Steve Stevens Recalls Getting a Glowing Compliment From Michael Jackson—Only To Find Out Jackson Told Eddie Van Halen the Same Thing

While known for performing alongside Billy Idol and even helping with the writing process, Steve Stevens offered his guitar skills to far more than Idol. Throughout his career in the spotlight, Stevens worked with Robert Palmer, Rick Ocasek, and even contributed to the theme of the film Top Gun. He even won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance thanks to Top Gun. But among his decades in the music industry, Stevens still remembers collaborating with Michael Jackson and the compliment he thought was just for him not Eddie Van Halen. 

With Jackson already a top name in the music industry, Stevens jumped at the chance to work with the icon when Quincy Jones called him. Wanting the guitarist to work on the album Bad, the musician was a little apprehensive at first. He told Guitar World, “With Billy it was always myself, Billy, a producer and an engineer. It was a very small group of people. When I flew to L.A. to do the Michael Jackson thing, I was thinking, ‘There’s going to be this huge entourage and all this crazy s**t.’” Thankfully, that wasn’t the outcome as Stevens found himself standing with Jackson, Jones, and only an engineer. “No big egos, no entourage, none of that stuff.”

Able to dive into the project with Jackson and Jones, Stevens eventually found the sound they were looking for. And after that, apparently, they let the guitarist just play. “What was cool is we got what they had in mind, the melody and the rhythm stuff – and then Quincy said, ‘You go in there and do what you want.’”

[RELATED: How Quincy Jones Saved Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” From Heavy Metal]

Michael Jackson Offered Steve Stevens And Eddie Van Halen Same Compliment

His time in the studio helped Jackson land another No. 1 hit with the song “Dirty Diana.” Thrilled about his contributions to the album, Stevens remembered Jackson complimenting him. “After I had done the solo … Michael says to me, ‘Hey, I really like the high notes. ’I go, ‘Okay, cool.’”

Getting a compliment from Jackson is sure to make any musician’s career, but Stevens soon learned the compliment was handed out before. “When I met Eddie, I said, ‘I just worked with Michael.’ He goes, ‘Hey, man, did he say he liked the high notes?’”

Not taking it personally, the memory of working with Jackson stuck with Stevens and the compliment became just another moment in the legacy that followed the King of Pop.

(Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)