Having followed a link to an Independent article from another thread, my attention was caught by the arresting caption for another piece: "Quincy Jones shoots down Taylor Swift: 'We need f***ing songs, not hooks'". I followed that link because the sentiment certainly chimed with me, but crucially found it was but a minor excerpt from a huge new GQ interview with the man himself, aptly entitled 'Quincy Jones Has A Story About That'.
He bloody well does, too. As the heading puts it, "Frank Sinatra. Michael Jackson. Ray Charles. Malcolm X. Elon Musk. Truman Capote. Buzz Aldrin. Prince. Tupac. Even Leni Riefenstahl. Quincy Jones has run with them all."
From the rest of the article I could throw in more names of equal note: Marlon Brando. Nelson Mandela. Fats Domino. Steve McQueen. Charlie Parker. Marilyn Monroe. Pablo Picasso, for crying out loud. Igor Stravinsky, because why the fuck not.
Or, in numbers: he apparently speaks 26 languages, wakes up at 4 or 5 in the evening, has 22 girlfriends on the go, escaped certain death 3 times and had many more close shaves, was nailed to a fence aged 7 with a switchblade knife through his hand by Chicago gang members, and Ray Charles got him using heroin for 6 months aged 15.
Frankly, it had me at the following:
It's an astounding read, covering the entirety of a life so unbelievable you'd laugh in the face of anyone who attempted to present the same story as fiction. It might just be the inadequacy of my browser, or because I've got an adblocker running, but at the end of the article there's a subheading reading 'More Stories Like This One' and underneath it there's just a blank space. It couldn't be more appropriate.
https://www.gq.com/story/quincy-jones-has-a-story
He bloody well does, too. As the heading puts it, "Frank Sinatra. Michael Jackson. Ray Charles. Malcolm X. Elon Musk. Truman Capote. Buzz Aldrin. Prince. Tupac. Even Leni Riefenstahl. Quincy Jones has run with them all."
From the rest of the article I could throw in more names of equal note: Marlon Brando. Nelson Mandela. Fats Domino. Steve McQueen. Charlie Parker. Marilyn Monroe. Pablo Picasso, for crying out loud. Igor Stravinsky, because why the fuck not.
Or, in numbers: he apparently speaks 26 languages, wakes up at 4 or 5 in the evening, has 22 girlfriends on the go, escaped certain death 3 times and had many more close shaves, was nailed to a fence aged 7 with a switchblade knife through his hand by Chicago gang members, and Ray Charles got him using heroin for 6 months aged 15.
Frankly, it had me at the following:
Because each sentence from his mouth comes out sounding like a benediction, it takes a while to register that the word the 84-year-old Quincy Jones uses more than any other, as a term of both endearment and opprobrium, is motherfucker. In fact, he will say it in my presence 89 times.
https://www.gq.com/story/quincy-jones-has-a-story
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