For Elmo Lovano podcast, JR Robinson talks in detail about his career, recounting some absolutely golden anecdotes along the way.
JR explains how his iconic drum intro to Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” came about after three average live takes.
“We were cutting for the Off The Wall album, the song Rock With You. I was very fortunate to be the mainstay drummer through the entire record. Quincy [Jones] would cast different rhythm section guys and put them around me. So I was very fortunate to play on every song…
“So we go in, we start listening to Rod’s demo…now the drum part? No, there was no drum part, it was just motion. So, take one, I cut it with a click that I programmed. Back then it was a Urei old seven-frame film click…So take one…eh, no magic. Take two, maybe a little better, people are learning their parts.
“Time’s going on and I’m looking in the control room, I can see Quincy and Rod in there – Rod’s puffing on his red Marlboros. Take 3: a lot better, no magic. I see Quincy and Rod get up, come out of the door and Quincy stands right behind me. I’m going ‘Oh, shit’. Rod’s standing there, smoking his Marlboros with his English accent.
“Quincy goes ‘JR, if you could come up with an intro fill that the whole world would forever identify with this song, could you do that? Maybe on this next take?’. I looked at him like John Belushi, and I go ‘Sure!’.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do, so I immediately reflected back to Rod’s demo, which was weird, and I thought, ‘What do I hate most about drum fills?’. I hate when it’s straight sixteenth-notes and triplets, and putting them together. It’s just wrong. So I go ‘That’s what I’m going to do!’.
“But I did it more in a syncopated march world. So, I hear four clicks and I have to go. I just did it, used my military training, my march training and I added syncopation, and I made sure there was a hole that you could drive an 18-wheeler through to get to the next downbeat.
“It all came spontaneously in that one take, and we never did another take…we kind of knew we’d cut a Number One record…all of us looked at each other and went ‘We did it!’.”
Watch the full interview here:
Quincy Jones brought JR to Michael Jackson’s album project Off the Wall in December 1978. The first thing JR did on the project was go to Allen Zentz Recording Studios to overdub drums for the songs “Girlfriend” and “It’s the Falling in Love”, replacing the previous drummer’s work. Jones listened to the results, conferred with Michael Jackson, and then invited JR to be the drummer for the rest of the album. JR remembers going to Westlake Recording Studios to cut basic tracks for “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” with just keys, bass and drums. The trio was Louis Johnson on bass, JR, and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes: this was the first time JR had met Phillinganes. After they recorded the track, Phillinganes stood on the piano bench with his hands up, exultant. Everyone knew they had just laid the foundation for a hit. Released in August 1979, Off the Wall netted JR three hit singles: “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” (number 1), “Rock with You” (number 1), and “Off the Wall” (number 10). From this point forward, JR was a first-request drummer for Jones.
JR also worked on Quincy’s album “The Dude”, Donna Summer’s song“State of Independence” and “We Are The World”.
JR also drummed on six of the “BAD” album’s songs: “Bad”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Speed Demon”, “Liberian Girl”, “Dirty Diana” and “Smooth Criminal”.
JR Robinson is now known as “one of the most recorded drummers in history” and his latest works can be heard on The Weeknd’s “I Feel It Coming” or Lady Gaga’s “Stupid Love”
