Steve Lukather Recalls Laughing When Michael Jackson Sang This “Thriller” Lyric

By Mockulus Editorial
September 27, 2026

Steve Lukather has told the story of his “Thriller” sessions plenty of times over the years, but a recent interview with Guitar Player brought fresh attention to one particular moment: the Toto guitarist cracking up in the studio when he first heard Michael Jackson deliver one specific line.

The Line That Made Him Laugh

According to Lukather, the moment happened while the band recorded the title track “Thriller” at Westlake Recording Studios in 1982. “And then when I heard Michael sing, ‘Your butt is mine,’ I was just a smartass twenty-something-year-old kid, and I laughed,” Lukather recalled. His reaction didn’t go over well with producer Quincy Jones, who Lukather says shut it down immediately: “Quincy goes, ‘Stop it, bro. This is gonna be a big record. I’m telling you.'” Lukather admits he wasn’t convinced at the time: “I went, ‘Yeah, right!'”, but Jones was right.

A Working Relationship Built On Trust

Lukather, who played guitar and bass across several tracks on “Thriller”, including “Beat It,” “Human Nature,” and “The Girl Is Mine” has said that neither Jackson nor Jones micromanaged his playing during the sessions. On “Beat It,” Lukather recalled cranking his guitar riff through a stack of Marshall amps before Jones stepped in with a note: “It’s great, but it’s too much. I gotta get this on R&B radio. Use a little Fender amp and turn down the distortion.” The scaled-back tone is what ended up on the finished record.

His most hands-on contribution came on “Human Nature.” Lukather has said the song, written primarily by his Toto bandmate Steve Porcaro, originally had no guitar part at all. Jones called him in and asked him to “funk it up,” and Lukather says he built the now-familiar guitar part on the spot, a contribution significant enough that Jones gave him an arranging credit on the record and helped earn the song a Grammy nomination.

Getting the Gig And Getting Used To Michael Jackson

Lukather has also described the surreal experience of landing the “Thriller” sessions in the first place. He says Michael Jackson called him directly early one morning to invite him to work on the album, and Lukather, assuming it was a prank, hung up on him three times before finally believing it was really Michael Jackson on the line. He’s said Jackson found the whole exchange funny rather than off-putting.

Once in the studio, Lukather has described Michael Jackson as easygoing and highly collaborative, someone who communicated largely through body language and dancing rather than detailed instructions. “He was very collaborative. He wanted my input,” Lukather said, adding that Jackson would offer specific suggestions on his playing rather than dictate parts outright.

Why It Matters

Lukather’s recollections offer a rare, ground-level account of how “Thriller”, still the best-selling album in history, actually came together in the room, from a guitarist who was in his early twenties and largely unproven at the time. His stories consistently point to the same picture: a collaborative, trust-based creative process between Jackson, Jones, and the session musicians who helped shape some of the album’s most enduring tracks, even amid moments of studio humor that Lukather still remembers vividly more than four decades later.