Inside Michael Jackson and Prince’s Legendary Rivalry

Michael Jackson and Prince, their pop music rivalry was legendary, and they certainly had a notorious love-hate relationship with each other over their extensive careers.

But with competition also came admiration, and the two definitely had a fascination with each other, which was rarely ever expressed in public. But privately, the iconic performers would interact and on occasions meet with each other, generating much intrigue within both parties’ inner circles and generating hordes of speculation in the press.

When Prince hit the music scene in the late 70s, Jackson was curious about the new rising star with funky tracks and a high-pitched sound.

At the time, Hip Hop Weekly’s Editor-In-Chief, Cynthia Horner, has been quoted:

‘I would give Michael copies of the magazines and he would see certain people in the book and ask me lots of questions about the artists he was interested in. And that’s how he was introduced to Prince. After that, I started to let Michael listen to some of the Prince music I had, and he was intrigued. At that point, I realized that there was somewhat of a rivalry developing. Michael had been in the business longer, so naturally he didn’t want to get replaced by the newcomer’

The Bee Gees, Barry Gibb stated that Michael Jackson once asked him, ‘Do you think Prince is better than me?’. A shocked Barry then told the interviewer ‘Can you imagine that, after all he has achieved?’

Byron Moore, a former associate of Michael Jackson stated that in 1981 Prince had a song about mutual masturbation on his ‘Controversy’ album called ‘Jack U Off’.”

Byron goes on to say that Michael made comments and asked questions like ‘What does that mean, exactly? What kind of person writes a song about that? I mean, that’s so private, isn’t it? Maybe I should write a song about something like that,’ Michael said, teasing him. ‘Can’t you just see that?’ Byron said, ‘no’.

But Prince’s musical releases were starting to have an impact on Michael’s work during this period. As one evening during the production of Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ album, composer, writer & engineer, Brian Banks, said Quincy came to them.

‘He wanted this huge chord sequence — he said, ‘There’s this sound that I’ve got in my head, there’s this underground, this new artist, that nobody’s ever really heard of but he’s great, he’s hot, he’s got this great song.’ And he pulled out the album and it was Prince, ‘1999?. And you know the opening sound on that? Well that was the sound — that big, bitey chord sound at the opening of ‘1999? — he wanted that, but bigger, for Thriller.’

And it is uncanny the similarity between the two tracks when played side by side.

As stated in Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, when Prince’s first theatrical project, ‘Purple Rain’, was released in late 1984; Warner Brothers had sponsored an afternoon screening for film critics. The word in Hollywood was that the film, a drama with music, was so riveting. Michael Jackson was deeply disappointed that he had not been able to make a strong impression in films.

Being so competitive, he had to see Purple Rain before it was distributed to the public; he arranged to attend the Warner Brothers screening. When the house lights dimmed, Michael slipped into the small theatre, wearing a sequined jacket and sunglasses, looking as if he were about to go on stage and accept an award. He sat in the last row and watched the film not once taking off his shades.

About ten minutes before the movie was to end, he rose and walked out. Later, a member of his entourage asked Michael what he thought of the film. ‘The music’s okay, I guess,’ Michael said. ‘But I don’t like Prince. He looks mean, and I don’t like the way he treats women. He reminds me of my relatives and not only that,’ Michael concluded, ‘that guy can’t act. He’s not good.’ Then, Michael let out a sigh of relief.

However, Jackson’s Victory album was eclipsed by Purple Rain’s sales. Liz Jones stated in Slave to the Rhythm that Jackson was ‘incredibly jealous’ of Prince, especially of the Oscar Prince won for the movie, something Jackson longed to win.

In Dance Music Sex Romance: Prince: The First Decade, soon after viewing ‘Purple Rain’, Michael invited Prince over to his home for dinner with Janet and La Toya. Prince is said to have made a few unsuccessful passes at La Toya. At the end of the evening, Prince gave Michael a gift — a box containing leaves, twigs and a cassette of some satanic like chants.

While Prince was in Los Angeles, Quincy Jones arranged for him to meet Michael Jackson over dinner at Jackson’s Encino family home. Jones felt the two creative forces should know one another. ‘It was a strange summit,’ according to writer Quincy Troupe. They were so competitive with each other that neither would give anything up. They kind of sat there checking each other out but saying very little. It was a fascinating stalemate between two very powerful performers.

Prince’s tour manager, Alan Leeds, said that before they set out on the Purple Rain tour, it was a case of Prince wanting to see what Michael and the Jacksons were doing in terms of production, lighting, staging and everything with the Victory tour. They flew to Dallas to the old stadium where the Cowboys played. There was a feeling that while what they were doing was a very solid stadium production, there was nothing really cutting edge about the technology. Leeds also stated that Prince had a lot of respect for Michael, but he was mildly impressed with the show.

Michael returned the favour by attending many of the Purple Rain concerts, four in a row to be exact. Ahmir Thompson, co-founder of hip-hop group ‘The Roots’, questioned why Mike was there for those four nights? ‘He had already created Thriller, you’ve done the Moonwalk, you’ve done the ground-breaking videos and you’ve sold a million a week. You are officially in the Guinness Book of World Records. So why are you this curious to who is behind you? Then I realized that you can’t be that successful without being competitive. Michael knew Prince was a serious threat.

In 1985, Quincy Jones organized a lunch that brought Michael and Prince together. At one point, they asked him to be a part of ‘We Are the World’, but Prince respectfully declined and offered to give them a song. Prince’s former tour manager, Alan Leeds, remembers is Prince talking about it afterwards, ‘that he thought Michael was a little bit weird. And this is coming from a guy who wore high heels and pyjamas to nightclubs’.

David Z, Prince’s producer, has recounted when both were recording at the same Los Angeles studio, Prince invited Jackson to play ping-pong. Michael, a star since age 8 who had lived a sheltered life, didn’t know how.

‘You want me to slam it?’ Prince asked. Michael dropped his paddle and held his hands up in front of his face so the ball won’t hit him. Michael walked out with his bodyguard, and Prince started strutting around like a rooster. ‘Did you see that? He played like Helen Keller.’

Interestingly, despite what had been said about Michael walking out on ‘Purple Rain’ and when asked why, he reportedly replied that he didn’t like the way Prince treated women, he really loved ‘Darling Nikki’, admitting it was his guilty pleasure. It’s was said that he was inspired by ‘Darling Nikki’ to create the song ‘Dirty Diana’.

On the same note, reports said that Michael Jackson was still bugged by the success of ‘Purple Rain’. He wanted more than just his goody, wholesome image. He wanted to show a ‘badder’ side.

Producer Quincy Jones let Prince know Michael Jackson wanted him on his new duet ‘I’m Bad’. Instead Prince submitted a song ‘Wouldn’t U Love 2 Love Me’. In his Encino home, Jackson heard Prince’s contribution, a reworked demo from 1976, and passed.

Although Jackson really wanted Prince on his title track. Prince considered the idea until he heard the tape Jackson had sent. It’s slick drum machine, horn stabs, keyboards and dark swirling bassline didn’t bother Prince as much as Jackson’s opening line: ‘Your butt is mine’.

Michael Jackson’s Audio Engineer, Bruce Swedien, remembers being there for a couple of the meetings with Prince and Michael, Quincy and all. He thought that after meeting with Michael, Quincy, Freddy DeMann and his team, Prince realized that he couldn’t win this duet/duel with Michael, artistically or other wise and pulled out.

Alan Leeds stated that when Michael came to Prince and wanted him to do ‘Bad’, Prince was like, ‘Oh, he wants to punk me out on record. Who does he think I am, crazy?’ He couldn’t get outside himself enough to realize that it was the kind of thing that probably could have benefited both of them. Still, it would have forever been Michael’s video with Prince as just a guest.

Prince later shunned anything that would pit him against or relate himself to Jackson, Liz Jones stating that ‘when Jackson signed with Pepsi, Prince was offered Coke but turned it down, even though it was a huge amount of money. He didn’t want to be compared with Jackson in any way; he felt he should be compared with Miles Davis or John Coltrane’

Although Prince appeared playful with their public association. In the full version of Prince’s ‘Partyman’ video there’s some scenes with a chimpanzee, wearing a Batman logo t-shirt, seemingly a dig (or payback) at Michael Jackson, who famously had his chimp ‘bubbles’ at the time. Partyman gives the chimp a banana and when he peals it, it reads ‘psyche’. At the time it was reported in the press that Michael Jackson was upset that Prince was sending weird psychic messages to Bubbles. Apparently, Prince found it highly amusing and put it in the ‘Partyman’ video.

At the turn of the decade, Prince wasn’t taking any chances. He announced that he had hired a new business consultant, Frank DiLeo, for his 1991 album ‘Diamond & Pearls’. The management muscle who was behind Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ and ‘Bad’ albums.

Prince also later worked with Frank DiLeo on the ‘Love Symbol’ album. But after some differences DiLeo was fired. Frank wanted ‘7’ to be the 1st single but Prince chose ‘My Name Is Prince’ which included the Jackson jabbing lyrics. ‘My name is Prince, I don’t wanna be king, cuz I’ve seen the top and it’s just a dream’ … ‘You got to be a Prince before you’re King anyway’ a possible reference to Michael’s ‘King of Pop’ status.

But when the accusations against Michael Jackson were made public in 1993, Prince became outwardly more protective over the artist and empathised with the vicious tabloid attacks he was experiencing during this period.

Actress, model and friend of Prince, Tatiana Thumbtzen, said that she met him by chance one night at a club and started talking about an interview she had given to The Star tabloid during the scandal involving Michael Jackson. Prince was upset that she had spoken to the tabloid; he attacked her for her comments and he was especially bothered by a line that quoted her as saying that Michael would never get married. He shouted, ‘Did you need the money that bad? Are you that poor — that broke, that you sell your story to the tabloids?’

The following year on July 14, 1994, Prince visited Michael in the early afternoon to discuss recording a song for Jackson’s upcoming release HIStory. It was five years after the release of Prince and Madonna’s duet (‘Love Song’), so he was probably more open to the idea. Brian Vibberts, an engineer on the album, remembers that Prince arrived with two huge bodyguards. The three of them walked right by him and into Michael’s lounge, which was the Studio 3 lounge at the Hit Factory in New York City. It was a private meeting, so he continued his work in Studio 4 — working on new music for HIStory.

Rob Hoffman, another engineer on HIStory, reported that Michael Jackson and Prince did have a meeting during its recording. Saying that they were all kicked out of the room however, Prince’s wishes and not Michael’s, so no one ever knew what was said in that room.

Prince reportedly talked with Michael for a few hours before leaving. Prince only visited that one time during the HIStory sessions. Vibberts stated that no songs were ever worked on, written, or recorded for this potential collaboration, and unfortunately there is no Michael and Prince duet in the vault.

But this wasn’t the last time Michael Jackson would reach out to Prince to assist him in his career comeback. In 2007, The eccentric star reportedly turned to Prince after his successful run of concerts, who is said to have told Michael to play a series of acoustic shows in Las Vegas to prove to the world he is still an amazing talent.

The New York Post reported, ‘Prince had been suggesting that Michael play a sequence of unplugged concerts in Las Vegas — just Michael and the microphone. No gimmicks, no costume changes, no smoke or mirrors, just his voice’.

It seemed Prince had a change of heart towards his one-time rival as earlier that same year, the diminutive star snubbed Michael’s offer of a joint tour to help him re-launch himself on the world stage. Prince was concerned that the hype surrounding Michael’s comeback would over-shadow the concerts, and he wasn’t prepared to be the King of Pop’s support act.

Two years later during the preparations for Jackson’s ill-fated This is It concert series, producer, director, and choreographer, Kenny Ortega, was concerned about the pressure Jackson was putting himself under.

‘Michael, you’ve got to stop. We’ve got an incredible show, we don’t need any more vignettes’ Michael said, ‘But Kenny, God channels this through me at night. I can’t sleep because I’m so super-charged.’ Kenny said ‘but Michael, we have to finish. Can’t God take a vacation?’ Without missing a beat, Michael responded, ‘You don’t understand — if I’m not there to receive these ideas, God might give them to Prince’ and laughed.

This was less about competing with Prince and more about respect. Michael felt God was going to give ideas to the next deserving artist, who he felt was Prince. That was true respect, true admiration for Prince. He also mentioned several times to Ortega how he loved the song ‘Purple Rain’.

Just a few months later, Prince was rehearsing for the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. When news came in that Michael had died, it was reported that he immediately cancelled rehearsal, sent all of his band members home, locked himself in his bedroom and wouldn’t come out for days.

Radio personality, Tavis Smiley, remembers that after Prince performed those concerts a few weeks later, he went back to his hotel and they sat on the roof top looking over the Swiss Alps till the sun came up and all Prince talked about for hours was Michael Jackson.

Smiley adds, Prince just had to get it out of his system, he sat and he talked and talked. ‘In that moment it was so surreal to hear him talking for hours about his respect for Michael’s genius, Michael’s gift, Michael’s showmanship. I’ll never forget it as long as I live’