The Weeknd joined countless music fans mourning the incredible loss of Quincy Jones.
In a heartfelt post on X, he shared the foreword he’d written for Jones’ 2022 book, 12 Notes: On Life and Creativity. “My fans know how important Quincy was to the fabric of my music,” he wrote. “I was given the opportunity to write a foreword to his book and tried to capture what he meant to me as a human. Let’s celebrate his life today.”
In the two-page foreword, The Weeknd began by saying, “There are no words to accurately describe the man who Quincy Jones is,” and revealing, “Q was my idol in every sense of the word.” He also recounted the first time he met Jones after a 2015 performance at Drai’s nightclub in Vegas. The Weeknd rushed offstage after his performance to speak with Jones, who told him to greet his fans first because they were “more important.” The Weeknd expressed that the moment reminded him that “nothing is more important than the people around me.”
The Weeknd also reflected on that memory in a tearful acceptance speech for the Black Music Action Coalition’s first Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award in 2021. “To say this was an honour is an understatement,” he wrote in the foreword.
My fans know how important Quincy was to the fabric of my music. I was given the opportunity to write a foreword to his book and tried to capture what he meant to me as a human. Let’s celebrate his life today❤️ pic.twitter.com/aUhMabzf8x
— Abel Tesfaye (@theweeknd) November 4, 2024
Last night, Jones’ family announced that the 91-year-old producer, composer, and music legend passed away on Sunday at his Bel Air home.
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Jones was a musical polymath who made significant contributions to jazz, soul, and funk, as well as producing some of the biggest pop albums of the century, including Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad.
His family shared a statement saying, “Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing. And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”
