Guitarist Eddie Van Halen played a crucial role in Michael Jackson’s hit song, “Beat it” from his album, Thriller. The guitarist was taken by surprise when Thriller came out in 1982 and his name was nowhere to be found. Eddie wasn’t even the original guitarist who was asked to play on the song.
Pete Townshend Originally Asked to Play on “Beat It”
The Who’s guitarist Pete Townshend claims that he was originally asked to play on the song “Beat It”, but was unavailable and instead recommended his friend Eddie Van Halen.
He told Rolling Stone, “I was once asked by Michael Jackson to play electric guitar on the Thriller album. I said I couldn’t do it but recommended Eddie who called and we chatted. He was utterly charming, happy about the connection, but he told me how much he was enjoying playing keyboards. His smile was just classic. A man in his rightful place, so happy to be doing what he did.”
Eddie Van Halen was personally called by Thriller’s producer, Quincy Jones to help out with the song. Eddie admitted in a 2012 interview with CNN that he didn’t know a person named Quincy and thought the phone call was a practical joke.
“I went off on him. I went, ‘What do you want, you f-ing so-and-so,’ And he goes, ‘Is this Eddie?’ I said, ‘Yeah, what the hell do you want?’ ‘This is Quincy.’ I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t know anyone named Quincy.’ He goes, ‘Quincy Jones, man.’ I went, ‘Ohhh, sorry!’”
Eddie Van Halen Agrees to Play on the Track Despite Reservations
Eddie agreed to do the track but was skeptical about how much he had in common with Michael Jackson considering they played different styles of music. In reality, Jackson had written “Beat It” to be a rock song, thanks to Toto guitarist Steve Lukather who also played on the track.
Van Halen had a break in their working schedule and according to Eddie, he did the session for free. It only took about 20 minutes and his part amounted to about 20 to 30 seconds of guitar soloing on the track.
Quincy Jones wanted the guitarist to improvise, recalling in a BBC documentary, “I’m not gonna sit here and try to tell you what to play. The reason you are here is because of what you do play.”
Eddie played the solo and according to engineers in the studio, it was during that session that one of the speakers caught on fire. One of the engineers in the room exclaimed, “This must be really good.”
Right before Eddie’s guitar solo begins, a noise can be heard on the track that sounds like someone knocking at the door. It was Michael Jackson knocking on a drum case, as credited in the album’s liner notes.
Eddie Rearranges the Entire Song
Eddie told CNN he listened back to the track and re-arranged the entire song while Jackson was out of the studio but the pop star had no issue with the new arrangement.
“…I actually rearranged the song. The section they wanted me to solo over was just you know there’s no chord changes underneath it so I had them re-arrange the song and then Michael came in and I said oh I hope you don’t mind, I changed your song and he listens and he goes, ‘No, I really like that high, fast stuff you do,’ and that was it.”
Eddie also claimed in the same interview that Jackson’s band was very insular and that they rarely asked for outside help from musicians on records. Eddie was not credited on the album, he didn’t get paid and he wasn’t even in the music video, but he did make several live appearances with Jackson.
Eddie told Piers Morgan in 2012 that he was naive about the album and whether anybody would hear it saying, “Who’s gonna know if I play on this black kid’s record?” Eddie was probably right to be a little naive considering this was 1982 and MTV wasn’t playing a lot of black artists.
Following the release of Thriller, Eddie recalled being at Tower Records and hearing the song played in the store and how some people were critical of his guitar playing on the track, claiming, “The solo comes on, and I hear these kids in front of me going, ‘Listen to this guy trying to sound like Eddie Van Halen.’ I tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘That is me!”
“Beat It” was released as the third single from Thriller on Feb. 14, 1983, following singles, “The Girl is Mine” and “Billie Jean”. It soon became a number 1 hit for 3 consecutive weeks and would go on to become one of the best selling singles of all time, while Thriller the album would go on to become one of the most successful albums of all time.
“I have a lot of respect for Michael, he’s going to be sorely missed…” – Eddie Van Halen
Following Jackson’s death in 2009, the guitarist paid tribute to the King of Pop, putting out a statement via the Van Halen News Desk. “I have a lot of respect for Michael, he’s going to be sorely missed. I’d be curious as to what he’d be doing right now.”
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Why do many people especially critics not appreciate the use your illusions album’s especially since they are actually quite out of this world if not outstanding considering there was so so much variety on both those albums. Don’t get me wrong Appetite is yet my favourite though 🤘🤘