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Legendary music producer Quincy Jones, who has died aged 91, did not hold back when sharing his views on Donald Trump.
Jones was a titan of the music industry, with a seven-decade career that saw him win 28 Grammy Awards and work with musicians ranging from Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra to Count Basie and Celine Dion.
In 2018, Jones made no secret of his opinion on Trump, who has recently been mocked for his campaign stunts as the US presidential election nears an end. The Republican and his rival Kamala Harris are just days away from finding out who’ll be the next US president, with election day taking place on Tuesday (5 November).
In an eyebrow-raising interview, Jones, who was 84 at the time, said of Trump: “I used to hang out with him. He’s a crazy motherf***er. Limited mentally – a megalomaniac, narcissistic. I can’t stand him.”
He continued to Vulture: “A symphony conductor knows more about how to lead than most businesspeople – more than Trump does. He doesn’t know s***. Someone who knows about real leadership wouldn’t have as many people against him as he does. He’s a f***ing idiot.
Elsewhere in the interview, Jones said: “I used to date Ivanka, you know.”
Jones’s claim about Trump’s daughter made headlines at the time, with the record producer and composer claiming he went on a dinner date with her in 2006 when he was 72 and Ivanka was 25.
According to Jones, it was designer Tommy Hilfiger who informed him that Ivanka allegedly wanted to have dinner. He added: “I said, ‘No problem.’ She’s a fine motherf***er. She had the most beautiful legs I ever saw in my life. Wrong father, though.”
Ivanka has never commented on the claim, which was made in a controversial interview that Jones ultimately apologised for due to his criticism of Taylor Swift and bombshell claim that Marlon Brando and Richard Pryor slept with one another back in the 1970s.
Jones’s death was announced by his publicist, Arnold Robinson, who said that he died on Sunday (3 November) at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’s passing,” the family’s statement said. “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.”
