I had this fantasy that he’d come out with a new song, I’d have a great idea, he’d finally say yes and it would erase decades of weirdness between us. But that’s obviously not going to be the case."
In an interview with People, "Weird Al" Yankovic revealed that, despite the long list of artists -- including Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson and Kurt Cobain -- who supported his song parodies, one music icon refused to take part: Prince.
“It's too bad,” Yankovic said of the late “Purple Rain” artist. “I hadn’t approached him in about 20 years because he always said no, but I had this fantasy that he’d come out with a new song, I’d have a great idea, he’d finally say yes and it would erase decades of weirdness between us. But that’s obviously not going to be the case.”
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The parody artist had prepared ideas for Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy,” “1999,” “When Doves Cry” and “Kiss.”
“I had a parody of 'Let’s Go Crazy' that was about The Beverly Hillbillies,” Yankovic said. “And I wanted to do something funny with 'When Doves Cry' and 'Kiss.' For '1999,' I wanted to do an infomercial where you could get anything you wanted by dialing 1-800-something-1999.”
Prince may not have been a fan of Yankovic's, but the artist revealed that Michael Jackson loved his ideas.
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“Michael Jackson wasn’t just cool about my parody of 'Beat It,' but he also loved my version of 'Bad,' which was 'Fat.' He even let me use the actual 'Bad' subway set for the 'Fat' video,” Yankovic recalled. “He was very supportive, which was huge with opening the doors with other artists. Because if Michael Jackson signed on, you couldn’t really say no.”