It started with a phone call. will.i.am was in Las Vegas with a show to play that night, and Michael Jackson had heard about it.
“I heard you guys are doing a show tonight,” Michael told him. That’s how will.i.am remembered the call when he sat down on BBC One’s “The Graham Norton Show” on May 13, 2016, with Johnny Depp, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy and Jack Whitehall on the couch beside him.
will.i.am said his show started at 9:00. Michael couldn’t make that one. He had to put his kids to sleep first.
But will.i.am had a second gig lined up. As he put it, he was “performing with Prince later on at 12.” The Prince here is the “Purple Rain” star, not Michael’s oldest son. According to the New Zealand Herald’s write-up of the interview, will.i.am was a guest artist during Prince’s Las Vegas residency, and he’d invited Michael to one of the shows.
So Michael skipped the 9:00 show and came out for the late one. He didn’t come alone, either. Chris Tucker was there too.
“It was a magnificent night with me, Chris Tucker and Michael Jackson watching Prince rock on stage,” will.i.am said, in words quoted by the New Zealand Herald.
For fans, that’s a picture on its own. Two of the biggest names pop music ever had were in the same room, one of them up on stage and the other one watching him work. will.i.am had made music with both of them, and he’d brought them together for the night. On the same episode, he said he still had unreleased songs with each of them, and he wouldn’t put Michael’s out without Michael there to guide them.
Prince didn’t stay up on that stage, though. Before the night was over, Michael got a much closer look at him.
will.i.am tells the Prince and Michael Jackson story on “The Graham Norton Show”
This is the BBC’s own upload of the interview, about two minutes long, and will.i.am starts with Michael’s phone call at about 0:39. Listen at about 1:11 for what Prince did next and at about 1:18 for Michael’s first words at breakfast.
Here’s the moment will.i.am still couldn’t get over. “Prince steps off the stage and plays the bass in Michael Jackson’s face,” he said.
Prince didn’t play it softly, either. will.i.am said he just ripped into that bass, right there in front of Michael, with Chris Tucker and will.i.am watching it happen.
Later, Michael left and went home. He told will.i.am to meet him at the house for breakfast, so will.i.am showed up and knocked on the door.
Michael didn’t open with good morning. His first words, as will.i.am told it, were a question: “Why was Prince playing the bass in my face?”
will.i.am knew both men well, and he wasn’t about to pretend Prince had been the sweetest guy in Vegas that night. He didn’t run him down, either.
“Prince, he’s always been a meanie,” he said, and then he added: “but bless their hearts they were so passionate.”
That’s how he left it on the BBC couch. Michael had come out late, after putting his kids to bed, and the thing he wanted to talk about at his own front door was a bass guitar, played right in his face.