Unearthed tapes reveal feud between Michael Jackson and Prince
It was no secret that there was no love lost between Michael Jackson and Prince, but a newly surfaced recording of the King of Pop talking about his musical rival has offered a never-before-seen glimpse behind the scenes of the pair’s feud.
Despite reportedly being “starstruck” when Prince first met Jackson, there are several accounts of spats between the two in the years since, including when Prince aggressively confronted Michael Jackson when he attended the former’s concert in 2006, playing the bass right in Jackson’s face. Prince also reportedly rejected Jackson’s offer to collaborate on the track “Bad”, instead recording a mock version which he later sent to Jackson.
It appears these incidents certainly left their mark on Jackson, who in a recently-unearthed recording for his biography Moonwalker and published by the Daily Mirror, can be heard ranting about Prince.
“I don’t like to be compared to Prince at all,” he said. “I have proven myself since I was real little. It’s not fair. He feels like I’m his opponent. I hope he changes because boy, he’s gonna get hurt. He’s the type that might commit suicide or something.”
Jackson went on to describe Prince as “one of the rudest people” he’d ever met. “Prince is very competitive. He has been very mean and nasty to my family.”
Ironically, in the tapes Jackson can also be heard saying particularly venomous things about his family. He referred to brothers Randy, Jackie and Jermaine as “hardheaded”, “negative” and “talented but lacking self-confidence”, respectively. He also labelled sister LaToya as “weird”, Janet as a “tomboy” and claimed he loathed his father Joe.
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