Fans have compared Michael Jackson and Prince on numerous occasions, and it’s easy to see the similarities between the two stars.
Both singers were eccentric, top-of-the-charts pop icons who rose to fame in the 80s with oft-controversial lyrics and always-stupefying dance moves.
But the two were hardly friends, we’ve now learned.
New recordings uncovered by The Mirror reveal some harsh words Jackson had for Prince 30 years ago.
“I don’t like to be compared to Prince at all,” the Thriller singer said in the tapes.
He went on:
“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.”
Jackson also called his rival “rude,” “mean” and “nasty,” although he does not elaborate on any specific incidents between the two.
“He was so rude, one of rudest people I have ever met,” he said. “Prince is very competitive. He has been very mean and nasty to my family.”
Unbelievably, the King of Pop made fun of Prince when he stumbled into the crowd onstage at a 1983 James Brown tribute show after he mistook a paper mache lamp post for a real one.
“He made a fool of himself. He was a joke,” Jackson mocked. “People were running and screaming. I was so embarrassed. It was all on video.”
Jackson, who had been in the public eye since he was a child, claimed that Prince was “starstruck” when they first met, but the Purple One shifted his attitude once he found fame himself.
Despite their differences, the two music legends unfortunately share one more similarity: both their deaths were caused by an overdose to physician-prescribed medication.
Toxicology results indicated that Prince died of an opioid overdose this year, assumed to be Percoset, which he was reportedly taking for hip pain.
Jackson’s death was attributed to a lethal dose of the sedative Propofol, administered by his doctor, Conrad Murray.
Even stranger, Jackson named his third child Prince Michael Jackson, born in 2002.