Eddie Van Halen and the unforgettable 20-second guitar break on Michael Jackson’s 'Beat It'

For his cameo on 'Beat It', Eddie Van Halen worked for free, was not credited on the album and didn’t appear in the video. Photo: AP

Before Eddie Van Halen agreed to add a guitar break to Michael Jackson’s Beat It, one of the most famous cameos in rock history, he had to be sure the phone call from producer Quincy Jones wasn’t a practical joke.

“I went off on him. I went, ‘What do you want, you f-ing so-and-so!',” Van Halen told CNN in 2012, 30 years after he worked on the song. “And he goes, ‘Is this Eddie?’ I said, ‘Yeah, what the hell do you want?’ ‘This is Quincy.’ I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t know anyone named Quincy.’ He goes, ‘Quincy Jones, man.’ I went, ‘Ohhh, sorry!’”