{"id":160767,"date":"2023-08-07T14:48:40","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T13:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=160767"},"modified":"2023-08-11T17:07:21","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T16:07:21","slug":"he-says-michael-jackson-was-the-easiest-person-i-ever-worked-with-now-hes-taking-on-musical-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/he-says-michael-jackson-was-the-easiest-person-i-ever-worked-with-now-hes-taking-on-musical-theater\/","title":{"rendered":"He wrote megahits for Michael Jackson and Alanis Morissette. Now he’s taking on musical theater."},"content":{"rendered":"

MBW\u2019s World\u2019s Greatest Songwriters series celebrates the composers behind the globe\u2019s biggest hits. Here we meet Glen Ballard, who, in an astonishing career, co-wrote every track on Alanis Morissette’s monster Jagged Little Pill<\/em>, plus Man in the Mirror<\/em> for Michael Jackson and so much more besides. Ballard was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame earlier this summer. World\u2019s Greatest Songwriters is supported by AMRA<\/a> \u2013 the global digital music collection society which strives to maximize value for songwriters and publishers in the digital age.<\/p>\n

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When it came to writing songs for Michael Jackson, it was a case of 12th\u00a0time lucky for Glen Ballard.<\/p>\n

The young songwriter had almost had a song on Jackson\u2019s all-conquering\u00a0Thriller<\/em>. He was part of Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton\u2019s crew, and Jackson got as far as recording a demo of Ballard\u2019s song,\u00a0Nightline<\/em>\u00a0(eventually a minor hit for Randy Crawford), only to bump it from the album when he penned\u00a0Billie Jean<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Beat It<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cI felt like they\u00a0should\u00a0have knocked my little song off!\u201d laughs Ballard. \u201cThose songs were so much better!\u201d).<\/p>\n

Several years later, the team reconvened for\u00a0Bad<\/em>, and Ballard submitted 10 up-tempo numbers, none of which made the grade. He was about to give up on ever writing a Jacko classic when his songwriting collaborator, Siedah Garrett, persuaded him to have one more go \u2013 this time at a ballad.<\/p>\n

The end result was Ballard and Garrett’s Man In The Mirror<\/em>, a U.S. No.1 single. As Ballard notes, \u201cthe rest is history\u201d.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s that combination of providence and perseverance that has helped Ballard enjoy one of the most incredible songwriter-producer careers of all time. From bangers to ballads; from the Sunset Strip to Broadway; and from original Beatles to Beach Boys\u2019 offspring<\/a>, his songs have permeated pop culture at each and every level.<\/p>\n

Today, we find him in New York, where his\u00a0Back To The Future: The Musical\u00a0<\/em>opened on August 3. It\u2019s already a smash hit in London, but Ballard is not a man to leave anything to chance. He has been attending as many previews in the Big Apple as possible, eavesdropping on audience reaction during the interval and at the end (\u201cThat feedback is more valuable than any review\u201d).<\/p>\n

That attention to detail began when, aged four, Ballard bemused his friends by writing his first song (he can not only still remember the buzzard-centric lyrics, but even sings it to MBW<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Growing up near New Orleans, he penned Edgar Allan Poe-inspired poetry that was so good his teachers accused him of plagiarism. And he formed a High School band that raked in the dollars at proms and dances (\u201cI remember thinking to myself, \u2018If I can continue to make money having this much fun, I\u2019ll never get a real job\u2019. And I don\u2019t think I ever have!\u201d).<\/p>\n

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Picture: Larry Busacca<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Glen Ballard was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame at the Marriott Marquis New York in June 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Aged 21, Ballard moved to Los Angeles, with just $200 and one phone number \u2013 the golf pro at the Bel Air Country Club \u2013 in his pocket.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, the golfer introduced him to Tutti Camarata, who ran Sunset Sound Recorders. Camarata gave him a shot at the studio, which led to stints at Elton John\u2019s The Rocket Record Company and as a staff songwriter for MCA on the Universal Pictures lot (where he worked on everything from sitcoms to big movies). He became an in-house producer with Quincy Jones, after the super-producer called him to come and hang out at Westlake Recording Studios while George Benson cut Ballard\u2019s song, What\u2019s On Your Mind<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That, in turn, brought him into Jackson\u2019s 1980s superstar orbit. But it was in the 1990s that Ballard himself really held sway.<\/p>\n

He wrote the eternal Hold On<\/em> with Wilson Phillips (featuring Brian Wilson\u2019s daughters Carnie and Wendy Wilson alongside Chynna Phillips, daughter of John and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas), and then took a meeting with a fading Canadian teen-pop star at a publisher\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

That star turned out to be Alanis Morissette and together they crafted Jagged Little Pill<\/em> which, despite an almost total lack of initial record company interest, went on to become the blockbuster rock album of the decade, and a 33-million seller. Yes, that\u2019s thirty-three million.<\/p>\n

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Work with Aerosmith, The Corrs, No Doubt, Ringo Starr (which saw him writing songs as the ex-Beatle watched), Van Halen, Annie Lennox, Shakira and a million others followed, and Ballard launched his own record label, Java Records. Amongst others, Ballard signed Katy Perry but, this time, not even his formidable talents could quite find her a breakthrough, until she later resurfaced at Capitol and became a megastar.<\/p>\n

Having won a 2006 Grammy for\u00a0Believe<\/em>, Ballard\u2019s song \u2013 written with regular collaborator Alan Silvestri \u2013 for\u00a0The Polar Express\u00a0<\/em>soundtrack and sung by Josh Groban, he moved into show tunes with a musical version of\u00a0Ghost<\/em>\u00a0and a stage adaptation of\u00a0Jagged Little Pill<\/em>, before firing up the DeLorean to make Marty McFly a star of stage as well as screen. His Augury production company develops music-driven projects across film, TV and theater, with\u00a0BTTF<\/em>\u00a0winning a prestigious Olivier Award for Best New Musical.<\/p>\n

“AS LONG AS I DON’T GET HIT BY A BUS, WE’RE GOING TO BE FINE.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ballard still writes every day. And, while these days it\u2019s more likely to be a libretto or a chapter of his upcoming novel about the 1990s music industry (\u201cThe record company parties in 1995 were so much better! Everybody wants to go back to that!\u201d) than a smash hit single, he still follows the charts and loves St Vincent (who featured on the soundtrack to Augury\u2019s Netflix jazz club drama, The Eddy<\/em>), Post Malone (who Ballard saw play live while being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame as part of the same intake as himself earlier this year) and Dua Lipa.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever mind Malcolm Gladwell\u2019s 10,000 hour threshold, I\u2019ve got 100,000 hours, because that\u2019s all I do \u2013 I just sit around and write songs,\u201d he laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s like being an athlete; you\u2019ve got to keep doing it until it gets better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not many athletes are still setting PBs aged 70 but what Ballard\u2019s\u00a0not\u00a0about to do, he makes clear as he meets MBW<\/em> in between\u00a0BTTF<\/em>\u00a0rehearsals, is slow down, let alone retire. He\u2019s working with French electro-poppers Hyphen Hyphen, while Augury has 15 upcoming projects on its books \u2013 strikes permitting \u2013 that could require as many as 300 new Ballard songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the beginning of a new era for our company,\u201d he declares. \u201cI finally know how to do a lot of things I didn\u2019t know before. As long as I don\u2019t get hit by a bus, we\u2019re going to be fine!\u201d<\/p>\n

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IS WRITING FOR a MUSICAL like Back To The Future VERY DIFFERENT TO WRITING POP SONGS?<\/h6>\n

Yes. I much prefer writing for musical theater. When you\u2019re writing with pop artists, all they want is the hit. There are so many songs that were written to be a hit that aren\u2019t hits, and that have almost no other emotional resonance.<\/p>\n

Most of the hits I\u2019ve ever written have come in conjunction with connecting with an artist and not worrying about where the hit is. If they\u2019re really good, the hit will emerge.<\/p>\n

In musical theater, you\u2019re writing stories. Every song has to serve the story and the character \u2013 and you might get a hit out of that. I think we have several hits in\u00a0Back To The Future<\/em>, but we didn\u2019t start out saying, \u2018We\u2019ve got to write a hit song\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Matthew Murphy \/ Evan Zimmerman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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PRODUCING A MUSICAL CAN BE A VERY PRECARIOUS BUSINESS\u2026<\/h6>\n

There\u2019s a saying: you can\u2019t make a living in theater \u2013 but you can make a killing. Most people don\u2019t make a living.<\/p>\n

The threshold is so high. It\u2019s like shelf space in a supermarket \u2013 there are only so many theaters on Broadway. So we\u2019re always fighting for a stage. And, in the streaming era, everything goes out everywhere, all the time. In musical theater, it\u2019s one stage at a time \u2013 it\u2019s a completely different paradigm.<\/p>\n

But once you have something that really works and the audience responds, it\u2019s a completely different animal to anything that\u2019s streaming out there. The audience is as much a part of musical theater as the performers at that point, if you have a good show.<\/p>\n

If they leave at the interval, you\u2019ve missed it \u2013 but nobody leaves our show in the interval.<\/p>\n

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WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM WORKING WITH QUINCY JONES?<\/h6>\n

That love is better than intimidation. In the studio, he was never intimidating, but always encouraging, he never once lost his cool.<\/p>\n

He fed us like we were kings \u2013 because we were in there for three days straight, he\u2019d always bring great food in, and he just loved us. And it was like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s the way to make records, do it lovingly\u2019.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve worked with some producers and directors who were kind of tyrannical, but he was the opposite. You don\u2019t compromise any standard, but the best way to get a performance is to encourage. I learned that in a big way from him.<\/p>\n

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HOW DO YOU LOOK BACK ON WORKING WITH MICHAEL JACKSON?<\/h6>\n

He was the easiest person I ever worked with. He was just such a friendly guy and he was patient. We would be in there tinkering with stuff for hours and hours \u2013 he would always go out in the studio, working on his dance moves, so I was being educated by the greatest performer of all time.<\/p>\n

He would walk around in shoes and the toes were just crushed, because he was always doing ballet stuff. He would wear out every pair of shoes he had.<\/p>\n

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