Prince recorded and deleted “incredible” solo version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’, confirms Sheila E
Prince reportedly recorded and deleted an “incredible” solo version of Michael Jackson‘s ‘Bad’.
Singer, drummer and frequent Prince collaborator Sheila E revealed the news on talk show The Jason Show, explaining why Prince’s solo rendition never came to fruition.
‘Bad’ was originally intended to be a duet between Prince and MJ, but the Minneapolis musician declined due his qualms singing the lyric “your butt is mine”.
Speaking to host Jason Matheson, Sheila E reiterated Prince’s issues with the song, explaining: “So we get the song ‘Bad’ from Michael [Jackson] and we’re here at Paisley [Park]. And Prince is like, ‘Wait a minute.’ He said, ‘Michael wants me to sing this song with him.’ So he played it for us. He goes, ‘Your butt is mine…’
“He said, ‘What?! Your butt is mine?’ And he just walked away, he said, ‘Uh, uh,'”.
She then said she assisted Prince in re-recording the track at his home and studio, recalling his version was “so funky” and “so amazing”: “It was an incredible rendition of what it should’ve been. Then after we recorded it, we’re like, ‘Oh my God, we can’t wait for Michael to hear it.’”
However, Sheila E went on to admit Jackson never heard Prince’s solo version, saying: “He erased the whole thing. Right there.”
She confessed it was common for Prince to immediately erase recordings, saying: “Oh yeah, it was fun. We did that all the time, though. I can name so many songs that we re-recorded that was sent to us. Ah, that’s another show.”
A vocal arranger for ‘We Are The World’ has recently admitted he thinks Prince was “afraid” of Michael Jackson, saying: “I had a feeling Prince had a problem with men. With him, everything was with women. It made him feel good.”
Tom Bahler, who helped producer Quincy Jones to create the charity single, also speculated Prince’s disagreement about the lyric in ‘Bad’ was “one of his excuses” to not work with Jackson: “I think if anything, he was afraid of Michael. This is pure conjecture on my part. Michael was not afraid of him. Michael wasn’t afraid of anybody. He loved everybody.”
Meanwhile, recordings in 2016 revealed the extent of Prince and MJ’s feud, with Jackson saying of Prince: “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 went on to describe Prince as “one of the rudest people I have ever met,” saying he had been “mean and nasty to my family.”
In other news, Prince was recently posthumously inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, described by his sister as “the award he wanted more than any other in life”.
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Alex Rigotti
NME
