Quincy Jones has declared Ireland as "so racist it's frightening".

The 84-year-old producer - who has six daughters and a son - told GQ in a wide-ranging interview that he "stays at Bono's castle when he is in Dublin".

Jones also told the magazine that he has 22 girlfriends, saw his first dead body when he was "seven or eight years old" and ate rats for dinner when he was a child.

Speaking about Bono and Ireland, Jones described the time Bono invited him to the Vatican to meet Pope John Paul in 1999.

"All the guys in the Vatican had these Vatican black shoes," Jones told the magazine, but said the Pope had some different footwear on.

"He had on some burgundy wingtips, man, with thin tan rib socks, man.

"We had to go and kiss his hand before we left. And when I kissed his hand, I looked down and saw those shoes and it just fell out of my mouth. I said, 'Oh, my man's got some pimp shoes on.' And he heard me.

"When he died, I grabbed USA Today, and Bono said, 'Quincy said he had some lovely loafers on.' [Bono]'s a great guy. I stay at his castle in Dublin, because Ireland and Scotland are so racist it's frightening. He said, 'Trying, Quincy, to assimilate, but it's not coming easy.' So I stay in his castle."

Speaking about his relationships, Jones said he is romantically involved with a string of women around the world and they're all aware of one another.

He said: "I got 22 girlfriends...Hell yeah. Everywhere. Cape Town. Cairo. Stockholm - she's coming in next week. Brazil -Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, and Rio. Shanghai - got a great girl over there from Shanghai, man. Cairo, whew."

Asked if they know about one another, he added: "Yeah, I don't lie. And it's amazing - women get it, man. Don't you ever forget they're 13 years smarter than we are. Don't you ever forget it."

But the 'Thriller' producer insists he'd never date anyone his own age and wishes he could keep the "fat and old" away from his house.

Asked if he'd go out with anyone his own age, he told America's GQ magazine: "Hell no! You see me with an 84-year-old woman? Are you crazy?

"Why not??? Why? For what, man? There's nothing...there's no upside. You gotta be kidding. I got me some technology out there that keep fat and old away from here. Buzzes if they're too old.

"But you'd be surprised.... These women, the young ones, are aggressive now. Oh my God, they're fearless, man. All over the world."

Quincy admitted there are some restrictions on the ages of the women he dates.

He said: "Well, my daughters gave me new numbers, because they kept saying, 'Dad, you can't go out with girls younger than us.' I said, 'Y'all are not young anymore....' So the new numbers are 28 to 42. They gave them to me."

Despite his own advancing years, the music legend insists he still has a desire for sex.

Asked if the desire had gone after he reached a certain age, he said: "Not to me. Hell no. Never. Uh-uh."

Quincy thinks his punishment for his womanising ways is to have beautiful daughters.

He said: "When you've been a dog all your life, God gives you beautiful daughters and you have to suffer. I love 'em so much. They're here all the time."

But he has no regrets about his life or behaviour.

He said: "Je ne regrette rien de tout. I don't regret s**t."

Jones said he thought he wanted to be a gangster when he was younger, and saw his first dead body "at seven or eight years old".

He also revealed how they ate rats for dinner, when living with his grandmother in Louisville after his mother was "taken away in a straitjacket" and his father said he was unable to mind them.

"We used to eat rats, man. I'm telling you. I think back about that—that's scary... she'd send us down to the waterfront and tell us, 'Just get the ones with their tails moving, because you know they're alive.'"

Additional reporting: BANG Showbiz

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