Photo Credit: Zoran Veselinovic / CC by 2.0
‘Michael Jackson: In the Studio’ chronicles Jackson’s recording process across multiple decades, featuring interviews with legendary producers Teddy Riley, Rodney Jerkins, Bill Bottrell, and J-Roc Harmon.
Fans of the King of Pop will get an up-close look at his recording process this spring in Michael Jackson: In the Studio. The book takes readers from his childhood Motown days with The Jackson 5 through the making of his legendary solo albums: Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, HIStory, Invincible, and his posthumous LP Xscape.
Featuring exclusive interviews with many of Jackson’s key creative collaborators, including Teddy Riley, Rodney Jerkins, Bill Bottrell, Timbaland co-producer Jerome “J-Roc” Harmon, and longtime Jackson session drummer John “J.R.” Robinson, the book also includes sourced commentary from Quincy Jones, Dallas Austin, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Stevens, Slash, Berry Gordy, and other Jackson collaborators.
Award-winning author Jake Brown’s 55th published book, the In the Studio series has been in publication worldwide for three decades. Featuring highlight titles co-written with Heart, late Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister, the Tupac Shakur Estate — and award-winning chronicles of the record-making process of Rick Rubin, Tori Amos, AC/DC, Tom Waits, Dr. Dre, and Iron Maiden — Brown’s series has been published in the US, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Canada, and many more.
“We’re excited to be partnering with Jake Brown to make Michael Jackson: In the Studio available to music history fans worldwide,” says Anne Fonteneau, Chief Sales Officer for Blackstone Publishing, the entity through which the book will be distributed in North America.
“The book has much to offer anyone with an interest in pop culture, and especially Jackson’s singular contributions to it musically.”
“Michael pulled me out of the room while I was working on the demo for ‘Remember the Time,’” says writer and producer Teddy Riley in an excerpt from the book. “I’d just finished working in the studio on 60 or 70 tracks for him to listen through. That was the 5th track I played for him, and he loved ‘Remember the Time’ from the first time he heard it.”
“It was important to give him something that would shock the world, where people just have no choice where it’s undeniable,” Riley continues. “With ‘Remember the Time’ and the hard drums, he just wanted stuff that would hurt you on the dance floor. That’s what he would always say, ‘I need you to hurt me with this record. The mix, I need it to hurt me; I need to be laying on the floor from the kick drum, banging the room out!’ That’s the one thing about Michael; he loved his music so loud that the engineer Bruce Swedien and I had to leave the room sometimes!”