Although Michael Jackson was too talented, few of his guitarists contributed greatly to his success. Michael Jackson died on 25 june 2009 but throughout his 51 years of life he worked both with famous as well as unknown guitarists, which is one of his most fascinating things that we can remember. In this article we will learn about seven amazing guitarists who were the pillars behind MJ’s journey to becoming The King of Pop.
The 7 Michael Jackson Guitarists Who Made Him The King of Pop:
David Williams
In 1979, Michael Jackson’s breakthrough album, “Off The Wall,” had many pro guitarists such as Phil Upchurch and Larry Carlton, but it was David Williams who made MJ’s music more groovy. He was the one to make music to sing and hit the dance floor with some excellent funky beats. David called his unique sound “secret spice.” As per him, one doesn’t require a whole lot it, yet the perfect sum takes care of business.
According to Bruce Swedien (engineer), the fascinating guitar piece for MJ’s song Billie Jean was played by David himself and recorded as a scratch at Jackson’s home music studio. Many attempts were made in the later stages to recreate the guitar track, but none of the results were anywhere near as good as Williams’ sctrach recording.
Eddie Van Halen
Before Michael Jackson’s song “Beat It”, he had never written any rock songs. But he just wrote this song with the thought that “there should be a rock song to exist that he himself would buy if he had to.” Thanks to Quincy Jones, who was the producer at the time, for hiring one of the greatest guitarists of the time, Eddie Van Halen, for the guitar solo on this iconic MJ song.
The story behind Jones’s hiring of Eddie is a little bit funny. For the very first time, when the producer called Eddie, he thought it was a prank call by someone. When the first phone rang, he heard a voice saying, “Hey, Eddie?” There was so much cracking in the phone sound, although he replied, “Yes, who’s this?” The call ended due to phone issues, and Eddie thought it was someone from his fans. Again, Jones called him, and this time the guitarist shouted at him, “As*hole,” and suddenly hung up after this. But the phone rang again for the third time, and this time Jones talked fast just to introduce himself, saying “Hey Eddie, it’s me, Quincy Jones.”
At the time when Eddie Van Halen arrived at the studio, guitarist Paul Jackson Jr. was already present. MJ complimented Eddie on his arrival, saying “I really love your fast playing stuff.” Paul then recorded the rhythmic parts of the song and Van Halen gave two solos to them and asked to pick whichever one they liked the most. Although Eddie received no money or royalties from this song but just an appreciation letter from the producer, with the signature “The As*hole,” Van Halen framed that letter.
Do you know that the ‘Thriller’ album by MJ is the biggest selling album in history?
Steve Stevens
Yet again in the wake of getting extraordinary accomplishment with ‘Beat It’, Michael Jackson and maker Quincy Jones began to search for a well known guitarist. Luckily, it was Steve Stevens who was exceptionally well known among the music lovers at that time, so they asked him to do the job this time. Steve Stevens recorded two guitar solos for MJ’s song “Dirty Diana”. Steve is the sole performer of the song’s mid and outro solos.
Jennifer Batten
Jennifer Batten never recorded any guitar stuff for Michael Jackson; she was only his go-to live guitarist during his 1988 to 1993 concerts. Jennifer appeared for the first time on MJ’s Bad Album Tour. During her first performance with Jackson, she played solos by both Eddi Van Halsen (Beat It) and Steve Stevens (Dirty Diana). With time, Batten became famous among the late singer’s fans. After her first show, she accompanied Michael on his Dangerous, HIStory tours and even performed at the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show.
After the legend died, Batten wrote on her site saying: “I feel lucky that I got the opportunity to work with MJ for almost 10 years, and I will have great respect for him till I die.”
Slash
So for Dangerous, Michael Jackson once again picked up the guitarist whom everybody was fond of at that time. It was none other than Slash. He played a burning solo in “Give In To Me” and even appeared in the song video.
Before this, there were rumours that Slash played the tune in the intro of “Black Or White,” but actually it was Bill Bottrell who played it. But later in 1995 , Slash was seen with Jackson performing “Black Or White” during the MTV Awards.
Carlos Santana
It would be 10 years before Jackson delivered one more studio collection, during which time he confronted some factual individual and legitimate issues. A lot was riding on 2001’s Invincible, and with an end goal to guarantee its prosperity, popular guitar legend Carlos Santana was asked to showcase his talents. Carlos Santana played fine acoustic guitar stuff and a brief yet in a flash unmistakable electric solo for MJ’s tune Whatever Occurs. Although this song was never released as a single.
Orianthi Panagaris
Orianthi was the female guitarist of Michael Jackson who rehearsed with him on the night he died. Orianthi’s meeting with MJ occurred after Jackson’s music director asked him to check out a very little-known Australian female guitarist who was seen with Carrie Underwood at the Grammy Awards in 2009.
The story of Orianthi with the guitar started in her younger days after she witnessed Carlos Santana, her idol, performing with MJ. She improved and practised so hard that in a very short time, she was playing with famous artists such as Steve Vai, ZZ Top, and Jeff Beck. Michael watched her auditions and selected her to join him.
In an interview, Orianthi shared her details of that audition, saying, “MJ asked her to play a guitar solo of ‘Beat It’ and in between, Jackson was moving up and down the stage. She played notes according to the pace he was moving at. ” This helped her to get entry into Michael’s team.
Orianthi was the last guitarist with whom MJ rehearsed before he died. The King of Pop died before Orianthi could play any concerts with him.
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