Michael Jackson in his own words about his song Billie Jean

"Not My Lover" was a title we almost used for "Billie Jean" because Quincy had some objections to calling the song "Billie Jean" my original title. He felt people might immediately think of Billie Jean King, the tennis player.

A lot of people have asked me about that song, and my answer is very simple. It's just a case of a girl who says I'm the father of her child and I'm pleading my innocence because "the kid was not my son".

There was never a real "Billie Jean" (except for the ones who came after the song.) The girl in the song is a composite of people we've been plagued by over the years. This kind of thing has happened to some of my brothers and I used to be amazed by it. I couldn't understand how these girls could say they were carrying someone's child when it wasn't true. I can't imagine lying about something like that. Even today there are girls who come to the gate at our home and say strangest things like, "Oh, I'm Michael's wife," or "I'm just dropping off the keys to our apartment." I remember one girl who used to drive us compeletely crazy. I really think that she believed in her mind tat she belonged with me. There was another girl who claimed I had gone to bed with her, and she made threats. There've been a couple of serious scuffles at the gate on Hayvenhurst, and they can get dangerous. People yell into the intercom that Jesus sent them to speak with me and God told them to come- unusual and unsettling things.

A musician knows hit material. It has to feel right. Everything has to feel in place. It fulfills you and makes you feel good. You know it when you hear it. That's how I felt about Billie Jean. I knew it was going to be a big while I was writing it. I was really absorbed in that song. One day during a break in a recording session I was riding down the Ventura Freeway with Nelson Hayes, who was working with me at the same time Billie Jean was going around my head and that's all I was thinking about. We were getting off the freeway when a kid on a motorcycle pulls to us and says, "Your car's on fire." Suddenly we noticed the smoke and pulled over and whole bottom of the Rolls Royce was on fire. That kid probably saved our lives. If the had exploded, we could have been killed.

But I was so absorbed by this tune floating in my head that I didn't even focus on the awful possibilities until later. Even while we were getting help and finding an alternate way to get where we were going, I was silently composing additional material, that's how involved I was with "Billie Jean"

source: Moonwalk (Chapter 5, p 192-194)