Basil Glen Ballard, Jr. is an American songwriter, lyricist, and record producer. He is best known for co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, which won Grammy Award for "Best Rock Album", and "Album of the Year" amongst others, and is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was involved in the recording and writing of Michael Jackson's Thriller and Bad. As a writer he co-wrote songs like "Man in the Mirror" and "Hand in My Pocket". He is the founder of Java Records. He won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture for the song "Believe". [More at Wikipedia]

May 1st, 1953 in Natchez (Age 71)