Why Quincy Jones stopped going to funerals

Quincy Jones has had to say a lot of goodbyes, said Johnny Davis in the London Guardian. The famed music producer, 77, has outlived many of his friends and colleagues, who are dying off at a depressing rate. “I’ve lost 174 people in four years,” says Jones. “[Most recently] it was Abbey Lincoln. Before that Herman Leonard, Hank Jones, Lena Horne, Billy Preston.” The list goes on. “Half these people were younger than me.”

Nothing hurt as badly as losing Michael Jackson, who had collaborated with Jones on three of his biggest albums, including Thriller. “He died younger than me when I produced him.” Jackson and he remained close friends, but Jones says “there was no way to know” how dependent on drugs the King of Pop had become. “There’s no way anybody could be blamed for what happened. Artists of that stature—they can do whatever they want.” He couldn’t bear to attend Jackson’s funeral, and has lately stopped going to funerals altogether. “Who needs them?” he says.

Acutely aware of his own mortality, Jones thinks often of the advice Frank Sinatra gave him long ago. “Frank said to me, ‘Q, live each day like it’s your last. And one day you’ll be right.’”

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