“Mine’s a piece of s—,” Smith recalls Jones saying.
Despite this being Quincy Effing Jones, the mastermind behindThrillerand countless other masterworks, Smith “hated it.”
So Smith turned to his longtime collaborator DJ Jazzy Jeff.
‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’.NBC
“I played it for him and he listened,” Smith recalled.
“He said, ‘That’s good.
Mine’s a piece of s—.'”
Quincy Jones and Will Smith on ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’.Ron Tom/NBCU Photo Bank
And I was like, ‘Give me 10 minutes.'"
“He pointed me toward the greatest parts of myself.
He checked me when he needed to.
He let me use his wings until mine were strong enough to fly.”
