Prince Quote About Bad Album

Lol no. He never ever said that.

Btw, this is my take on why Prince didn't want to do Bad. There's no going around the fact that Prince would have been punked if he did Bad. It would not be a good look for him. Remember this was back in the day when both of them were megastars and "rivals" and both of them were competitive. Bad was written, produced and arranged by Michael. The whole concept for the short film was concieved by Michael. Prince would have done nothing creatively on the project other than sing some lines [written by MJ]. Call it ego or whatever but I don't think anyone would have done the song if they were in prince's shoes. I don't even think Michael would have done it if the roles were reversed. My two cents.
 
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Prince always thought Michael was talented and said he knew the song would be a success without him..
 
Prince always thought Michael was talented and said he knew the song would be a success without him..

Yes that's the PC answer. I remember reading somewhere, from one of Prince's collaborators, that he thought mike tried to play him like that. Even Bruce Swedien alluded to the same thing when asked about this. Two big megastars that are rivals and competitiors, you either get someone else to write the song or you do it together. There is no way either one would have done it like this, not during that particular time anyway. There was too much ego involved, sadly.
 
Yeah he never said it. Even after the meeting, they hung out again (same day as the infamous ping pong game at Sunset Sound studios)
 
And that's the same reason why he refused to participate in We Are The World IMO. It was about egos.
from the recent book, "Let's Go Crazy", it says he wasn't used to that environment (he was used to doing his own thing and around the people he knew) and also, he didn't like the song
 
And that's the same reason why he refused to participate in We Are The World IMO. It was about egos.

That was a bad move by Prince imo. WATW was so much bigger than any one artist and he should have "checked his ego at the door"
 
The only thing Prince has ever said "fighting words" about Michael is when he said he could kick his @$$.. of course said it jokingly and said "he's a lover not a fighter" etc.. all light earthed stuff but that's about it that I know of. haha
 
Prince did not do it, as he considered it beneath him.

Prince was a musician, Michael in his eyes was merely a singer and dancer (To date before Bad came out, most of MJ's material was by other people, Prince did not even do a cover in his music until 1996).

In the early days (Pre 1990) Prince and Michael HATED each other. Michael called Prince a bully and said he treated women poorly after seeing Purple Rain, and wondered how someone who wore so much makeup could be such a lady killer (J. Randy Taraborelli - The magic and the madness 2010). There is also the story in 1985 Prince refused to do "we are the world as it was a MJ song" and made a less than subtle pass at Latoyah. He also walloped Michael at table tennis, and gave him a box with a feather in it, convincing Michael he was a hoodoo priest.

The most bizarre story was that Prince hypnotised Bubbles to turn him against MJ.

Prince saw the Bad song as a homosexual come on, as Prince suspected that Michael Jackson was gay and probably liked boys (Totally false, but Prince was a small minded bigotted born again christian - what I hate about Prince).

I don't believe any of this crap - so please don't shoot the messenger.

Prince was just jealous of MJ's success and the fact MJ was a nicer person (I LOOOOVVVEEEE Princes music and talent, but as a person he was a Grade A asshole).
 
mjprince1976;4204210 said:
Prince did not do it, as he considered it beneath him.

Prince was a musician, Michael in his eyes was merely a singer and dancer (To date before Bad came out, most of MJ's material was by other people, Prince did not even do a cover in his music until 1996).

I don’t agree with this. If Prince thought that doing a song with MJ was beneath him why did he take the meeting in the first place? And let’s not forget that Prince collaborated with Madonna. Michael was a writer, arranger and a producer, he wrote and produced his biggest hits. They were also supposed to collaborate on the HIStory album, and had a meeting about that too, and Prince did sing covers of Jackson 5 songs when he was a prepubescent teen.

In the early days (Pre 1990) Prince and Michael HATED each other. Michael called Prince a bully and said he treated women poorly after seeing Purple Rain, and wondered how someone who wore so much makeup could be such a lady killer (J. Randy Taraborelli - The magic and the madness 2010). There is also the story in 1985 Prince refused to do "we are the world as it was a MJ song" and made a less than subtle pass at Latoyah. He also walloped Michael at table tennis, and gave him a box with a feather in it, convincing Michael he was a hoodoo priest.

It’s quite peculiar, and a bit disturbing that in 2017 people, especially MJ fan, are citing Taborelli and using him as a credible source..

What I find funny is the inflated belief that Prince hated MJ or vice versa which was never corroborated by either party at any given time. The media put that out, that they hated each other and that they were mortal enemies akin to Superman and Lex Luthor but they never once publicly spoke ill about each other and had a mutual respect for their respective talents. When asked to describe Michael in one word Prince said ”Genius”. When Eddie Murphy talked on the set of Whatzupwithu about prince Michael said he’s a "natural genius". Prince banned fans from his own fan board when they made fun of Michael during the 2005 trial. Sheila E said that after they saw Michael on the Bad Tour in Minneapolis, Michael came down to Paisley park to hang. Now I don’t think they were best of friends or that they sat under the moonlight and drank ginger ale together, but I do believe that they respected each other from a distance, and as time went on and they became older and more wiser they played down the whole rivalry thing.


Prince was just jealous of MJ's success and the fact MJ was a nicer person (I LOOOOVVVEEEE Princes music and talent, but as a person he was a Grade A asshole).

Prince had an immense of success on his own and they were on different journey's both in life and in music. I don't think Prince was jealous of Michael and I don't think Michael was jealous of Prince.
 
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Just for the record, Prince was born into a family of Seventh Day adventists and he turned to Jehovah Witnesses after his son died and his then-wife suffered a miscarriage. He felt God punished him for being sexually loose, so he changed his lifestyle although he was much more relaxed about it later on in his life. He was also more accepting of queer people later on. Thankfully.
 
Themidwestcowboy;4204215 said:
It’s quite peculiar, and a bit disturbing that in 2017 people, especially MJ fan, are citing Taborelli and using him as a credible source.

I get the impression he seems a lot more.. trustworthy than other biographers. Certainly a year or two before I found this forum, I read parts of his book and it matched up with other info about MJ that I knew was true, so I assumed if that was true, these other parts must be true.

It wasn't really until I got into MJJC actively that I discovered other fans didn't feel the same way. I haven't read (parts of) the book since the turn of the decade though and my knowledge on MJ has grown exponentially then, so I don't feel I'm really qualified to say how good or accurate the book is :p
 
Is the generally agreed consensus that Prince didn't want to do Bad because he felt it would've been a hit regardless of his involvement?

Certainly that's what it seems like. As someone not overly knowledgable on Prince, the hinting-at-homosexuality reason wasn't hard to believe given I knew he was a religious fanatic but I just learnt from Respect that it was '96 onwards, so it doesn't fit in the picture anymore.

I think it would've been cool if they did a deal with each other, duet on a song on each other's respective albums. Kind of like what MJ did with Stevie Wonder (Just Good Friends vs. Get It) and Paul McCartney (The Girl is Mine vs. Say Say Say). Prince could've featured on the Bad album, and Michael on the Sign o' the Times album :)
 
mjprince1976...

There's different accounts about why he didn't do the song but none of them say it was because he thought it was beneath him he saw Michael merely as a singer and dancer

-Susannah Melvoin said he didn't do the song because he felt it was dumb that Michael was trying to come off as a bada** when he wasn't.

-Susan Rogers (his engineer at the time) said he liked the idea about doing a duet with Michael but felt it wasn't balanced as the song was written and composed by Michael, produced by Quincy and Michael, and on Michael's album. He did give Michael the song "Wouldn't You Love To Love Me" which Michael passed on

-There's Quincy's account of the story that we all know
 
I doubt he said that to be honest.

I think MJ and Prince are both genius artists who moved the genre to new levels never seen before or since. One thing I love about their "feud" is it was mainly driven by the media, I don't remember either of them ever talking about each other directly pre 1996. Compare that to Taylor Swift vs. Katy Perry, the feud is boring and drawn out. The difference is MJ and Prince's feud drove both to excel and push each other to make stronger music and reach for higher heights. Which as a fan is admirable.

Also Prince doesn't get enough credit for not kicking Mike when he was down between 03-05 when he did that interview and said he was a lover not a fighter, and how he told everybody chill and wait it out. He got my respect after seeing that interview

Team Mike always no contest, but I appreciate Prince was a genius and he made some incredible music, Purple Rain, Anna Stesia and Sign O' The Times are my faves
 
and I've said this before: The myth of Michael and Prince hating each other is very overexaggerated

1. Cat Glover (who danced for Prince on the Sign o' The Times and Lovesexy tours) said on Facebook when Prince was named as a possible choice to testify in the AEG Trial that Prince and Michael hung out at Paisley Park in 1988 after Michael's concert in Minneapolis

2. The story of Prince going off on Tatiana Thumbtzen after she went to the tabloids and TV shows about Michael during the '93 allegations

3. Prince's interview in 2011 he mentioned Michael:
Does he think the atomisation of pop culture since the 80s allows for another star of his stature? He thinks for a moment. “It would have to be manufactured. Michael and I both came along at a time when there was nothing. MTV didn’t have anyone who was visual. Bowie, maybe. A lot of people made great records, but dressed like they were going to the supermarket.” He thinks flamboyant showmanship is making a comeback but, he adds: “How many people have substance, or are they just putting on crazy clothes?”

Another he did with the Washington Post
The death of Michael Jackson (at one point another devout Jehovah’s Witness) was still fresh on everyone’s minds, and Prince admitted the two had talked about the challenges of mixing fame with a religious journey. He said that it was difficult for both of them, and he personally couldn’t have done it at a younger point in his life. He wished he could have talked to Michael more about it before he died.

and another...On Michael Jackson’s death:
I don’t want to talk about it. I’m too close to it.
He continued, “He is just one of many who have gone through that door — Amy Winehouse and folks. We’re all connected, right, we’re all brothers and sisters, and the minute we lock that in, we wouldn’t let anybody in our family fall. That’s why I called Chris Brown. All of us need to be able to reach out and just fix stuff. There’s nothing that’s unforgivable,” he said.


and Prince's bandmembers have talked about Michael sending Prince tapes of Jackson 5, James Brown and Sly Stone performances :)
 
Michael Bland who played in the NPG in the 1990s:
Bland: He was really into the Pretenders at some point. He talked about how much he liked Chrissie Hynde and the songwriting. He played me some of the first Sly Stone records I ever heard. That was an education I couldn't have received anywhere else. We held meetings, and we would watch random videos people would send. Michael Jackson loved sending Prince old footage of Sly. Prince would just stop everything and bring everybody to his office. One time we watched the Jackson 5 Goin' Back to Indiana special.

and an article from Dr Funkenberry, who was close to Prince for awhile

http://www.drfunkenberry.com/2009/06/27/prince-michael-jackson-were-friends/
 
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Both of them where great artists, and ofc they had an ego..It goes with a package :)
 
I wouldn't call it hate. I'd call it ego. Both were the biggest stars of their time. Rivals..yes, but enemies I think not.

I think eventually they became friends, maybe not close friends, but at least mutual friends who could talk music or hang out for a few hours. It's a shame nothing ever transpired over a collaboration. It would have been fantastic.
 
Okay so I was wrong, they respected each other, but still I felt Prince and MJ both hated being compared as it was lazy journalists who lumped them together as both were Black, very successful, musical geniuses, great singers and dancers, perceived as very weird and had legions of white fans.

I am not rooting for Team Prince all the time. Sometimes I even forget, but I am a huge Michael Jackson fan too.

It is just there is so few verified accounts of them meeting or even communicating, but if Michael Bland said it, its probably true, another story exists is that they both loved Sly Stone (True) and that often tapes of Sly Stone were sent to Paisley Park with "MJJC Productions" on the label. Prince was recording his first album in 1977 at Sausalito and met Sly Stone recording in another room there. Prince insisted on meeting him, but Sly was not too keen, but still agreed. Prince just went in and shook his hand. Like Michael, Prince had nothing but respect for Pioneers and artists who inspired him.

Stories of Michael when he was in the J5 meeting Sly exist too, and the heart warming one, when Michael bought Northern Songs, he gave Little Richard back his masters.
 
Perhaps a bit OT, but I was searching around on YouTube and found a series of 3 MJ vs Prince "face offs". I'm sure you guys have already seen them, but they're new to me. Done with a fun attitude, I found them very cool. I am a fan of both artists, but never really compared them. Kinda an apples vs. oranges thing. There's even a bit of James Brown acting as "referee" and reminding them both where it all started, lol!!!

While Michael is by far and away the more polished and innovative dancer, gotta give some love to Prince for doing those crazy splits in 4" stilettos!!! Lol.
 
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