A recently published recording reveals that Michael Jackson reportedly felt animosity towards Prince and predicted his premature death.
In the newly unearthed tapes, Jackson reportedly said Prince had been “mean and nasty” to his family.
Jackson and Prince competed for supremacy in the pop charts during the 1980s, fuelling their unspoken secret feud.
The tapes obtained by The Mirror were recorded three decades ago for Prince’s 1988 autobiography Moonwalker.
“I don’t like to be compared to Prince at all. I have proven myself since I was real little. It’s not fair,” Jackson said.
“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.”
Prince was found dead in his Minnesota home in April at the age of 57. At the beginning of June it was announced he had died of an opoid overdose, something which many had suspected.
“He was so rude, one of rudest people I have ever met," Jackson also said in the recordings.
"Prince is very competitive. He has been very mean and nasty to my family.”
Jackson mocked Prince for falling into the crowd after mistaking a papier mâché stage lamppost for a real one at a James Brown tribute show in 1983 in Los Angeles.
“He made a fool of himself. He was a joke. People were running and screaming. I was so embarrassed. It was all on video.“
Jackson was mourned by his family on Saturday (25 June), seven years after he died at the age of 50. Jackson went into cardiac arrest after overdosing on sedatives.
