24. Michael Jackson Conveniently Forgot His Role in Starting the Feud With Prince
As time went by, Michael Jackson came to see his feud with Prince as a one-sided beef that he simply could not understand or explain. As he told an interviewer: “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…I don’t like to be compared to Prince.” He went on to describe Prince as “one of the rudest people I have ever met,” and that he had been “mean and nasty to my family“. By the twenty-first century, things had thawed a bit, but Prince had not forgotten the feud.
In 2006, Black Eyed Peas leader will.i.am invited MJ to a Prince performance in Las Vegas. When Prince discovered that MJ was there, he walked out into the audience and began to play bass in his face. As Rolling Stone editor Steve Knopper put it, it was “like aggressive bass slap“. Later, an outraged MJ asked Will, “Will, why do you think Prince was playing bass in my face? ” He went on: “Prince has always been a meanie. He’s just a big meanie. He’s always been not nice to me“.