Eddie Van Halen was credited as one of the musicians who worked on Michael Jackson's hit song "Beat It" in 1983, but he did something that broke a rule on his band; what happened?
According to Guitar.com, the song was released under the pop legend's album "Thriller" in 1982 and it became one of the best-selling records of all time.
Aside from Van Halen, other collaborators for the album included Steve Lukather of Toto, Jeff Porcaro, and David Paich.
Lukather was assigned to handle the guitar parts of the songs included in the LP, but Jones insisted that there should be another artist for the "Beat It" solo part in order to get the climax factor.
How Eddie Van Halen Became a Part of 'Beat It'
Paich spoke in an interview with the "Broken Record" podcast where he detailed how Eddie Van Halen became a part of the process and how his guitar part ended up on the song.
"Then they said they were trying to get Ed Van Halen, which was Luke's friend. Luke's like, 'Right on,'" he said. (via Ultimate Classic Rock)
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When Jones was able to reach Van Halen via call, he didn't believe him at first so he initially dropped the phone call.
Later on, he came to his senses and realized that it was indeed legitimate and agreed to play the guitar, but doing so made him break a major rule from his Van Halen band.
Eddie Van Halen Broke a Rule to Play the Guitar for Michael Jackson's Song
Although he agreed, he was initially hesitant to play the instrumental part because of a certain rule that Van Halen imposed on its members.
"Ed didn't want to do it at first because Van Halen had a no-session-band rule... You can't play on other people's records," Paich added.
Regardless, the project became successful and "Beat It" is still regarded as one of the most recognizable songs of Michael Jackson that was beloved by fans from all over the world.
Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen were able to cross paths and they performed together on stage without rehearsals.
According to Yahoo!, Jackson and his brothers had a three-night concert at the Texas Stadium in Irving as part of their "Victory Tour" in the 1980s.
Coincidentally, Van Halen also had a concert at the Reunion Arena which was only a few minutes away from his venue.
They later took the stage together to perform even though they didn't have a soundcheck or rehearsal earlier that day.
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