"I just don’t ever feel like I’m good enough"— Rashida Jones on her musical endeavors being Quincy Jones' daughter

Rashida Jones recently revealed she never considered a career in music despite having a "deep ache" for it. During her Monday, August 19, 2024, sit-down on the SmartLess podcast, the Parks and Recreation actress opened up about her decision not to follow in her father's footsteps.

"My dad’s a musical genius. That’s like, the last thing I want to do, is try my hand at that. But I love it. Like, I have a deep ache for music and I just don’t ever feel like I’m good enough to do it. Like I’ll never be good enough to do it, so I just don’t," she said.

Rashia's response comes after hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett questioned whether growing up surrounded by music inspired her to take it up professionally.

The actress and filmmaker is the daughter of legendary musician and record producer Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton. With his career spanning over seven decades and winning 28 Grammy Awards, Quincy Jones certainly has a daunting legacy to match.

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Rashida Jones directed a documentary, Quincy, detailing her father's life and career

During the podcast, Rashida Jones explained that she had dabbled in singing and music-making.

"I love it so much. I kind of sing for fun, I've written for fun, and I've sung backup on some albums and things like that..."

Jones added that she sang backup on the first two Maroon 5 albums, Songs About Jane and It Won’t Be Soon Before Long. She even sang for them live. This prompted one of the co-hosts to ask if she could read and write music. The actress explained that she can write, but her reading is limited.

Quincy Jones is best remembered for producing three of Michael Jackson's most successful albums: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987). He even produced and conducted We Are the World for the supergroup USA for Africa.

Talking about Thriller, co-host Will Arnett brought up an incident when he visited Quincy's home with Rashida Jones.

"You know when you go into somebody's office and they've got like a record, like a platinum record or whatever? You go into Quincy's and A: it’s a museum, and B: the framed thing for 'Thriller' has like 40 platinum records in the frame. Literally 40, it's like the granddaddy of them all," he remarked.

This led the interviewers to touch upon Rashida Jones's 2018 Netflix documentary about her father, Quincy. The star revealed that Jane Rosenthal, who once worked with her father, urged her to make the film.

Jones explained that Quincy's life is well documented, and owing to his extremely accomplished career, it is "almost impossible to spend any time storytelling who he is as a person." She elaborated that as a filmmaker, one has to "cover so much ground" with his contribution to the "world and culture." Speaking about her documentary, Rashida stated:

"I wanted to do something that felt like it captured his personality, 'cause nothing ever has... so that was the goal."

Rashida Jones co-wrote and co-directed Quincy with Alan Hicks. The documentary won the Grammy for Best Music Film in 2019. Talking to SmartLess hosts, she revealed her father almost died while filming, but he pulled through.

"My dad is a beast, and he has cheated death so many times. Ninety-one and still crushing it," Rashida Jones remarked.

At this point, one of the hosts explained that watching the documentary surprised him because he never realized they were related. He praised Rashida Jones for making a huge world separate from her father's legacy. The co-hosts agree that it is not easy growing up with a parent who is so renowned.

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Rashida Jones' interview on SmartLess is available to stream on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.