Did Michael Get His Way?
In August 1982, Michael began work with Quincy Jones on a new album at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles. The album would be entitled
Thriller
with a budget of about $750,000 to produce, and nine songs carefully selected by Michael and Quincy from about three hundred. The sessions went well; Michael was satisfied with the work. However, once they played back the album – the ‘master pressing’, as the final mix was called – it didn't sound as good as Michael thought it should. In fact, to his ears, it sounded terrible. He was crushed. Never one to shy away from a good old-fashioned ‘scene’, Michael ran from the studio, sobbing.
To solve the problem, each song had to be remixed, bringing up the level of some orchestration and voices and toning down others. It was time-consuming, tedious work at the rate of two songs a week, but in the end it proved to be worth the effort. Quincy Jones along with one of Michael's managers, Ron Weisner, and his attorney, John Branca, sat with Michael in the Westlake Studio as he listened to a playback of the album. To Michael the music now sounded terrific. He was optimistic, bobbing his head to the rhythm and smiling broadly as each cut played.
‘Mike, you know, the record market is off right now,’ Ron Weisner told him as the title track, ‘Thriller’, blared from the speakers. He had to almost shout to be heard above it.
‘Yeah, Mike,’ Quincy agreed. ‘You can't expect to do with this one what you did with
Off the Wall.
’
‘These days, two million is a hot album,’ Ron added.
‘Yeah, it's a tough market. Nobody's having hits,’ Quincy said.
‘Turn it down,’ Michael shouted out at the engineer. ‘I said,
turn it down.
’ His smile was now gone. ‘What's the matter with you guys?’ he wanted to know. ‘How can you say that to me? You're wrong. You are dead wrong.’
‘But, Michael – ’ Quincy began.
‘Look, don't even talk to me,’ Michael said, turning away from Quincy. ‘I've had it with you, Quincy. Don't ever tell me anything like that again,’ he added, angrily. ‘What kind of attitude is
that
to have?’
John Branca sat in a corner and watched the scene. A wry smile touched his mouth; he'd been around Michael enough to know how this scene would climax.
‘Goodbye,’ Michael announced as he stormed out of the studio.
By the next day, Michael had worked himself into a fully fledged fury. He telephoned John Branca and told him how angry he had been at Ron and Quincy for predicting that
Thriller
would ‘only’ sell two million copies.
‘I know,’ John recalls saying. ‘Don't listen to those guys, Mike. You're the one who knows. They don't know.’
‘But Quincy should know,’ Michael said.
‘Well, maybe not this time,’ John told him. ‘You're the man. Call Walter [Yetnikoff] and he'll tell you the same thing.’
‘No, you call him,’ Michael said. ‘And tell him this. Tell him the record is
cancelled,
John. It's over. I ain't even submitting it to CBS.’
‘But Mike – ’
‘No, John. If Quincy and Ron don't have faith in it, then forget it,’ Michael said. ‘I'm not even going to let the album come out.
Thriller
is gonna be shelved for ever,’ he said. ‘I'd rather it go unheard than see it not get the attention it deserves.’
‘But, Mike – ’
‘Let me tell you something,’ Michael said, cutting him off. ‘There are winners in this life, Branca, and there are losers.’ Before John had a chance to respond, Michael hung up.
Ten minutes later, John telephoned Michael to tell him that he had passed on the message to Walter Yetnikoff and – no big surprise – Walter wanted to talk to Michael. He wanted Michael to call him. ‘What? No way,’ Michael said. ‘Tell him to call me.’
‘But, Mike – ’
‘Tell him to call me.’
Michael hung up.
Whereas most of the CBS artists were intimidated by Walter Yetnikoff, Michael was not at all cowed by him. After all, he'd dealt with Berry Gordy, one on one. Walter called, as instructed.
According to Walter's memory, when Michael told him what had occurred at the studio, he tried to calm him down. ‘What the hell do they know?’ he said of Quincy and Ron. ‘
You're
the superstar, not them. Jesus, Michael. We trust
you.
Not Quincy, all due respect to the guy. And certainly not one of your managers. You're the superstar.’
‘You think?’ Michael asked, coyly,
‘Absolutely.’
‘So you agree?’
‘Of course.’
‘Okay,’ Michael decided. ‘Then it can come out.’
Michael Jackson had created a melodrama surrounding the completion of
Thriller
, there was little doubt of that. Would he really have cancelled the release of the album simply because Quincy had predicted it would only sell two million copies? Perhaps. However, the more likely scenario is that Michael was just trying to, as they might have said in the Jackson family, ‘get his way’. The manner in which he handled the situation couldn't exactly be described as ‘artful’ or ‘strategic’. It was more like the dynamics of a family flare-up – one party has a tantrum, just as people in big families often do with one another… then pushes and pushes and pushes until he gets his way, and until he feels validated. Such tactics would work for Michael many times in the future. Obviously, there is no road map to success. Few entertainers ever reach a goal of stardom at all, and if one finds a way to go about it, he has to be given credit. It would seem that Michael Jackson had certainly found a way that worked for him.