Quincy Jones Remembers Micheal

Jeff Gordinier spoke with Quincy Jones about the death of his long time friend M.J.
On M.J. death: I can't process it, man. I don't know how to process it. It's just unbelievable—him leaving before me. I can't believe it.
On how he heard the news:Well, everybody in the world called me. I got 500 e-mails. I've never seen anything like it in my life. At first they said they'd taken him to the hospital, then they said he'd had a stroke or a heart attack—it just kept going back and forth and we didn't know what was really happening. And at first I thought he was just kind of freaked out by the coming concerts, because I was in London when they announced the 50 concerts and they sold out in four hours. . . We'd see each other all the time, and I just can't believe he's not
On rather he believed M.J. had a skin disease:I don't believe in any of that bullshit, no. No. Never. I've been around junkies and stuff all my life. I've heard every excuse. It's like smokers—"I only smoke when I drink" and all that stuff. But it's bullshit. You're justifying something that's destructive to your existence. It's crazy. I mean, I came up with Ray Charles, man. You know, nobody gonna pull no wool over my eyes. He did heroin 20 years! Come on. And black coffee and gin for 40 years. But when he called me to come over to see him when he was in the hospital on his way out, man, he had emphysema, hepatitis C, cirrhosis of the liver, and five malignant tumors. Please, man! I've been around this all my life. So it's hard for somebody to pull the wool over my eyes. But when somebody's hell-bent on it, you can't stop 'em.

Now THIS is the statement that really got me... "It's ridiculous, man! Chemical peels and all of it. And I don't understand it. But he obviously didn't want to be black".

OMG.. go check out this full interview at http://men.style.com/details/features/landing?id=content_9937