Mark Ronson Recalls Being Told Not to Play a Michael Jackson Song in Front of Prince
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NEED TO KNOW
- Mark Ronson almost played a Michael Jackson album in front of Prince, writing in his memoir that he had been unaware of their feud
- The legendary rivalry dated back to 1983 when the late icons shared the same for the first and only time
- Ronson’s memoir Night People: How to Be a DJ in ’90s New York City is available for purchase
Mark Ronson almost made a major mistake in the presence of Prince.
In Ronson’s memoir Night People: How to Be a DJ in ’90s New York City, the nine-time Grammy winner wrote about an incident involving two stars that didn’t get along: Michael Jackson and Prince.
Ronson, 50, recalled joining his friend, the rapper and record producer Q-Tip, at New York City’s VIP bar Spy Bar when he was deejaying for Prince, who died in 2016. The “Kiss” singer sat in a purple throne and had women ushered to him in a VIP section, Ronson recalled.
At one point during the evening, Ronson took Jackson’s 1979 album Off the Wall from its sleeve to play, but was stopped in his tracks.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage for NPG Records 2011
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“Uh‑uh. Can’t play Michael here,” Q-Tip, 55, told Ronson, referring to the beef between the two musical icons.
Ronson writes that it stemmed back to an incident in 1983 during a James Brown concert at the Beverly Theater in Los Angeles. Jackson, who died in 2009, joined Brown onstage to perform “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” and showed off his dance moves.
The late Godfather of Soul then asked Prince to join him onstage.
The “Purple Rain” singer attempted to steal the show with a shirtless guitar solo and ended his moment in the spotlight by “swinging from a 10-foot stage prop before appearing to fall offstage.”
“I imagined the rivalry ran deep,” Ronson wrote of the lore, which reportedly marked the first and only time Prince and Jackson shared the stage.
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
The producer replaced the Off the Wall record and grabbed War’s 1977 record Galaxy to play instead.
The album’s introduction had a “fluctuating tempo” along with beats that clashed “just enough to earn me a withering look from Prince.” “Nothing like rhythmic judgment from a musical deity,” he concluded of the incident.
Prince and Jackson’s feud seemingly ran so deep that Prince skipped out on the supergroup recording of “We Are the World” in 1985.
Grand Central Publishing
Ronson’s book “conjures the undeniable magic of the city’s bygone nightlife — a time when clubs were diverse, glamorous, and a little lawless, and each night brought a heady mix of music, ambition, danger, delight, and possibility,” a synopsis reads.
Night People: How to Be a DJ in ’90s New York City is available for purchase wherever books are sold.
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
