In his new memoir Truly, award-winning singer Lionel Richie touched on Michael Jackson’s clothing choices and why Quincy Jones nicknamed the deceased King of Pop “smelly.”
Jackson died of acute cardiac arrest from acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009. He was 50. Jones, on the other hand, succumbed to pancreatic cancer on November 3, 2024, at the age of 91.
“Michael was very close with his family, but once he went solo, making these monster albums, movies, and videos, he was in charge of his own ship. His day-to- day life was what you could call eccentric and extremely chaotic,” Richie, 76, recalled, per Entertainment Weekly.
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“Quincy used to tease [Jackson] with the nickname ‘Smelly,'” Richie added. “Michael would laugh too, realizing that he was oblivious to the fact that he hadn’t changed or washed his clothes for a couple of days. Or so. We all have our quirks. Michael didn’t buy clothes like you or me. He couldn’t just go to department stores or Beverly Hills boutiques. He was on tour performing in the elaborate costumes made for him by his stylists, or he was in his pajama bottoms and slippers in the studio, or he was in his going-out attire. Or he was at home in something loose and comfortable so he could practice his dance moves.”
Richie also stated that some of Jackson’s “thrown-together looks — white socks and black loafers, say — became global fashion statements.”
“Those loafers were fantastic for moonwalking or going up on pointe,” the All Night Long singer continued. “Whenever Michael came to visit me, he was wearing whatever — jeans and a T-shirt. And the jeans were either falling off him or too short to even be jeans and, well, smelly.”
Richie also said that whenever he asked Jackson where he got those jeans, the Smooth Criminal singer would tell him that he got them from a clothing store proprietor after making his way there.
“I’d suggest he go back and get a pair that fit,” Richie wrote. “On the road, if Michael sent his clothes to the hotel cleaners, only half of the items would come back. Everything else was kept for souvenirs. He just got into the habit of wearing the same pants until they were unwearable.”
Richie, however, made it clear that the teasing was not personal. “We teased him, but it was out of love so he didn’t mind,” he stated.
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