Have to remember Prince when he was 17 turned down the first record deals he was offered because he insisted on Creative control I always thought I was B I wouldn’t have got into business if I didn’t think I was back he was setting himself for a very different career than
The way Michael thought about his career Prince did not want to start in the mail room he wanted to be treated as a rock artist did not want to do Soul Train Michael Jackson went from the chitlin circuit to the attention of mtown teamed them to the biggest black artist and
Then he P his way to that Mountaintop Prince went to his managers you’re going to get me a feature film deal if you don’t do it you’re fired and somebody else will do It in the 80s two musicians were consistently pitted against each other it’s like you were either a Michael Jackson fan or you were a prince fan the media would have had you believing that they were rivals in some kind of musical War what they were was fantastic performers Prince and Michael Jackson
Drove each other kind of friendly competition I can go there you know I’m a fighter I’m very competitive in 1982 Eddie Van Halen played a guitar solo on Michael’s Thriller album Quincy called Ed and invited him to record a guitar solo on be it the song to The build
Board charts later Ed solo was all over the radio and MTV Michael said I like using people who are the best in their field on February 7th 1984 CBS threw a huge party at the Museum of Natural History for 12200 guests to celebrate the success of Thriller which is still
The biggest selling album in history Prince was one of Warner Brothers Rising Stars his album 1999 was selling very well for us he was a big star his goal was to Eclipse Michael’s success and he told the executive team that in a number of meetings I attended I gave him free
Reign to come in and use my office one day in 1983 he showed up he said he wanted to talk about something he sat down I asked him what was wrong he said I have to find a way to knock Michael out of the number one spot and it was
Driving him crazy that Thriller was Breaking All the sales records you really want to top Michael he nodded yes get Quincy Jones to produce your next album his eyes got wide he sprang out of his seat what for a second I thought he might hit me what he’d become unglued I produced my
Own records he stormed out still yelling a year later Purple Rain became a runaway success ah he produced it himself there is no question that Michael Jackson was acutely aware of Prince’s talent and his Ascent I am convinced that just the knowledge of Prince had a lot to do with why Michael
Sought out guitar Superstars for his solo Al albums Michael had a Keen Eye on the competition the greatest selling album of all time was a Target to strive for Thriller had become the standard in music the fires of their competitive Spirits were formed in midwestern America for Motown was a great school
Competition bre Champion Barry wanted us to be competitive we were fiercely competitive against each other Jimmy Jam Terry Lewis Alexander O’Neal all these characters were alive and roaming the streets of Minneapolis a black musician in Minneapolis you had very few options to play we had to create options it
Doesn’t really matter how good you are if you can’t find a place to play it was another reality you can’t find a place to play you make your own place that’s where the whole Battle of the Bands came into play talent shows at Lincoln Junior High the competition was fierce and very
Competitive yeah it was very competitive Duality and contradiction would necessarily figure into their art Prince Rogers Nelson and Michael Jackson were African-Americans and Ronald Reagan po civil rights America a lot of black musicians who play other types of music but the doors aren’t open music has no
Color and it shouldn’t have color what I do I don’t want it labeled black or white it’s music I was brought up in a black and white World night and day rich and poor I listen to all kinds of music when I was young when I was younger I
Always said that one day I was going to play all kinds of music and not be judged for the color of my skin but the quality of my work if you a black artist you assigned to the black music division PR determining and only selling it for a
Second automatic limitations on what the record company would do in terms of promotion marketing yeah he put out a first album nobody seemed to notice it made it on the R&B charts the R&B charts was its own ghetto most people in the record industry didn’t even read the R&B
Charts Prince wants to do the time and he wanted the Rolling Stone tour well I go to Quincy Jones who I work with with Brothers Johnson well while I’m in the still talking to Quincy princess outside in the car and I said Quincy I need for
You to do this that and whatever you so Perry I can’t right now cuz I’m in the studio with Michael and we’re doing Off the Wall I felt the unta vocal equipment that could take him even much further so we took a shot which there’s other kinds
Of sounds of music that I love to do it hurts what is inside of me and it can’t get out right after I graduated from college I was able to get my job at right on magazine and I became the editor about 6 months later the company
That owned r on had a licensing deal that mtown had set up somebody had to be able to get along with the Jacksons because they had to be in every single issue of the magazine Prince used to call the job all the time he would just
Ignore his calls we didn’t know who he was never heard of him his music was different I found out he was on Warner Brothers and they said look this guy we can sell more posters of him than we can sell records he would call like two and
Three times a day people were tired of talking to him he called and said come sir recording studios after that I will have to be in the magazine went down there he started playing all these different instruments I was like amazed he was really gorgeous looking at these
Green eyes the big afro Nobody seen anyone like him before I agreed to put him in the magazines after getting in the magazine it became a lot easier and even Michael Jackson would say who is he we were looking to make music for the masses for everybody and let everybody
Decide if they like them well now it’s time for the at10 spot light album of the week Michael Jackson’s off-the-wall has produced four hit singles rock with you and she’s out of my life off the wall and don’t stop till you get off girl when I do those solo albums and I’m
Doing all kinds of different music it’s wonderful I feel like I’m accomplishing what I’m supposed to do and it’s it was very successful do you have any plans for any more solo albums public kind of Demands once they enjoy something no one really understood what he was trying to
Do one thing they don’t believe this is my real name another thing they don’t believe the clothes out where they think I’m doing it to gain attention I don’t think they understand that in 1979 he put out his second album Prince an astonishing thing happened no one knew
Who he was and that album went platinum meantime now we get our first gold and platinum Record Prince did like me yes he did but I didn’t date him but but Prince would CAU up and be like he like he was like yeah like lato he has a deep voice yeah lato give him a hard time we’ve gone roller skating we all went together
And Prince was there we met that that was my first time meeting him but we all met up together I think it was like that maty Hilton was there my brother Michael was there my sister was there so it was like a group course was in the valley
Yeah but it wasn’t just me it was everybody actually I went with my brother and my sister and Cathy so no I I didn’t date came now I would always like hang up on people I’m like who is this yeah Latoya Okay click but he always
Used to caught up he was finishing up some stuff with the time and they would fly out periodically flying the tapes from Minneapolis to Sunset sound I have never experienced flying the limo takes me to a hotel Prince calls he’ll pick me up with Morris pulls up let’s get you a
Date okay my new boss and my new friend Morris head out to an apartment Prince knocks on the door this girl named Ola opens it she’s so beautiful Morris looks her up and down I hope she got some friends and I’d see Prince when they came into town and I’d drive them around
In my car Ola Reay was with him I slammed the car door accidentally on her leg oh my God I’m so sorry is your leg okay she was looking at me like are you for real Prince laughed you tried to keep throw up off right a that part of
Your history no no no that’s part of the the disinformation no no said why can’t there be a pop album or an album why can’t everyone be like a hit song Why can’t every song be so great where you can release it as a single the next
Album Thriller its impact was beyond a wireless belief in 1982 MTV was a Walled Garden I think we always thought it’ be a success but what it’s turned out to be is a is a phenomenon that exceeds the boundaries of cable television and music EDD money shaking from m TV you
Also got to watch for Peter Gabriel video which I am going to get to real soon Mark Goodman Mark Goodman he’s the same VJ that hosted The Purple Rain Premiere in ‘ 84 and the Thriller Premiere in late 83 so was Billy Jean and you said not on my network there
Were no videos by any black artists you’re not going to find much R&B that’s until 1983 I’m just flawed by the fact that there so few black artists featured on it why is that we looking for a certain sound and a certain point of view but there’s a there seem to be a
Lot of black artists making very good videos that I’m surprised aren’t used on MTV what cable television does best is specialized one thing per Channel you know exactly what you’re getting when you turn on the channel it was 24-hour heavy metal crazy images Billy Jean yeah they said we
Don’t we wanton to play it they came out right and said we are not all things to all people Mark Goodman he explained to David Bowie why TV’s playlist was so devoid of black artists we want to play artists that seem to be doing music that
Fits into what we want to play for MTV in terms of narrowcasting that’s evident Bowie looks unconvinced we have to try and do not only New York and Los Angeles but also Midwest pick some town in the midwest that will be scared to death by Prince and black music interesting isn’t
That interesting that’s what’s happening we’re being sat in the back of the bus television style and if Pitman gets away with this and their other cable shows that for they’re going to try it I me I was like saying to myself you know I have to refuse to be have to do
Something every time I was trying to without do myself and when they played it oh my God we were asking for everything we had right now Michael Jackson Michael’s being a token on MTV and so is Prince who probably doesn’t even care Prince was starting to cross
We were going more rock and roll audience is about 75% white and that number kept going up he really wanted to do the uh little red Corvettes in the 199 he he was changing 1999 Little Red Corvette that was the Breakthrough it wasn’t the typical looking R&D Band anymore the lighter faces were
Definitely calculated marketing well you know what they say about MTV it would never made it if you hadn’t been wrong 1984 the year that the 8S the most 88s if you were listening to the radio you heard everything Michael Prince Madonna Duran Duran Culture Club Shaka Khan
Billy Idol Cindy Lopper w L Richie Van Halen too was all there Thriller record came it was time Michael was on MTV Prince was going to get on it Little Red Corvette 1999 the best way I can describe the vibe between Prince and Michael there was this phenomenon where you know one
Of the Marquee artists came out with a record and that the single or the album whatever it’s going to hit the number one spot but there’s someone blocking you there’s someone sitting at number one and you just can’t dislodge them it was a perfect time for to say uh-uh he
Was going to get bigger than that extremely competitive extremely driven guys that want to be number one period they can’t both be number one where’s Rick James we were accused by Rick James of playing no black videos not playing his particular sound and his particular
Songs and that is a problem for him and and we’re being excluded from the art I believe that all the black artists on MTV should pull their videos off MTV because I’m not going to be a token for nobody yeah they said we don’t we we
Want play it he broke my heart Walter ynov who was president Sony at the time he said okay we’re pulling strik in we’re pulling Chicago genre we actually went out and worked Michael Jackson and were eagerly awaiting the premiere of Billy Jean and I think probably Walter yetnikoff told Michael
Jackson that he did that in order to improve his position with Michael joh came along and did what for MTV well I think what Michael Jackson did was it was the first artist that was sort of an MTV invention in the sense that Michael had been around but he had never crossed
Over everybody in America raised Michael Jackson prow of Michael Jackson from the little kid to Jackson Five now he’s beat or Billy Jean he’s now this super super superstar and then you got prince who at that particular time is known for really pushing boundary Michael Jackson and
Prince meeting on stage with their Apex influence James Brown should have been big news no one really knew about this until YouTube you could have actually rented the video at Blockbuster but the prince footage was missing some people say that Prince buried it seen a video
Of him in James Brown gig Prince got on stage and knocked over that light pole and really really messed up badly and embarrassed himself Prince used to watch that videotape was when all this went on with Michael they thought Prince was weird from before he even got on the stage
With the name alone because there were so many negative things about him so they weren’t necessarily that supportive they were old and in like polyester suit it was just the wrong crap it was a wrong audience you know everybody was more Pro Michael and and of course James Brown loved that kind of stuff because he wasn’t ready to pass the T to Michael Prince nobody so he was kind of like let me let me let me see first James Brown brought up Michael and he did his little
Mov walk and you know sang for about 30 seconds and everybody went berserk so Michael went up there he sang he say about 15 seconds and then just off pick up to Tempo and you see Michael whispering in James’s ear whisper James Brown’s ear bring up bring Prince come
Up James finally says the prince is here bring up the prince or something you know I don’t think he knew who he was yet we had no idea that he was going to be called up he was just sitting there like oh God just jumped on the back of
The body guard took a glove off back at and came up there and challenge Michel but Michael had 25 years experience and CH had five years you always have this thing to [Applause] love even after he left lown he still would come fo bar and get advice yeah so he he just didn’t want anyone else to be you know he had to also see good too so was definitely sh the band is vamping they’re cling going to have a
[ __ ] good time something like that and first he gets a guitar from one of the guitar players and he fumbles with that plays a little riff or something but he doesn’t really get off and then he doesn’t really know what to do so he just does some dancing in a couple of
You know typical Prince mannerisms that’s you do you’re join the family you don’t want fight each other or compete with each other he was well aware that he had messed up was supposed to be like a like a city scene so there were these cardboard prop Street lamps one and
Knocked it into the orchestra pit so it was it wasn’t you know that kind of took away the effect of him jumping in chick’s arms yeah Michael it was a little it might have been a little shady it was just real lot of kind of a little
Pissing match going on and I always knew how strategic Michael was you know prince prince knew exactly what Michael was up to I said don’t you guys just want to be viewed as friends because I had seen them together I said you know don’t don’t you want people to know your
Friends I’ll never forget the look Prince gave me and he just kind of turned around and he just said don’t be naive asking me because he wants me to be his friend this is competition he was really pissed off because Michael set him up so Prince gets up there and he doesn’t know
What the hell to do and he hated the fact that he was up there Michael Jackson has just freaking worked the stage you don’t follow Michael Jackson Michael Jackson and the thing that Prince can do that Michael can’t do is play a guitar but the song is it’s just
A riff it’s just a vamp all he could do was play Rhythm it ain’t Purple Rain Prince was at a loss he really didn’t know what to do he were scared weren’t you yeah he was scared James didn’t know anything about Prince he’s not even really excited
About it he didn’t know what he looked like he didn’t know anything about Prince James has known Michael since he’s five years old he’s like a stepson like a godson Michael used to come to his shows and sit in the wings and study him mind you this is a period of time
Where Prince is starting to challenge Michael they were already saying is Prince the new Michael Jackson the Press was building up a rivalry it was the Beatles And The Rolling Stones you couldn’t invent something better it was just perfect look Prince certainly respected Michael there’s no question I
Respect a person’s success but I don’t like a lot of popular music you know I felt like Jack Johnson then too I just wasn’t going to be put down nothing can stop me no one can stop me no matter matter what you know greatness is greatness people want to hear it or they
Want to see it people didn’t get it at first CH Von price edar Allen post there was one time it came over to my apartment and brought Thriller the video we sat down in front of the TV set we watched Michael powerful Prince was like
Look at my man my man he kept saying that I know he really admired him it opened the door for Prince and all the other black artist it was just amazing time it really was it’s me walking in 26 annual gramy award [Applause] music had won more gramys than any other
Album in the history of of Music it created so much phenomenon and such agulation and notoriety on a universal level that it was very very hard to go anywhere do anything without press and helicopters and people sleeping in your bushes hiding in your Tre some people are entertainers and some people are great
Entertainers some people are followers and some people make the path and our Pioneers I work at billboard at the time and billboard does this huge Michael Jackson special he sold all these records but the last page was a giant ad for Purple Rain it says the Purple Rain
Will begin Thriller was also the setup for purple R you know you had Michael making that mini movie Prince was very competitive I me he really took it to everybody oh Thriller oh I’m doing a movie I knew Prince was a superstar I worked with Billy Joel Billy Idol Paul
Simon Peter Gabriel David burn Aeros Smith kiss Queen John melan Camp was one of the most explosive entertainers you’ve ever seen in your life on stage Michael Jackson was one of the most ferociously in command performers you’ve ever seen in your life but one of at
Least the top three of all the explosive Stars was Prince if the music is knit into your bones so bad that you need to make music almost every single working hour of the day in working hour that you need to make it every Leisure hour of
The day it’s the thing that you live for to you it’s more valuable than eating breathing and sleeping the persistence is automatic the work ethic is there you have part of what it takes to be a star the other part of what it takes that ability to go explosive and ecstatic on
Stage and take the audience explosive and ecstatic with you those were all qualities that Prince had possibly more than any other musical artist it was a perfect storm there’s no way to teach someone how to do it because so many things have to line up the movie was a surprise hit of the
Season he won an Oscar have you seen Purple Rain yet have you the winner is Prince for purple R when Dub’s CRI it sounded like nothing that was on the radio Let’s Go Crazy was number one on R&B station there’s nothing been that fast on the radio since I could have
Never imagined this in my wildest dreams and I would like to thank the academy and most of all God thank you very much he won tons of gramy the record sold tens of millions of copies it wasn’t just the music it wasn’t just the movie
It was the fashion it was the style that he had black and white kids dancing together in his videos and in the film it’s Limitless that we just scratched the surface with all that stuff I got a lot of surprise I don’t want to give him
All way the phenomena was just crazy and it was this black guy doing it my Concepts have always been dear to me and it’s almost a shame that I got so good at making records I think of the live performance of his generation Prince is probably the best I
Think Prince could take out Michael Jackson on one night or Springstein who I think are the three best I’ve ever seen live the purple R tour nothing like that had ever done before in black music the only other thing that rival that of course was Michael Jackson who was
Blowing up at the same time setting up something that Young America was looking for and it was just a phenomenal Pinnacle it really was then after all of that I announced that I was going to tour the Press had been trying to destroy the victory tour my job was to
Figure out who was doing and stop him there was somebody out to to make trouble with the tour Michael is canceling his tour you’re the only one he’ll listen to you have to be out in La 11:00 tonight tour was in terrible trouble such and such is happening and
One of the accusations May by G Nam Dave Marshall and Dave kept saying it’s all going to be amateur The Jacksons have not hired any of the people we know to build their stage so the stage is going to collapse the lighting towers are going to collapse on the audience and
Kill people the sound system is going to electrocute the performers there were going to be gangs running up and down the aisles with knives so you don’t dare take your kids to a Jackson concert my staff get me a flight to LA and I walked into the building and there were the
Brothers Michael included rehears and I did not know why the Jackson tour was susceptible to this criticism Michael explained it I found the best people and I signed them all to ndas they were sworn and signed to utter and complete secrecy he owed his audience absolutely
The best and so I explained to Michael the Press had made the public doubt his tour its safety its professionalism if Michael canel his tour he would validate every accusation made against the tour well meantime the normal ticket prices in those days were 12250 and the Jackson
Ticket price was going to be $30 and nobody knew why and somebody took Michael Goldberg an investigative journalist from Rolling Stone fed him these Insidious contracts that also fed him a storyline which is the Jacksons they no longer make money only Michael is making money and they’re vampirical
They want to suck the blood out of their brother with these $30 ticket prices so they have enough money to live for the rest of their lives Michael decided not to cancel his tour and we did this tour that broke records All Over America the world was just going really really wild
At that time this happened all over America the first city was Kansas City Michael knew he had quality of awe wond surprise and creativity that was totally Beyond brilliant people like John melan Camp and Prince not even on the same scale Michael’s absolute commitment to give a total surprise setting record at
Dodg stadi we did eight shows there so out and they wanted another two so we did eight so out shows there right now we’re in the middle of this tour the demand for tickets was so great we played as much as six or seven nights in
The same city and we’re talking about a there was this rivalry that was Bru so we went to see the Jacksons on the the victory tour in Dallas Texas
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