Matt Groening thought he was the victim of a prank when Michael Jackson rang up ‘The Simpsons’ studio.
The 64-year-old cartoonist has revealed that no-one at the show initially believed that the late pop legend had actually rang the studio to offer to do a guest spot on ‘The Simpsons’.
Matt recalled: "I was sitting in the office late at night. The phone rings, and I pick it up: ‘Hi, this is Michael Jackson.’"
Matt quickly hung up because he assumed it was a prank.
Fortunately, Michael decided to make another call, telling Matt that he was a huge fan of Bart Simpson and that he wanted to appear on ‘The Simpsons’ – which he did in 1991.
Despite this, Michael – who died in June 2009, aged 50 – wasn’t allowed to sing his own songs on the episode and so an impersonator was drafted in.
Speaking to the Australian chat show ‘The Weekly’, Matt explained: "There was some kind of deal with his record company or whatever, so when it came time to sing the songs he had a sound-a-like singer.
"He stood there and watched the guy, who was so nervous he had to sound like Michael Jackson. And [Jackson] giggled."
Meanwhile, Lenny Kravitz recently hinted he would have liked to have given Michael his song ‘Low’ if he were still alive.
Lenny released the track with a posthumous vocal appearance by the late King of Pop from the studio sessions they had together before his death.
He said: "I wrote and produced the song ‘(I Can’t Make It) Another Day’ for him that came out on his album ‘Michael’, that was released after he died.
"When I was writing ‘Low’, I felt it was a song that would really suit Michael – when I was recording it I just kept hearing his voice.
"I had these other tracks that we’d done and so I put his vocal on to ‘Low’ from those tracks. It was just a really nice exclamation after I sing the verse, on the outro, he just kept backing me."
Matt Groening thought Michael Jackson call was a prank
