He Almost Had A Duet With Prince
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Michael Jackson and Prince Rogers Nelson (aka Prince) were not the best of friends. Prince saw Jackson as a rival and tried stepping on his toes at every opportunity. In 2006, Prince walked up to Jackson during a concert and played his bass right in Jackson’s face. Michael himself didn’t have good reviews of Prince. He didn’t even like to be compared with Prince, who he thought was rude, mean, and nasty.
This rivalry didn’t stop both from trying to have a duet, not once but twice. Prince turned down the first attempt, and Jackson turned down the second. In 1987, Jackson planned to record his song “Bad,” which he was preparing for his seventh album, as a duet with Prince. Prince turned down the proposed collaboration but mockingly rerecorded the song and sent it back to Jackson.
Years later, Prince said he refused the duet because of its opening line, “Your butt is mine.” He didn’t want Michael Jackson singing that line to him, and he wasn’t ready to sing it to Jackson, either. Prince was later contracted to create a soundtrack for an upcoming Batman film. He reached out to Michael Jackson for a duet, but Jackson turned down the offer because he wanted to focus on his concert.
