![](https://doyouremember.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/quincy-702x369.jpg)
Quincy Jones turns 85 years old in March and is planning a banner year to mark the occasion. Coming down the pipeline, he says, are a Netflix documentary, an Oprah Winfrey-hosted CBS special, and possibly a TV biopic. Ahead of those projects, the music industry legend is currently hitting the interview circuit. Hard. Recently, heโs participated in long, incredibly candid conversations with GQ and Vulture. Jones does not hold back: Among the topics discussed are the Beatles (โthey were the worst musicians in the worldโ), Elvis Presley (โmotherbleeping couldnโt singโ), Prince trying to run over Michael Jackson with a limousine, the time MJโs pet chimpanzee Bubbles bit Jonesโ daughter Rashida, and plenty more. Below, check out 10 choice excerpts from the interviews. – Pitchfork.com
On Marilyn Monroe (GQ)
โFrank [Sinatra] was always trying to hook me up with Marilyn Monroe, but Marilyn Monroe had a chest that looked like pears, man.โ
On Elvis Presley (GQ)
โI was with Tommy Dorsey when [Elvis] Presley showed up at 17 years old…. And Dorsey said, โbleep himโI wonโt play with him.โ He wouldnโt let his band play with him.โ
GQ: Did you think Dorsey was right?
โYeah! Yeah, motherbleeping couldnโt sing.โ
On Malcolm X (GQ)
โEvery time weโd [Lionel Hampton and his band] go to Detroit, at the Majestic hotel, standing in front, with his Italian shit on and amber glasses: Malcolm X. Detroit Red. Thatโs where we bought our dope. It was before he went to prison.โ
GQ: Youโd buy off him?
โYeah! He was the dope dealer. Thatโs how he went to prison.โ
GQ: So you would personally buy drugs off Malcolm X?
โPersonally?โ He nods. โShit, everybody in the band bought it! The junkies used to call cocaine โgirlโ and heroin โboy.โ Thatโs because they said cocaine would take you from your woman.โ
On that time Prince tried to run over Michael Jackson with a limousine (GQ)
GQ: โDid you ever see that thing with James Brown?โ
Oh yeah.
[GQ writes:] Jones is referring to the legendary eveningโAugust 20, 1983โwhen both Michael Jackson and Prince attended a James Brown show at the Beverly Theater in Los Angeles.
โThatโs heavy. He made a damn fool out of himself, didnโt he?โ says Jones, and the star he is referring to is Prince. Jackson had film of what happened that night. โPrince told Michael heโd kill him if he showed it to anybody,โ Jones explains, but one way or another, time-coded raw footage of what took place that night eventually surfaced. First Brown invites Jackson to the stage. Jackson sings a few phrases, spins, moonwalks, then embraces Brown and can be seen whispering to him. Brown then calls for Prince. After a delay, Prince gets onstage, takes a guitar, jams a little, then strips off his shirt. He does some mic-stand tomfoolery, dances a little more, then nearly tumbles into the audience trying to pull down an oversize streetlamp prop. It was a superstar face-off that has often been seen as a triumph for Michael Jackson, and a rare humiliation for Prince.
GQ: He spoke to Michael after the show?
โOh yeah, he spoke to him. He waited in the limousine to try and run over him and La Toya and his mother.โ
GQ: How do you know Prince was trying to run him over?
โHe knew. Michael knows shit. He was there. He said that was his intention.โ
GQ: Michael told you that?
โYeah.โ
On that time Michael Jacksonโs chimpanzee Bubbles bit Rashida Jones (GQ)
โAnd the chimpanzee, whatever the bleep it was, he was a pain in the ass. He bit Rashida. My poor baby.โ
On Michael Jackson stealing music (Vulture)
You worked with Michael Jackson more than anyone he wasnโt related to. Whatโs something people donโt understand about him?
โI hate to get into this publicly, but Michael stole a lot of stuff. He stole a lot of songs. [Donna Summerโs] โState of Independenceโ and โBillie Jean.โ The notes donโt lie, man. He was as Machiavellian as they come.โ
Vulture: How so?
โGreedy, man. Greedy. โDonโt Stop โTil You Get Enoughโโ[keyboardist] Greg Phillinganes wrote the C section [2]. Michael shouldโve given him 10 percent of the song. Wouldnโt do it.โ
On the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Vulture)
Vulture: You sure seem to know a lot.
โI know too much, man.โ
Vulture: Whatโs something you wish you didnโt know?
โWho killed Kennedy.โ
Vulture: Who did it?
โ[Chicago mobster Sam] Giancana. The connection was there between Sinatra and the Mafia and Kennedy. Joe Kennedyโhe was a bad manโhe came to Frank to have him talk to Giancana about getting votes.โ
Vulture: Iโve heard this theory before, that the mob helped win Illinois for Kennedy in 1960.
โWe shouldnโt talk about this publicly.โ
On the Beatles (Vulture)
Vulture: Whatโd you think when you first heard rock music?
โRock ainโt nothing but a white version of rhythm and blues, motherbleeping. You know, I met Paul McCartney when he was 21.โ
Vulture: What were your first impressions of the Beatles?
โThat they were the worst musicians in the world. They were no-playing motherbleeping. Paul was the worst bass player I ever heard. And Ringo? Donโt even talk about it. I remember once we were in the studio with George Martin, and Ringo had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldnโt get it. We said, โMate, why donโt you get some lager and lime, some shepherdโs pie, and take an hour-and-a-half and relax a little bit.โ So he did, and we called Ronnie Verrell, a jazz drummer. Ronnie came in for 15 minutes and tore it up. Ringo comes back and says, โGeorge, can you play it back for me one more time?โ So George did, and Ringo says, โThat didnโt sound so bad.โ And I said, โYeah, motherbleeping because it ainโt you.โ Great guy, though.โ
On Ivanka Trump (Vulture)
Vulture: Whatโs stirred everything up? Is it all about Trumpism?
โItโs Trump and uneducated rednecks. Trump is just telling them what they want to hear. I used to hang out with him. Heโs a crazy motherbleeping. Limited mentallyโa megalomaniac, narcissistic. I canโt stand him. I used to date Ivanka, you know.โ
Vulture: Wait, really?
โYes, sir. Twelve years ago. Tommy Hilfiger, who was working with my daughter Kidada, said, โIvanka wants to have dinner with you.โ I said, โNo problem. Sheโs a fine motherbleeping.โ She had the most beautiful legs I ever saw in my life. Wrong father, though.โ
[If Jones is correct, 12 years ago, he would have been 72 years old. Ivanka would have been 24.]