Prince was Rick's opening act on his 1979/1980 "Fire It Up" tour. Prince and Rick both came out in 1978 but Rick had been a bigger success and was much more wilder than Prince was. Rick had a wild stage presence singing about the ghetto, drugs, hookers, firing up joints on the stage, and telling the audience to fire up their joints too. Prince had been pretty tame and I'm sure he saw how wild the audience was going over Rick. I guess saw what he needed to do to compete...get wild and outrageous himself. Prince started coming out on stage in bikini underwear, making sexual gestures, and singing about sex. The audience had gone so wild over Prince, then Rick had to come on and try to top it. It was like a competition on stage and later a competition in albums. I would have loved to have seen that tour.

Also on that tour, it is rumored that Rick's mother asked Prince for an autograph and he refused to sign it. Then, a few years later, Vanity came to an awards show with Rick but left with Prince. Rick had been thinking about putting together a girls group called The Mary Jane Girls for the longest and then all of a sudden out of the blue, here comes Prince with a girls group called Vanity 6. After that, it was ON. Rick shit on Prince every chance he got to every magazine that would print it. Oh, those were some good times.

Rick had his reasons but I think the most of it was sheer rivalry, competition, and jealousy from both he and Prince. I mean, you got the two baddest artists of all time competing for the same audience, of course there's going to be rivalry.

Yeah, those stories aren't something you can look up unless "Right On" or "Black Beat" magazine has a website full of old interviews. Rick used to shit all over Prince in those magazines. Also on the little five minute radio segment called "Radio Scope". That's where he was talking about Vanity...."She gives him (beep) and he gives her a hit record".

And don't forget that Teena Marie opened for Prince on his "Dirty Mind" tour which was the very next tour following Rick's "Fire It Up" tour that he and Prince were on together. I bet that made Rick furious.

GNS said:

Mercy! I just had a vision of Rick James sitting up in his grave saying, "What'd that little scrawny motherfucker say about me?"

See Rick speak in the third-person. See Rick make fun of Prince's height.



And...
http://prince.org/msg/7/139243

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[Edited 4/9/09 7:14am]