http://extratv.com/2016/07/01/author-reveals-princes-heartbreaking-reaction-to-michael-jacksons-death/

"I've never said it publicly... when the news came that Michael had died, Prince was in rehearsal at Paisley Park... Prince cancels rehearsals, sent the band home, and for days locked himself in his bedroom and wouldn't come out and really didn't talk to people."

Smiley is still struggling to move on after losing Prince, his unlikely friend of over 20 years.

"I didn't get to know Michael the way I knew Prince; that is why this book and researching this text was so much fun for me. Again, they are two of the greatest artists the world will ever know, and to hang out with Prince as much as I did is one of the great joys of my life."

^^ BTW, I think it's ridiculous if the mods delete this thread, seeing as it is directly about Prince.

MattyJam said:

^^ BTW, I think it's ridiculous if the mods delete this thread, seeing as it is directly about Prince.

It's been posted at least once before (and locked/moved to the MJ sticky).

I'm really grateful to our hardworking moderators and understand the last two months have been especially challenging, but I do think they should adjust the sticky policy a bit so as not to create monster threads where it becomes much harder to find the information you're looking for.

A recent case: the BET Awards sticky thread was nice but very long. I wanted to know why D'Angelo did not perform, and someone had helpfully created a thread about it. So I check it only to realize it had been locked and I had to find the answer on the stickied BET award thread.

When a thread becomes so large, I think it's perfectly ok to have topics like "Did Hudson oversing Purple Rain?", "Why no D'angelo?" or "Besides Sheila's, what was your favorite BET award tribute?". Any such thread, especially if music related, can counterbalance the cult-ish super personal threads that are quite flakey at times

Normally I don't even bother reading threads that have Tavis Smiley in the title because I don't like the man. To me...he's a pus-filled boil on the ass of the Black community that had a pass for way too long, spewing and profiting off of his self-serving pseudo-pro-my-people bullshit.

Now all of a sudden he's the Prince authority? SMDH!!!!

Dear Tavis,

Please don't make me come for you again. Remember how badly things went for you in 2008? I promise this will be so much worse.

Sincerely,

Mrs. JVD

[Edited 7/2/16 4:39am]

MattyJam said:

^^ BTW, I think it's ridiculous if the mods delete this thread, seeing as it is directly about Prince.

.

Yes it is directly about Prince, but if you mention MJ, then it is moved. That is just their policy. I think it is nonsensical as well but whatever.

Tavis Smiley... URGH... Prince dies, he says he has no clue what happened, knows nothing about Prince and drugs, reads shit in the tabloids then weeks later goes on Sway saying things like he was close to Prince for 20 years and had first hand information of what killed Prince. "Y'all nikkas just phoney/ I put that on my momma and my dead homies".

anangellooksdown said:

There's mention of this with video in another thread and I love Travis telling this story. It shows Prince's heart. I also greatly enjoy and am thankful For the interviews he did with Prince. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I really like Travis Smiley. I think he recounts Things in a very non-selfish (me me me) way and makes it about others rather than himself. I would've picked up on any selfish "wanting my 15 min of fame" messages from this guy and I just don't see any.

You don't like him enough to call him by the right name.

Greatness recognizes greatness. Regardless of how shit Tavis' new book on Michael is and how salty I am about having purchased that piece of trash, I appreciate Tavis for relaying this story and giving us a better understanding of the..."friendship" between the two greatest pop artists of the 20th century.

Use MJ sticky