Quincy Jones claims Michael Jackson "didn't want to be black".

The music producer - who worked with the late pop icon on his iconic 'Bad', 'Thriller' and 'Off the Wall' albums - does not believe Michael suffered from a disease which caused his skin to lighten, insisting he wanted to alter his appearance.

Asked if he believed Michael was suffering from vitiligo, Quincy told Details magazine: "I don't believe in any of that bulls**t, no. No. Never. I've been around junkies and stuff all my life. I've heard every excuse. It's like smokers - 'I only smoke when I drink' and all that stuff. But it's bulls**t. You're justifying something that's destructive to your existence. But when somebody's hell-bent on it, you can't stop 'em.

"What his face turned into is ridiculous. Chemical peels and all of it. And I don't understand it. But he obviously didn't want to be black. You see his kids?"

Quincy added he spoke to Michael - who died of a suspected cardiac arrest at his Los Angeles home last week - about his altering appearance but admits he has no idea why the King of Pop had such issued with his looks.

He said: "He'd come up with, 'Man, I promise you I have this disease,' and so forth, and 'I have a blister on my lungs,' and all that kind of bulls**t. It's hard, because Michael's a Virgo, man - he's very set in his ways. You can't talk him out of it.

"I'm just a musician and a record producer. I'm not a psychiatrist. I don't understand all that stuff. We all got problems."

The producer added he used to worry Michael was out of touch with reality, and wanted him to sing songs about love and human emotion to try to help him.

Referring to the 1972 song 'Ben' which was about Michael's pet rat, Quincy said: "I just wanted to hear him deal with a romantic relationship with a human being rather than a rat. I'm saying that facetiously, but it's true. I saw him at the Oscars very emotional about 'Ben' and I wanted to hear him get in touch with a real human relationship. 'She's Out of My Life' from 'Off the Wall' was written by Tommy Bahler from a very bad ending to a marriage. So it was very real. I was saving it for Sinatra. But I gave it to Michael. And Michael cried during every take, and I left the tears in."