Quincy Jones, perhaps best known for co-producing Michael Jackson’s best-selling albums, may have four Broadway plays, six albums, 10 movies, and 28 Grammys under his belt (plus a documentary on the way), but he’s got even more to say about his legendary life. He’s followed up a notableGQ profile with a Vultureinterview full of gossip about high-profile figures like Donald and Ivanka Trump, the state of music today, and even Michael Jackson.
The 84-year-old, who throughout the interview makes it clear he has many friends in very high places, spoke a little about the state of the world today, saying, “We’re at the worst we’ve ever been, but that’s why we’re seeing people try and fix it.” He spotlighted sexism and racism as two issues at stake in the world today (and called Weinstein a bully.) But who’s to blame? According to Jones, “Trump and uneducated rednecks.”
“Trump is just telling them what they want to hear,” Jones said, before saying something we all know and something no one knew. “I used to hang out with him. He’s a crazy motherfucker. Limited mentally—a megalomaniac, narcissistic. I can’t stand him. I used to date Ivanka, you know.”
Wait. Back up. Ivanka? His explanation really needs to be read in full:
“Twelve years ago. Tommy Hilfiger, who was working with my daughter Kidada, said, ‘Ivanka wants to have dinner with you.’ I said, ‘No problem. She’s a fine motherfucker.’ She had the most beautiful legs I ever saw in my life. Wrong father, though.”
Now for perhaps something a little less controversial: Jones’s thoughts on the state of music today. Spoiler alert: everything’s gone to shit. Jones says U2 isn’t making good music anymore (despite the fact that Bono is his “brother”), the spirit of jazz has disappeared from pop music today because “people gave it up to chase money,” and that modern pop music is “just loops, beats, rhymes, and hooks.” In addition, Jones said rap is “the same phrase over and over and over again” and suggested rap music doesn’t provide “ear candy.”
Now, with that said, he did single out a few contemporary artists who he feels are doing good work today, and, to be honest, the list isn’t super surprising. He singles out Kendrick Lamar and Chance the Rapper, saying they are “grounded.” He also shouts out Bruno Mars, Ed Sheehan, Sam Smith, and Mark Ronson, who “knows how to produce.”
To get back to gossip territory, Jones also claimed that Michael Jackson, whom he knew very well and worked with very closely, “stole a lot of stuff.” Namely: “State of Independence,” “Billie Jean,” “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough.” Jones also said he used to “kill” Jackson about the plastic surgery, but Jackson would “justify it and say it was because of some disease he had,” which Jones (perhaps surprisingly) claims was “bullshit.”
“[Jackson] has a problem with his looks because his father told him he was ugly and abused him,” Jones said. “What do you expect?”
All this juicy new information comes on the back of yet another wild Quincy Jones interview. Last week, GQ sat down with the three-time divorcée and the revelations were, well, staggering. Jones said he has 22 girlfriends all over the world—who all know about each other, by the way. These open-minded ladies range in age from 28 to 42; Jones also said he doesn’t care so much for women his own age, since “young women” these days are “fearless.”
