“The first emotion was abject fear. Pick your poison, Michael Jackson, or Quincy Jones”: Session guitar great Dann Huff recalls his first time recording with the King of Pop

(Image credit: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for CMT)

Session player extraordinaire Dann Huff has had his fair share of iconic sessions – it’s enough to mention that, in the ’80s alone, the six-stringer-turned-producer played on albums by George Benson, Whitney Houston, Barbra Streisand, Whitesnake, and Johnny Van Zant, to name a (very) mere few. And that’s without even mentioning his work with the King of Pop – aka Michael Jackson.

“That was a tracking session, too, which was the first time that I worked with him,” he tells Vertex Effects, in reference to his work on I Just Can’t Stop Loving You, Jackson’s duet with Siedah Garrett and his first release from the iconic Bad album.

“The first emotion, the first thought, was just abject fear. Pick your poison, Michael Jackson, or Quincy Jones, or [recording engineer, mixing engineer, and record producer to the stars] Bruce Swedien… I was old enough to know that I was in the deep waters.”

What It’s Like Recording With Michael Jackson – YouTube

Watch On
The other musicians in the troupe – which included Nathan East on bass, N’dugu Chancler on drums, and Paulinho da Costa on percussion – were also very high-profile in their own right, which made the session even more daunting. However, as Huff puts it, “It was the same as any other session – once you take that mystique and legendary status of all these people that were there.”

So what was Huff’s main goal when composing his guitar part for this particular track? Turns out, it was all about trying to stay out of the way… well, almost.

“You hear the song and the object is… not to stay out of the way, but to find small – you can call them hooks – compositions that compliment the song, [and] elevate the song,” he imparts.

“You find out what you can do with your instrument that’s going to contribute to that, and if you want to talk about the art of being a studio player, that is really what it’s about. It’s [why] you get hired. You have longevity because of the consistency of bringing those elements to a song.”

All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!

As Huff continues explaining, being a good session player is not necessarily about the “tone colors” or bringing “fast and flashy licks,” but about honing in on the compositions and finding “those little earworms.”

Michael Jackson – I Just Can’t Stop Loving You (Audio) – YouTube

Watch On
“Without it [the hook], it wouldn’t have the same bounce or same content,” he asserts. “So on the Michael Jackson session, what I was listening for were little openings that I could insert some of these things. I did a lot of that thing where you volume chords, [and] whammy them a little bit.”

Moreover, because of the “dense” synth sounds that were common during that period, Huff describes how the producer would also take direct guitar outputs with the same synth effects applied to them for added oomph. “It would put that little extra sheen on top, and [so, it was all about] finding little hooks that would compliment that,” he adds.

Huff had previously spoken to Vertex Effects about his string of high-profile sessions – including Michael Bolton’s meticulous approach in the studio and recording Shania Twain’s Man! I Feel Like A Woman! with Mutt Lange in ’97.

Janelle is a staff writer at GuitarWorld.com. After a long stint in classical music, Janelle discovered the joys of playing guitar in dingy venues at the age of 13 and has never looked back. Janelle has written extensively about the intersection of music and technology, and how this is shaping the future of the music industry. She also had the pleasure of interviewing Dream Wife, K.Flay, Yīn Yīn, and Black Honey, among others. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her creating layers of delicious audio lasagna with her art-rock/psych-punk band ĠENN.