"He erased the whole thing" — Prince recorded and deleted solo version of Michael Jackson’s Bad, Sheila E says

American singer-songwriter and drummer Sheila E, recently shared an incident related to Prince and Michael Jackson, in an interview on The Jason Show, on July 24. According to Sheila, Michael Jackson's 1987 track Bad, was initially supposed to be a duet with Prince Rogers Nelson. Nelson, however, didn't want to do it as he had issues with a portion of the lyrics. The drummer recalled the conversation with Nelson, where he said,

"Michael wants me to sing this song with him.’ So he played it for us. He goes, 'Your butt is mine...' He said, ‘What?! Your butt is mine?’ And he just walked away, he said, ‘Uh, uh,'."

Sheila revealed that while Prince refused to work on the song with Michael, he recorded an individual version of the song which he ended up deleting immediately. Sheila mentioned that shortly after recording it, they thought to make Michael Jackson listen to it. In the latest interview, the 66-year-old drummer further continued,

"He erased the whole thing. Right there."

Prince performing at The Ritz in 1981, (Photo by Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)

While Sheila described Prince's version of the song to be an "incredible rendition," she admitted that it was quite normal of Nelson to delete recordings randomly. The drummer mentioned that there were so many songs that the late singer had recorded over time, but happened to delete immediately.

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Sheila E claimed that Prince and Michael Jackson used to hang out together a lot

Michael Jackson and Prince Rogers Nelson became two big names back in the 1980s in the pop music industry. Both of them had produced several hits by that time, making them significant figures. While both Jackson and Nelson were gaining more fame, rumors of a feud between them began fuming up.

In the recent interview, the legendary musician Sheila E refuted the rumors and claimed that there were no ill feelings or jealousy between the two singers. She even went on to say:

"They hung out, we all hung out."

Shortly after the statement, Sheila recalled the incident when Nelson got the chance to do a duet with Jackson for the track Bad. While the drummer claimed that there was no bad blood between the singers, it is worth noting where the rumors stemmed from in the first place.

According to Smooth Radio, since both artists belonged to the same ethnicity and were gaining fame at the same time in the same field, they were subjected to comparison. While Jackson was known to be an amazing entertainer, Nelson was better known for his music. Jackson allegedly addressed the comparison in an audio interview while working on the 1988 Moonwalk memoir. He said,

"I don't like to be compared to Prince at all. I have proven myself since I was real little. He feels like he's my opponent. I hope he changes because, boy, he's gonna get hurt."

The professional beef took a turn in 1983 when Michael Jackson was called to perform on the stage by James Brown. At that point in time, Jackson was at the peak of his career with the release of Thriller. After Jackson performed for a while, Brown called Prince as well.

Prince, however, tumbled on the flood after he thought to swing by a prop lamppost. Michael Jackson reportedly brought the footage of the incident back home. In some rediscovered recordings, Jackson was allegedly heard saying,

"He made a fool of himself. He was a joke…people were running and screaming. I was so embarrassed. It was all on video."

This was reportedly the only time the two singers shared a stage.