"Michael had remarkably good hearing when I worked with him, all things considered, but he loved having his headphones painfully loud. If you have never worked in a recording studio, the reason singers and musicians use headphones is so they can hear the song, their voice, etc., but the microphone only hears their voice, or the instrument they are playing. It became a bit of a challenge for us, because Michael would crank his headphones louder and louder during a session, then he would call out, "Brad… my headphones don’t sound right… can I get another pair?" I would bring him another pair, only to discover he had blown the previous ones. Now, you can’t really tell Michael he needs to turn his headphones down, so the challenge was to find a set that would please his ears and be comfortable to wear, and be loud enough for his liking. 

We tried several models from AKG and Sennheiser, only to send them to the shop with smoke coming out of them after an MJ vocal session. Finally we discovered the solution: The Fostex T20. Michael tried them and reached for the volume control. Now, I like loud music, I really do – but the volume that Michael would listen to and sing along with on those T20’s was mindblowing! He loved them, and they became our must-have in every studio we worked in. 

So, if you want to listen to Michael’s music through the same headphones that he was listening to when he created it, skip the Beat’s By Dre and pick up a pair of Fostex T20’s. (They cost 1/3 as much!) You may not look like everyone else, but you’ll know the back-story – these were the headphones that Michael used). Michael always marched to his own drumbeat – shouldn’t you?” ~ Brad Sundberg

"I was dressed to go out one day when I got the idea to play a practical joke on him. I snuck into my father’s room and on a second phone line called my brother. In my best New York accent, I said, ‘’Hello, Michael?’’

‘’Yes?’’

‘’This is Sidney Lumet’s secretary.’’

‘’Oh, hi!’’ Michael, having admired the director since working with him on The Wiz, was thrilled.

‘’Mr. Lumet’s in town and would like to see you.’’

‘’Really?’’ I heard the phone drop and then Michael’s footsteps as he ran toward my room, shouting, ‘’La Toya! La Toya!’’

I hid the receiver under a pillow. ‘’I’m in here!’’

His head popped in the doorway. ‘’Guess who’s on the phone! Sidney Lumet’s secretary! And guess what?’’ Michael was so beside himself with excitement I almost fell out laughing right then. ‘’Sidney Lumet wants to see me!’’

‘’He does?’’

‘’Yes. I gotta go back. She’s waiting for me.’’ A few seconds later I heard a breathless ‘’Hello?’’

‘’Yes, Michael,’’ I said in the New York accent, ‘’Mr. Lumet would like to see you at your home. In fact, he’s not too far from there right now. May he come over?’’

‘’You’re kidding! Hold on!’’

Michael rushed back to Joseph’s room. ‘’La Toya, what are we gonna do? He’s on his way over now! I wanna see him but…’’ My brother surveyed the house, which was always immaculate. ‘’Clean the house!’’ he cried, then ran back and told the ‘’secretary’’ he’d be ready. I couldn’t resist laying it on thick. ‘’You know, Michael,’’ I said, ‘’Mr. Lumet really thinks you’re incredibly talented, and he always talks about what a wonderful job you did on The Wiz.’’

‘’Oh, that’s very nice. But I’ve got to go and get ready. Bye!’’

‘’Mother!’’ Michael shouted. ‘’Sidney Lumet’s on his way over! Sidney Lumet’s on his way over! Everybody hurry up! Close the garage! Clean the house!’’ He was barking orders like a staff sergeant.

Michael was frantic, pulling out clothes and asking, ‘’But what should I wear? How should I fix my hair?’’ I played along, even as he stood out by the gate waiting for his esteemed guest. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, I strolled out to the driveway and casually inquired, ‘’So, Mike, are you camping out here?’’

‘’I don’t understand, La Toya,’’ he replied distractedly, peering through the gate.

‘’Well, what did his secretary say to you?” I asked coyly, ‘’Did she tawk like this?’’

Michael spun around. ‘’Yeah…’’

‘’Did she say, ‘Mr. Lumet thinks yawr incredibly talented’?’’

‘’Yeah!’’ He thought for a moment. ‘’Wait a minute,’’ he said suspiciously, ‘’you were listening to my phone call!’’

‘’No I wasn’t, Mike,’’ I replied innocently.

‘’Yeah? Then how do you know what she said?’’

‘’Because it was me!’’

His jaw dropped. ‘’Now you’re going to get it!’’ I laughed so hard I didn’t realize he’d picked up the garden hose. My brother drenched my suede outfit, laughing vengefully, while I screamed for Mother to rescue me."

 

"When we went into the studio, the idea was that he was going to sing it first and then Janet would go in and sing after him. So Janet's sitting there, me and Terry are sitting there, and Michael goes in. Before he sings, he's just real calm and quiet, 'Can you turn my headphones up a little bit?' Then all of a sudden the music comes on and he starts dancing around the room, hitting all his signature moves. And he's like, wearing a breacelet or something while clapping – you're not really supposed to do that when you're on the mic, but it didn't even matter. When it was over, I swear to God, it was just silence in the room. He said, 'How was that?' We're like, 'Yeah, that sounded really good.' And I turned and looked at Janet and she said to me, 'I'll just do my vocal in Minneapolis.' It was like, 'I'm not going to do my vocal right now.' Obviously he just killed it, right?

 

So we go to Minneapolis with Janet, where she does a great job on her vocal. We send it to Michael, he goes, 'Wow, Janet sounds great. Where did she record that vocal?' I said it was in Minneapolis. 'I'm coming to Minneapolis.' So Michael comes to Minneapolis to re-record his vocal, and it was a real glimpse into his competitive nature. It didn't even matter that it was his sister. It was just like, 'No. I have to redo it. She did hers, I have to redo mine.' It was just crazy, his competitiveness even with his own sister. But it was that drive for perfection. And the original vocal he did in New York ended up being probably 90 percent of the vocal on the final song."

~ Jimmy Jam (om inspelningen av "Scream")

"I met Michael on the first day of rehearsal, and I was stunned – even though, obviously, I knew his image very well – at how incredibly sweet and how modest and how innocent he was. And fragile too. In person you felt he was almost breakable. But then this thing happened when he would start to work: your heart would beat faster, and the hair on your arms and the back of your neck would stick up as he literally took your breath away. It think he was the most electrifying performer I've ever seen" ~ Anjelica Huston (om första mötet på inspelningen av Captain EO)