Prince had a rivalry with Michael Jackson that lasted for decades, and got so bitter at one point that the Purple one tried to run over the King of Pop with his limousine. It was not his only rivalry, however. Early in his rise, Prince rubbed Rick James the wrong way, to the point that it almost got violent on numerous occasions. Below are some fascinating facts about that celebrity beef.
Rick James Could Not Stand Prince Copying His Moves
Early in his career, Prince had a serious beef with Rick James. To be fair to the Purple One, it was mostly driven by James. The Give it to Me Baby and Super Freak singer was a brilliant but seriously troubled artist, who eventually destroyed himself with drugs and alcohol. When Prince was just getting started, James was already an established star. He liked the newbie and brought him on as his opening act in a 1980 tour. However, the admiration eventually morphed into a love-hate relationship, and then into a feud.
On tour, Prince copied some of Rick James’ concert moves, and that did not sit well with the headliner. James was territorial, and as his manager recalled: “Rick would go ooh-ooh!, and his audience would go crazy every time he would do that, and Prince would start doing the ooh-ooh! before Rick would come out. Rick was like, ‘Man, you can’t do that ooh-ooh! stuff, that’s what I do!’ And Prince was like, ‘Dude, you don’t have a monopoly on ooh-ooh! I can do what the fuck I wanna do!’” As seen below, it only escalated from there.
When the Super Freak Almost Beat Up the Purple One
Rick James wrote in his autobiography that he almost beat up Prince: “I chased after that little turd. I caught up with him and was about to lay him out when his manager stepped in. “What the hell is wrong with you, Rick?” asked the manager. I told him Prince had dissed Mom and that I was gonna kick his scrawny ass. Prince explained that he didn’t know who Mom was. “Well, now you know, motherfucker,” I said. “Prince will be happy to apologize to your mother,” said the manager, “and he will be happy to apologize to you.” Prince apologized to Mom and apologized to me. I was a little disappointed ’cause I really did wanna kick his ass”.
Parliament-Funkadelic’s Bootsy Collins recalled that: “Rick definitely had an attitude with Prince … I remember being on shows with Rick and Prince, and they would pull plugs on each other, gettin’ ready to go to blows”. Fortunately, things never reached the physical violence stage, thanks to peacemakers such Chic’s Nile Rodgers: “I used to always say to Rick, ‘We all are just doing our own kind of thing. Prince is Prince, you’re you—we all have our own identity when it comes to the world of funk”.
_________________
Some Sources & Further Reading
Daily Beast – Rick James’ Intense Rivalry With Prince Nearly Came to Blows
James, Rick – Glow: The Autobiography of Rick James (2015)
