Getty Throughout their careers both Prince and Jacko had huge success but underlying it all was a bitter feud which lasted for years…
Details of the rivalry are pretty sketchy, but it seemed to begin around the time Jackson became a superstar with his Thriller album, reports The Mirror.
However the first real evidence was that Prince reportedly turned down a role in Jacko’s Bad video, claiming he didn’t want to have the opening lyrics sung at him.
GettyIn footage taken from an interview with Chris Rock, Prince is seen chatting about the rejection:
The first line in that song is, ‘your butt is mine’, now who gonna sing that to whom? Because you sure ain’t singing that to me. And I sure ain’t singing that to you.
There has also been speculation about whether the lyric: “My voice is getting higher/And I ain’t never had my nose done/That’s the other guy,” from Prince’s Life ‘O’ The Party referred to Jackson.
Prince also pulled out of charity song We Are The World, reportedly because he didn’t want to appear alongside the King of Pop.
GettyHowever, according to Will.I.Am – who played on stage with Prince – when he arranged for Jackson to come and see The Purple One perform – to tr and patch things up – things didn’t go quite as planned…
He told the BBC:
I called Prince and his folks and they arranged [for Michael to come down], they have an infamous feud and I brought them together.
But during the performance Jackson was left offended after Prince reportedly played his bass right in his face.
GettyRolling Stone contributing editor Steve Knopper told Esquire:
During the show Prince was playing bass and he came out into the audience with this giant bass and walked right up to Michael and started playing bass in Michael’s face. Like aggressive slap bass.
Michael was outraged. And then started going on. ‘Prince has always been a meanie. He’s just a big meanie. He’s always been not nice to me.
Other people insist the singers had a friendly rivalry and it was just good competition – with others stating the pair even used to play basketball together.
Who knows?
