Most incredible turnaround moment ever?

Music producer Quincy Jones started life as a hustler on the South Side of Chicago, but found his path after his family moved to a town near Seattle.

Not that the move itself mattered. What mattered was his discovery of an actual musical instrument. During a break-in at age 11, Jones stumbled upon an upright piano. He struck a key and that changed everything for him.

“As soon as I hit it, I knew I was gone,” he says. “The concept of a human being playing music never occurred to me, even though it was around me all the time in Chicago. And I knew right there and then that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It saved my life.”

Jones learned to play many instruments and produced hits for musicians from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson.

— Adapted from “Icon: Quincy Jones,” Dylan Jones, GQ UK.