Draw your own conclusions, but having watched ‘The Greatest Night in Pop’, the excellent Netflix doc on the making of We Are the World, I’m even less of a Prince fan.
The guy’s a helluva guitar player, a fantastic dancer and he really wears shiny purple outfits well.
But it seems he’s the one bloke (two if you count Waylon Jennings, who walked out citing Good Ole Boy-itis) unable to meet the Quincy Jones “check your egos at the door” standard.
Prince–and Prince alone–wanted to save the starving Ethiopian children on HIS terms: by playing a guitar solo in a song that HAD no guitar solo and doing so in a separate room from the rabble–you know, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Dylan, Springsteen, Paul Simon, etc.
Huey Lewis sang Prince’s vocal part and knocked it out of the park. And Steve Perry, Cyndi Lauper and the like killed it. He wasn’t missed.
And maybe that’s why His Royal Whatever was a no-call no-show. Maybe the thought of his star being outshone among the constellation assembled that night was too much to bear. Or maybe the rivalry with MJ couldn’t be set aside even for such a worthy cause.
In any case, a resounding boo from this bleacher seat.
