Why a one-time offer from Michael Jackson offended Prince: “Oh, he wants me to punk out?”
The legacy of Prince can often be pinpointed to two defining characteristics: his status as one of the few authentic musical prodigies and his ability to be cutthroat when voicing his opinions. Although the latter often landed him in hot water, not to mention how it raised questions about his real demeanour, some might argue he more than earned his right to be so abrasive given his difficult upbringing and harsh introduction into an industry brimming with white rockstars.
But Prince’s deal wasn’t just that he didn’t look like everybody else; he also adopted an overtly androgynous demeanour that often took precedence in interviews over musical discussions, pushing him even further into his hardened exterior. One of these moments famously occurred during an interview with Dick Clark when he prodded the star about his musical origins, giving him a complex about doing interviews when the host has no idea how to navigate such awkward topics.
As he reflected: “That tripped me out. That really gave me an attitude. TV personalities are hard to talk to. They come out of certain bags. Music is music. A place is a place.” Still, being exposed to so many of these instances—not being understood or respected on a basic level—made him appear even more callous to some, especially during moments when he would appear rude or harsh for no apparent reason.
During his reign, Prince was often compared to another pop artist, Michael Jackson, sparking a media-fuelled rivalry reminiscent of the 1980s Coke versus Pepsi feud. In Prince’s case, however, he wanted nothing more than to step out of the fabrication that he operated under Jackson’s shadow, knowing that, at the crux of it, he was as distant from Jackson as a musical artist as chalk and cheese.
However, despite the burgeoning bitterness of such comparisons, it seemed Jackson had no qualms about showing off any potential entanglement, particularly when he reportedly contacted Prince in the late 1980s to feature in a music video for his 1987 Bad record. Prince, on the other hand, wasn’t so keen on dispelling their bad blood, no matter how one-sided it was. According to Prince’s longtime collaborator Alan Leeds, he made his displeasure known the moment the opportunity crossed his path.
“Michael coming to Prince and wanting him to do ‘Bad’, that really pissed him off,” he told Vibe. “Prince was like, ‘Oh, he wants me to punk out on record. Who does he think I am, crazy?’ He probably couldn’t get outside himself enough to realise that it was the kind of thing that probably could have benefited both of them.”
Although there would have no doubt been advantages to a collaboration between the ‘Purple Rain’ singer and the King of Pop, it’s difficult to ignore the overarching feeling that, in hindsight, it also made sense for the former to remain steadfast in his decision to separate themselves from each other. During this time, Prince was enjoying successes in both the music and film industries, occupying a limelight that centred on presenting himself in bold and boundary-pushing ways.
Jackson, on the other hand, operated on the opposite side of stardom, focusing on creating and maintaining a polished, universally appealing image that sought to connect people from all over. Prince was unkempt in comparison, at least according to the media, and felt a little off-kilter in his unpredictability. Jackson, although less accessible, would have presented a challenge to Prince, especially considering the ways his perfectionism would have likely irked the singer to no end.
