i know most of you remember this, but i have to paint the picture before i pose the question...

THE PICTURE
january, 1995 -- american music awards
during the finale, most of the artists who participated in the show are onstage singing "we are the world"(i guess it had something to do with it being the song's 10th anniversary). nona gaye and prince are standing next to quincy jones. prince is sucking on a lollipop and refuses to sing. at one point, quincy jones holds his mic out to prince, but prince holds his lollipop out to quincy, then snatches it back when quincy tries to lick it.

THE QUESTION
my mother read an article that said after that incident happened--backstage, quincy jones said to prince: "you may be the artist formerly known as prince, but you're still a pr*ick!" DOES ANYONE ELSE REMEMBER READING ABOUT THIS ALTERCATION?

glazegirl said:

Yes,I recall hearing about this backstage altercation.The funny thing is,on-stage they both had huge smiles on their faces,and they looked like they were just joking around.I wonder what made Quincy go off on Prince like that once they got backstage?

Quincy was probably being a good sport about it because he was on the air, but then once they got backstage the gloves came off.

Yeah, but u gotta go way back to '85 to get the background on this one.

Quincy was a bit upset that Prince wasn't on the "We Are The World" record, so I guess he thought he was a prick back then.

Flash 4ward to '95, and Prince refusing to sing into the mic that Q is holding was like '85 all over again, which prompted Quincy to say that he's "Still a Prick".


Question - With Prince singing lately about togetherness (like "Last December"), if he was asked to do an appearance like "We Are The World", we he do it?

This is one of my Prince embarassing moments. My family was like "What's up with your boy?" Shit, I was with them on this one. If he wasn't gonna sing, he shouldn't have gotten his ass on the stage. I know some people think that shit with the lollipop was cute, but I thought that shit was tacky, whether he was just joking or not.

dnaplaya said:

No, I don't think so. Prince believes in togetherness and all. But if you watched the interview done with him by MTV on the video shooting of "America" he stated that he was invited to sing on the song and said that he would have been uncomfortable singing with all of the other great talent in the room.

Great interview !!!

paisley2002 said:

There was no physical altercation...Quincy was just Hot at him and dosen't like him anymore.

People wanna get so close 2 the man Cant hep it if he's got 'em like that.

i'm with you stymie, talk about disrespctul.

of course, the BAD side of me thought it was kinda funny - but still very arrogant and not a good move PR-wise. certainly not "respectful" as his moderators are always spouting lately.

stymie said:

It's a sterling example of why he is where he is. That kind of disrespectful, control-freak attitude.

I don't believe it was about being scared to perform with "so many other great people in the room." It was about him having to share the spotlight, as if he was too great to do a "various artists" vehicle.

If he'd pulled that when he was a teen-ager, it'd have been one thing. But, in 95, P was (supposedly) an adult.

I dont believe that story about Quincy ever called Prince a prick etc. But thats funny as hell when he pulled back that lollipop lol..Quincy had his mouth open to lick it what a ding dong!

Oh, I am so bored with the whole Prince and the We are the world thing. He didn't want to sing on the song, but he did give a whole song, and a very beautiful one, to the album, and they accepted it.

Prince was very witty in my opinion... maybe he shouldn't have been on stage during the song, but than again, he was part of the album. Too bad I never saw the footage, only heard about it.

ThreadBare said:

I agree with that. This was Prince during his Purple Rain, monster ego glory days. I'm sure he couldn't bring himself to be singing a song co-written by MJ & be produced (or in his mind: be told what to do) by Quincy.

As far as the "prick" comment, who knows HOW it was said? Maybe Quincy said it in jest, while laughing & teasing & Prince was doing the same.

stymie said:

I agree!!

Prince was probably hustled onstage with the rest of the stars... he didn't sing because he recognized, correctly, that song, that performance, the whole thing achieved the highest degree of corniness possible. The lollipop offering to Quincy Jones was, IMO, the only appropriate response to the entire affair.

I LOVED the whole lollipop thing. I laughed my ass off when I saw that!!!

PsychedelicMama said:

Why? it wasn't big or clever.Q's assesment was probably spot on at the time.

IN SOME WAYS PRINCE IS, WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE... A PRICK.

LOOK AT HIS PAISLEY PARK #12356789 THEY ARE PRICKS.. IF YOUR OPINION IS DIFFERENT FROM THEIRS, THEY ANTAGONIZE U SO THEY CAN RILE U UP AND BOOT U OFF.

AND THE DELAYS IN MUSIC. WTF IS THAT? I THOUGHT THAT WARNER'S WAS HOLDING HIM BACK FROM RELEASING MUISC, BUT SINCE HE HAS BEEN APART FROM THEM, HE HASN'T RELEASED EVEN AS MUCH AS AN ALBUM A YEAR, AND MOST OF WHAT HE HAS RELEASED, SANS EMANCIPATION AND TRC HAS BEEN BULL SHIT!

IF ANY OTHER ARTIST HAD PUT OUT SOME OF THE BUNK HE HAS RELEASED WE WOULD HAVE WRITTEN THEM OFF A LONG TIME AGO.

BUT AS FAR AS HIM NOT WANTING TO SING ON WE ARE THE WORLD, QUINCY CAN KISS A ASS! THAT SONG WAS WACK, THE ONLY THING GOING FOR IT WAS ALL OF THE ARTISTS THAT WERE ON IT, AND THEY WERE ONLY ON IT TO SELL RECORDS, IF IT HAD BEEN JUST A JACKO SONG, IT WOULD HAVE SOLD ABOUT 3...

QUINCY NEEDS TO ASK HIMSELF WHY HIS PRECIOUS DAUGHTER WOULD WANNA FUCK WITH A LOUSY GANGBANGER LIKE TUPAC. AND WHY QUINCY AIN'T SOLD ANY RECORDS SINCE TEVIN CAMPBELL'S FIRST CD AND WHILE HE WANNA TALK ABOUT SOMEBODY HE NEEDS TO LOOK HIS PUNK ASS IN THE MIRROR. PRINCE NOR ANYONE ELSE HAS TO RESPECT U, U GET THAT BECAUSE U EARN IT NOT BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE TO GIVE IT TO U, SO Q NEEDS TO SHUT THE FUCK UP AND TEACH HIS BOY QDIII HOW TO PRODUCE AND MAYBE THE FAMILY WOULDN'T BE GOIN BROKE! that's my 2cents yall

It was a deep spiritual message. Mic, as in Michael.
Quincy handed his mic to Prince and Jones contains the letters J,O,N,and S, which are all in the name, Jackson. Quincy produced Michael Jackson, so it was like Quincy stickin' Michael all up in Prince's face, and Prince felt the attempt to pressure and control his artistic spontaneity, and compare him to the King of Pop, but doing it in a coded way. It was also an attempt to force Prince into letting Quincy produce an album for him.
Prince was trying to see how many licks it took to get to the center of that tootsie pop, which was the inspiration and basis for his lyrics:
Pimp rag, tootsie pop, and a cane.
Quincy should have known that Prince had to focus and work on that lollipop while the rest of the herd sang We Are The World.
People are always coming along with good intentions to distract the musical mensa from his course.
I can't believe so many didn't pick up on the deep spiritual overtones of the whole affair.

rdhull said:

betcha they still smoke fat blunts 2gether when they chill!!!

Prince is not a prick...Prince is Tha Shit!!!

rebellion at it's finest, dammit!!!

I think Prince just sisn't want to sing that lame ass song


..but what do I know?



-SWANGin'2andfro

I sorta have mixed feelings on this

In one way, it is a little disrespectfull (just like the 'slave' thing). If you ask me, Prince sorta lost his damn mind around that time, but we all at some point.

But the evil school girl side of me sorta thought it was funny




As far as the whole Quincy/battle thing, I haven't the faintest idea. As someone said maybe Quincy said it jokingly. And I have een him "paising" him/his work on the one vh1 thing, which was made well into the late 90s
Plus Prince CAN be a prick sometimes, but again, can't we all?

The show was called The American Music Awards, not The Prince Comedy Hour. They already granted him a special Lifetime Achievement Award complete with a several minute medley and celebration of his work, then on top of that, he had to beg for even more attention by causing a scene at the We Are The World reunion. It was completely tacky. The show was honoring him, and at the same time he decides to go off on some tangent which did nothing but draw attention to himself. So Quincy offered him a part in the song and he turned it down. Big deal, life goes on. Why couldnt he just let them do their thing? Not only did he disrupt the performance, he got on stage front and center. It was a mess. They should have had security drag his ass off the stage.
[This message was edited Fri May 16 19:13:48 PDT 2003 by Tom]

i saw a show on TV a few months ago about black artists in music & film etc...

& quincy was saying that while Prince was big with PurpleRain,Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard did more for black artists & such in films etc...

i dont know the real history of that so i cant really comment if he is wrong or right...

but the way he said it... he didnt wanna give P TOO much credit or kudos.

Here is the real deal with that night...





Ok...that night...Prince had all his "main ladies" on the stage with him...Mayte...Carmen...and Nona...(something I noticed myself will watching live on tv...)

P was acting a little odd that night...he was acting a bit arrogant that evening...I love Prince's performance's but this one was a little odd...of course he did the Purple Medley...Carmen was at the top of the stairs with half of the male dancers...it was funny b/c she had no spotlight..you had to look really hard to see her there...then there was the beautiful Mayte...shaking her groove thang next to Prince...not to mention...Nona introduced his performance and gave him his award when he got done...


Now...apparently...that night Carmen got really pissed off b/c Mayte and Nona were there with him...Carmen wanted P to herself and she wanted her own thing...Prince kept Carmen in MPLS and was really restrictive on what she could and could not do...etc...after that night Carmen split...and now we all know the story Nona dropped about Prince proposing to Mayte soon after...



So if Prince was acting like a jerk...lord knows what the hell was on his mind that night..but we do know what was going on that stage that night...there is your info..no beef with Quincy...P just had his hands full with his women...

The only thing that I like about qjones is his beautiful daughter Rashida ( thanks to Boston Public), fuck this pompous overrated asshole , P can kick his ass anydays!

Prince licking a lollipop while the people around him sing WATWD, that is the Prince I love! 'America' & 'Hello' say it all.

WatchThemFall said:

If I'm not being too forward, what is it that you love about that?

stymie said:

Openly mocking pop hypocrisy, I don't think it really matters whether or not he sang, it is funny as hell. If it pisses some people off then they need to get a reality check and put the thing into perspective.