{"id":319779,"date":"2025-11-29T02:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T02:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/319779\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T02:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T02:34:10","slug":"3-musicians-1-llama-and-the-star-studded-duet-on-michael-jacksons-thriller-that-never-made-it-onto-the-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/319779\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Musicians, 1 Llama, and the Star-Studded Duet on Michael Jackson\u2019s \u2018Thriller\u2019 That Never Made It Onto the Album"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of the rare breed of musicians that seem to have virtually no competition, existing in leagues entirely their own in terms of both talent and cultural influence, Michael Jackson<\/a> and Freddie Mercury<\/a> are certainly two of the most notable. Two powerhouse vocalists, two innovators in their respective genres, two men gone too soon: the parallels between the Queen frontman and former Jackson 5 w\u00fcnderkind are almost uncanny. And for a brief moment in the early 1980s, they were about to join their mutual starpower for a lightning bolt of a rock duet.<\/p>\n

Jackson planned on having Mercury sing on \u201cState of Shock\u201d, which the \u201cRock with You\u201d singer would then release on Thriller, his seminal 1983 album. These musicians\u2019 voices together must have made for an electric time in the studio, albeit with some oddities for which Mercury wasn\u2019t quite ready. During one eccentric session, Jackson brought a llama into the studio. According to Queen\u2019s then-manager, Jim \u2018Miami\u2019 Beach, Mercury called him and said<\/a>, \u201cMiami, dear, can you get over here? You have to get me out of here. I\u2019m recording with a llama.\u201d<\/p>\n

Llamas in the studio aside, the ultimate undoer of what would have been an incredible mash-up of pop power was time. (Isn\u2019t it always?) With Mercury working with Queen in M\u00fcnich and Jackson thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, they simply couldn\u2019t align their schedules. With Mercury\u2019s approval, Jackson started looking elsewhere for a suitable duet partner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What Mercury\u2019s replacement lacked in vocal range, he certainly made up for in bravado.<\/p>\n

The Rockstar Who Replaced Freddie Mercury on Michael Jackson\u2019s Duet<\/p>\n

Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury started working on \u201cState of Shock\u201d in the fall of 1981. Jackson\u2019s sixth studio album, Thriller, came out one year later in 1982. By the time Jackson found a replacement for Mercury\u2014Rolling Stones frontman, Mick Jagger\u2014the deadline to include the track on Thriller was passed. Instead, Jackson used the new version with Jagger on The Jacksons\u2019 15th album, Victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although Mercury didn\u2019t end up on the final version of \u201cState of Shock\u201d, there were no hard feelings about it. Still, Mercury knew that those choices meant the loss of an incredible opportunity. \u201cI think one of the tracks would have been on the Thriller album if I finished it, but I missed out,\u201d the Queen frontman later said, per Express<\/a>. \u201cI was initially gonna be on Thriller. Can you imagine that? I blew it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as the old adage goes, when one door closes, another opens, and Jagger was the man behind that second door. On the precipice of embarking on his own solo career, Jagger became \u201cobsessed\u201d with Jackson, according to Rolling Stones Records\u2019 then-president Arthur Collins<\/a>. \u201cHe wanted to know every detail about Jackson\u2019s life, his contract with Columbia, how the Thriller singles were selling, who was pulling the strings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As much as it was a learning experience for Jagger, it was also a full-circle moment for Jackson, who adopted many of his stage moves from The Stones\u2019 singer. Jackson admired that Mick \u201ccould wear lipstick, sashay around, and still be thought of as a macho rocker. Michael wanted to find out Mick\u2019s secret,\u201d Collins said. \u201cState of Shock\u201d was a Top 10 hit around the world, but in the end, what each musician learned from the other was infinitely more valuable.<\/p>\n

Photo by Kevin Mazur\/WireImage\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of the rare breed of musicians that seem to have virtually no competition, existing in leagues entirely their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,28154,27355,216,17172,2156],"class_list":{"0":"post-319779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-freddie-mercury","10":"tag-michael-jackson","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-pop-music","13":"tag-rock-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}