Michael Jackson called Prince a what? Will.i.am visited Drink Champs, where he recalled wanting to bring Jackson to his show with Prince. The teaser found the Black Eyed Peas frontman adding another chapter to the MJ and Prince storybook. In this chapter, Mike allegedly called Prince a “meanie” and refused to watch him perform in Las Vegas.
“I brought Mike to go see me rock with Prince in Vegas,” the producer explained. “So one time, Mike called me. He’s in Vegas and he’s like, ‘I heard you guys have a show tonight.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, we got a show, going on around 10.'”
“[Michael said] ‘Oh rats, I gotta put the kids to sleep.’ I’m like, ‘But you can come later, like in the middle of the show.’ [MJ responds], ‘No, if I don’t see the show from the beginning, there’s no way for me to know what’s actually going on.'”
When Will.i.am stated that he would be performing with Prince, MJ declined to attend, saying, “‘Oh, I can’t go to that—Prince is a meanie.'”
Tons of stories about MJ and Prince have circulated throughout and after both men’s closely connected careers. One story in particular included Jackson actually attending one of the Purple One’s concerts. Actually, he attended the concert four times. Questlove Alan Leeds recalled this tidbit during VIBE’s 2010 Oral History of Michael Jackson vs Prince. Leeds, who was Prince’s friend and tour manager, detailed the Rainbow Children artist attending one of The Jackson’s concerts for research purposes.
“Before we 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,” Leeds said. “We flew to Dallas to the old stadium where the Cowboys played. There was a feeling in our camp that while what [The Jacksons] were doing was a very solid stadium production, there was nothing really cutting edge about the technology. The Varilites, which was a brand name for a type of computerized lighting, was the gold standard in the industry at that time. And we made sure we had all that sh*t. But The Jackson’s production didn’t. Prince had a lot of respect for Michael, but he was mildly impressed with the show.”
“Michael attended many of the Purple Rain concerts. I have the four Purple Rain shows that were in Los Angeles in ’84. And now that I realize that Mike was in the audience, I often watch it to see if I can spot him [laughs]. But it makes you think. Why was Mike there four nights in a row? You have already created Thriller, you’ve done the Moonwalk, you’ve done the groundbreaking videos and you’ve sold a million a week,” Quest pondered at the time. “You are officially in the Guinness Book of World Records. For all intents and purposes, Purple Rain sold 15 million units, but it was hardly the 33 million that Thriller went on to sell. 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.”
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