What’s your take away of being in the studio with Michael?
Professionalism. For so many people Michael’s music means so much too. I understand that I got that because Michael is Michael. The entire experience for me was… YES, we created a tremendous amount of “great” music. But for me the true take away was all the lessons that I learned, working with Michael and all of the other great talented people associated with Michael that we got to share in the studio.
The maturing process of my life changed working with MIchael, Quincy, Bruce, Rod and all of those guys. I was able by observing what was going on, to really grasp so many lessons about not just the work, not just the attitude, not just the … what does it take you personally in terms of effort, in focus, in creativity to do this. There were all of those things, but there also were those other life lessons about family and how you conduct yourself, how to have that confidence, all of those things.
For someone who is a creative individual the relationship that you have with creativity is very deep, is very complicated, it’s very often totally consuming of your mind, of your body, of your life and all of those things combined just left me with the feeling, the overwhelming presence that I have of … I sometimes feel I am the luckiest guy of the world. That I got to not only to work with Michael, and know him, and how faccilitate his success that he did achieve. I was a small part, I was a part of the team, I was always in there working, I was trying to do my best, but following Michael’s lead because… , when…. it’s almost like being in the studio, that’s like the engine of everything. And the engine has a lot of moving parts and all those moving parts have to work together fluently. And you can draw in metaphores what part of the engine everybody is asuming but to me one of the things that was always in the engine, were always the fumes, the fumes of the gasoline. “But Michael was the sparkle”. Michael was ignating these fumes and that energy that was drived from that because to be in the studio with proffessionals, to see the dynamic of the collaborated effort, just taking shape and flowing and giving take. Michael had a phrase “the best way to learn is to observe the masters”. “Study the masters and become greater”. Because that’s what Michael did . Michael studied all of the masters, not only the creative arts, technology, business, industry. Michael did that, that was his life was about. Oh my gosh!! It’s amazing… Not just the music, not just the success, but the humanity. Michael surrounded himself with good people. Michael and the people who worked with him exhibited humility. We are all humble because we had prospective, eveybody in that work situation had a serious prospective about the world, where you are, what you do. Michael didn’t take himself seriosly, there was always this amazing, tremendous attitude in feeling. In retrostpect I have never had a studio experience that compared in terms of the heart and the soul, and the focus and the teamwork and the selflessness that everyone displayed. There was a huge reflexion on Michael because everytime Michael came in to the studio he was just like happy to see everybody and the spirit and the energy and we just set the tone. We are all so afortunate to have experienced it.
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