who wrote the guitar solo for beat it
Beat It Eddie Van Halen, lead guitarist of hard rock band Van Halen, was asked to add a guitar solo.[6][10] When initially contacted by Jones, Van Halen thought he was receiving a prank call.[11] Having established that the call was genuine, Van Halen borrowed an amp from Allan Holdsworth[12] and recorded his guitar solo free of any charge. "I did it as a favor", the musician later said. "I was a complete fool, according to the rest of the band, our manager and everyone else. I was not used. I knew what I was doing – I don't do something unless I want to do it."[13] Van Halen recorded his contribution following Jones and Jackson arriving at the guitarist's house with a "skeleton version" of the song. Fellow guitarist Steve Lukather recalled, "Initially, we rocked it out as Eddie had played a good solo—but Quincy thought it was too tough. So I had to reduce the distorted guitar sound and that is what was released."[13] The song was among the last four completed for Thriller; the others were "Human Nature", "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" and "The Lady in My Life".[13]