids.' They welcomed a daughter, Martina, and a son, Quincy III, during their union.. There is the career, of course: the jazz musician, the arranger, the record executive, the soundtrack composer, the solo artist, the producer of the biggest pop album in history, the entrepreneur, the media magnate, the film and TV producer, the philanthropistand on and on. And red beans and rice. So we called each other Leroy till the day he died.". Marlon always figured he had to pay. It's unbelievable, man." Can I ask how old the youngest one is, and the oldest one? "I'm writing a street operafor my album.". "Bezosthe richest motherfucker in the world now. Jones makes a face, somewhere between disapproval and disdain. That was my old lady, Marpessa Dawn. Quincy Jones in 1978 worked on music for the Wiz, this is where he met icon, Michael Jackson. (His grandmother had apparently once lived quite prosperously in South Charleston but sold all her property to send her children, including Quincy's father, to Rutgers. Sometimes the white girl BBC connection doesn't work. She's dead now. See your friend with his head off? Zodiac Sign: Libra. And you look all across the walls, his bones with his writing on them. Many people of Jones's age accept that their days may be coming to an end, and adapt accordingly. 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 says, 'Goddamn, I'm glad to see youI broke my foot.' While they were still married, Jones had a daughter, Kidada with Peggy Lipton. Ray Charles. Three or four estates they want us to take over. "Oh yeah, he spoke to him. Born in Chicago in 1933, the multifaceted artist rose through the ranks in the music industry after dropping out of Berklee College of Music in Boston and starting his touring career. Jones was drawn to gang life as a child. That's tough, man. His father, also called Quincy Jones, worked as a carpenter (8) for, as his son now puts it, "the most notorious gangsters on the planet, the Jones boys." So I would never press that. Richard was tough.". "I don't know. "Like somebody blew my brains out. He used to work for the roughest gang in the history of Chicago, the Jones boys - black gangsters. ", And then Jones started telling me what it was like to discuss music with Stravinsky.. (12) As another aside, he'll let slip that he saw Stevie Wonder last night: "Stevie and I are doing a lot of shit together." Isn't that sacrilegious, telling the Pope he has pimp shoes? That's fucked-up for 14. (26), "Yes! 25. For the past eight years, he has spent six days a year at an exclusive hospital in Stockholm"with 14 Nobel doctors, some of the smartest molly trotters on the planet"benefiting from the most cutting-edge medical technology. Buzz Aldrin took the song with him on a portable cassette. Jones composed the theme to Cosbys rst sitcom. Mavericks Flat was a Los Angeles dance club sometimes known as the Apollo of the West. Later he was told that he'd had a one-in-a-hundred chance of surviving. It's champagne-selling noise.". In 1974, the "Off The Wall" producer married actress Peggy Lipton, and they had two children. She was with him in Las Vegas when he died. (30). And it's the best thing that ever happened to me, because when I was in New York, I was hanging out with Howard McGhee and Earl Coleman and Charlie Parker and shitI would have been a junkie for life. No goddamn canes and no cups, nothing like thathis mother wouldnt let him do it. She voiced one of the characters in the adventure-fantasy film 'The Wiz.' Forgiveness is what it's all about. 7. Jeffrey Bezos." His mother was taken away when he was 7"to a mental home," he says, "for dementia praecox." Because they hung him up, man, and cut his nuts off and everythingJay Sebring. 26. 17. "Well, what do you say? Jackson sings a few phrases, spins, moonwalks, then embraces Brown and can be seen whispering to him. They welcomed a daughter, Martina, and a son, Quincy III, during their union. So did I hear that they've said to you that you could live until 120? We had lunch with him. Because heroin's a strange drug. You know, I came up with the two wildest motherfuckers on the planet. Miles (5) said the same thing, on a different occasion, at the Chateau Marmont. (27). And so he never has. ", "Yeah. But when your father was alive, you never asked him about his father? he says, taken aback. And an ice pick here. But as we get older, there are always some advances that pass us by. Even more interesting is the fact that the musician shares his kids with five different women. He wouldn't let his band play with him. "The funniest thing you ever saw in your life. And he took his trumpet with him. "Never. 10. he says. Michael went up there, in 40 seconds, sang I love you I love you. Photo Credits: FRANZ HUBMANN / IMAGNO / GETTY IMAGES. I met him in 51it was about 20 years later. Malcolm X. Elon Musk. And my daughter kicked his ass, boy. I'm in the center. "Hell yeah. When you heard that someone like Truman Capote had said something like that, what did you think? I don't need to, but every now and then I bring up a name myself: "Oh man, like my brother. That's how he paid his bills. So did Rubirosathe king of the playboys. So he begins. So he said, 'Oh, get [your son] some dance lessons.' They were good-looking guys, they had all the girls they wanted, and they showed you how to deal with it. Also in 1997, Rashida graduated from Harvard University. It's heavy. Some people consider her the great songwriter of our age. Jesus Christ. She has an older sister, Kidada Jones, and five half-siblings by her father's other relationships. Even setting aside the improbability of a man rising out of his background to achieve all that he has achieved, there have been at least three specific moments in Quincy Jones's life when it seems almost miraculous that fate allowed him to continue. Some people he knew moved into the other house. She didn't like that. Jones and Ray Charles rehearsing for a televised tribute to Duke Ellington, 1973. 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.' Frank could cook, man. He worries often that he'll say too much ("I always get in trouble, you know. It's as if this just happens to be the interesting world he occupies. And he went back into the other room and said, 'I didn't know Quincy Jones was a Negro.' And so, once he was strong enough, he had a second operation. He tells me he now speaks 26 languages. Plus, he has worked with some of the biggest names of all time, such as Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra. As Jones talks, a woman brings some food and puts it on the table. He got paranoidgot outside and ran 15 blocks, nobody after him. The boozers here and the junkies there. I love 'em so much. It was about her passion for her profession.". And we went out there to see her, Manteno State Hospital. Jones was born in Chicago, where his father worked as a carpenter for a local gang known as the Jones Boys. ", He shrugs amiably. He says that his teacher eventually told him, "I don't need another maniac out there," and gave Jones his money back. Oh Godman, this is not going too well. I've been traveling all my life, and I guarantee I travel more than any motherfucker on this planet.". He don't need no dance lessons.' L-E-R-O-motherfucking-Y.' I've come and gone through seven decades of this shit. ", We are interrupted by a man named Michael who earlier had welcomed me into the house. Use it or lose it.". My daughter Kidada calls me LL QJLoose Lips"), but it doesn't really seem to stem the flow. You could really have a conversation in 26 languages? Her father is African-American and her mother is Ashkenazi Jewish. I stay at his castle in Dublin, because Ireland and Scotland are so racist it's frightening. Was told not to marry actresses or singers. ", "Look where we've come," he says, raising his eyes to the ceiling. In my opinion, youre destroying it and shitting all over your people. "I was losing my hair.". Everybody in the car died except for me. Ray Charles, Frankthose guys could party. Big gangs on every street. Are you angry, or just baffled? The main artery to your brain explodes, you know.". Because they think that's all you like, but that's stupid, man. Brown then calls for Prince. Why? He said, 'Did you see that he's dead?' Quincy married Swedish model and actress Ulla Andersson one year after his divorce from Jeri was finalized. 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. I wanted to take it, because I knew Michael was gonna throw it away.". Prince appeared in the studio, right, back when you and Michael were recording 'Off the Wall'? '", "Just go down there and do it, man. He said, 'Okay, I'll get him acting lessons.' She is Jewish on her mother's side, and African-American on her father's side. She knows you've been out fucking around!'". And when you were in the middle of that craziness, what were you thinking? Would you ever say to Michael, "This stuff is strange"? Muscles"Jackson's boa constrictor"and Bubbles." "Yes sir. Everything. He said 'I'm goin'.' The first of these took place when he was 14 years old. No joke. Actress Rashida Jones is celebrating her 45th birthday. We'll be talking, and suddenly he mentions that on the other side of the room there are cards from Picasso's wife, Jacqueline. 13. Regardless of the paths that our lives took us on, I can say with the utmost certainty, that love is eternal. Jones mentions that he also has about a hundred tapes from the legendary film director Hal Ashby, who was trying to school Jones to become a director himself, because at the time Robert De Niro wanted Jones to co-direct a project he had, an interracial love story., "Everything. 6. All he does is stick his dick in white bitches and make fucked-up kids.". Joness son, Quincy Jones III, is also known as Snoopy. (4). Jones, who will release a memoir, shared his. This is fresh in his mind, in part because he knows whom he blames for this disappointment. Came to the hotel one day and there was an invitationshe wanted me to have lunch with her. [Bono]'s a great guy. That happened all the time. His friends did the same. "No, I wouldn't talk. Talk about what? Jones with three of his daughters, Kidada, Jolie, and Rashida, 1997. A bad song can't be saved by the three best singers in the world. "Muscles used to come and wrap around me, my leg, around the chair, and crawl across the console. "Very much, man. Cape Town. (He has six girls and one boy.) This is his normal schedule: Rise around four or five in the afternoon, and then ride through the night, his mind racing. The next morning his friend Bill Cosby (28) called from London. 20. I'm telling you. And then in the first proper meeting you had in Hollywood, the producer walked in, saw you, and walked out again? Let me show you that big one, because you cant notice the nasty on this right away. Man, the song is the shitthat's what people don't realize. I've been a fan of hers since Triumph of the Will. Quincy and Martina's mom were married between 1967 and 1974 when they got divorced. Quincy Jones, 89, has enjoyed a booming career as a top-tier music and film producer with more than 60 years in the business. I mean, when you're hungry. he asks at one point, then answers his own question. ", A further landmark in their uneasy rivalry came when Jones suggested to Jackson that Prince duet with him on the title track of his Bad album. " Jones acts out grabbing hold of Tupac from behind. I didn't listen to all the advice." And you assumed you'd become a gangster, too? The junkies used to call cocaine 'girl' and heroin 'boy.' My brother and I, we were 6 and 7 years old, we watched her taken away in a straitjacket. Catching this in the corner of his eye, Jones stops talking. ", "Little bit. ", 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. A switchblade in your hand nailed to a fence. ". He killed every motherfucker he could see.". Don't you ever forget they're 13 years smarter than we are. And it felt like there was some sense of liberation in that? Jones was then married to Ulla Andersson, with whom he shares a son, Quincy, and a daughter, Martina, from 1967 to 1974. Did you understand why he was such a big deal? That's the way it was back then. You get one take.' Well, I missed the trumpet.". Over the years, Jones's explanation for why he is the way he is, and for all he has done in his life, has very often narrowed down to one single circumstance: growing up without a mother. 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. Cigarettes. That's because they said cocaine would take you from your woman. Martina Jones is the daughter of Quincy Jones and former fashion model, actress, and singer Ulla Jones. Did you have any happy memories of your mother before things went wrong? I think back about thatthat's scary." And it's the best thing I ever did. "I'll write music," he says. "Yeah. She looked like Hedy Lamarr when she was young. Guys hanging off of telephone poles with ice picks in their necks, man. How'd you know? His idols are Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, James Brown, all of that. Don't you ever forget it.". He didn't realize the guy was a pimp. But they didn't use brothers. Chris Heath stays up late with the 84-year-old music legend who has a tale to go with every famous name. First Brown invites Jackson to the stage. It's incredible. I recorded, did the arrangement, and produced Big Maybelle in 1955 with a little song called "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." Quincy Jones with Michael Jackson at the 1984 Grammy Awards, . Jones first met Miles Davis when Jones was 18, and they later collaborated. "I wanted to be a gangster until I was 11 . ", "Knowing what you're doing. Meat is meat. says Jones, and the star he is referring to is Prince. ", "No, no, no. Because they used to live next door to us in Cannes in 1957. That ain't never gonna change. Come on, man. "The box had all kinds of stuffsome cuff links with Tootsie Rolls on them. How could you forgive someone who could say that? 1. Since I was a little kid, I've always heard the people that don't wanna do the work. See, I worked for pimps when I was 11, and they used to do that, toothey'd take cocaine because it raised the propensity for violence, from the primate brain. Michael knows shit. When you're 7 you can't tell the difference. Get to a place where you see the access is close to the shore, and just grab them by the tail. She was Goebbels's girlfriend." Because I had diabetes 2. Jones is the proud father of seven children, some have followed into the showbiz industry including actresses' daughters, Kidada and Rashida Jones. 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. In July he was awarded $9.42 million. Related: Is it true that you can cook the best lemon-meringue pie? Hollywood Life, Latest Hollywood Celebrity & Entertainment News. "All the guys in the Vatican had these Vatican black shoes," Jones recalls, but not the Pope. He nods. . But they wrong like a motherfucker, man. Jones also has several of Daviss libidinous paintings in his house. "No, because she never got involvedshe never got passionate about what the Third Reich was doing.