Vincent Price Picked $20,000 Out Of A Percentage Of Proceeds From Michael Jackson’s THRILLER Album

Michael Jackson’S Thriller it was my favorite album when i was a kid, and the actual song “Thriller” was so damn good! I listened to that song over and over on my parents’ record player. My favorite part of the song was Vincent Priceit’s rap. That voice is imprinted in my brain and that album was my introduction to the legendary actor.

Vincent Price was recommended for the party by Peggy Lipton, who was then married to Jackson’s producer Quincy Jones and knew him.

Price accepted the part and was offered two payment options. Lui told Johnny Carson that he had been offered a one-time fee of $20,000 or a percentage of the album’s proceeds. He ended up picking $20,000 which is absolutely insane and Thriller has sold over 110 million copies worldwide!

Price would have made much more money had he chosen the album’s earnings. When Carson suggested that Price could have done much better if he had made the other choice, he laughed and said “How well I know!”

After Price was locked up and the song’s recording session was scheduled, the rap still had to be written. Rod Temperton wrote the lyrics to the rap in a taxi en route to the studio.

An audio engineer was reported to have noted that while “Price was happy to contribute his vocals to the song, he was surprised by the headphones when he arrived at the studio, he had never used them before. When he reluctantly put them on, he jumped out of his chair in surprise upon hearing the funky music track he was supposed to talk about. Eventually he needed a little help with his cues of him talking over the music, but she ended up nailing it.

Price recorded his part of the song in just two takes. Quincy Jones praised Price’s work and thoroughness as “fabulous”. You can listen to the recording session for the rap below! You can also listen to ours Secret level podcast where we talk about making the music video here!

Via: Legacy