Michael Jackson later said he knew “Billie Jean” was going to be big while he was still writing it.
He was so consumed by the song that one day, during a break from recording, he was riding down the Ventura Freeway with Nelson Hayes while “Billie Jean” kept running through his mind.
Then a young motorcyclist pulled alongside them with an alarming message:
“Your car’s on fire.”
Only then did they notice the smoke.
The bottom of Michael’s Rolls-Royce had caught fire, forcing them to pull over. Michael later wrote in his autobiography Moonwalk that the motorcyclist may have saved their lives because the car could potentially have exploded.
Yet the strangest part came afterward.
Even while they were getting help and arranging another way to continue their journey, Michael said he was still silently working on the song in his head. That was how deeply involved he had become with “Billie Jean.”
Michael later explained his songwriting process in a 1994 deposition. He said “Billie Jean” began with the famous bass lick, then he heard the chords, melody, lyrics, strings and chorus developing internally before recording the ideas.
Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean”
The obsession paid off.
Released as a single in 1983, “Billie Jean” spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of Michael’s defining recordings. The official short film also helped break major barriers at MTV. Then came Motown 25, where Michael performed the song and unveiled his famous televised moonwalk, turning “Billie Jean” into much more than a hit record.
But perhaps the best example of how much Michael believed in the song happened before any of that. His car was literally burning beneath him, and Michael Jackson was still thinking about “Billie Jean.”